Into Eden: Pangaea - Book 1 (41 page)

Two jackal-heads rushed into Anubis’ room at the sound of the dog howling. Anubis lay dead on his bed, the dog lay dead on the floor in a pool of blood, its chain stretch out full length. The balcony door was ajar, and the dogs in the court yard were making quite a commotion. The two went to the balcony, but the assailant was already gone.

“Should we get the Canaan’s Own?” one jackal-head asked the other.

“Why bother?” the first jackal-head replied. “Anubis is already dead.”

“Do you want to hold a funeral pyre for our brother?” the other jackal-head suggested.

“Just throw him in the alley. Corpse Removal will take care of him in the morning.”

Chapter 20
The Road Home

Jesse drove the horses hard all that night. He kept looking over his shoulder for torches or other signs of pursuing legionnaires or Secret Police, but he saw none.

Jesse’s fear of being pursued by an-nef bent on capturing them would have been lessoned had he known that the following night as word of Anubis’ death spread through the taverns of New Sodom many a glass was raised in celebration of the jackal-head’s demise, for Anubis had many enemies, and few friends. Even the Emperor Canaan himself, when asked if Eden should send riders in pursuit of Anubis’ attacker responded, “Why? I don’t give medals to humans!”

By the time that the sun was coming up Jesse gave the horses a rest and a drink as they stopped by a bridge on the Green Highway that crossed a small stream. During the night he had filled Perez and Enoch in on the events in the mansion. Enoch seemed relieved. Perez, strangely, indifferent. Perez had not struggled with the rightness or wrongness of his or Jesse’s actions. He merely acted on what he believed to be right—both a strength, Jesse supposed, and a weakness. In retrospect, Jesse realized that his conscience had been seared by his hatred toward Anubis. His desire for revenge had overridden every precept on right and wrong that his father had ever taught him. This hatred had almost led him to murder. Now, as they rode back toward Atlantis he reflected on how close he had come. Guilty consciences do not lead to clear thinking. Hatred and revenge had no place in a man’s heart. In years distant he would again be faced with choices surrounding the desire for revenge and seeking justice, but for now he felt like a load had been lifted from his chest. His conscience was clear, and he was headed home.

Enoch’s health was another matter. While in the early days of their return journey Enoch seemed well enough, Jesse noticed a marked decline in Enoch’s appetite, and he seemed to sleep for long stretches at a time, curled up in the chariot on Jesse and Perez’s packs. The dog’s energy was failing, and Jesse feared that they would not make it back to the Foothills in time for Enoch to get a new host. They had left the Fog Mountains and the Prophet’s cabin in mid-summer, and it was now late summer, a full year since his departure from Albion. They had to make it across Prophet’s Pass before the first snow fell or Enoch would not survive. Between Eden and Prophet’s Pass lay giant lizards, the Pishon River, and a pack of werewolves bent on revenge.

Their return to Old Sodom a few days later brought them their first challenge in evading potentially hostile an-nef. After leaving New Sodom it was agreed that they would continue to wear their Canaan’s Own disguises until they crossed the Pishon, a necessary, but unwelcome accommodation to the fact that they were meeting an-nef every few miles and it wasn’t easy to hide a chariot and two horses under a fern or in a roadside ditch. The morning they approached Old Sodom they had, in fact, met an oncoming chariot driven by two Secret Police. The approaching an-nef yelled, “Hail Canaan’s Own!” and Jesse called back a hearty, “Hail Canaan’s Own!” to them as well. The two chariots passed with the real an-nef in the approaching chariot never looking back to question their disguise.

The three diverted from the Green Highway as they neared the outskirts of the city and followed the same path that they had followed before to the ruins where they had spent the night in Old Sodom. The chariot jostled and rocked back and forth, and the going was slow as they weaved through ancient streets now overgrown with trees and ferns. The ruins was just as they had left them, except the giant lizard that Perez had beheaded now lay as a broken skeleton, its bones stripped of all flesh by some scavengers. Jesse and Perez cleared the stones that they had placed in front of the courtyard entryway so that the horses and chariot could get through. Once in, they then erected their barricade again and unhitched the horses.

Down in the ruined fortress’ armory they lit the candles and made beds for the night. Better enjoy it, thought Jesse. This would be the only night between New Sodom and the Pishon that they would spend under cover. After dark Perez made his way back up to the courtyard to check on the horses. Through cracks in the barricade he could see a couple of pairs of glowing orange eyes. The dogs were back.

The next morning they struck out at dawn. The barricade that they had erected the night before was still in place and the horses were grazing contentedly. No beasties had bothered them during the night. Just the same, Jesse strung his bow before they struck out. He wanted to be ready to fight back if he needed to. As they were donning their disguises for another day’s ride, Jesse asked Enoch, “Do you think that these disguises will fool the dogs?”

“No,” Enoch replied. “Dogs identify by smell, not by sight. They will recognize you.”

The information was not reassuring. Just the same despite another bumpy ride back to the Green Highway, and despite seeing many black dogs in Old Sodom’s city center, their journey that day was uneventful, and they were back in dense rainforest by nightfall. Jesse pushed the horses hard for days, afraid that any delay might cost Enoch his life. When they reached the end of the paved road they met their next challenge. Close encounters with an-nef meant opportunities for them to be discovered, and the crews of an-nef working on the paving project meant that they would have to encounter many an-nef before they reached the unpaved road. There was no taking a chariot through the jungle to get around them. When they did finally approach the workers Jesse kept yelling, “Make way, you dogs!” and the an-nef workers dutifully let them by. It was, as they would say in the Foothills, “A piece of pie.” Surely, thought Jesse, the gods were smiling on them and had cleared their path all the way back to Albion. He couldn’t have been more wrong.

Chapter 21
Trail of Death

The morning that the three left the Green Highway and headed down the Smuggler’s Trail all were in good spirits, including Enoch, who had developed a pronounced wheeze in recent days. They had made remarkable time on the highway in their chariot traveling over mostly paved road. Now they would have to depart from their good road to travel through the rainforest and all its potential dangers, but with things going their way for so long they were optimistic that they would continue to do so and get Enoch back to Albion before his illness took it’s toll. They ate a good breakfast of orange-balls and bandannas, and joked that this morning would probably be the last of the fruit that they would ever eat. By the next day they would be on the north side of the Pishon and feasting on goat and potatoes at Bastrap. All the same, Jesse strung his bow just in case they came across any medium-sized lizards that needed dispensing.

As with their trip back through Old Sodom, the chariot moved slowly and rocked and jostled the riders as Jesse drove it down the trail. Perez kept a watchful eye for giant lizards, and about mid-day he spotted not one, but two of the long-necked lizards at a distance grazing on leaves in the treetops. Fortunately, none of the big-headed, little-armed, pointy-toothed lizards showed during their journey back to Jakar’s smuggling outpost. By late afternoon they came to a clearing and spotted a couple of goats grazing contentedly by themselves.

“Guess some of Jakar’s goats got out,” Jesse remarked. “We need to find the trail to lead the horses down with the chariot.”

“No problem,” Perez replied. “I’ll go down and ask. See you in a few minutes.”

Perez jumped down from the chariot and headed down the stone steps to the cove that Jakar called home. In a few minutes Perez was back, but his face looked ashen.

“What’s wrong?” Jesse asked.

“They’re dead,” Perez replied.

“Who’s dead?” Jesse asked, surprised.

“All of ‘em. Jakar...his sons...his wife...all of ‘em.”

“But how?”

“Must have been an-nef. There’s bolts everywhere and someone wrote on the barn in blood the words, “HUMAN FRIENDS.” Their bodies are lying beneath the sign.

“How long ago?”

“Hard to tell. Scavengers have had their fill of them. Days. Maybe weeks.”

“What about the boat? Is the boat still there?”

“Yeah. We can still get across. Looks like we’ll be doing the rowing, though.”

“Any sign of a trail for the horses? We can’t spend the night here in the jungle.”

“Yeah. I guess not,” Perez said. He sounded distracted, confused. Uncertain of what to do. “It should be off to the right.” Perez then walked off to the right in the direction that he indicated a trail for the horses would have to be. He grabbed one of the horses’ harness and Jesse let Perez lead as he took them down a steep trail with a couple of switchbacks that finally terminated at the smuggler’s post.

The scene was just as Perez had described it. Five bull-head skeletons lay against the side of the barn, their wrists tied with rope, and bolts from an-nef crossbows pinning them against its back wall. “HUMAN FRIENDS” was smeared in blood above the bodies. This bothered Jesse both because he and Perez were no doubt the humans in question, but also because if these bull-heads were not safe, what about the dark people across the river in Bastrap? Was Adah safe? He would have to wait until tomorrow to know, but the thought of an an-nef attack on her mountain town sickened him.

Perez removed his armor and the helmet with the ram-horns and threw them as far across the barnyard as he could. “I will not be missing these one bit,” he announced. He and Jesse then fed the horses and then shut them in stalls in the stable. Entering the house they were greeted by a goat which was munching on feathers from a pillow in a chair. By doing so, the creature had unknowingly volunteered himself to be the next day’s sacrifice to the river monsters.

“Get out of here!” Jesse yelled, and the goat clopped down the hall to the open door. That night they ate stores from Jakar’s house. They felt guilty, but knew that Jakar and his family had no more use for them. The boys were even able to heat up water and bathe for the first time since they had crossed the river. It felt good and inspired by the act they boiled more water and washed their sweaty clothing and hung it up to dry in the house outside of the goat’s reach. Now, almost feeling human, they took the extra step to shave. No more would they need beards for any disguise. That night all three had their own feather mattress to sleep on. They went to bed with their bellies full, and though distressed at the deaths of their associate and his family, excited by the prospect that the dangerous part of their journey might soon be over.

In the wee hours of the morning Jesse was awakened by a sound. He lay in the darkness, not making a move, but listening to Enoch’s snoring and Perez’s breathing. Then the sound came again. From across the river he could hear howling: werewolf howling. Tonight the river separated them from that danger, but tomorrow was another day. He listened to the sounds of the river and another distant howl, then fell fast asleep.

The next day was gray and cloudy. Rain fell on both sides of the river and the clouds up on the mountainside looked like they could be holding snow. But rain or not, the three had to move on—and quickly. As soon as the sun rose over the river Jesse and Perez led the horses down to the boat and put them and the chariot on board. Then they slaughtered an unfortunate goat and cut the animal in half. Across the river they could see as the mist lifted the smuggler’s tree where smugglers hung the white cloth if they wanted to have Jakar come and ferry them across. This morning a white cloth could clearly be seen on one of the low branches.

“They can have the boat,” Jesse remarked aloud. “But they’ll have to row it themselves.” He then took half a goat and threw it as far out in the river as he could. Immediately he could see a large dorsal fin appear above the surface of the water, and observed a serpentine rippling of the surface as the river monster headed directly for the goat-half. He pushed off and with Perez on one side and him on the other, the two boys began to row. They worked the oars hard, but the boat was designed to be manned by four, not two, and those that usually did the rowing were muscly bull-heads, not spindly humans. The effect was that by the time they were mid-river they were already drifting badly downstream, the current taking them far beyond the smuggler’s tree where they supposed an-nef awaited pickup.

About three-quarters of the way across the boat rocked violently. The horses began to whinny and a sleeping Enoch awoke. Beneath the surface Jesse could see one of the river monsters pass beneath the boat. The creature made a large arch and then turned back toward the ferry. Enoch took a quick look around, then yelled, “Jesse! Quick! Throw it the rest of the goat!”

In his struggle to keep the boat on a straight course Jesse had neglected to pay the river-monsters for the rest if the passage. He immediately jumped up and threw the remainder of the goat as far from the boat as he could. The creature beneath the surface changed directions and in a moment the goat-half was dragged beneath the surface. With the last of their toll spent, Jesse felt a second-wind and rowed like crazy for the shore. Before long the boat butted up against the bank and Perez leaped out to tie the boat to a nearby tree. Then the two of them tossed the ramp onto the shore and led the horses off. When all were safely on shore and Jesse had finished harnessing the horses to the chariot, he took a look around. They were a full half-mile east of where the an-nef smugglers would be expecting the boat—half a mile through the forest with no trail to follow, and a chariot to pull. It was decided that Jesse and Perez would lead the horses through the forest until they reached the trail, and allow Enoch to ride.