“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 realized 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 odors 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 n
o 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.”
Ghlikh smiled and said, “You forgot to say that you were also going to the south coast to determine if your kind existed there.”
He tapped on the membrane and then listened to the reply. He said, “Wurutana has decided that you should be taken to the city of my people. The Wuggrud will escort you there.”
He spoke to the chief, who seemed to be protesting. But the tiny Ghlikh spoke firmly to him and then shook his fist and screamed at him. The giant sullenly acquiesced, and Ulysses was led down the steps and out of the chamber. As soon as they were in the tunnel, he was able to breathe easier. He said, “Ghlikh, what about Awina? And my men?”
“Oh, they will go to make food for the Wuggrud, of course.”
He spoke to the giant, who bellowed with laughter.
Ghlikh said, “We’ll leave at dawn. Not all your people will be killed. That is, not at once. Some will be taken along and butchered as needed.”
Ulysses hesitated. He wanted to ask that Awina be brought along with him. The idea that he might have to watch her skull being broken and her body torn apart and devoured raw sickened him. It would be easier on him if she were left behind and he was spared that sight. But then there was always a chance of escape, however slight it seemed at the moment. If she were left behind, she had no chance. With him, she might live.
But Ghlikh hated him, and he might do exactly the opposite of what Ulysses wanted. Asking him to take Awina along might ensure that she would be left behind. Or, worse, Ghlikh, knowing Ulysses’ fondness for her, might have her butchered before his eyes.
He would have to chance that. He just could not keep his mouth shut.
“Ghlikh,” he said. “You seem to have great authority here, as the representative of Wurutana, whoever he is. Can you see that Awina will be brought along with us?”
Ghlikh smiled and said nothing for a long time. Then, just before they reached the end of the tunnel, he said, “We’ll see.”
He meant to torture Ulysses with uncertainty. So be it. Ulysses could wait. There was nothing else he could do.
When they entered the dome, Ghlikh directed that Ulysses be placed by Awina. He grinned when he did this, and Ulysses knew that he was taking pleasure at the thought of their agonized conversation.
As soon as he was by her, Ulysses said softly, “The first chance you get, reach into my pocket and get my knife out.”
He saw Ghlikh, across the room, talking to his wife, who looked over at them and smiled nastily.
Ulysses said, “I’ll snuggle close and appear to be talking to you. You get into my pocket and get the knife and open the blade. You know how. And then saw away at the bonds.”
He managed to get closer and leaned his head against her, working his mouth so that he seemed to be whispering. She stank of sweat and fear, and she was trembling.
“Even if they don’t see us, and if I can get your hands loose, what can we do against those?” she said, nodding at the giants.
“We’ll find out,” he said. A giant walked toward them, and Ulysses froze. But the Wuggrud turned his back on them and then sat down in front of them. Ulysses could not have wished for a better wall behind which to hide. Presently, the huge head dropped, and the giant was snoring like distant thunder. The others lay down to sleep with the exception of one who stood in the entrance. He, however, did not seem particularly interested in keeping an eye on the captives. Why should he? They were all tied up, and they were small, and he stood between them and the outside.
Ulysses was worried about Ghlikh and Ghuakh, however. At any moment one of them might think of the knife and come over to take it away from him. He could not see them now, which meant that they could not see him, either. Ghlikh might not like that; he would want to enjoy Ulysses’ suffering.
But Ghlikh did not come. Possibly, he and his wife had decided to take a nap, too, before the hard journey began. Ulysses fervently hoped so.
As long as no one was watching them, Awina could work swiftly. She scooted around so her back was to him and then groped into his pocket. In this situation, her feline suppleness and the smallness of her hand and arm also helped. She got her fingers around the end of the knife and slowly pulled it out. She dropped it, and they both went rigid as the knife made a slight sound. The giant garrumphed deep in his throat and raised his head for a moment. The snoring stopped. Ulysses thought his heart would stop. But the head drooped forward again, and the growling and sawing started up.
Awina pressed the button, and the blade snicked out. It took ten minutes of awkward sawing before the leather cords were cut. Ulysses massaged his wrists and worked his hands to get the circulation going. Then, keeping an eye on the guard, who was presenting his brutish profile to them, Ulysses cut Awina’s bonds.
The next step was very crucial. If the guard saw them, or if the two batpeople were not sleeping, they would raise an alarm. At this stage, there was not much just two puny captives could do against the aroused giants.
He whispered to Awina to move slowly along the wall. He would slowly follow her until the sleeping giant in front of them blocked him from the guard’s view. In the meantime, she was to cut the bonds of the Wufea next to her. Then he was to free the next man. And so on. When ten had gotten free, the knife was to be passed back to Ulysses. It would take too long and be too much in the open to attempt to free everybody.
Awina sent the knife on down the line and also transmitted his instructions. Neither he nor she could see the batpeople, but the Wufea next to her said that they were sitting with their backs near the wall and their heads between their knees. They looked as if they were sleeping.
The torches were almost out, and the fire at the entrance had long ago died. In a short time dawn would be graying the entrance and then the dome. The guard might wake up another to stand his duty at any moment. Or he might have orders to wake everybody up at dawn.
Awina put the knife in his hand, and whispered, “They say they’re ready.”
He looked around the back of the giant. The guard was scratching his back with the end of a stick and looking out the entrance. The bows, arrows, spears, knives, bombs, and the supplies of the captives were piled up near the entrance. The weapons of the giants were on the floor by their hands.
He rose cautiously and slowly, making sure that he would be hidden by the Wuggrud if the guard should turn. He reached around with the edge of the blade turned inward, and he slashed open the giant’s jugular vein. The blood shot out, the snoring became a rattling, his knees opened, and his head fell down between his legs. Ulysses picked up the spear and, the bloody knife in his teeth, ran toward the guard.
Behind him, he hoped, the others were seizing the spears and clubs of their captors and using them to killing effect.
One of the giants cried out as he was struck.
The guard dropped the stick and whirled to face inward.
Ulysses drove the spear into the belly, but it did not go far. The fire-hardened point was not sharp enough, and the belly of the Wuggrud was protected by many inches of fat and massive muscles. He weighed probably five
hundred and fifty pounds, maybe more. He took the spear with only a backward step, and then he shoved against it and charged Ulysses. The man clung to the spear and ran backward. There was nothing he could do but go along with the Wuggrud. Fortunately, the guard was empty-handed.
But then the guard, bellowing madly, stopped, and he grabbed the spear and shoved it away so violently that Ulysses was knocked off his feet. The guard, blood streaming from the wound, bent down and picked up the spear and raised it to run it through Ulysses. His enormous strength could have driven the end of a telephone pole through the body of a bull.
Ulysses stepped inside the point and pushed the knife through the fat and the muscles and ripped upward. At the same time, a black and white fury leaped upon the shoulders of the giant from behind, and a stone knife stabbed into its right eye.
The giant dropped the spear and staggered backward. Ulysses clung to the knife, which came out of the belly. He leaped in again, because the giant had reached upward to grab Awina. Ulysses cut into the giant’s groin, turned the blade, and pulled it out. The giant grabbed for the wound, and Ulysses ran the knife through the back of his hand.
A bow twanged, and the giant fell, an arrow driven through his neck. Awina rolled over to escape being crushed. She had fallen off when he had reached back.
Ulysses whirled. The bellows, shouts and screams had suddenly ceased. Every giant lay dead on the floor. Most of them had died as they slept. Three had wakened in time to fight and had killed three Wufea.
He whirled back toward the entrance to see Ghuakh launch herself off the edge of the branch and Ghlikh close behind her.
Shouting, he ran after them, snatched a bow and arrow from the Wufea who had shot the guard, and ran out. Ghlikh had jumped off a large projection and was falling, his wings flapping. Ulysses fitted the nock of the arrow to the string and, unconsciously estimating the wind, aimed and let the shaft loose. It went all the way through the thin membrane of the right wing.
Ghlikh fell, screaming, but then his wings began flapping again and he descended in controlled flight toward a great branch on another trunk. Here Ghuakh waited for him. Ulysses watched them for a few minutes while his wife inspected the hole in his wing and their mouths worked furiously.
The Stone God Awakens Page 9
