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noted in doing so that her slim waist seemed to be muscled with steel and
leather.
Once again he urged Klootz on toward the river. For some reason he could not
fathom, some thought at the very back of his mind, the sight of the
not-very-imposing stream disturbed him. It was as if some important fact were
tied to it which it was necessary to remember. Something to do with the people
back there, perhaps? Now what the devil was it, anyway? A feeling of guilt at
risking the possible success of his whole venture at a moment's hazard for a
girl he had never seen before? Could it be that? No, not that, damn it, the
river. Think of the river!
The flash of mnemonic lightning hit his mind a bit late, in fact, just as they
reached the river's brink and saw the long, log canoe, hard-driven by a dozen
paddlers, sweeping down the muddy center channel at them. As the white-skinned
rowers spotted them, a fierce yell rang out, and they bent even harder to
their paddles.
The village, of course! Hidden from any sea raiders, it must lie up this
river, since he had not passed it earlier. What had
go
HIERO'S JOURNEY
been plaguing his mind was the buried realization that there had to be a
village close by from which all those women and children could have walked.
Now a message had been sent to the village guard, perhaps, indeed almost
certainly by crude but adequate telepathy. This art was common not just in
Metz-land, but among almost all living people at least in some small degree.
The savage priests were probably pretty good.
As all this flashed through his mind, he was feverishly loading the thrower
and at the same time kicking Klootz into the water. If they got trapped on
this bank...! Better now to take a chance in the water. The channel was
probably only a few yards wide; once they were across, the level beach
stretched on out of sight, empty and inviting.
In front of him, saying nothing, the girl reached down and lifted the broad
spear out of its saddle sling. The casual arrogance of the gesture made Hiero
grin in spite of their predicament. This was indeed a tough, young animal!
Micro's luck with the thrower ran out this time, but it was partly his own
fault, as he was the first to admit. He waited too long to fire, so that when
Klootz stepped off into the channel at the exact instant the rocket shell
ignited, the aim was hopelessly spoiled. Not only that, but the canoe was too
close to allow a reload, its sharp prow thrusting down upon them in midstream,
even as the morse swam mightily for the shallower water on the other side.
But they had never seen, let alone fought, a morse before, nor had they any
conception of the deadly Abbey killer teams of morse and man. Hiero threw both
arms around the girl, gripped tight with his legs, and ordered Klootz to dive.
Dive, boy, down! his mind sent. Come (up) under them! As the bull porpoised
down under the surface toward the oncoming canoe, Hiero saw the slack-jawed
surprise on the faces of the pale savages, several of whom had dropped their
paddles and had lifted weapons for the kill.
Klootz, through cleverness or luck, Hiero never would learn, came up gently,
though firmly, from off the river bottom, which was not far under. Hiero, eyes
shut, crouching over his rescued prize in an effort to shield her, felt the
bottom of the canoe slide off his own back, pressing him down even harder,
flattening him on top of the girl and the dead antelope. When the sliding
canoe hit his crupper, though, which was the next thing
LUCHARE Ql
to happen, Klootz abandoned gentleness and simply heaved up with all the
enormous power in his great hindquarters.
The two half-drowned humans and morse erupted out of the water and into the
light as the loaded canoe, hurled straight up in the air, broke and threw its
occupants in various directions into the churning water. They could all swim
and there seemed to be none dead, Hiero noted in relief as Klootz splashed
through the muddy shallows and out on to the eastern marge. The priest could
be ruthless enough to enemies of decent humanity and the Abbey, but he
disliked killing men and women whose chief fault was ignorance, for which they
ought not to be blamed.
Amid spluttered cries and curses, whose nature was evident from the looks and
gestures of those who made them, the morse again bore his two riders away down
the strand into the east.
The long rays of the half-set sun cast gigantic shadows before them as they
went. Hiero now had released his death grip on the girl, and she sat firmly in
front of him, apparently none the worse for the experience. The cut on her
shoulder and back had begun to bleed again, though, and he signaled the morse
to come to a halt after a mile or two. Lifting her down, he smiled as he saw
that she still clung to the spear.
"You can put that back," he said, pointing at the saddle socket in which it
belonged.
She gabbled something, looked about, shrugged as she saw no visible danger,
and (reluctantly, he thought) restored the weapon to its place.
As Hiero got out his medical kit, she watched with interest, and when he
indicated that he wanted to sew up the lips of the wound before bandaging it,
she merely nodded. Whether this indicated native trust, ignorance of suturing,
or what, Hiero had no idea. Even with the Abbey's salve it was a painful
process, but aside from tightening her lips once or twice, she gave no sign
that it hurt. Finally the wound was stitched and bandaged, and the priest
lifted her up on the morse again, while he repacked his belongings. When he
was through, he noticed that she was leaning over Klootz's long neck and
scratching behind his flapping ears, something he loved dearly. Hiero gave her
another good grade for liking and understanding animals.
Once mounted, he looked back, but he could see no sign of pursuit. Inland rose
the same lines of dunes which had
92 HIERO'S JOURNEY
accompanied them all the way so far, except where the rock spines of the
subsoil broke through, and he felt sure the swamp began and still stretched
endlessly on, only a few miles beyond that.
It was late evening now, the low clouds red in the west and the sun's disc
altogether gone. It was high time to look for a campsite, but they had only
come a few miles and he had no idea how good the savages were at tracking. His
decision to kill the shaman might have merely enraged them instead of helping
to hinder pursuit by forcing them to mourn ritually the death of a leader. The
girl, too, ought to have rest and food very soon. She might be as tough as she
appeared, but what she had been through that day would have tired a strong
man. The priest himself felt weary and he had endured far less.
Another hour's ride and in the full dark, more water loomed up. It was
impossible to see how broad it was, and it would be insane to try swimming it
in the dark. Reluctantly, Hiero turned the morse inland, following the bank of
the stream or inlet, and keeping double watch in case anything large came out
of it and wanted dinner.
Their progress was necessarily slow and grew slower yet as cacti, vines, and
woody plants grew more common. Eventually, peering about on the side away from [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]