Into Eden: Pangaea - Book 1 (21 page)

It was after midnight before the lion awakened. He was afraid that he might have slept too long, but he looked at the stars and saw that there was plenty of night left. Plenty of time to enjoy a few good kills. He peered out from behind the mesquite. There was a candle burning in the window of an upper bedroom in the house. Probably a decoy, he thought. The lion came out from his cover and walked slowly, cautiously, toward the way-station, scooching down almost to a crawl. His right paw hurt with every step, and he limped as he advanced. I may never get over that cleaver, he thought.

The voices in the lion’s head began to argue. You took too long killing the woman, Castor thought. Oh, shut up! Pollex thought back. You enjoy savoring a kill as much as I do. She just got lucky with the cleaver, that’s all!

In a few minutes the lion was in front of the way-station. The humans had been busy. The candle was still burning in the upper window, but when he sniffed the air toward the house there was no smell of human. Clever. But not clever enough. That miserable way-station dog was tied to the hitching post and was starting to yelp and whimper. It stretched the rope as far away from the lion as it could go, but the humans had secured it well.

Let’s kill the scrawny animal first, Castor thought.

You’re always in a hurry, aren’t you? Thought Pollex. He may yet prove to be a useful mammal. Let’s wait until we’re done. He isn’t going anywhere.

The lion studied the stable. Yeeees. He could smell not one, but two humans inside. They had been busy, too. He didn’t remember that barrel outside by the door. It smelled like it was full of horse-shit. Didn’t matter. There was nothing that those pitiful humans could do to hurt him, thought Castor. Don’t be so sure! Thought Pollex. Proceed slowly! Oh, shut up. Let’s have some fun. Then Castor-Pollex sprinted the last thirty paces to the stable and ran inside.

He looked around. Three empty stalls. But the smell of humans was strong. He entered the first stall and found a piece of cloth stained with blood. Human blood. The scent that he had smelled when he was outside. Then he entered the second stall. Another cloth. More blood. Different blood. The other human that he had smelled. While he was checking out this second bloody cloth he heard the stable door slam shut and a thud as a heavy bar slammed into place.

Castor-Pollex whirled and charged the door. It heaved, but held fast.

“Won’t do any good,” he could hear a voice say from the loft above, “I’m up here!”

The lion turned, and looked up and Castor-Pollex could see Jesse standing in the hayloft by a post. The boy held no spear or bow, and the lion roared and charged across the stable floor, leaping toward the loft. He almost reached the human, but as he was clawing on the edge of the loft, snarling and trying to get his teeth into the boy’s leg, Jesse pulled his an-nef spear out from behind the post and rammed it down the lion’s throat with all his might.

The lion fell back to the barn floor, lying on his side and writhing in pain. He jerked his head back and forth, attempting to dislodge the spear.

Jesse stooped down and scooped up his longbow. He nocked an arrow, aimed, and let it loose. The arrow sunk deep into the lion’s side, and the lion began to kick. Jesse fired again, putting another arrow into the lion’s chest. This time blood came rushing from its side, spilling on the stable’s dirt floor. He fired a third for good measure, placing it close to the second arrow and more blood gushed out. Finally, he threw his bow over his shoulder and ran to the ladder yelling, “Open the door!” as he ran.

The door opened as Jesse reached the bottom of the ladder and he rushed out. Jesse and Seth then barred the door once more, and Seth struck a firestick and lit a torch that had been hidden in a mound of hay piled against the side of the stable. Next Seth set fire to the hay and ran around back of the stable while Jesse dumped armloads of hay in front of the stable door. Out back, Seth torched another pile of hay and did the same to a stack on the south side as well. Finally he came back around to the front and tossed the torch onto the pile of heaped hay that Jesse had just made.

“Let’s get out of here!” Seth cried, and the two of them ran as fast as they could for the bridge. They ran through the dark for almost a mile, following footprints in the sandy road that led to a pair of willows by the river. Tied to one of the willows was the rowboat that they had found in the way-station’s stable. There they collapsed, exhausted. Jesse tossed his bow and quiver to the ground.

“We did it!” Jesse shouted excitedly. “We did it! We killed the lion! Castor-Pollex is dead!”

Enoch looked in the direction of the way-station. He couldn’t see the buildings in the dark at this distance, but he could see the orange glow from the flames of the stable as the fire spread.

“And the dog?” Enoch asked. “You killed him, too, right?”

Jesse and Seth stared at each other for a moment. Both of them had the gravest look on their faces.

“I’m sorry, Enoch,” Jesse said at last. “But we forgot about the dog. With the lion dying we only thought about getting out of there as fast as we could.”

“You have to go back, Jesse,” Enoch said. “No one is safe as long as that dog lives. You must kill it, and kill it before the lion dies if you can. You don’t have to get close. I know that you’re good with the bow. Just shoot it and as soon as you see the arrow strike, run for your life.”

“But…”

“There are no, ‘buts.’ You MUST do this Jesse.”

Jesse knew that Enoch was right. He didn’t want to go back. He was afraid to go back, but he was more afraid of what might happen if he didn’t.

Jesse slung his quiver over his shoulder and without another word picked up his bow and headed back toward the way-station. He tried to run but couldn’t force himself to go beyond a jog. His heart was racing. Fear did not begin to describe what he felt. He was terrified. Castor had tried to leap into his mind once before and had nearly succeeded. What if this time he was successful? What if both Castor and Pollex had already leaped into the dog and used the opportunity of his return to leap into him instead? The thought of those hideous things taking him over sickened him.

Jesse was getting close to the way-station, now. He was almost to the wooden bridge and from there he could see that the stable was entirely engulfed in flames and the fire had spread to the thatched roof of the house as well. The glow from the flame illuminated the area around the buildings, and Jesse stopped and searched for the hitching post between them. He saw the post, but only a single, limp rope hung from it. The dog was gone! Again Jesse’s heart began to race. Where was the dog? He looked in the area by the mesquite trees, but could see nothing beyond them but darkness. Jesse whirled around and searched the area by the river. He could not see beyond the bank, and he had no desire to go hunting around down there in the dark. The dog could be anywhere. Castor-Pollex could be anywhere. When that last thought struck him he turned and ran back toward the boat as fast as he could. Every few feet he would turn his head and look behind him, expecting to see a dog gaining on him, but the dog never came.

When Jesse arrived at the river he began to shout, “Get in the boat! Now!”

“We can’t launch the boat at night,” Enoch protested. “Too many sunken boats in the river! We’ll run aground and rip a hole in it. It’ll be at the bottom of the Elmer with the rest of them in no time!”

“GET IN NOW!” Jesse ordered. As he did, he threw his pack, quiver and bow in the boat and drew his sword. Not even taking the time to untie the boat, he cut the rope and jumped in. Enoch leaped in behind him and Seth threw in his own pack and spear and jumped in as Jesse pushed off.

“What happened back there?” asked Enoch.

Jesse ignored the dog and swung the boat out into the middle of the river.

“Seth, grab your spear and stick it in the water in front of the boat. If we hit something push away and yell!”

“Enoch, get in the bow! Keep your eyes peeled for anything that you can see beneath the surface. Even ripples up ahead on the water. Let me know immediately if you see something!”

Jesse began to work the oars furiously, and soon they were moving down the Elmer with the flow and making very good speed. On either side they passed willows in the dark and Jesse did have to steer clear of an occasional obstacle, but they always turned out to be floating branches—nothing to endanger their small boat. After about fifteen minutes of rowing, Enoch could take the silence no longer. “Aren’t you going to tell us what happened?” he asked again.

“Nothing happened,” Jesse replied. “That’s the whole problem. The dog was gone. He must have chewed through the rope. Whether out of fear of the flames or because Castor-Pollex leaped into him there can be no way of telling, but I didn’t want to wait around long enough to find out, and I didn’t want to wait around long enough for him to catch up with us.”

“The lion’s dead,” Seth remarked. “Let’s be content with that. Even if Castor-Pollex is in the dog, I doubt that he’ll be stalking us, and I doubt that he’ll be terrifying cities at night. His highwaymen days are over, thank the gods. Sure as fog kills, we’ve done ourselves—and Pangaea—a favor. It’s a pity that so many had to die while he was on the loose. Now, if you’ll let up on the oars a little, you’ll give us a much better chance of riding the rest of the way to River Bend rather than walking. As for me, I kind of like sitting down for a while.”

“A wise man,” Enoch joked, and Jesse slowed his rowing down to a casual pace.

Chapter 11
River Bend

Jesse rowed through the night. After he had settled in to a good pace with the oars he supposed that he could have rowed forever. He was still too afraid for the lack of sleep to bother him, but didn’t say anything when he could hear Enoch snoring up in the bow. Seth was able to keep his eyes open, however, and the two of them did an admiral job of dodging anything that looked like it might be a threat to the boat’s hull. In truth, since they had left the way-station they had come across only one sunken riverboat, and Jesse was able to steer well clear of it. By five bells the eastern sky was starting to lighten, and by half past the hour Jesse was able to see well enough on his own that he told Seth that he thought that Seth could take a nap if he wanted to. The river was clear here, and Jesse could see all the way to the bottom in some areas. He continued to row as Seth and Enoch slept and noticed that during the night there had been a subtle change in the scenery. The desert still dominated the landscape, but it was evident that the sandstorm had not made it this far south. High up on the bank, scrub mesquite trees still grew green, not laden down with the sand that had covered everything for the last two-hundred miles, and the willows that grew along the water’s edge here still had their branches.

Jesse continued to row for a couple of hours after Seth fell asleep, but eventually his tiredness turned to sleepiness, and he rowed to shore in the shade of a large willow on the east side of the river, opposite the Southern Highway. By this time Jesse reckoned that they had already covered almost twenty miles on the river. There all three disembarked, and they pulled the boat ashore and within minutes all three were sleeping beneath the willow’s shade. Around noon they were up and around and dove into some of the foodstuffs that they had scavenged from the way-station. It was the first real meal that they had in days. The men shared smoked fish with Enoch, and enjoyed a pot of beans over a fire that Seth had made from gathered sticks. Then they were ready to set back out on the Elmer to continue their journey south.

“I’ve got my second wind,” Jesse announced. “I’m ready to row again. No need for a second set of eyes. Just sit back and enjoy the ride!”

Enoch and Seth did just that. By mid-afternoon they had covered another ten miles or so, and could see something on the river ahead of them, and what appeared to be men, horses, and some other large animals up on the highway. As they got closer they could see men on a river-barge moored beside a sunken riverboat, and other men driving teams of horses pulling wagons piled high with fodder and two large wooly mammoths on the shore. As they pulled alongside of the barge the man that seemed to be in charged called out to them.

“Ho! Strangers! Where do you hail from?”

“Just came down from Whitehurst,” Seth replied. “Seen boats like this one the entire way!”

“Name’s Rathburn! You?”

“I’m Seth! This is my friend, Jesse!”

“What about the dog—he got a name?”

“His name’s Enoch!” Seth patted Enoch on the head and Enoch gave his best pointy-toothed grin and wagged his tale in a most doggy fashion.

“Trying to get that boat out of the river?” Seth asked.

“Oh, we’ll get it out all right! Already moved twenty-six of them between here and River Bend! Right now I’m hoping that this is the last one between here and the way-station! My men and animals could use a break and some, good, hot food! Should be there in another day or so!”

“Food at the way-station’s probably still good and hot,” Enoch said under his breath so that no one up on the barge could hear him.