DARK IS THE SUN Read online

Thinking this, but not so deeply that he wasn't alert, Deyv walked on. After a while, he emerged into a wide open area on the hillside. Here the path led downward through plants that were only waist-high.

  These had slender stalks topped by flowers with a black center, a blue iris, and twelve tawny swordshaped petals. Those near him turned their flower tops toward him as he passed.

  Deyv urged Jum to run. The plants, detecting a possible victim, released a perfume that signaled to swarms of a large stinging insect. If they stung him to death, they would burrow into his corpse and lay eggs in it. The plants would put forth roots, which would eat his flesh.

  Suddenly a heavy, heady odor rose about him. But he and the dog had reached the jungle before he heard the clicking sound. He kept on running for a while, since the insects were known to occasionally chase their prey a little way into the trees. As soon as he was beyond pursuit, he slowed down. It was dangerous to run in the jungle. The noise warned predators or enemies that someone was coming.

  Presently he emerged into another open space on a hillside which had once been overgrown by the vevshmikl plant. A score of gigantic beasts were moving slowly down the hill, devouring the plants.

  Their legs were black columns. Their bodies were massive yellow pods. Their necks were thick but long, and at the ends were heads with long drooping lips and a pair of twin horns above each eye. Their big blue fan-shaped ears flapped slowly, and their blue tails flipped back and forth.

  Deyv and Jum moved down the hill, giving the beasts a wide berth. If you didn't bother them, they didn't bother you.

  Almost three-quarters of the plants were gone. In the stands still left, their heads were turned toward their oncoming doom, though it was doubtful that they could "see." From the bases of the stalks came a loud clicking, the insects striking their horny antennae in unison. They, too, were doomed. They would rush out when their floral partners disappeared into the gaping mouths of the atadeym, and they would try to sting through the thick hides. But the great feet of the beasts would crush them, and after a while, there would be neither plant nor insect symbiont.

  Grass would move in and flourish for many sleeps. Then, slowly, the seeds of the vevshmikl would sprout, and in time the open area would be filled with them. The fookooki insect eggs would burst, and the space would again be dangerous. Then the atadeym would saunter out from a jungle trail and begin eating once again.

  The sky was still white, so bright that Deyv could go blind if he stared directly into it for several minutes. The wind swooped down over the trees and across the hillside, cooling his sweating body somewhat. Behind him, black clouds were beginning to build up. Before the next sleep, heavy rains would come.

  In the opposite direction the first of the strange forms drifted. It was high in the sky and approaching against the wind. Ever since he was a baby, Deyv had seen such colossal black things over the tribal area. They came every twelve sleeps without fail, though they couldn't be seen if there was an overcast sky, of course.

  Soon the first figure was close enough so that Deyv could make it out. It floated parallel to the earth, a form that had to be longer and wider than the clearing in which he stood. Much larger. It was composed of two parallel lines crossed by two more: J.

  Then the second figure came into view, and when it was close enough it was revealed as: S.

  The third was: O.

  The fourth: X.

  The fifth: H.

  On they came, but Deyv went under the trees and could not see the forms, the ceiling of the jungle was so thick.

  The shaman had said that these were the words of The Great Mother, and the person who could understand them would become as one of her divine children and would have great power.

  However, a woman from the Avadeym Tribe who had married a Turtle had a different explanation. She had said that they were boats sent out by The Mother. When the time came that the sky grew too hot and bright for life to endure here, the boats would come down so that the people could board them. Then they would carry their passengers to a far-off place where it would never be too hot and where no dangerous beasts existed and people would live forever and always be happy.

  Deyv believed the shaman. What would an Avadeym know about such matters? And why should the

  Avadeym be allowed to live in such a place? What had they done to deserve it? Weren't they enemies of the Turtles? The Turtles would go there, if there were such a place. But the Avadeym? Never!

  Deyv and Jum came to a small river. Jum drank thirstily; Deyv swallowed one mouthful. At this point the bank sloped down to a thin sandy beach. On the sand there had been some tall white big-beaked birds and a huge long-tailed pale-blue riverbeast with long jaws and big teeth. When Jum came out of the foliage ahead of his master, the birds had trumpeted-and then flown off. The riverbeast, which looked big enough to handle a dozen men, had croaked and then slid off into the water.

  Deyv knew that the athaksum wasn't scared of them. It was in the river now, the eyes on top of its head looking at them, hoping they'd try to cross the stream. It would eat humans, but it craved dog. Jum knew this, which was why he was whimpering.

  The waters were fairly clear, since it hadn't rained for about thirty sleeps. A swirl showed where the athaksum had dived. It would be somewhere near the bottom now, waiting for them to enter its domain, its eyes sharp and its flesh-buried ears receptive to any disturbance in the water. Then it would slide incredibly fast through the liquid, its tail waving side to side, its webbed paws digging into the water, its jaws closed but ready to open just before it sank its many sharp teeth into flesh.

  Jum was looking at Deyv, and he was still whimpering.

  Deyv patted him on the head. "Don't worry, we'll get by it."

  Jum quit making sounds of distress, but he looked as worried as his lack of facial muscles would allow him to look.

  There was a lot of driftwood on the beach and the bank, detritus of floods. Deyv dragged two trunks down to the river's edge, and then he cut lianas from the trees with his sword. It took him some time to bind the logs together. Meanwhile, the tall birds returned to the beach but stayed about ninety feet from him. Once, the knobs holding the eyes of the riverbeast appeared, looked coldly at its intended victims, and then sank again. Some time later, Deyv glimpsed the athaksum a few feet below the surface. But it was quickly gone from sight.

  When he was ready, Deyv told Jum to get on the forepart of the logs. The dog walked out cautiously and sat down. Deyv pushed the two-log raft, if it could be called such, out from the sand into the water. He'd intended to launch it, and then to jump onto its aft end and sit down. Immediately thereafter, he would draw the blowgun from its case and fit a dart into it.

  But just before he slopped through the shallow water and seated himself on the logs, he felt a faint trembling of the sand under his feet, followed by a violent upthrust of sand. Something cracked like a whip. By this time he was in the river. The sand was replaced by mud, which lifted and sank, lifted and sank. The river suddenly rose, churned, and swept in a small wave toward him.

  He thought, Earthquake!

  It was too late to return to shore. Besides, if he was anxious and uncertain, the athaksum would be too.

  On the beach opposite, about nine hundred feet away, the trees dipped and waved, and the sand swelled as if it were the skin of a heavily breathing animal.

  Deyv gave a yell, which was half-fright and half-bravado. He shoved the logs out, hopped up on them, and then straddled them. Jum was too scared to whimper; he was standing up, poised, his hairs bristling.

  The raft slid outward, rose as a wave lifted it, then dipped.

  "Hang on!" Deyv shouted. Later, he was to think that this had been nonsense advice, since the dog had no hands. But he had to say something; that was the essence of a human being. Say something, even if it means nothing, because as long as one is talking, one is alive.

  Though he was shocked, he still had enough sense to pull the blowgun out of its case. A momen
t later, he had the dart in the barrel.

  The riverbeast always rose to the surface just before it plunged again to seize its prey from under the water. Or so Deyv had been told by the hunters of his tribe.

  He planned to point the gun in the direction from which the beast would come. Just as it raised its eyes clear of the surface, he would blow the dart into the nearest eye. Then the mighty creature would be blinded in it; and the venom of the snorting snake, the quickest-acting and most painful his tribe knew, would race through the blood and send the beast into spasms and death.

  Now only The Mother knew what would happen. The earth was quivering like jelly. The water was lifting in waves higher than his head, all going in his direction. At the same time that he had to watch for the brief emergence of the athaksum's eyes, he had to dip his left hand into the water to drive the raft toward the other shore, while his feet were moving to help propel the logs, and he had to hold the blowgun in his right hand, ready to use it on the beast.

  Jum was barking crazily, which meant that the sound would course through the waters and reach the ears of the hungry athaksum. With the sound as a target, the beast would drive toward them, and then the wide jaws ... .

  Halfway across, while Deyv was paddling desperately and at the same time trying to watch where the beast might pop up, a wave reared before him. The quake must have intensified at that second to create such a wave. The crest rose above his head by the height of two men, the largest so far, and fell on the front of the logs. He cried out as he saw Jum swept off. Then the irresistible heaviness of water struck him, and he too was torn off the raft.

  Still, Deyv had enough self-control to hold the blow-gun above his head while he moved his feet and his left hand. He was numb but not so much that he was helpless. There was no thought that he might drown. The only thing that concerned him was the riverbeast.

  As he was turned about despite his struggles, he saw the two half-arcs appear. They were not, as he had expected, on his right. They rose boiling from his left. Either the beast had adopted a course which

  Deyv's elders said it never took, or the turmoil had swept the thing beyond its intended path. Whatever had happened, there it was, and he wasn't able to cope with the change of events. His blowgun was in his right hand, the thing was on the left. No matter how swiftly he turned, it would have dived before he could do anything about it. And then, below the heavy element, where his dart could not penetrate, it would have come up and gripped his leg with teeth not to be denied.

  For a second or two Deyv looked into the pale-blue eyes of death. The eyes began to sink. Deyv tried to twist himself around in the water as it broke over him. It was too late. He knew that. Once those long sharp teeth sank into his leg, he could struggle and struggle, but it would make no difference. His strength would be no match for its.

  His sword was in his hand without his thinking about it, and he leaned over. The monster's near eye was only a few inches below the surface when the point drove into it.

  The water boiled; the blood spread out. A thick tail came up into the air and crashed down against the water.

  Deyv almost dropped the sword while trying to pull himself back onto the raft. His fingers slipped on the wet wood, caught a knob, clung, and soon he was sitting upright again. Immediately, he pulled his legs up and put his feet flat on the logs.

  The leaves of the trees on the opposite bank were still fluttering, but the trunks had stopped swaying.

  The quake was—for the moment, at least—over. The waves were beginning to subside.

  Deyv rose to his feet. Crouching, he put one, hand on the top of the raft to steady himself while he looked around him. Jum was also crouched, and if his coat hadn't been so heavy with water, the hairs would have been bristling. He was facing Deyv's right now. Hoping that the dog had detected the athaksum, Deyv looked at where he was pointing. There it was. A large shadow at first, then a clearly visible body, then a huge head. Its good eye was turned toward Deyv, then the body was turned toward him, and it was coming as swiftly as if it were sliding down a mudbank.

  Deyv stood, balancing as the raft rocked in the swells. Just as the tiling shot out of the water, its mouth open to seize him and carry him on out onto the other side of the logs, Deyv leaped to one side. At the same time, he brought his sword down across the neck. But as the creature soared over the raft, its tail whipped around and knocked Deyv off.

  He came up out of the river sputtering water. His arm felt as if it had been struck with a heavy club. He couldn't move it. Too numb even to know whether or not he still gripped the sword, thinking that by now it must be on the bottom, he treaded water. Barking, Jum crouched near Deyv as if he intended to spring off the logs after him.

  Deyv's foot touched mud. He kicked backward, and both feet were on the river's bottom. He whirled as swiftly as he could in the cloying element and pushed toward the shore. The water receded, was up to his waist He drove forward, fearful that at any second those big sharp teeth would close on a leg and drag him back.

  Now the water was up to his ankles, and he was on the sand. Stumbling, panting, he ran toward the jungle. A bellow sounded from behind him, but he did not look back. His feet kicked up sand and then were on soft earth. Another bellow, so close that he thought a hot breath was on his legs.

  He dived between two frondy bushes, rolled, and was up on his feet and making for a tree with low branches. A bush cracked behind him as a huge body crushed it Deyv leaped to grab a branch, but his foot slipped, and he fell heavily on his back. It seemed to be just about all over then. Still, he tried to get up, but he made the mistake of using his right arm. It caved under him, and he fell again.

  Then he heard a low growling, a thrashing, and he saw that Jum had come ashore after him. The dog was leaping toward and away from the athaksum, snapping at its good eye. The riverbeast was being distracted, but its counterlunges would bring those teeth down on Jum's head at any second. Blood, however, was still flowing from the pierced eye, coating blue fur with red, soakng the dirt and making a pale-red mud.

  It was no use for Deyv to try to climb into the tree. He could grab a limb with his left hand, but the useless right would keep him from pulling himself up onto it. He could run on into the woods and leave

  Jum to be sacrificed. Or perhaps Jum, knowing his master was safe, would also run.

  No, Jum was too busy even to see him. He'd keep tormenting the athaksum until it got him.

  Deyv reached around his front with the left arm and plucked a stone tomahawk from the belt Yelling, he ran up to the beast and brought the heavy stone head down between its eyes. The creature turned, reared up, and swallowed the tomahawk just as Deyv awkwardly brought it down again in his left hand. He was lucky he didn't also lose his hand. Hard lips brushed his fist.

  Then he and the dog leaped away to escape the monster's agony. With the tip of the weapon sticking out just beyond its lips, the riverbeast rolled and thrashed, crushing and splintering some bushes. Its good eye bulged; the blood from the wounded eye ran even faster; a deep gargling sound issued from its throat; its legs waved frantically. Finally, lying on its back, its spine curved, the top of its head digging into the ground, the monster died.

  Deyv heard a screech behind him and whirled to face another danger, though he didn't feel up to dealing adequately with it. There was a large cat, tawny, with black rosettes, golden eyes, and wet fangs, crouching to spring.

  "Now you show up!" Deyv, between pants, said.

  For a long time, Deyv and Jum searched in the mud for the sword. Deyv dived many times groping for it, but the dog, after only three attempts, surfaced and barked to indicate its location. By then Deyv's arm was beginning to regain some mobility. Aejip had taken no part in the search. Though she could swim easily enough, she didn't like the water. Besides, she was hungry and totally occupied in tearing meat from the carcass's flank.

  Using the sword, Deyv hacked off some portions and threw them to the dog. Then he dragged the tomahawk f
rom the monster's throat and cut out the tongue. Some time later, he got a fire going with the bowdrill stored in a pocket of the gun case. The cooked tongue was delicious.

  Meanwhile, birds, a troop of small meat-eating monkeylike creatures, and several hoglike beasts sat around at a respectful distance. When Deyv and his pets moved on, they heard the squawks, whistles, grunts, and squeals of the scavengers as they closed in on the feast.

  3

  BY the time the three had crossed to the other bank, the clouds almost covered half of the skies. A wind preceding them was shaking the upper parts of the trees and rippling the water. The last of the shapes floated over Deyv and then was swallowed up in the black mists overhead. A few minutes later, rain fell upon the forest, battered at the upper levels, crashed through the heavy foliage, and spilled thickly to the ground.

  Deyv, Jum, and Aejip, shivering, took shelter under a gigantic toadstool, but the water flowed over their feet and paws. Aejip looked as if she were cursing. Jum looked miserable. Deyv huddled between the two, trying to get some warmth from their bodies. Thunder and lightning were by then ripping the air apart. From a distance came a crashing as a jungle patriarch fell, tearing off many of the lianas that grew around it but restrained by the rest from striking the ground.

  "Aren't you sorry you changed your mind and decided to follow us?" Deyv said to Aejip.

  The cat snarled.

  After the lightning ceased, Deyv somehow managed to sleep. He awoke with the skies still dark but rainless. Stiff and cold, he set off down the path with Jum and Aejip ahead of him.

  ' Sometime later the cat went hunting. She returned with a large rodent with almost square ears. They sought out a shwikl tree and ran its batlike inhabitants out from the cavity halfway up the trunk. There was just enough room for all three to cuddle inside. Nice and warm. First, though, Deyv found some leaves and dead wood that weren't too wet for a fire, and he cooked his part of the rodent. Then he climbed up beside the hole and drew the dog up with the rope. They slept well, though they were occasionally awakened by especially vicious bites from the parasites the previous owners had left behind.