Princess of Amathar (7 page)

"It's all yours, Vvvv!" I called out, stopping to look back from the forest edge. The Pell who had freed us positioned himself upon a large rock and began speaking to his fellows in the whistling language of their kind. Presumably he was presenting his credentials to be leader, or urging them to some sort of action. The other spiders listened for a moment, then with a swift and determined viciousness, set upon him with their stingers and their fangs. In scant seconds, the hapless Vvvv had been torn to pieces. Then the entire horde turned toward me.

I quickly took off after my companions who were several hundred feet ahead of me by now. It didn't take me long, with my gravity enhanced muscles, to catch up with them. I quickly relayed the events going on behind us, and we all redoubled our efforts to get away from the area. I of course, had no trouble in trotting along at quite a good pace, and Norar Remontar seemed to be quite the long-distance runner, but my friend Malagor, though he was quite capable of attaining great speed for short distances, was clearly not built for the long haul. We were forced to stop every so often so that he could rest. As soon as we perceived our pursuers approaching, we would be off.

"Perhaps we should simply stop and fight,” suggested Norar Remontar, as we trotted along. "We are not asleep this time, and I feel quite certain that we could sell our lives dearly."

"I am not quite sure that I am ready to sell mine at all,” I replied. Just then however, the forest abruptly ended at the base of a tremendously high mountain. It was as if the ground had simply turned perpendicular to itself. There was no way to continue forward, so we cut to the left, and began to trace our way along the edifice. We jogged along at a renewed pace, but soon discovered that our detour had allowed our pursuers to reach us. Just to our left, several dozen of the Pell rushed out of the forest and toward us.

Norar Remontar and I drew our swords, Malagor pulled out his knife, and the three of us turned to face our foes. I could see from the corner of my right eye, the Amatharian's sword begin to glow with its unearthly light. Foremost in my mind however, was the spider that was directly in front of me, and the two others who were attempting to sneak around to my left.

Rather than wait to be completely encircled, I made the first move. Jumping up and to the side, I dropped down sword point first on one of the two Pell to the side of me. I quickly rolled over the top of the creature's body pulling the sword blade free as I did, and using the body as a shield from the other two who lunged forward. I swung the sword in a great arc and actually sliced through the bodies of both attackers. My appreciation of myself was short-lived however, for at that moment, I felt thick silky strands being sprayed upon me from behind.

I am sure that most can understand my feelings when I say that having once been encased in the cocoon of a giant spider-creature; I had lost any desire to be so encased again. I jumped straight up into the air, my intention being to land behind the attacker who was at the moment behind me. The silk threads now attached to my back made this impossible. Instead I flipped over backwards and landed on the back of the spider. He was a large one. I drove my sword down into its body so hard that it stuck into the ground beneath him.

Jumping to my feet, I prepared to meet any additional onslaught, but the only other Pell near me was already beating a hasty retreat back into the forest. A quick glance at my two companions confirmed that they were relatively unharmed. Malagor, while practically covered with web strands, had managed to keep from being trapped. Several dead enemies lay around him, in some cases connected to him by the strands of webbing running from him to the spinnerets in their lifeless bodies. Norar Remontar stood amid a ring of dead Pell, their bodies still smoking from the effects of his fantastic sword. I resolved to learn as much as I could about the Amatharian swords and the souls within them. It seemed to me that the Pell had gotten more from us than they expected, but Norar Remontar insisted we go some distance from the sight of the battle before we stopped to clean ourselves up. We followed along the edge of the seemingly impassable mountain for quite a while until we found a small pool of water collected from a spring in the rocks. It was twenty feet across, looked to be some eight to ten feet deep, and was crystal clear. We sat beside it and drank from it, washed, and then rested. We slept, taking turns at watch, and this time none of us fell asleep during our turn to stand guard. When I awoke from my turn at sleeping, I found the other two bathing in the water. I was surprised at this, since I knew that Malagor was not much for swimming.

"We are not bathing or swimming,” said Malagor when I questioned him on the subject. "Norar Remontar has discovered a passageway below the water. It leads four kentars back into the mountain, where it opens into a large chamber."

"I believe that we should explore the cavern," said Norar Remontar. "My people leave caches of weapons and food many places, much like the one you found before you met me. I believe that your swords were left along with the other supplies as an emergency cache some twenty or thirty generations ago. Perhaps we may find a similar cache here."

My friends had already gathered their gear. I had only my weapons. So after making sure they were secure; I plunged into the cool, clear water and dived down into the underwater passage. It was indeed a tunnel leading back into the mountain. I held my breath and swam into it. I am a fair swimmer, but not when fully clothed. Just as I was beginning to feel desperate for air, I reached the other end of the tunnel, and surfaced to find myself in a dark cavern. It was, just as Malagor had said, about four kentars, or seventeen feet from the outside pool.

I climbed out of the water, which on this side of the passage, was merely a round hole of about three feet in diameter. My Amatharian friend was looking around in the darkness with some type of small flashlight. It seemed strange that I had never seen the light before, until I realized that in all the time that I had known Norar Remontar, we had never been in darkness. The eternal noon day sun of Ecos had been our constant companion.

The cavern was roughly circular and quite large, some forty feet across. There seemed to be nothing in it, with the exception of the small pool from which we had made our entrance, and several large round boulders. However at the end of the room, farthest from the pool, Norar Remontar found something. I stepped over to where he was carefully examining a section of the cavern wall. Malagor followed. In the beam of the Amatharian's small light was a patch of stone, which had been artificially smoothed. Within this flat area was carved a series of symbols. There was nothing about them that seemed in the least familiar to me, but then I was from another planet after all.

"This isn’t written in Amatharian, is it?" I asked.

"No," replied Norar Remontar. "If I am not mistaken, this is an example of the petroglyphic writing of the ancient Orlons."

"I am not familiar with those people," said Malagor.

"The ancient Orlons occupied much of the area that we of Amathar now call our own. They were long dead in the time of Amath, but they left many ruins scattered around the area. We Amatharians study their remains in our schools. They existed for many thousands of generations, and in the last stages of their civilization, the Orlons were quite technologically advanced, using aircraft and high speed ground transport systems. Of course their early sights are quite primitive by comparison. This certainly looks to be a very early example of their writing."

"Can you read it?" I asked.

"I am no expert in archaeology," Norar Remontar replied, "though I do remember a few of the symbols from my school days."

He carefully examined the writing for several minutes. There were twenty two symbols in all on the smooth section of the wall. The first was a simple triangle, but others were squiggly lines, circles with little pictures in them, sun symbols, and a thing that looked a lot like a cow's head. Finally Norar Remontar pointed to a square with a stylized arrow running through it.

"This is the only one that I recognize," he said. "It is the symbol for a door."

"Perhaps this is an indicator that there is a door within this chamber somewhere," offered Malagor.

"A doorway to where?" I asked. "Into the mountain? Maybe it's indicating the water passage we just came through."

"Why would some one put a message that there is a door, in the one place that a person would be in, in which they already know there is a door?" demanded Malagor. "Why put a "door" sign on the inside of the room?"

"Maybe they are not pointing out the door," I replied. "Maybe they are saying something about it, like

'can you believe how hard it was to swim in through that door.' Maybe they are not talking about a real door at all. Maybe this is a burial sight and they are marking the 'great door to the afterlife'."

"I believe there is a hidden door here somewhere," interjected Norar Remontar. "As I recall, the Orlons were somewhat famous for leaving secret passages and hidden entryways in their constructions. Let's start looking around the cavern. Look for anything which does not look completely at home or entirely natural."

The three of us divided up and began to move around the chamber, examining the floors and walls. I focused on the walls to the left of the inscription and pushed every tiny outcropping and stuck my finger in every tiny hole. Suddenly the chamber resounded with a squealing sound that echoed around the room. It was my stomach. I was hungry.

"It has been a long time since we have eaten," said Malagor.

"Why don't the two of you go hunting,” suggested the Amatharian. "I will study this cavern until your return. If I haven't found the door, we will continue on our way."

"Fine," I replied. "We'll get something to eat and meet you outside by the pool." Malagor and I made our way out through the underwater passage, and into the noon day sunlight streaming into the small clearing formed by the high and forbidding mountain and the thick forest. Through all of our adventures, Malagor and I had both managed to keep our fur skin bundles with us. Each one contained a number of furs suitable for bedding. We also still had the Amatharian light rifles.

"Why didn't you use the rifle when we were fighting the Pell?" I asked him. After all, I had my swords, but he had only his knife and his claws.

"I did not think about it."

With little desire to expend our energy in stealth and forest craft, we drew our rifles and decided to blast the first thing we saw which looked edible. Off into the forest we went. It took us only a short while to discover a group of small forest-dwelling herbivores. These looked something like a small deer with white fur and a horn on the end of their noses. Unfortunately for us, the little creatures were very skittish and easily frightened. I missed my first shot, which sent them running off into the distant woods with Malagor and myself in hot pursuit.

When my alien friend and I had at last made a kill, skinned the animal, and cut off several select portions of meat, we found ourselves some distance from the cave where we had left Norar Remontar. We walked back, toting our food with us and stopped at the edge of the small pool.

"I will begin making a fire to cook the food," said Malagor. "You swim into the chamber and tell Norar Remontar that we have returned."

I did just as Malagor had suggested, but when I reached the chamber, I found it almost completely dark and very, very quiet. When I called out to Norar Remontar, there was no answer.
Chapter Nine: The Mountains of the Ancient Orlons

I swam back outside and reported the mystery to Malagor. He did not seem pleased. We left the meat cooking, and wrapped up a burning ember, some kindling and a couple of large sticks in a piece of fur, and swam back into the hidden room. Once inside, we climbed out of the water and onto the dry ground. The room was lit only by a dim glow from the watery passage. Malagor and I used the ember and kindling to start a small fire in the hidden chamber. I had my doubts about doing so, since there was a limited amount of oxygen in the room, and I had no great desire to die of asphyxiation. However once we had the little fire burning, we noticed a small flicker of flame leaping in the direction of the wall. From there it was only a small step to the realization that there was a secret door right by where we had chosen to build the fire. Even with this knowledge at our command, it took some time for us to figure out how to open the portal. In the end, Malagor and I had to press on the wall in two different places to force a perfectly disguised panel to slide back, revealing a darkened passage. I wondered that Norar Remontar had been able to do it by himself.

Malagor and I each took a burning stick form the fire, and entered the secret passage. It bears mentioning that you can't make a really effective torch with nothing but a stick. Having watched several hundred adventure movies in my formative years, I have seen many matinee heroes create torches with nothing but a flaming stick. In reality, it just doesn't work. One needs some oily rags or something. The two burning sticks that my friend and I carried offered little more light than one might expect from a small candle, and after what must have been only several minutes, mine went out completely. Malagor was able to nurse his flaming stick in a way that it stayed alive at least enough for us to see the ground where we were walking.

The passage in which we found ourselves was a rough-cut cave-like hallway that could have been natural except for the relatively smooth and level floor. It took us straight back into the mountain. Our footsteps made loud clomping sounds that echoed all out of proportion to the way we were carefully treading. After we had gone several hundred feet, we noticed that the walls, ceiling, and floor became more and more smooth and uniform. After another four or five hundred feet, we stopped to examine the walls again, which by this point had become completely smooth, with nice square corners at the point where they met the floor or the ceiling. At that very moment Malagor's fire went out too.