But Ghlikh did. Apparently, he had gone on by and then banked, intending to make his run down-wind to come up from behind the beast. This was not very intelligent. In the first place, he had gone directly over the beast and so cast his shadow on it. But the animal had not noticed. Now, however, the smoke from the torch came to the beast even though Ghlikh was fifty feet up.
The beast stopped tearing at the branches, raised his proboscis, sniffed here and there, and then began to trumpet.
Ghlikh dropped the bomb and then screamed with frustration.
The colossus answered with a scream of his own and a sudden shift from motionlessness into a charge that picked up speed unbelievably fast. The animal may not have seen anything as yet; he may have been just startled and so was running away .blindly. Ulysses, and, suddenly, the rocket seemed very inadequate.
Despite which, he placed the bazooka and its load on his shoulder and yelled at Awina to light the fuse. He could not see her, but she told him calmly what she was doing.
At that moment, Ghlikh's bomb went off about thirty yards behind the grey juggernaut. The Old Being increased his shrillness of trumpeting and his speed. He also changed his direction so that he was not approaching Ulysses and Awina directly. Unless he veered again, he would miss them by about four feet. But he should be able to see them before then and so would likely head toward them.
Heat fanned by Ulysses' cheek; smoke filled his eyes; the rocket hissed as it raced out of the tube and by his head. It flew in a fiat arc toward the creature, which was now charging them, having seen them two seconds before. His trunk was coiled high, and his reddish eyes were on them. The dark blur of the rocket struck the juggernaut's left shoulder, and the explosion deafened Ulysses. Smoke billowed out so that he could not even see the beast. He did not wait to notice the effects of the hit but ran off to one side with Awina close behind him. A carrier was running up to him with another rocket, and then other missiles went over him, one went by him, and something struck him in the back.
He fell forward on his face while smoke arranged itself like a tent around him. He coughed and then got up from his all-fours position. He was too stunned for several minutes to realise what had happened. Some rocketeer had gotten excited and directed the missile at too low an elevation. It was this rocket that had almost hit him and had struck a tree near him.
Ulysses got to his feet. His clothes were ripped and he was dirty with black smoke. He looked around for Awina, and then gave a cry of relief. She was standing near him and looking dazed and red-eyed and her fur was black with smoke. But she did not seem to have any wounds.
He turned back to The Old Being. He could hear nothing; for all he knew he was right behind him.
The beast was not. He lay on the ground, kicking his columnar legs while blood poured out like springs from several huge holes. One leg, though moving, was half blown off at the shoulder.
And then, as the warriors and the carriers, shouting and screaming triumphantly, moved in on him, he struggled to his feet, and, hobbling, charged again. The bipeds scattered, screaming with terror, and then the beast caught one with his trunk and lifted him up and hurled him spinning over and over into the branches of a tree.
After that, The Old Being collapsed again and died in a lake of mud and blood.
Miraculously, the Wufea thrown into the tree survived with only a few cuts and bruises.
It took Ulysses a long time to recover his hearing and his nerves. When he quit shaking, he examined the beast. He was, as Awina said, a mountain that walked. Just cutting off the tusks and transporting them back to the Wufea village would be a great labour. But he knew that when the Wufea, Wagarondit and Alkunquib made their pilgrimage to the village and saw those gargantuan tusks set upright into the ground before the temple, they would feel that their stone god was truly a god. They would also, he hoped, feel a stronger sense of union. All three of the hereditary foes had participated in this hunt for their ancient enemy. And all three could share in the glory.
There was one irritant in his triumph. That was Ghlikh.
He asked the bat-man what had happened.
"Lord, forgive me!" the bat-man piped. "I was sweating with excitement! My hand slipped, and I dropped the bomb! I am sorry indeed, but I could not help it!"
"Did your excitement also make you scream and so warn The Old Being?"
"Truly, Lord! My only excuse is that that giant monster strikes terror and panic into the hearts of every mortal! Look at how close a rocket came to hitting you!"
Ulysses said, "No harm was done."
"Now that The Old Being is dead, may I go?" Ghlikh said. "I would like to return home."
"Which is where?" Ulysses said, hoping to catch him off guard.
"As I have said, Lord, to the south. Many many marches."
"You may go," Ulysses said, wondering what Ghlikh had up his non-existent sleeve. It seemed to him that Ghlikh would be reporting on him, but to whom he could not even begin to guess. There was no sense in trying to keep him.
"Will I see you again soon?"
"I do not know, my Lord," Ghlikh said with that sidelong look that irritated Ulysses. "But you may see others of my kind."
"I will see you sooner than you think," Ulysses said.
Ghlikh seemed startled. He said, "What do you mean by that, my Lord?"
"Farewell," Ulysses said. "And my thanks for what you did."
Ghlikh hesitated and then said, "Farewell, my Lord. This has been a most profitable experience for me and the most exciting of all my life."
He left to say goodbye to the chiefs of each of the three bands and Awina. Ulysses watched him until he flapped away and disappeared beyond a high hill.
He said to Awina, "I think he has gone to tell somebody about the results of his spying."
"My Lord?" she said. "Spying?"
"Yes, I'm sure that he is working for somebody other than himself or his people. I cannot put my finger on anything that will hold still. But I feel it."
"Perhaps he works for Wurutana . . . ?" she said.
"He may," he said. "We'll find out. We'll be going south to find Wurutana after we set these tusks up before the temple."
"Will I be coming along?" she said. Her great Siamese-cat-blue eyes were fixed on him, and her posture betrayed tension.
"I understand it will be very dangerous," he said. "But you do not seem to be afraid of danger. Yes, I will be very happy if you will come with me. But I will not order anyone to accompany me. I will take only volunteers."
"I am very happy to be able to go with my Lord," she said. And then she added, "But are you going to face Wurutana or look for your sons and daughters?"
"My what?"
"For those mortals of whom Ghlikh spoke. The beings who look so much like you that they must be your children."
He smiled and said, "You are very intelligent and very perceptive, Awina. I will be going south to do both, of course."
"And will you be looking for a mate among the mortals who are your children?"
"I do not know!" he said, more harshly than he had intended. Why should this question upset him? Of course, he would be looking for a mate. What a question! And then he thought, well, she is a female, and her question is only natural for her.
But Awina was subdued for several days thereafter. Not until he tried hard to get her into conversation and to jolly her up did she come out of her blueness. Even so, many times he caught her looking at him with a strange expression.
They reached the Wufea village after making some detours to villages near their direct route. They set up the tusks to form the corners of a square before the temple gates and then they built a roof supported by the tusks. There were celebrations and ceremonies until the chiefs complained that the Wufea were going bankrupt. Moreover, the crops were not being properly taken care of, and the extensive hunting to feed all the guests had cleaned out the game for far too many miles around.
Ulysses had ordered the making of more bombs and a fe
w rockets. While this was being done, he went on a great hunt into the southern plains. He also wanted to capture some wild horses and to get a closer look at Wurutana.
The main body of the party returned to the villages with great piles of smoked meat dragged on sledges. They also took with them a number of captured horses with instructions to treat them gently and not to slaughter them.
Ulysses pushed on southward with forty warriors and Awina. They passed great herds of elephants about the size of African elephants but with a mound of fat on the haunches and considerably longer hairs. They went by herds of antelopes of many various species and genera, some of which looked like the American and African antelope of his day.
They sighted packs of wolf-like notch-eared dogs with white and red spots all over their bodies. There were prides of a large cheetah-like striped cat and of lion-sized jaguar-like cats. There were many of the twelve-foot high road-runners. Once, Ulysses saw two of the great birds drive off two jaguars from a horse the big cats had just killed.
His people did not seem as worried about the birds and the animals as they did about the Kurieiaumea. These were a tall long-legged people with reddish fur and white faces. A very savage people, Awina said. They were not related to the Wufea, Wagarondit or Alkunquib. They used bolas and atlatls or spear-throwers.
Nobody said anything about turning back, but the deeper they got into Kurieiaumea territory, the more nervous his people became.
Ulysses insisted that they keep going south. But after two more days, and seemingly no closer to the dark mass, he decided to turn back. His indirect questions had, however, revealed one item of information, though he was not sure that he could believe it.
Unless he misinterpreted their comments, Wurutana was a tree. A tree like no other tree that had existed since the dawn of trees.
They returned without seeing any sign of the dread Kurieiaumea, and Ulysses at once began preparations for the big journey. But now the leaves fell; the winds began to blow cold; he decided to wait until spring.
A month later, with the first snows, Ghlikh and his wife, Ghuakh, flew into the village. Wearing lightweight furs, they looked like winged pygmy Eskimos. Ghuakh was even smaller than Ghlikh but much louder. She was a brassy, big-mouthed, nagging and nosy female whom Ulysses immediately disliked. If she had had feathers and bird-feet, she could truly have been called a harpy.
"Did you get tired of waiting for me?" Ulysses said, smiling.
"I, waiting? Truly, my Lord, I do not know what you mean," Ghlikh said.
But he and his wife asked many questions among the villagers after they had passed on their gossip, news and reports on the movements of game to the south. It was not difficult for them to find out that the stone god was planning to march on Wurutana after the spring thaws. Ulysses, meanwhile, questioned Awina and others and found out that the bat-people seldom came by at this time of the year. The chief priest said that one of the "winged mouths" had not come by this late for at least twenty years, maybe more.
Ulysses nodded on hearing this. He suspected that the bat-people had been sent to find out what was holding him up. And he was sure that the two would be coming back much earlier in the spring than they usually did. He said goodbye to them one cold morning and decided that he would set out even earlier than he planned.
In the meantime, he broke his horses and taught the warriors how to ride. The winter snows were not nearly as heavy as those to which he had been accustomed. This might still be Syracuse geographically, but the climate had become milder. The snows fell frequently but not as thickly, and they melted often. He had plenty of space to ride his horses, which he kept inside the temple. That spring, colts were born, and he instructed his people how to take care of them. He was strong in his insistence that the animals be treated humanely.
Spring finally released the frozen soil, and the plains became muddy. He was delayed starting the expedition because of a sickness that appeared among the Wufea. Dozens died within a few weeks, and then Awina went to bed with the fever. He stayed by her side much of the time and nursed her himself. Aytheera came in often to perform cleansing ceremonies. The germ theory of disease was unknown. The ancient theory of possession by spirits and of evil sent by witches had reasserted itself. Ulysses did not argue with this idea. Without microscopes, he could not prove his explanation, and even if he could nothing could be done to cure the disease. The fever and the accompanying boils on the head lasted about a week in each person. Some died, and some recovered; there seemed to be no apparent reason for some having survived and the others succumbing. There were burials almost every day, and then the fever was gone.
Ulysses had speculated on how ironic it would be if he should fall victim to a disease after having ridden out many millions of years. But he was untouched by the illness. This was an advantage in more ways than one. To have suffered the sickness might have made the others doubt his godhood.
The fever took a month to pass through the area. When it had left, about an eighth of the population had been put under the ground. The disease did not respect age; it took babies, children, adults, and old people.
He felt despondent for several reasons. First, he was getting closer to these people, despite their nonhuman features of body and psychology. Some of the deaths genuinely grieved him, especially that of Aytheera. Perhaps Awina's grief for her father touched him more than the old one's death, but he was affected. Second, the Wufea needed every hand they could get for the spring planting and the spring hunts. They really could not spare the warriors he would need for this expedition.
However, the stone god had given them the bow and the arrow and the horse as transportation. They were now far more efficient in hunting than before he had awakened. And so they went on great communal hunts and brought in great quantities of horse and antelope meat. Moreover, the idea of raising the horses for food occurred to them with no word from their god. They separated the stock into two groups for breeding purposes. One would become their transportation and the other would be bred for short legs and big bodies. They knew the principles of genetics, having raised dogs and pigs for various purposes for a long time.
By then it was really too late to set out on the plains, or too early, depending on the point of view. The mud would have to dry out. So Ulysses waited and deepened his preparations and imagined even more obstacles against which he should prepare or which he could not possibly be prepared. His warriors found the waiting hard, too. The longer the expedition was put off, the gloomier and the more horrible became the tales about the always evil deeds of Wurutana.
Three days before the expedition was to set out, Ghlikh and his wife Ghuakh glided out of the blue.
"My Lord, I thought I could be of service to you!" Ghlikh said, his leathery big-toothed face wrinkling into the similitude of a bat's. Or a very ugly fox's, Ulysses thought.
Ulysses said that he could be of great service. And so he could, up to a point. Beyond that, he would not be trusted. Ulysses had had time to dwell much on the incident with The Old Being and on reports about the bat-people.
Ghlikh's eyes opened when he saw the four wagons that Ulysses had had built. He said, "My Lord, you have given your people many new and serviceable things. With the bows and arrows and the gunpowder and the use of horses, your people could sweep out all the peoples to the north of here."
"True, but I am interested in the conquest of only one being," Ulysses said.
"Ah, yes, Wurutana!"
Ghlikh did not sound surprised. If anything, he seemed satisfied.
The third morning, the caravan started out. Ulysses Singing Bear was mounted on the biggest pony he could find. By his side Awina rode a mare, and then Ghlikh and Ghuakh rode behind two warriors. Forty warriors rode behind them and then came the four horse-drawn wagons and sixty more warriors. On the flanks, ahead and behind, scouts rode. The party was composed in almost equal parts of Wufea, Wagarondit and Alkunquib. Ulysses would have preferred that the fighting men all be of one race,
because he was tired of preventing or settling quarrels or outright bloodshed between the old enemies. But he wanted to preserve the union and to have taken along only one race would have insulted the other two.
They certainly made a strange and colourful assembly. By then he had decided that all three were feline and had a common ancestor. The resemblance of the Wagarondit and Alkunquib to racoons was superficial.
The parade wound across the plains, stopping before dusk, or earlier, near a waterhole or creek. They killed much meat and all ate well. Day after day, the huge mass to the south became slightly larger and then, suddenly, it began to grow swiftly. Once, a small war party of the Kurieiaumea came close, but they were equalled in numbers by the invaders. Moreover, they seemed amazed by the fact that these people were riding horses. They kept a respectable distance and tried to keep up with them, but after the second day they lost them. Then, two days later, they were confronted by an army of almost a thousand feathered and beaded Kurieiaumea. Ulysses was not surprised by them. The Dhulhulikh had spotted them half a day before.
The Stone God Awakens Page 6
