03. Gods at the Well of Souls (32 page)

The Cloptan nodded. "Where are the other two men who were with your party?" "Back at the freight yard. The Dahir's in pretty poor shape from your shot, and  the others remained with him. They are now, I should hope, disarmed and well  under control. I don't think either the men, who were only bodyguards, or the  Dillians will give us any trouble from now on." 

"And the girl? She is there, too?" 

"Oh, yes. She is of no consequence, however. She had some strange powers at one  time, but she appears to have lost her memory and control of those powers. She  appears able to read surface thoughts but cannot speak. And she is very much  pregnant." 

"Pregnant! By one of our old kind from that place here? Or from before?" 'They think before. They think it is the reason that she was not changed  physically into a different race by the Well. Is it important?" "It could be. Before they brought us to this place, they had us more or less  service many of that cursed tribe. I was drugged; I do not know for sure which  ones. It might well be someone else's, but it might, just might, be my own  child!" 

"It might be obvious in at least general terms once it is born. The features  ..." 

"Yes, it might at that! Well, well, this puts an entirely new complexion on  things. We will want to ensure that she has that baby before we think of other  uses for her." 

"And where are the other two in this little drama?" the colonel asked her, still  reeking of flammable oils and nervous about the fact. 

Kuzi was bringing up the horses, which had not gone far, when they all heard  Audlay give a shriek. All of them headed for the camp behind the rocks. 'They're gone!" Audlay cried. "Them no-good animals lit out on us durin' the  fight!" 

Other Parts of the Field 

LONG BEFORE THE GUNFIGHT MAVRA HAD STARTED TO WORK once more on Lori's rope.  Being a nocturnal creature had certain advantages, one of which was seeing quite  well in the dark, even if not quite in the same way she used to think of as  clear vision. 

It was clear that the women were setting up an ambush; the odds of all three of  them being required to pull it off were equally good. She and Lori were  virtually ignored once they had been staked out. 

Campos was very smart, a lot smarter than Mavra had given her credit for in the  past, but the Cloptan was not without some basic human failings, one of which  was that she'd clearly begun to regard both Mavra and Lori as the animals they  appeared to be, forgetting the minds buried within. This was often a fatal  mistake on the Well World, and while it couldn't, unfortunately, be fatal here,  it meant that Campos never thought that Mavra would be able to untie the  slipknot holding Lori or that Lori, with a patience and dedication no horse  could maintain, would simultaneously be chewing through the rope tied to Mavra's  leg. 

By morning it was merely a matter of pretending to still be restrained and  hoping that the women would be too concerned with the coming showdown to check  on the pair, who were in any event within clear eyeshot of them. When the sound of oncoming riders was heard and the three Cloptans scrambled for  their positions, Mavra looked at Lori and Lori just nodded. When the first shots  rang out, Lori went down on his forelegs and Mavra scrambled aboard as best she  could, then grabbed the rope still around Lori's neck with the claws on her feet  and held on for dear life as Lori took off. 

Watching nervously, Julian was startled to see the break and immediately moved  away from the ambush and followed them. 

Mavra could stay on only for so long in that precarious position, particularly  with a trailing rope, and fell off two or three hundred meters into the woods.  Lori felt her slip, stopped as soon as he could, and turned back to help her.  Suddenly a ghostly, filthy mud-caked shape moved from the trees toward Mavra,  who was struggling to get up. At first Lori thought it had to be one of the  mysterious creatures who were the dominant race in Leba, but she soon realized  that it was someone far more familiar, someone she knew ... 

Julian put up a hand to Lori to reassure him, then examined Mavra, who'd stopped  trying to struggle to her feet when she realized somebody else was there. It was easy for Julian, even with her hard mittenlike hands, to get the rope off  Mavra's leg and then set her on her feet. She then gestured to Lori to approach,  put Mavra on his back, then used the rope she'd just freed to secure the large  bird to the pony's torso. 

"Can either of you understand me?" she whispered, as only a few voices could be  heard in the distance, the train and shots now long past. Getting no immediate  response and not wanting to waste any more time, she pointed to Mavra's bill and  then to the other rope around Lori's neck. Holding on with the bill and relying  on the wrapped-around torso rope to keep her body on, it looked like she might  actually be able to ride. 

Julian pointed farther into the forest, away from the sounds in back of them,  and they proceeded onward. Mavra was uncomfortable but fairly secure upon Lori's  back, and Julian reverted to all fours to set a steady but not exhausting pace  that covered ground without risking more spills. 

They did not stop for hours, not until Julian's thirst was too much to ignore.  As soon as she passed a pool of water off to their right, she slowed and headed  for it, Lori following, and together they drank. Then Julian untied Mavra and  set her down so she, too, could drink and perhaps exercise or feed. In the darkness of the thick forest Mavra had some reasonable vision, although  nothing like what true night would bring. Everything was there but washed out.  as in a faded photograph. She was exhausted and felt like she was starving, and  her back was killing her from riding like that. And yet .. . 

She hadn't felt this good since she'd reentered the Well World. She was free again! It didn't matter what she was or where she was; it only  mattered that she was again delivered from her enemies. 

Different insects were out in the day from in the night, but she had enough  practice now to figure out where they were and find them. She wanted to make  sure that she didn't get out of sight of the other two, but she also wanted to  eat as much as possible. She hoped that Julian would discover by herself or  somehow be made to understand that they should travel long and hard but only at  night, when they would have the advantage of better vision. 

After Julian ate some fruit that she found on the forest floor, she went into  the pool and tried to wash out as much of the mud as possible. It usually wasn't  a good idea for an Erdomese to take a bath of this scale, but once in a while  didn't hurt and this was certainly necessary. It was also damned cold water,  which meant she had no urge to linger. 

Still, she did feel better when she got out and was more her old self again,  although there did seem to be places where the mud would never wash out. What  she really needed, she thought, was dryness, the heat and near absence of  humidity for which her body was designed. Thoughts of the desert and its feel  and its beauty had crept into her mind off and on of late, particularly while  she was just sitting there in Agon. As much as it would kill her, she could not  banish Erdom's call to its own. She very much wanted to go back there, but not  like this and not while that foul system endured. 

She wondered if Lori felt it, too, or whether he felt much of anything. Clearly the two of them had hatched this escape plot, but did that mean that  they could understand each other? Somehow she doubted it, at least on a verbal  level. They hadn't exactly been making bizarre sounds at one another, anyway.  Think, Julian, think! You may not be much good at anything else, but you are  very good at thinking! 

That had been her trouble in the beginning, she realized now. Unable to face her  position and limitations, she'd stopped thinking and started to let others do  all her thinking for her. That was exactly the wrong way. Thinking things  through, learning all that could be learned, solving problems and delivering  solutions-these were things not everybody was very good at. If she couldn't  physically, psychologically, or culturally carry them out, there was always  someone who could. 

What about writing? Translators did nothing about writing ability any more than  they covered up one's previous language skills. They were an enhancement to  vocal communication, that was all. She looked around for a stick, found one, and  went back over to Lori. She might not be much at writing with those hands, but  she sure as hell could block print. 

In the mud near the pool she scratched, in English, 

CAN U READ THIS? 

Lori watched, then came over and looked down at it. It was so hard to dredge up  those old skills, but he managed. It was a little easier than it had been with  Mavra; at least this was English. He nodded his head. 

Julian was excited. At least there would be some way to get through. R U OK? 

Yes. It was an absolute answer to a relative question, but there wasn't any way  to add qualifiers. 

WHAT DO U WANT TO DO? 

That was a deliberate attempt to provoke him into finding some way to get a more  complex answer back. He understood its purpose but wondered how the hell he  could do it. He tried writing with the stick in his mouth, but it wasn't any  use. Then he tried scratching in the mud with his hoof, but that didn't really  produce anything intelligible, either. Finally, he gave a big sigh and shook his  head negatively. 

Maybe Mavra would be better for this, Julian thought. But what language did they  have in common? 

In an instant she realized that would be a good test of whether they actually  had a chance or were just adrift until caught or killed. If Mavra knew the  commercial standard language that Julian had spent so much time in Agon studying  ... 

It was some time before Mavra had her fill and wandered back. She couldn't help  but wonder at how those two were reacting to one another. Julian needed the old  Lori, and the old Lori was gone. She approached where they were resting and saw  the regular scratches in the mud. She hadn't thought Julian capable of it; maybe  she'd changed personalities yet again since the last time they'd been together. Julian had been dozing but awoke when she sensed someone nearby. Spotting Mavra,  she reached for the stick and then went over and smoothed out the mud. The  basically ideographic Well World standard commercial language was versatile but  not easy, and she had only a limited command of it. Still, Mavra could have no  better command of it than she if Mavra were just another person from Earth. But  if she was who she claimed to be ... 

CAN YOU READ THIS? Julian scratched, then carefully placed the stick in Mavra's  bill. Mavra went over and looked at the writing and was so surprised at what she  saw that she almost dropped it. How the hell did Julian learn that! Don't ask stupid questions you can't get answered, Mavra, just answer if you  can. 

I CAN READ IT, Mavra scratched back. It looked awful compared with Julian's, but  it was sufficient. 

WHAT DO WE DO NOW? 

Mavra wrote back, RUN LIKE HELL. 

Julian laughed. If somebody could give an answer like that after being like this  for so long, she was something special indeed. 

THEN? 

Mavra took the stick. HEAD NORTH THEN WEST TO AVENUE. 

Avenue? What was an avenue here? It was a formal and distinct ideograph all its  own; that indicated an important noun, a real place. 

WHY? 

GET IN WELL. MAKE THINGS RIGHT, Mavra Wrote. 

Make things right... Right for whom? Julian wondered. Still, it was the answer  she had both hoped for and expected. 

GO BY NIGHT, SLEEP BY DAYS, Julian suggested. 

THEY WILL BE WAITING FOR US. 

They? Campos? The colonel? The Dillians? who is 

THEY?  

EVERYBODY. ARMIES. WHOLE WORLD. 

That was alarming. NO OTHER WAY IN? 

MANY. LONG WAY. TOO LONG. 

HOW FAR? 

ONE HEX LENGTH N, HALF WEST. 

That meant maybe 250 miles north, give or take, and half that west. A really  long way to go on foot, and with nothing but themselves and their wits. She had  thought, or at least hoped, that they had traveled farther by train, but she  hadn't really paid attention to the map, and Mavra probably was guessing, too.  It could be less. Or more. 

you will get in, she scratched to Mavra. Somehow or another we have to. They'd be corning for them, that was for sure, but even Julian knew that the  odds of catching anybody in this environment were as slim as the odds of their  actually pulling this off. On the other hand, at least there wouldn't be a lot  of talkative natives. 

Or would there? All this way and she still hadn't the slightest idea what the  natives of this hex really were. 

She got up and started looking around. They hadn't come very far, that was for  sure, but they'd come some way inland. Did the natives leave the forest as  wilderness and cluster in places off the beaten track? 

The trees were huge, creating a vast canopy of green above. There were scads of  insects, both crawling and flying, and while they looked suitably bizarre and  like nothing on Earth, they were clearly recognizable as insects. There might be  birds, but if so, they remained pretty high up and weren't apparent. About the only really odd thing was a kind of vine that seemed to grow in thick  clumps down the trees, giving them almost the appearance of wearing skirts. She  wondered how strong the vines were. The rope solution for keeping Mavra on  Lori's back wasn't a good one, but the vines might give her more flexibility.  Julian went over to a low-hanging mass of them and examined them. The vines  looked back.