The Planet Savers
Page 9
blankety windbreak, standing shivering in a thinsweater. She unstrapped her boots and tossed them to me. "Now boost meon your shoulders, Hjalmar."
Too late, I guessed her intention and shouted, "No, don't try--!" Butshe had already clambered to an unsteady perch on the big Darkovan'sshoulders and made a flying grab for the lowest loop of the trailmen'sbridge. She hung there, swaying slightly and sickeningly, as the looselianas gave to her weight.
"Hjalmar--Lerrys--haul her down!"
"I'm lighter than any of you," Kyla called shrilly, "and not heftyenough to be any use on the ropes!" Her voice quavered somewhat as sheadded, "--and hang on to that rope, Lerrys! If you lose it, I'll havedone this for nothing!"
She gripped the loop of vine and reached, with her free hand, for thenext loop. Now she was swinging out over the edge of the boiling rapids.Tight-mouthed, I gestured to the others to spread out slightlybelow--not that anything would help her if she fell.
Hjalmar, watching as the woman gained the third loop--which joggledhorribly to her slight weight--shouted suddenly, "Kyla, quick! The loop_beyond_--don't touch the next one! It's frayed--rotted through!"
Kyla brought her left hand up to her right on the third loop. She made along reach, missed her grab, swung again, and clung, breathing hard, tothe safe fifth loop. I watched, sick with dread. The damned girl shouldhave told me what she intended.
Kyla glanced down and we got a glimpse of her face, glistening with themixture of sunburn cream and sweat, drawn with effort. Her tiny swayingfigure hung twelve feet above the white tumbling water, and if she losther grip, only a miracle could bring her out alive. She hung there for aminute, jiggling slightly, then started a long back-and-forward swing.On the third forward swing she made a long leap and grabbed at the finalloop.
It slipped through her fingers; she made a wild grab with the otherhand, and the liana dipped sharply under her weight, raced through herfingers, and with a sharp snap, broke in two. She gave a wild shriek asit parted, and twisted her body frantically in mid-air, landing asprawlhalf-in, half-out of the rapids, but on the further bank. She hauled herlegs up on dry land and crouched there, drenched to the waist but safe.
The rope swung perilously, threatening to dash her on therocks.]
* * * * *
The Darkovans were yelling in delight. I motioned to Lerrys to make hisend of the rope fast around a hefty tree-root, and shouted, "Are youhurt?" She indicated in pantomime that the thundering of the waterdrowned words, and bent to belay her end of the rope. In sign-language Igestured to her to make very sure of the knots; if anyone slipped, shehadn't the weight to hold us.
I hauled on the rope myself to test it, and it held fast. I slung herboots around my neck by their cords, then, gripping the fixed rope,Kendricks and I stepped into the water.
It was even icier than I expected, and my first step was nearly thelast; the rush of the white water knocked me to my knees, and Ifloundered and would have measured my length except for my hands on thefixed rope. Buck Kendricks grabbed at me, letting go the rope to do it,and I swore at him, raging, while we got on our feet again and bracedourselves against the onrushing current. While we struggled in thepounding waters, I admitted to myself; we could never have crossedwithout the rope Kyla had risked her life to fix.
Shivering, we got across and hauled ourselves out. I signalled to theothers to cross two at a time, and Kyla seized my elbow. "Jason--"
"Later, dammit!" I had to shout to make myself heard over the roaringwater, as I held out a hand to help Rafe get his footing on the ledge.
"This--can't--wait," she yelled, cupping her hands and shouting into myear. I turned on her. "_What!_"
"There are--_trailmen_--on the top level--of that bridge! I saw them!They cut the loop!"
Regis and Hjalmar came struggling across last; Regis, lightly-built, wasswept off his feet and Hjalmar turned to grab him, but I shouted to himto keep clear--they were still roped together and if the ropes fouled wemight drown someone. Lerrys and I leaped down and hauled Regis clear; hecoughed, spitting icy water, drenched to the skin.
I motioned to Lerrys to leave the fixed rope, though I had little hopethat it would be there when we returned, and looked quickly around,debating what to do. Regis and Rafe and I were wet clear through; theothers to well above the knee. At this altitude, this was dangerous,although we were not yet high enough to worry about frostbite. Trailmenor no trailmen, we must run the lesser risk of finding a place where wecould kindle a fire and dry out.
"Up there--there's a clearing," I said briefly, and hurried them along.
* * * * *
It was hard climbing now, on rock, and there were places where we had toscrabble for handholds, and flatten ourselves out against an almostsheer wall. The keen wind rose as we climbed higher, whining through thethick forest, soughing in the rocky outcrops, and biting through oursoaked clothing with icy teeth. Kendricks was having hard going now, andI helped him as much as I could, but I was aching with cold. We gainedthe clearing, a small bare spot on a lesser peak, and I directed the twoDarkovan brothers who were the driest to gather dry brushwood and get afire going. It was hardly near enough sunset to camp; but by the time wewere dry enough to go on safely, it would be, so I gave orders to getthe tent up, then rounded angrily on Kyla.
"See here, another time don't try any dangerous tricks unless you'reordered to!"
"Go easy on her," Regis Hastur interceded, "we'd never have crossedwithout the fixed rope. Good work, girl."
"You keep out of this!" I snapped. It was true, yet resentment boiled inme as Kyla's plain sullen face glowed under the praise from the Hastur.
The fact was--I admitted it grudgingly--a lightweight like Kyla ran lessrisk on an acrobat's bridge than in that kind of roaring current. Thatdid not lessen my annoyance; and Regis Hastur's interference, and thefoolish grin on the girl's face, made me boil over.
I wanted to question her further about the sight of trailmen on thebridge, but decided against it. We had been spared attack on the rapids,so it wasn't impossible that a group, not hostile, was simply watchingour progress--maybe even aware that we were on a peaceful mission.
But I didn't believe it for a minute. If I knew anything about thetrailmen, it was this--one could not judge them by human standards atall. I tried to decide what I would have done, as a trailman, but mybrain wouldn't run that way at the moment.
The Darkovan brothers had built up the fire with a thoroughly recklessdisregard of watching eyes. It seemed to me that the morale and fitnessof the shivering crew was of more value at the moment than caution; andaround the roaring fire, feeling my soaked clothes warming to the blazeand drinking boiling hot tea from a mug, it seemed that we were right.Optimism reappeared; Kyla, letting Hjalmar dress her hands which hadbeen rubbed raw by the slipping lianas, made jokes with the men abouther feat of acrobatics.
We had made camp on the summit of an outlying arm of the main ridge ofthe Hellers, and the whole massive range lay before our eyes, turned toa million colors in the declining sun. Green and turquoise and rose, themountains were even more beautiful than I remembered. The shoulder ofthe high slope we had just climbed had obscured the real mountain massiffrom our sight, and I saw Kendricks' eyes widen as he realized that thishigh summit we had just mastered was only the first step of the taskwhich lay before us. The real ridge rose ahead, thickly forested on thelower slopes, then strewn with rock and granite like the landscape of anairless, deserted moon. And above the rock, there were straight wallscapped with blinding snow and ice. Down one peak a glacier flowed, awaterfall, a cascade shockingly arrested in motion. I murmured thetrailman's name for the mountain, aloud, and translated it for theothers:
"The Wall Around the World."
"Good name for it," Lerrys murmured, coming with his mug in his hand tolook at the mountain. "Jason, the big peak there has never been climbed,has it?"
"I can't remember." My teeth were chattering and I went back toward th
efire. Regis surveyed the distant glacier and murmured, "It doesn't looktoo bad. There could be a route along that western _arete_--Hjalmar,weren't you with the expedition that climbed and mapped High Kimbi?"
The giant nodded, rather proudly. "We got within a hundred feet of thetop, then a snowstorm came up and we had to turn back. Some day we'lltackle the Wall Around the World--it's been tried, but no one everclimbed the peak."
"No one ever will," Lerrys stated positively, "There's two hundred feetof sheer rock cliff, Prince Regis, you'd need wings to get up. Andthere's the avalanche ledge they call Hell's Alley--"
Kendricks broke in irritably, "I don't care whether it's ever beenclimbed or ever will be climbed,