Hiero Desteen (Omnibus) (49 page)

Hiero momentarily covered the lamp with the edge of his cloak, and they all strained their eyes. Was there a faint lessening of the blackness ahead? The very thought revived their flagging energy.

Soon it was a reality. As the light grew, Hiero slowed his pace, may be a rearguard," he said. "They'd be fools if there weren't something of the kind. Let me probe a bit while you three rest and catch your breath."

His mind sped forward ahead of them, seeking any intelligence that might be lurking above at the tunnel's mouth. But he could detect nothing, not even the shrouded energy which he had learned meant an Unclean mind shield. Unbelievable as it seemed, the whole force of the enemy had apparently plunged into the bowels of the earth, so overconfident of his destruction it had left nothing behind.

He told the others this, and they went cautiously on. Three more great curves, and the light was quite strong enough to make the guttering lamp unnecessary.

The faint calling and piping of birds came to their ears now, and even the human noses could catch the sweet scent of the air which poured down the shaft.

"Let me go first." Hiero took the lead again and soon saw the great, opened doors ahead. He absently noted the shattered hinges and, when he stepped outside, the cleverness of the device amazed him. For the two huge doors were made of something on the outside which imitated weathered, gray rock and yet which must have been far more impervious than any granite. The Unclean had been indeed cunning to penetrate their secret and so quickly follow on his traces.

All this raced through his mind as he drank in the cool air of the tropic dawn, but he urged the others on as before.

"Hurry," he said, "hurry! We can't delay yet! We may not be safe for hours!" He gave Luchare, who was stumbling, his arm again. He was oblivious to the packet to which she clung with her other hand, for her telescoped spear was now tucked through her belt.

The four set off to the south over the boulder-strewn waste onto which the huge tunnel had opened. Limping and staggering, they went on, no one questioning Hiero's iron determination or right to drive them thus. Aldo now frankly leaned on his heavy staff, something no one had seen him do before.

Still they staggered on, their breath coming in painful gasps, their muscles twitching and burning. The ground was semi-desert, tall weeds and thorn bush growing up through patches of rock and scree. The cool air of dawn gave way to the burning heat of morning and (very slowly now) they hobbled forward. Time seemed to pass with terrible slowness.

Then it happened. Hiero, who had been listening both with his mind and his other senses, felt it first.

"Down!" he shouted and, falling, pulled Luchare close to him. Aldo, too, fell prone, while the bear simply collapsed.

First came a gentle tremor of the earth, so slight it might have deceived them into thinking it was a muscle spasm of their own overused bodies.

Then the earth began to shake and heave, rising and falling in a great wave, as if the tiny atoms of flesh which clung to it were being tossed in some inconceivable blanket. For the first time, Gorm let out a howl of sheer terror.

A distant, muffled roar filled the air. Slowly the heaving of the troubled earth died away. A ringing in their ears also ceased. They raised their heads and looked at one another. Hiero was the first to grin, his white teeth flashing in a countenance so dirty it looked like pure mud. Then Aldo laughed, a deep-throated, ringing sound. Hard on his heels a bird began to sing nearby, tentatively at first, then bursting into its full series of rippling cadences.

Luchare kissed Hiero. When she pulled her lips away, she murmured drowsily, for she was almost asleep from sheer exhaustion, "What was that?"

"That," Brother Aldo answered as he helped them both up, "was the button marked 'self-destruct* on the central control board. Right, my boy?"

"Yes. I gave it four hours. What a race of men! After five thousand years their death still works! At least the Unclean got nothing from them. Nothing but destruction. The House too. And yet—if it hadn't held them, I couldn't have done it."

They looked north in silence. Where there once had been a wide, level plain, a vast, shallow bowl had now appeared, its sides and rim of raw tumbled earth and chunks of riven rock. The low trees and scrubby bushes had vanished, lost in the rubble caused by the great explosion.

"We'd better move," the priest said. "Klootz and the men are apt to be way up north by now, and we need to push on as soon as possible."

"Your road should be easier henceforward," Aldo said, the sun highlighting the gray in his once snowy mane and beard.

"I hope so," Hiero said wearily. "But I still haven't found a computer. And this army of theirs wasn't a real percentage of what the Unclean could put into the field if they wanted to.

"Besides," he added, "S'duna's not dead. I would have known somehow if he'd been down there. He wasn't. We have an appointment to keep somewhere, he and I."

"You may not have found a computer," the old man said, "but look what Luchare is carrying. She found a stack of these things on an apparently abandoned desk. Possibly someone's study area. I could read the title. Try it yourself."

Half-numb from what he had been through, Hiero scanned the title of the small, flat book which Luchare had handed him with one finger.
"Principles of a Basic Computer,"
he read in halting English, the lost language. Inside were plastic page after plastic page of diagrams and close-printed text. He could say nothing and felt choked. Here was how a computer could be built, perhaps by anyone! The other two smiled at the look on his dirty, sweat-streaked face.

"Look," Aldo said, using his finger in turn, "it says,
'Volume I.'
Luchare found a stack of them. And she has the other two, Volumes II and III, as well. She called me over and I read off the titles. But I think she knew, somehow, even without me!"

Wordless, Hiero pulled Luchare's arm around his waist, and the three humans and the bear began to retrace their steps, moving north like cripples over the barren and shattered landscape. Gorm tried to have the last word, or rather, thought.

No one ought to move so fast,
he grumbled.
From now on, let's try to move at a calmer speed.

The world moves at a certain speed,
Aldo answered, after a bit.
We all must learn to move with it.

For Brother Pete, AKA Berwick B. Lanier, who, for some reason I have never fathomed, remains my fan.

A Change of Mission

There were two fires burning in the night, providing the only lights on the dark plain. A small group was scattered about one. A short distance away, Hiero and Luchare sat by the other, facing Brother Aldo. The old man was staring into the flames, his tightly curled white beard standing out brightly against skin that was as dark as that of Luchare.

"I must go north at once," Brother Aldo said at last. "I must arouse those of my Brotherhood. We have sought peace for many lives, but now there is no peace. Destruction is coming upon us, and we must take action against it, It is no longer enough to watch and study the foe." Sadness deepened the lines on his face, momentarily revealing his great age.

Hiero waited in silence. His skin was lighter and redder in hue than that of his companions, and his black hair was coarse and straight, trimmed just below the ears in a short bob. With his hawk nose and sturdy, lithe frame, he might almost have been one of his remote Amerindian forebears, save for the neat mustache; the facial hair indicated the Caucasoid admixture of his once despised ancestry.

Beside him, Luchare seemed to be drowsing, her head resting against his shoulder. He tightened his arm around her waist, smiling fondly. To his right, he could see that Captain Gimp and the sea rovers were still talking around their fire. Off to his left, the line of the great forest towered in the dark. He wondered what the strange women of the trees and their queen Vilah-ree were doing. Would he ever see one of them again? With an effort, he brought his mind back to the present as Brother Aldo began speaking again.

"We have done well, this far," the old man said. "We've blocked the Unclean, destroyed many of them, and we have this." He pointed to the packet that held the lost volumes of the ancients. "You have accomplished your mission, Per Hiero. But your work is not done. The next danger comes from the South. And it is there that you must go—you and Luchare!"

"What about the books?" Hiero protested. "I am supposed to get them to Abbot Demero as fast as I can. These southern wastes are not my territory. I came here only to get the knowledge we need in the North."

The Elevener smiled faintly. "Don't worry about Demero, my boy. The books will go north with me. Your abbot will approve. I know Demero—have known him longer than you have lived. Who do you think put me on watch for you? Why do you think I was so handy when you were trapped in the drowned city? Think about it for a moment."

Hiero grunted in surprise. But Aldo's words explained many things. It had been no accident, no fortunate coincidence, that had brought the Elevener to aid them so opportunely. How many others had somehow been alerted to watch over this mission? Hiero grinned ruefully. "I should have guessed that Demero would have a few extra tricks he never told me about," he admitted.

Brother Aldo chuckled, then sobered quickly. "I'll leave for the North at dawn. I'll take Gimp and his men with me. We'll get a boat somehow; there are many ways. But I must also take Gorm with me. Call him."

Hiero sent a rapid mind call on the wavelength of the young bear. A moment later, the burly shape of Gorm padded up to them from where he had been curled in apparent sleep.
Does no other ever sleep around here?
came a mental mumble as the bear flopped his bulk down beside them.

Hiero laughed.
You do nothing but sleep while we have to do all the hard thinking and planning.
He eyed Gorm appraisingly, It was fantastic that this strange folk had hardly been noticed by the Abbey students. Their brains were quite as good as human minds, and only their desire for privacy had kept them so long hidden. The Death had caused strange and horrible mutations, but it had also created wonders, and one of those was the race of Gorm, the silent and hidden bear folk, whose Wise Ones had sent Gorm out to gather knowledge.

You want me to go north with the Old One here,
came Gorm's thought. He seemed quite placid, and his brain waves were clear and undisturbed.

"I don't want you to go anywhere away from me," Hiero said aloud, then put the idea into thought. He was conscious of how much he would miss this furry friend.
But Brother Aldo thinks it might be best if you went north with him and got back in touch with the Wise Ones of your folk.

To Hiero's surprise, Brother Aldo had picked up his thoughts, those he meant to be private as well as those to the bear. Now the old man sent a message meant for both Hiero and Gorm.

Listen well, both of you. This is a great struggle between that which is evil and vile and that which we believe to be good and blessed. The high Councils of the Unclean are sealed to us. But my Order has watched them for many years, back beyond the life span of the remotest grandsire of any here. They seek universal domination and they would restore the evils that brought The Death to the world.

We must work together, we of the honest and life-preserving ones of whatever form. We must fight them wherever they appear. There is great evil rising in the South, in D'alwah and its neighbors. I want Hiero to go there with Luchare, to her ancient kingdom, the nation where I was once a native and which I know well. And you, Gorm, I want to go north and make report to your Elders, to tell them of our need. What say you?

There was an instant of mental silence. Then an ursine thought came in answer.
I must go. I understand some of what you think. It must be so, for it is the charge laid upon me by the Wise Ones of my people. Now can I sleep?

Suiting action to thought, Gorm got up and wandered off into the dark, where they could hear him curling up again.

"Well, Hiero," Brother Aldo said, "we can use speech again. All this thought sending wears one out, eh?" He smiled.

Hiero found little to smile about. "Even if Abbot Demero might agree to let me go, what do you think I can do down in the South? I know little of D'alwah, save for what Luchare has told me. How-can I help in a strange country with unknown laws and rules of behavior? What can I do in a foreign land without friends, except for this one?" He bent his cheek to nuzzle the mop of tight black curls that lay on his shoulder.

Luchare looked up at him with eyes that were clear, with no sign of sleep in them. "What can you do? Look, Per Hiero Desteen, have you forgotten who I am? My father is King Dariyale of D'alwah, and I'm his only heir. You're my husband. You'll be a prince of the unknown North. Everyone will accept you." She looked over at Brother Aldo. "You have many Eleveners there, don't you? I've seen them helping the village people when there's trouble. That means we have allies there—though not in public. And we'll have Klootz."