‘How long?’ Vana asked.
‘Your language doesn’t have the words for it.’
‘Tell her, Hoozisst, that I’ve taught you three the terms,’ Sloosh said. ‘Your minds know them, even if they can’t grasp their meaning.’
Feersh said, ‘The Archkerri’s words are not the same as mine. But The Shemibob has lived on Earth almost ten thousand sleep-times multiplied by a thousand plus ten thousand. How old she was when she came here from a distant star, I don’t know.’
‘Almost as old,’ Sloosh said.
‘Old enough to have a few wrinkles,’ Feersh said. She smiled, but Deyv did not know whether she meant to be funny.
‘Only a very young foolhardy and ignorant girl would have done what I did,’ Feersh said. ‘I would’ve been better off if I’d hidden in the jungle around my mother’s House and watched for a chance to get back in and kill her. But I was ambitious. I thought that if I could rob The Shemibob, I would then be the most powerful witch in the world. So I dared to enter the land of The Shemibob. And The Shemibob caught me, though she did say I’d penetrated deeper into her land than anyone else.
‘I was her slave for a long time. It was not a hard life, once I got used to her terrifying appearance. Unlike the other slaves, I was very curious, and I tried to learn everything I could from her. She liked to talk with me. Sometimes I thought that the only reason she lured people into her land was so she’d have somebody to talk to. While I was there I prowled around a lot, keeping my eyes open, and picked out those possessions I wanted to take with me. But there were so many that I had to select just a few. I couldn’t have carried one-thirtieth of what I desired and could be removed. Many of the possessions were surrounded by safeguards which I dared not pass.
‘She once told me that she was not inherently long-lived. One of her treasures was the secret of longevity. But she did not have that hidden somewhere in The Pulsing Castle. It was not in a concealed chamber set all around with traps. She carried the secret in her mind.
‘I asked her why she didn’t give it to her slaves. Then she wouldn’t have to depend upon catching would-be robbers to keep up her supply of slaves. She smiled – a most ghastly smile – and she said that if she’d done that long ago, the slaves might have become as wise as she and then would either have killed her or run away with her artifacts.
‘Also, there would be no use in telling the slaves now, even if she changed her mind about keeping the secret to herself. What good would it do? Within a comparatively short time, Earth would be torn apart by the power of stars too near. And then all stars and star dust, everything, would fall together and become an unimaginably enormous ball of fire. This would explode and then –’.
‘Sloosh has told us about that,’ Deyv said.
‘Yes? Anyway, I wasn’t as terrified or as surprised as she seemed to think I would be. We witches have our own knowledge. Though, to tell the truth, it wasn’t so much knowledge as speculation which depended upon doom-tales we’d heard from the savages: Especially the Yawtl.
‘And why should I care? I’d be dead long before the last sleep-times of Earth came. But then The Shemibob said that perhaps there might be a way of avoiding the cataclysm. The density of the ever-increasing amount of matter twists space itself. And this could result in gateways to another world. Or perhaps many other worlds.
‘I didn’t understand this completely. I had to take her word for it. But she didn’t seem to be lying just to pass the time.’
‘Tell her that we Archkerri have similar theories about that,’ Sloosh said.
‘You Archkerri have theories about everything,’ Feersh said. ‘Some of them are bound to be right. I asked her if she knew of any doors to these other worlds where perhaps the universe was not contracting but was young, expanding. She said that there could be one in her land, out in the crystals. It was a strange fearful phenomenon, the reason why The Wasteland is sometimes called The Bright Abomination.
‘But if the phenomenon was what she thought it was, it wasn’t as yet a route to another world. She had tried to enter it but had failed. Perhaps, in time, it would be penetrable. Then again, perhaps, it would never be. And even if it should be, it might only be to another world like ours, one that is dying.’
Hoozisst said, ‘A likely tale! What I think is that The Shemibob made up the whole thing. She did that so people would hear about it and come to her land hoping to get through this door to that other world. Then she’d have more slaves.’
‘How could anybody outside The Wasteland hear about it?’ Feersh said. ‘I was the only one ever to escape from it.’
‘No, you weren’t,’ Sloosh buzzed. ‘There were others.’
‘See?’ the Yawtl said. ‘She lets a slave get away now and then so that they can spread lying stories to entice others to her. Undoubtedly, she allowed you to escape.’
Feersh looked angry. ‘Really? With some of her treasures?’
The Yawtl shrugged. ‘She has plenty to spare – according to you.’
‘The story of her great trove of ancient devices is true. So why shouldn’t the other story be true?’
‘A true story makes you willing to believe the next story, which is a big lie.’
‘Enough of this,’ Sloosh said. ‘You still haven’t told us why you wanted the soul eggs. Apart from the fact they had to be the eggs of people who had a certain character.’
‘The Shemibob knows what it is that makes a person near-immortal. If she could be captured and then tortured, she would reveal the secret. Ordinary means might not make her talk, but she has things which could force the truth from any being.
‘And once one was near-immortal, one could find a way to get to another world. Then one could live for ever, barring accident, murder or suicide. When the new world became old and was about to die, one could again escape through a gateway. And so on.’
‘By one, you mean you,’ Hoozisst said.
She glared. ‘I’m willing to share. Anyway, I’m too old to venture into her land again. Even if I were young enough, I couldn’t do it by myself. I should have tried it while I was still able, but I didn’t think of it then. I was busy with many things, though mostly trying to survive. Then I captured three tharakorm after I decided that my House was too vulnerable. I got slaves, and I had my children so that one could inherit.
‘And then I thought about how death was approaching, and I conceived the idea of how I could keep from dying and perhaps live as long as The Shemibob. So I set a Yawtl to steal certain eggs. He was to lead their owners here.
If they were smart and tough enough to get this far – that far, rather – then they might be able to do what I wanted.
‘When I captured them, I treated them well. I told them that they must get to The Wasteland and then they must somehow steal The Shemibob’s secrets. They didn’t go alone; they were usually in groups of five or six. If they succeeded, then I would return their eggs. And I would let them go with me through the gateway.’
‘That was nice of you,’ Hoozisst said, sneering. ‘What was to keep them from staying there, once they were near-immortal? Oh, I see… their eggs!’
The Archkerri said, ‘But why didn’t you moor your tharakorm near The Wasteland? You could then have got your candidates there, and they wouldn’t have had to travel so far. The Shemibob’s land is near the other end of the land mass. From the mooring place to there is a very long way and full of many dangers.’
After Hoozisst translated, Feersh said, ‘Do you think I’m stupid? I did just that in the beginning. But the people I sent in failed. So I unmoored and sailed across The Wasteland and out over the end of the land and across the ocean, which can be traversed within five sleep-times with a good wind, to the other end of the land. Then I moored at different widely spaced places, and I started the whole process again. I used different thieves, of course, most of which were Yawtl. They are a cunning species, though not of high intelligence.’
‘Intelligent enough to outsmart you
, hag!’ Hoozisst said.
‘You could never have done it, if you hadn’t had the dumb luck to steal a plant-man’s crystal. The Yawtl make good thieves, but they are too greedy to be trusted. Anyway, I would move on from time to time to get new groups after an area had been cleared of candidates. As for the great distances to be covered, I suggested that the candidates find young tharakorm and float with the winds towards The Wasteland. Or that they should go to the shore and sail on the ocean.’
‘It’s a desperate scheme, and I suspect that all your candidates have failed – so far,’ Sloosh said. ‘But if you moved so much, how would they find you if they did succeed?’
They would wait in The Wasteland until I arrived there.’
‘But by then they would have discovered that they didn’t need their eggs,’ Sloosh said. That is one more flaw.’
Deyv said, ‘They would never be able to abandon their eggs for ever!’
‘You have much to learn yet.’
‘You’re out of your mind,’ Vana said.
The witch said, ‘After I’d sent you on your mission, I would have brought your eggs back here. But you ruined that. However, now you know where they are. You can come back and get them after you’ve completed your mission.’
Deyv and Vana looked at each other. Did she really believe that they were going to venture into the monster’s territory? Now that they knew the location of their soul eggs?
Hoozisst was of a different mind.
‘Once I have the powers of The Shemibob, I’ll send people after my egg. They can risk the dangers. They won’t run out on me, since I’ll do as you did, hag. I’ll hold their eggs until they get back. And, as an extra incentive, I’ll promise them one or two of The Shemibob’s former possessions.’
He was indeed stupid and avaricious.
Sloosh must have read the expression on Deyv’s and Vana’s face. He said, ‘From what I know of The Shemibob’s powers, I suspect that anyone who had access to them could make their own eggs.’
Startled, Deyv said, ‘Do you really think so?’
The witch asked for a translation. It seemed to amaze her, too. ‘That never occurred to me! Then – oh, Shkanshuk! Then… those I sent, if they succeeded, would never return to me! No, it can’t be! It’s unthinkable!’
‘I just thought it,’ the Archkerri said. ‘But perhaps the sapients you sent out are not so sapient.’
‘I wouldn’t want to be in your robe if you found out that one of them was now ruling The Wasteland,’ Vana said.
Feersh became even paler.
24
That they might be able to manufacture duplicate eggs hadn’t changed Deyv’s and Vana’s minds. Second only to getting their eggs back was their desire to return to their tribes. They planned that, the moment they landed, they would set out back to the cave in which their eggs were located. Having got them, they would head for their homeland.
Sloosh guessed this. ‘You owe it to your people to find a way out. You also owe it to all people, all sapients. You can give them salvation and continuity.’
The two could understand saving their own tribes. But why should they bother with their enemies?
‘If you could get to another world but took only your own people, you would be guaranteeing their degeneration. They are too few for healthy breeding. In time the inbreeding would destroy them.’
‘What about you?’ Deyv asked. ‘Do you intend to get your people through?’
‘Of course. Really, I don’t understand myself. Why should I be trying to talk you into getting humans through when they would probably do their best to dest roy us Archkerri? But I am an optimist, however irrational that state is.’
Vana said that it was perilous but possible to return to their tribes. It seemed impossible to overcome The Shemibob. So why not be realistic—
‘You make your own reality,’ Sloosh said. ‘Within certain limits. What are the limits in this situation? We won’t know until we get to The Wasteland.’
When nobody else was around, Vana and Deyv discussed the possibilities.
‘It’s too risky,’ she said.
‘I agree. We’ve taken too many risks as it is. What we encountered was bad, but at least we know what we’ll face on the way back. But there –?’
‘We don’t have a chance, anyway. How could we do what many thousands for how many thousands of thousands of sleep-times have tried to do and failed?’
‘Right.’
The wind slowed down and then curved in a different direction. It was pushing them to the south of The Wasteland, according to the witch. Deyv and Vana took this as an omen warning them not to tackle The Shemibob. Sloosh asked them to explain just how they’d concluded this. They couldn’t do so, but they still kept their conviction.
In another sleep-time, the wind had weakened to the point where it would soon be safe to leak off the lifting gas.
‘That is,’ Sloosh said, ‘if there isn’t a change in the wind’s force.’
By then the band of light on the horizon had become even broader. Once they had landed, though, The Dark Beast would overtake them. They would have to endure at least six sleep-times of more darkness. It seemed a small price, no matter how much they longed for a bright sky.
The wind continued to fade. At last, Sloosh took a sword and punched away at a cell. He was just about to make two more tiny holes in other cells when Kiyt came running down the corridor.
‘Mother says the wind is increasing!’
‘May I borrow some of your expletives, Deyv?’ the Archkerri said. ‘My language doesn’t have any.’
They went back up on deck. Not only was the tharakorm moving faster, the horizon behind them had become black.
‘Do you have anything with which to repair the puncture?’ Sloosh asked Feersh. Hoozisst translated.
She spread her hands out and rolled her eyes upward.
‘I suppose that means no. Well, I’ve calculated the rate of leakage. We will be on the ground shortly after the next sleep-time. So, since the wind will be much stronger then, we must take our chances now.’
Without consulting anybody about his intentions, he went below and punched many holes. Returning to the deck, he said, ‘If that gas is inflammable, we mustn’t have any fires. Also, we must stay up here. The gas will fill the rooms below deck.’
‘I know,’ Feersh said after the Yawtl had relayed the message. She went to the railing and looked down with blind eyes.
Sloosh gave a buzz of exasperation, then said, ‘Deyv and Vana, warn the others. The witch doesn’t care if we and the slaves suffocate. Her children are aware of the dangers, of course.’
When they got back, the Archkerri said, ‘The wind has swung around towards The Wasteland. Too late to do us much good, though. We’ll be on the treetops about as fast as you could run two miles. Let’s hope we’re as fortunate as we were the last time.’
A short while later, they saw water ahead. It extended beyond the horizon, even at their altitude.
Feersh and her children tied ropes to themselves and secured the ends to a mast. The slaves hurried to do the same. The Yawtl, braving the gas, went below many times, returning with his arms full of the witch’s devices.
‘We’re going to land on the water,’ Sloosh told him. ‘It’ll pour through the holes in the bottom and the sides, and the tharakorm will sink. Perhaps it’ll float awhile first because of the gas left in the cells. But you won’t be able to swim to shore with a single one of those things. You’ll be lucky if you don’t have to shed your weapons.’
Hoozisst snarled, and said, ‘We’ll see about that!’
‘You can’t see much from the bottom of the lake. Do as you will.’
Deyv and Vana had strapped the cube onto the Archkerri’s back. He’d contemplated unfolding it but had decided not to. The wind would blow it across the water to the farther shore – if, that is, it was a lake. This might be the ocean for all he knew. It didn’t seem likely that they had been pushed to the lower
shore of the land mass. Still, his calculations could have been incorrect. There was no use taking a chance.
As they angled down, they saw some tiny white spots on the water about a mile from the beach. When they were closer, they recognized these as very large two-masted sailing ships. Deyv was impressed by their size. He had never seen water-going craft so huge. At the same time, he felt any little optimism he had evaporate. The people on those ships would kill them or capture them.
The witch’s two sons were weeping and sobbing and shouting that they could never swim that far to the shore. Jowanarr looked pale, but she did not seem to be scared. Feersh, who could not see what was coming but had had it described to her, stood with her back to the mast. She had doffed her robe, since its heaviness would drag her down. Deyv thought that she would soon be in the same situation as when her mother had chased her naked and weaponless into the jungle. The difference was that she was old now. And blind. Would her children help her swim or would they abandon her? She had given them no reason to love her.
Perhaps she was thinking the same things. If so, she was not letting them show on that grim face.
The Yawtl left his tall pile of treasures and swaggered up to Feersh.
‘Well, hag, where are your witchery, your evil schemes and your arrogance now? Hoozisst tricked you good, didn’t he? You’ll soon be sinking to the mud, and your flesh will be eaten by the fish, though it may make them sick.’
Hoozisst’s laugh was stopped by a hard slap from Jowanarr’s palm. He staggered back, holding his cheek, his eyes slits. Then he flashed out his sword and raised it to cut the daughter down. She stared at him, her arms folded.