The leopard-men on shore were still taking a heavy toll with their spears. Ulysses lit another bomb and threw it. It fell into the water, exploding just after landing. A great gout of water was thrown up on the bank, but it could not have done any injury. However, it must have panicked the spearmen, because their fire ceased. Ulysses ordered the rafts poled ashore. To stay in the lake was too dangerous. The legless crocodiles were making the lake seethe; he did not know where they had all come from. And the hipporats were attacking the men in the water.
The other two canoes, filled with dead or dying leopard-men, were drifting away. The arrow fire had been deadly. It was a tribute to the courage of his people, and also to his discipline, that they had kept up a very effective barrage.
Now they turned their undivided attention to the foliage, and the resulting screams told of unseen hits. When the rafts hit the bank, Ulysses and his men piled out, grabbing the bags and quivers, and then plunged a few yards into the jungle. Here they stopped to reorganise.
Ulysses sent some men back to the rafts with orders to pole them down, close to the bank, until they reached the far end of the lake. He counted his men. Twenty had died. There were a hundred left, of whom ten were wounded. And their journey was, in effect, just begun.
They marched back along the bank without suffering any more casualties. At the end of the lake, they caught the drifting rafts, got back onto them, and resumed their downstream trip. From there the channel narrowed, and the current picked up speed. After a while, there must have been a definitely steeper incline to the branch, because they started to move at an estimated fifteen miles an hour.
Ulysses asked Ghlikh if it was safe to continue on the raft. Ghlikh assured him it was safe for another ten miles. Then they should put ashore, because the riverlet became falls in another three miles.
Ulysses thanked him, though he disliked even talking to the two bat-people. During the battle, they had cowered behind the archers and held each other in their arms. Ulysses acknowledged that he had no right to expect them to take part in the battle. This was not their fight. But he could not avoid a suspicion that Ghlikh must have seen the ambushers. He had flown close above the river level and so should have seen the one war canoe, anyway. Still, it was possible that he had not. Also, if he was leading them into a trap, why had he stayed with them? He had been in almost as much danger as the rest.
On reflection, Ulysses decided that he was not being fair. He was letting his distaste influence his judgement. Not that he trusted them. He still felt that they were working for whoever Wurutana really was, or possibly for their own people.
The rafts continued at about the same speed. After a while, they heard the soft thunder of the cascades. He let the rafts speed along for another three minutes and then gave the order to abandon them. As instructed, those on the edge of the rafts leaped ashore first. The ranks behind them moved up and jumped. Two fell into the water when the rafts bumped into the bank. One was caught and smashed between raft and bank; the other was swept away.
Those remaining on the rafts threw all supplies except the bombs onto the banks. Ulysses did not trust the stability of the powder to last under the impact of hitting the ground. The bombs were tossed into the hands of those ashore.
He was the last one off. He watched the six rafts being carried along, bump-bumping into the moss-covered wood of the bank. Then the channel curved away, and the rafts were hidden by the thick foliage. A few miles on, the party came to the falls. The riverlet was raging through the narrowing channel, and it arced out over the trunk of The Tree and fell into the abyss. Ulysses calculated that it was eight thousand feet to the ground, which made this waterfall about twice as high as the highest of his day, the Angel cataract in Venezuela.
The party transferred to another branch which had only a small stream, about ten feet wide and three deep, in its channel. They went along the bank, though they could have gone faster if they had waded. But there were beautifully-coloured, very poisonous snakes in the water and a few of the legless crocodiles. Ulysses decided to call these snoligosters, after a similar animal of the Paul Bunyan legends.
Before dusk, they made another transfer via a liana complex. They proceeded along this branch until Ghlikh saw a huge hole at the juncture of a trunk and a branch on a nearby trunk. He said that they could lodge in this hole, although they might have to drive out whatever animals were using it for a home.
"There are many such holes, quite large, in The Tree," he said. "Usually where a branch starts out from the trunk."
"I've never seen any before," Ulysses said.
"You didn't know where to look," Ghlikh said, smiling.
Ulysses was silent for a while. He could not get over his suspicions of this creature. Yet he might be doing him an injustice. And Ghlikh was probably even more eager than he to find a comfortable, easily defended place. On the other hand, a good defensive place could be a good place for an enemy to bottle you up in. What if the leopard-men followed them here and then surrounded it?
At last, he made up his mind. His people needed a place where they could relax, relatively speaking. Also, his wounded needed tending, and some of them would have to be carried if they pushed on right now.
"Very well," he said. "We'll camp in that hole for tonight."
He did not say that he planned to stay there for a few days. He did not want Ghlikh to know anything of what he was planning.
There was no occupant to be driven out, though cracked bones and fresh droppings indicated that the owner, a large animal, might be coming back soon. He ordered the excrement carried out and thrown over the side, and the party moved in. The entrance was about twenty feet wide and seven high; the cave was a hemisphere about forty feet across. The walls were so smooth and polished, they looked as if they had been carved out. Ghlikh assured him that this was a natural phenomenon.
Dead wood was brought in and piled up to block off most of the entrance, and a fire was built. The wind carried some smoke inside but not enough to make it too uncomfortable.
Ulysses sat with his back against the glossy wall, and, after a while, Awina sat down next to him. She licked her arms and legs and belly for a while and then applied the cleansing saliva to her hands and wiped them over her face and ears. It was amazing what the saliva could do. In a few minutes, her fur, which had reeked of sweat and blood, was odourless. The Wufea paid for this with hair balls in the stomach, but they took a medicine of various herbs to get rid of the balls.
Ulysses liked the results of the cleansing, but he disliked seeing them do it. The actions were too animal-like.
"The warriors are disheartened," she said after sitting by him in silence for many minutes.
"Indeed?" he said. "They do seem quiet. But I had thought that was because they are very tired." "There is that. But they are also gloomy. They whisper among themselves. They say that you, of course, are a great god, being the stone god. But here we are on the very body of Wurutana himself. And you are a tiny god compared to Wurutana. You have not been able to keep all of us alive. We are only a little way on our expedition, and we have lost many."
"I made it clear before we started that some would die," Ulysses said. "You did not say all would die." "Not all have died." "Not yet," she said.
Then, seeing him frown, she continued, "I do not say that, Lord! They say that! And not all of them, by any means! But enough so that even those who have spoken are pondering the words of fear. And some have spoken of the Wuggrud."
She used the word Ugorto, her pronunciation of the—to her—difficult sounds and difficult combinations thereof.
"The Wuggrud? Ah, yes, Ghlikh spoke of them. They are supposed to be giants who eat strangers. Huge ill-smelling creatures. Tell me, Awina, have you or any of our people ever seen a Wuggrud?"
Awina turned her dark-blue eyes toward him. She licked her black lips as if they had suddenly become dry.
"No, Lord. None of us have seen them. But we have heard of them. Our mothers have
told us stories about them. Our ancestors knew them when we lived closer to Wurutana. And Ghlikh has seen them."
"So Ghlikh has been talking?"
He stood up and stretched and then sat down again. He had been about to walk across the cave but remembered that it was the mortal who came to see the god, not the god the mortal. He called, "Ghlikh! On the double!"
The tiny man scrambled to his feet and waddled across the floor. He stood before Ulysses and said, "What is it, my Lord!"
"Why do you spread stories about the Wuggrud? Are you trying to dishearten my warriors?"
Ghlikh's face was expressionless. He said, "Never would I do that, my Lord. No, I have not spread stories. I have merely answered, truthfully, the questions your warriors put to me about the Wuggrud."
"Are they as monstrous as the tales have it?"
Ghlikh smiled and said, "Nobody could be that monstrous, my Lord. But they are bad enough."
"Are we in their territory?"
"If you are in Wurutana, you are in their territory."
"I wish we could see a few and get our arrows into them. Then we'd shake this fear out of my men."
"The thing about a Wuggrud," Ghlikh said, "is that you will see them, sooner or later. But by then it may be too late."
"Now you're trying to scare me."
Ghlikh raised his brows. "I, Lord? Try to scare a god? Not I, Lord!"
Then he said, "It is Wurutana, not the Wuggrud, that have thrown your brave warriors into such a blue funk."
"They are brave!"
He thought, I will tell them that there is nothing to be done about Wurutana itself. It is just a tree. A mighty big one. But it is a mindless plant which can do nothing to them. And the others, the Khrauszmiddum and the Wuggrud, are only the lice on the plant.
He would wait until morning to tell this. Just now, they were too tired and dull. After a night's rest and a good breakfast, he would tell them that they could rest for a few days. And he would give them an inspiring speech.
He walked around, made sure that there was plenty of firewood and that guards had been appointed. Then he sat down again, and while he was thinking about his speech, he fell asleep.
At first, he thought that he was being awakened for the guard duty which he had insisted on standing. Then he realised that he was being rolled over, and his hands were tied behind him.
A voice said something in an unfamiliar tongue. The voice was the deepest basso he had ever heard.
He looked up. Torches were flaring in the dome. Giants held them. Beings seven feet tall, even eight feet tall. They had very short legs, very long trunks and long bulky arms. They were naked, and their hair distribution was much like a man's except for the fur across the belly and the groin. The skin was as pale as a blond Swede's, and the hair was reddish or brown. Their faces were humanoid, but prognathous, with dark round wet noses. Their ears were pointed and set high on their heads. They stank of sweat, garbage and excrement.
They carried huge knobbed clubs, long-handled wooden mallets and spears with fire-hardened points.
The thing—he must be a Wuggrud—spoke again. His teeth were widely separated and sharp.
There was a piping sound. It took a few seconds to grasp that the thin voice was Ghlikh's and that he was speaking to the Wuggrud in his language.
Ulysses felt such rage that he should have been able to tear apart the bonds around his wrists. But they held.
He said, "You foul stinking treacherous animal! I should have killed you!"
Ghlikh, smiling, turned and said, "Yes, you should have, my Lord!"
He spat on Ulysses and then kicked him in the ribs. The kick hurt the man's delicate foot more than it hurt Ulysses. The Wuggrud growled something, and Ghlikh hopped away.
The giant reached down and grabbed Ulysses by the neck with a huge hand and sat him upright. The hand choked him. When his senses returned, he saw that every one of his people were bound. No, not all. About ten lay dead, their skulls crushed.
The rear wall had been slid aside, exposing a tunnel. Torches set in stands on the wall flamed inside the tunnel.
So that was how they caught them. But how could so few overcome so many, even if those few were ogres? What had happened to the guards? Why hadn't the noise of the struggle awakened him?
Ghlikh squatted down in front of him. He said, "I got a powder from the Wuggrud. I put it in your water. In everybody's drinking water. It takes effect slowly and subtly. But very powerfully."
It was subtle. The water had tasted pure, and he had no headache or bad taste.
He looked around. Awina was sitting near him with her hands also tied behind her. The thought of something happening to her made him frantic.
His intention to ask Ghlikh why the ten had been killed was stifled. A Wuggrud leaned down and with a single twisting movement of his enormous hands tore off the leg of an Alkunquib. He began tearing at the flesh, ripping off big chunks, and gobbling them with much smacking, chewing, and gulping.
Ulysses thought he would vomit. He was sorry that he could not. Awina had turned her head away. Ghlikh and Ghuakh stood in one corner and looked indifferent.
There were ten of the ogres—that was the best term for them—ten ogres in the dome and each ate upon a corpse. Then they threw the bones down and wiped away some of the blood on their mouths and chins with the back of their hands. They held the uneaten parts against their chests. Their chief growled like thunder at Ghlikh, who pointed at Ulysses and said something. The chief jerked a dirty bloody thumb at Ulysses, and another giant walked over and set him up on his feet, lifting him by the back of his neck. The fingers dug into his neck so severely that he was sure blood would pop out of his veins. The giant got behind him and prodded him toward the tunnel entrance with the point of his spear against his back.
Ulysses tried to give Awina a look that would tell her that he did not think all was lost, but she still kept her head turned away. He walked into the tunnel with the shuffle of huge feet and the sputter of the torches the only sounds. The tunnel curved gently to the right, straightened out, curved to the left, straightened out, and suddenly he was in an immense room in the heart of the trunk.
There were torches all around, set in the walls. Their smoke rose to the darkness-veiled ceiling and disappeared, apparently through vents. There was a slight draft of air, also going toward the ceiling. The stench was overpowering; the odours of garbage and excrement were so strong they seemed almost solid. They stuck in his throat and threatened to strangle him.
Behind him Ghlikh said, "Shau," his equivalent of "Phew!"
There were about ten adult females and thirty juveniles and children scattered around the room. The females were almost as big as the males and much fatter. Their breasts, hips, thighs and stomachs were huge and sagging. On seeing the meat in the males hands, they set up a cry. The males threw the mangled remains to them, and women and children began to eat.
The room was divided into two parts. The smaller was set in a high niche at the other end and held a disk-shaped object placed vertically in the wall. A set of steps cut out of the wood gave access to it. Ulysses climbed it while the sharp wooden point of the spear dug into his back. Ghlikh and the chief followed him.
The disk was actually a membrane set in a ring of living wood, which was flush against the wall. Near it were two sticks of wood with slightly knobbed ends. Ghlikh picked these up and began tapping on the membrane. Ulysses listened and counted. The taps consisted of some sort of code, he was sure of that. Perhaps it was a primitive Morse code.
Ghlikh stopped tapping. The membrane vibrated. Its surface changed shape, and sounds came out. Pulses. Dots and dashes.
Ghlikh stood there with his head cocked to one side and his huge ears wiggling. When the membrane quit vibrating, he began tapping on it. After a while, he stopped to listen to some more pulses of unequal duration. Ulysses could make out patterns, units with dot-dot-dash-dot, dash, dash-dot-dash-dot, and many more, but these made no sense to
him, of course.
The membrane could be likened to an eardrum or the diaphragm in a telephone. Behind it might be the end of a long vegetable nerve-cable, and at the other end, God only knew where, would be an entity transceiving at another membrane.
Ulysses had wondered why they had thought it necessary to bring him here. He found out a minute later when Ghlikh started to ask him questions.
"How did you plan to conquer Wurutana?"
Ulysses did not reply, and Ghlikh said something to the chief, who growled at the giant behind Ulysses. Ulysses jumped when the spear point cut into him, and he kept from yelling only by clamping his lips together.
There was no point, really, in not answering. And he might find out something about Wurutana while giving him information.
"I didn't have the slightest idea of how to conquer Wurutana," he said. "I came here primarily to find out what Wurutana was."
The Stone God Awakens Page 9
