Empress of the Underworld (2 page)

He named them off, and the strong-looking man's gray eyes gave each one almost a physical touch.

Zohar nodded when Tam had finished and said, “You are tired and hungry. We will eat, then we will talk.”

“I say amen to that,” Wash said. He looked at Reb and winked. “I wish they had some hominy grits and hog jowl, don't you, Reb?”

Reb grinned faintly. “I bet you'd settle for moon pie and Dr Pepper, wouldn't you?”

Wash nodded. “I sure would. Seems like the things I miss most from the old time is moon pies and Dr Peppers.”

The Sleepers threw themselves down to rest while some of the inhabitants began cooking over an open fire. They were strange-looking people indeed. Some were tall and thin and pale, others short and muscular, not much larger than Tam and Mat. The nuclear explosion had done strange things to the inhabitants of Earth, so that these human descendants looked little like people from the time of the Sleepers.

Yet they seemed to be loyal and good, so the Sleepers relaxed. They sat around sipping the delicious liquid that one of Zohar's helpers had produced, and soon the meal was ready.

When the seasoned meat was put before them, Reb opened up his knife and began slicing it. “Where's Goél?” he asked. He stuffed a huge piece of meat in his mouth and chewed furiously. “Boy, that's good!” He closed his eyes and chewed even faster. “What is this anyhow?”

“Wild pig,” Zohar said. “We had good hunting this morning.”

“If I just had some barbecue sauce to put on it,” Reb said, “it'd be perfect. But is Goél here?”

Zohar looked around and shrugged. “He was, but he had to leave.”

“When will he be back?” Josh asked.

“He not say,” Zohar grunted. He seemed to be a man of few words, and Josh could get nothing more out of him for the time being.

Looking around her, Sarah saw another house down the way. Other people were moving about it, and some of them finally came to greet the Sleepers. They were mostly wounded men, some of them terribly so. There were also women and children. All looked tired and frightened.

After the meal was over, Zohar sent the people away and sat down to talk. “Goél says that you should rest until he sends for you.”

Abigail was looking up at the rather dilapidated house. It seemed ready to fall in. “I'd hoped we'd get something better than
this,”
she whispered to Sarah. “It looks awful.”

Sarah did not complain, however, and soon the two girls were shown their sleeping quarters.

Zohar led them into the house and pointed to a ladder, then upward. “You sleep there.” He nodded at a woman, who gave them two rather thin blankets, and then the girls climbed to the dim loft, where they found some straw and nothing more.

At once Sarah began to fix a bed for herself. “I'm so tired, I could sleep on stone.”

She lay down and watched Abbey try to fix her hair.

They had lost all their baggage, and now the blonde girl's hair was stringy and her face was dirty. Her mouth was turned down in a sour look, and she said, “I'll never get clean again. And look at my hair—it's awful!”

“Well, we all look pretty awful, but we'll get cleaned up tomorrow. I'll fix your hair for you, and we'll find something to wear.”

Abigail gave her hair a yank, then plopped down on her blanket. Pulling half of it over her, she began to complain again. “What good does it do, Sarah?”

“What good does what do?”

“All that we've been doing for Goél. We've been here for over a year, living with cave people, living under the ocean, living with bird people. And we've helped all of them—but the war isn't any closer to being over.”

“Goél sent us on those missions. If we hadn't gone,” Sarah said, “these people would all have been lost to the Dark Lord.”

“But we can't go
everywhere.
You've seen the Dark Lord's soldiers—there are thousands of them. They have weapons. What do we have?”

Sarah was almost asleep, but she heard Abbey's question. She turned toward her and said gently, “We have Goél.” It disturbed her that Abbey was so bitter.

She had known for a long time that Abbey was spoiled.
And if I was as pretty as she is
, she thought,
I'd have been spoiled too.
But now she saw that there was resentment in the girl. “You've got to learn to look on the inside of things, Abbey. Not the outside.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, no matter how bad things look—circumstances, I mean—there's always hope.” She tried hard to think of an example and said, “Remember the American Revolution at Valley Forge? The Americans were starving and freezing, and the British had so many trained troops with all the weapons they needed and food. If anybody looked at that, they would've said, ‘Those Americans will never win their independence.' It just looked hopeless.”

Abigail looked over at her friend, and there was rebellion in her smooth face. “That doesn't have anything to do with us,” she muttered.

Sarah reached over and patted Abbey's hand. “Yes, it does. Washington and his army were in a hopeless situation—but they won. And we'll win too. You'll see.”

Abbey stared at her unbelievingly. “I'm going to see if I can go to sleep. This blanket's probably got fleas in it.”

2

The Rebellion of Abbey

I
'm worried about Abbey.” Sarah looked over to where Josh was struggling to repair one of his shoes.

“I'm worried about all of us,” he said. “Look at this!” He held up the tattered shoe and shook his head. “It's falling to pieces.”

Sarah held up the blue shirt she was mending. A large rent had been made in it, and she had borrowed needle and thread from one of the women to sew it up. “Well, what about this? All of our clothes are worn out. But that's not what's bothering me most.”

Josh picked up an awl and punched a hole in the thin leather. Then he took a piece of rawhide and shoved it through the hole. Making a knot, he said, “This will have to do, I guess. We've got to be shod if we're going to do very much.” He glanced at her. “I know what you mean about Abbey.”

“She's not very strong. And she's not as tough as the rest of us.”

“That's right. And besides,” Josh said, “she's worried about her looks all the time.”

“She can't help that, I suppose.”

“
You
help it,” Josh countered. “Why, with a big glob of dirt on your face, you don't even care. Think what a fit Abbey would have.”

“Dirt! Where's dirt?” Sarah groped in the small bag at her feet for a piece of mirror. She stared into it, then glared at the boy, who was laughing at her. “You're a beast, Josh! Just a beast!”

“I guess I look like one.” Josh ran a hand through his long hair. “We all need haircuts and baths and clothes—just about everything.”

The two sat talking, and finally Sarah asked, “Do you ever miss things back in Oldworld?”

“Sure I do. But we can't go back, so we'll have to make the best of things here.”

Sarah stared at him, thinking how Josh had matured so much. “Well, you're right. We've talked about that too many times, I guess. But about Abbey—she's just not … not mentally ready for these hardships. She's too soft and genteel.”

“Well, she's had a year to get toughened up. I don't know what else to do for her.” Suddenly he looked up. “Look, there comes Zohar. He's kind of a mean-looking character, isn't he?”

“Yes, but I'm sort of glad for that. It feels good to have a strong man like him around. Hello, Zohar,” she said when he got closer. “Did you come to help us with our sewing?”

Zohar had little sense of humor. “No,” he said. He stood over them and was indeed formidable-looking. He was dressed in a ragged bearskin, tied with a wide leather belt around his middle. Inside the belt was tucked a wicked looking battle-ax with a razor edge. He stared at them for a moment, then said, “We go.”

Sarah and Josh looked at each other. “Go? Go where?”

“Goél sends message. We go there.” He pointed toward the north. “We go soon. Tomorrow.”

“What did the message say?”

“It say, ‘Some of the House of Goél need help.' We go help.”

“We're not in very good shape to help anybody,” Josh said. “We're not even able to help ourselves much. Did
Goél say that everybody was to go? What about your women and children and the wounded?”

“They stay. Strong men go.” He put his hard, dark eyes on them and nodded firmly. “Goél say all Seven Sleepers go to help those in the House. We leave early.”

As he walked away, Josh said, “You know, every time he walks I expect to feel the earth shake.”

“Abigail's not going to like this. I don't like it much myself.”

“Neither do I. But if Goél ordered it, then we've got to go. I'll tell you what—I'll let you break the news to Abbey, and I'll tell the rest of them.”

Sarah found Abigail in the loft trying to brush her hair.

As soon as she spoke of their new mission, Abbey's eyes flashed. “I'm not going!” she said. “And that's final.”

“But you've got to go, Abbey. We all do.”

“No, we don't. Anybody with half sense knows we wouldn't be of help to anyone. Why, we're half-starved—we don't have decent shoes—and look at this awful thing I'm wearing.” She held out her knee-length tunic. It had been well made and still had a little color left in it, but many washings and mendings had rendered it decidedly sad-looking. “I wouldn't be seen
dead
in this thing!”

“It won't matter. We're all in the same shape.” Sarah began to grow irritable. Abbey was a sweet girl, but her moods got on Sarah's nerves.
For some reason she thinks she's better than the rest of us
, she thought. “You'll
have
to go, Abbey.”

“I'm not going. You can tell Josh and that awful Zohar that I'll wait till they get back.”

Sarah stared at the petulant girl, then shrugged and climbed back down the ladder. She went to find Josh and report Abbey's response.

“Why, she's
got
to go!” Josh snapped. “That's all there is to it.”

“I think the only way she'll go is if you tie her and have Volka carry her. She won't go under her own power.”

“Well, we'll just have to convince her.” Josh's face was grim, and he went off to have a confrontation with Abbey.

When he came back, he was scowling. It appeared he had had no more success than Sarah. “We've got to leave in the morning. Try to talk to her again, Sarah.”

But nothing availed, and the next day when the Sleepers prepared to march out with Mat, Tam, Volka, and the Nuworld warriors, there were only six of them.

“It seems a little bit funny with only six of us,” Reb said doubtfully.

“Are you sure you tried everything, Josh?” Dave asked. “I don't like to see us split up like this.”

“I don't like it either, but that's the way it is.”

At that moment Zohar called out, “We go.”

And the Sleepers trooped off. They all felt disturbed at leaving Abbey behind.

Abbey was watching from the loft window, and as the troop disappeared down the trail, she had a sudden impulse. She turned and started toward the door, thinking,
I've got to go with them. I can't stay here by myself.
But then, stubbornly, she stopped and shook her head. “No,” she said aloud. “I'm not going. You have to draw the line somewhere.”

She dressed and climbed down the ladder carefully. A few people were up and stirring, and Zohar's wife offered her some breakfast. It was a thin gruel and some sort of leftover meat.

Abbey shook her head. “No, thanks.”

She stepped out into the open air and for a time wandered around the camp. More than once as she walked she had the impulse to run and join her friends.
It's not too late
, she thought, and she struggled between two desires.

But finally she said, “I'll rest up and maybe find myself something nicer to wear and maybe find some good soap. I'll be ready to go on the next mission.”

She felt better after convincing herself of this and walked toward the stream that wound its way through the forest a quarter mile from the house. The brook was clear and bubbled merrily over the rocks. From time to time, she picked up a stone and threw it in. And more than one frog leaped off the banks with a croak of alarm.

She wandered farther than she'd planned and was about to turn back. But first she knelt at the water and washed her face, enjoying the coolness of it. “I wish I had some soap,” she said aloud. “I'd give anything for a hot bath and to wash my hair.”

“You should have it, my lady.”

Abbey leaped up, startled by the voice. She turned to see a tall young man wearing a sky blue suit of some shiny material.

He pulled a hat with an eagle's feather in it off his head. His hair was long and black and fell over his shoulders. He smiled at her, his teeth very white.

“Who are you?” she demanded.

“My name is Lothar. I have come a long way.”

“What do you want?” Abbey was more impressed with his looks than she cared to admit.
He is handsome!
she thought.
And look at that diamond on his right hand. I've never seen such a large one.

The man called Lothar put on his hat, looked around, and then glanced back at Abbey. “I seek a group called the Seven Sleepers. Do you know of them?”

Abbey was startled but said, “Yes, I know of them. Why do you seek them?”

“That,” Lothar said politely, “I can only reveal to the Sleepers themselves. Can you direct me to where they are?”

Abbey hesitated. She had grown cautious in Nuworld, as had all the Sleepers. Strangers were not to be trusted until proven. But surely this one was safe. She took a deep breath and made her decision.