Vault of the Ages (5 page)

“Carl,” whispered Ronwy. “Listen to me, Carl. There isn’t much time.”

“Yes, yes, what is it?” The boy swung out of the blankets, feeling the floor cold under his bare feet.

“I have talked to you, and I think you believe as I,” came the rapid murmur out of the darkness. “About the old science, and the need—the very desperate need—of today’s world for a rebirth of knowledge. No one else will listen. I’ve been alone with my dreams, all my life. But you are son of the Chief of the greatest tribe in these lands. Someday, if the Dalesmen are not conquered, you will be their Chief yourself and able to do much.

“I want to show you the time vault. Now, while the City sleeps. Will you come with me?”

Strangely unafraid, strangely calm and steady except for the high pulse within him, Carl slipped on trousers and sword belt. Tom and Owl readied themselves at his back; there was the faintest chatter of teeth, but they would follow him even into the lair of the Doom, and he felt warm at the knowledge. Noiseless on bare feet, the three boys slipped out after Ronwy.

In the moonless dark, the City was a place of looming shadows, streets like tunnels of night, a ghostly breeze and the tiny patter of a hurrying rat. A pair of bats swooped blackly against the dim glow of the Milky Way, and a wild dog howled far off in the woods. Ghostly, flitting through the enormous night silence and the small fearful noises below a wheeling sky, the four humans made their way to the forbidden place.

Tom and Owl and even Carl shivered when they stood under the dim white skull that marked it, but Ronwy drew a long breath. “No one lives near by,” he said. “We can talk now.”

As they groped carefully toward the vault, he went on: “As Chief, I do have power to go here whenever I wish, and I have spent long times studying the marvels within. But my people won’t let me remove anything from it. They’re afraid. All the world is afraid. Man’s greatest devil is fear.”

The door still gaped open on unknown blacknesses. Ronwy struck flint and steel to light a candle he bore. “Follow me,” he said. The yellow glow picked his face out of night, old and calm and immensely comforting. “I have entered often. There is no magic, no Doom—nothing to be afraid of—only wonder and mystery.”

They went down the steps. At the bottom, Ronwy lifted his candle high and Carl saw that the vault was a great underground chamber lined with concrete, reaching farther into shadowy distance than he could see. He stood unmoving, caught up in the marvel of it.

Steel cabinets stretched along the sides. Long benches held models protected under glass covers: cunningly wrought models of engines whose purpose Carl could not imagine, their metal catching the light in a dull shimmer. Full-size things of steel and copper and glass, shapes such as he had never dreamed, quietly waited for a man who understood. And there were books—books, everywhere books, shelf after glassed-in shelf of books from floor to ceiling—

“Come here,” said Ronwy.

Carl followed him over to a wall on which there was a bronze plaque. The boy’s lips moved as he slowly puzzled out what was engraved thereon.

It was long before Carl had finished spelling it out, and he had not understood much of what was in the message. But he knew it was a cry across the ages, and tears stung his eyes.

“Who did this?” he whispered.

“I don’t know,” answered Ronwy as softly. “It must have been a scientist who foresaw the Doom, five hundred years ago, and tried to save this for us. But his name is nowhere here. I think,” he added after a moment, “that he didn’t want us to know his name, that he wanted us to think of the whole human race, which had created all this, as giving it to us.”

“And the vault is tabooed!” Carl’s bitter cry sent the echoes booming hollowly from wall to wall.

“It need not always be so,” replied Ronwy. “Someday, when you are Chief of the Dalesmen, you may be able to get the taboo lifted. It will take the work of many men and many years to learn all that is in here and put it to use. In a lifetime of study, I have only mastered a tiny part of this great store. Come.” He took Carl’s hand. “Let me show you a little.”

It was a strange quest, hunting among these dusty cases and boxes, lifting books and plans and models in trembling hands, there in the vault where time—yes, time itself—had been caged. Carl’s mind staggered from most of the writings and machines. But there were things which could be used right now, today! A new design of sailboat, a windmill, a ritual called
vaccination
for preventing the dreaded smallpox, the natural laws of heredity by which farmers could breed better grain and livestock—a whole new world lay under his hands!

Tom picked up one thing, a short metal tube with glass in one end and a crank on the side. “What is this?” he asked.

Ronwy smiled in the yellow candle glow. “Turn the crank,” he said.

Tom did, and yelled in astonishment as a clear, white beam of light sprang from the glass. He dropped the thing—Carl snatched it out of the air—and the light died away.

“It’s called a flashlight,” said Ronwy. “It has to be hand-powered, the card by it said, because the
batteries
they once had wouldn’t last many years.”

Carl turned the miracle over in his fingers. “May I keep this?” he asked. “I’ll need something to prove what I say when I bring this story back to Dalestown.”

It was Ronwy’s turn to be surprised. “What do you mean?” he asked.

Carl’s eyes gleamed fierce. “I mean that tomorrow night we
three will try to sneak past those Lann scouts and get home,” he answered. “Then the Dalesmen will come here in force, take over the vault, learn how to make weapons like the ancients had—and drive the invaders away!”

There was a silence, then—

“
If
we get past the Lann,” said Owl.

A
NOTHER
day went by, a day of restlessly prowling the ruins under the hostile eyes of the witch-folk, and slowly the sun crossed heaven and limned the high, stern towers black against a ruddy western sky. Carl, Tom, and Owl fetched their horses, which had been stabled in an old place of polished marble known as BANK, and began readying themselves for their journey.

“The Lann may have gone away,” said Owl hopefully.

“I’m afraid not,” answered Carl. “They’re scared of the City, but at the same time they know it’s well for them to stop any messages going between the witches and the Dalesmen. They’ll have at least a few men waiting outside to catch us.” He smiled, trying to ignore the coldness of his hands and the tightness in his throat. “But it’s a big woods and a dark night, so with fair luck we can slip by them. And if not—” He slapped his saddlebag. “If not, we may still have a chance.”

“I am guilty,” said Ronwy. “I am guilty of sending you out to your enemies, when you are my guests.”

“You couldn’t help it, sir,” replied Tom quietly. “We know you’re our friend.”

“In the old days,” said Ronwy, “you could have traveled from one end of America to another without fear. Now those few miles you have to go are one long deathtrap. If you get home, Carl—if you become Chief of the Dalesmen—remember that!”

“I will remember,” said Carl.

He tied his pony’s mouth shut so that it could not whinny and betray him; his comrades did the same. Clear and lovely overhead, the first stars winked through a gathering dusk.

“Good-by, Ronwy,” said Carl. “And thank you.”

“The gods go with you,” said the old man.

He stood looking after them until their forms were lost in bush and shadow.

The boys walked, leading their horses. Night thickened until they were groping through a pit of darkness whose walls bulked ragged against the stars. Slowly, stumblingly, they made their way through tumbled wreckage and crackling brush until they stood at the edge of the City and looked out over a dim sweep of forest and meadow. Straining their ears, they could hear only the dry chirp of crickets and rustic of wind—once an owl hooted, once a wildcat screamed—but no sign of the enemy, no trace. Their own breathing seemed loud in the stillness, and Carl thought that surely the Lann must hear the drumbeats of his heart.

“We don’t follow the highway out, do we?” whispered Tom.

“No, you woodenhead—that’d be a giveaway,” answered Owl as quietly. “We strike out across country, eh, Carl?”

“Yes,” nodded the Chief’s son. “I think we can ride now, slowly, following the open land but keeping in the shadow of trees,” He hooked one foot in the stirrup and swung into his saddle. “Let’s go.”

His tautened ears heard the night murmurous around him. The long grass whispered under hoofs, leaves brushed his cheek as he hugged the line of forest, a stone clinked and his muscles knotted with alarm. Slowly—softly—the City was lost behind him, trees closed in, he was back in the wilderness.

The Lann weren’t stupid, he thought. They’d have known their prey would try slipping past them. So unless they had ringed in the whole City—which was hardly possible—they would guard it with a few small bands of men scattered well apart and ranging the territory on a patrol which might or might not happen close enough for a hunter’s keen ears to hear the faint noise of passage. It lay with the gods.

The meadow ended in a wall of forest. Carl urged his pony forward through a line of hedge that snapped and rustled and brought the sweat out cold on his forehead. Beyond, there was
gloom in which the high trunks were like pillars holding up a roof of night. The horses stumbled on rough ground, and Carl hoped he could find his directions. It would be a terrible joke if they spent all night circling back to the City.
“Listen!”

Tom’s hissing word brought Carl erect in the saddle, reining in his mount and staring wildly through darkness. Yes—yes—the sound of hoofs, the rattle of iron. … He held back a groan. The Lann!

“Wait a bit,” Carl breathed. “They may pass by.”

The noise grew louder, nearer, and he realized that the patrol would likely pass close enough to hear the horses’ stamping and heavy breathing. Now there was nothing for it but to run.

Leaning over, the pony’s mane rough against his bare arm, he eased off the gagging rope. The animal would need its mouth for gulping air, he thought grimly, and almost smiled when it whickered its relief. “This way,” he said. “Back—out to the meadows—”

“Hey-ah! Who goes there?”

The deep-throated shout rang between the trees. Carl urged his pony to a trot, though branches were whipping his face, and heard the voices of the Lann rise in excitement behind him. Now the hunt began!

Breaking out into the open again, he struck heels against his pony’s ribs and felt the rhythm of gallop under him. Tom and Owl edged their bigger horses alongside his, and for a brief while only the thudding of hoofs broke the night.

Behind, a blot of darkness came out of the woods and became half a dozen riders. Starlight gleamed on helmets and lances, and a horn blew its call as the Lann saw the boys ahead of them. Carl bent low in the saddle and went flying up a long slope of hillside.

Up and over! The swale below was thick with night. Rocks clattered and rang under frantic hoofs, and trees leaped out of nowhere to claw at eyes. The Lann topped the ridge and loomed against the sky, yelling.

Owl’s horse stumbled on a root and went rolling. Catlike, the rider was out of the stirrups and falling clear. “Go on!” he yelled, rising to his knees. “Go on—get away!”

“No!” Tom reined in, brought his horse dancing back, and starlight was dim on his drawn sword. “No—we’ll fight!”

Carl reined his own steed to a plunging halt and turned around. Now it was too late. The Lann were racing down the slope, howling their glee, no chance to escape them.

Unless—

Bending over, Carl groped in his saddlebag. The metal of the thing he sought was cold in his hand as he lifted it free.

The Lann slowed and approached at a walk. Carl saw the flash of eyes and teeth in bearded faces, spiked iron helmets and polished leather breastplates shimmered faintly, lances were brought to rest. The leader raised his voice: “Do you surrender?”

“No!” yelled Carl. The echoes went ringing and bouncing between the stony heights, no, no, no.

“We come from the City,” Carl shouted as loudly and wrathfully as his lungs could endure. “We come with the black magic of the Doom that wastes the world, the glowing death, nine thousand devils chained and raging to be free. Depart, men of Lann, for we are witches!”

The horsemen waited. Carl heard a breath sucked between teeth in the quiet of night, saw a shield lifted and a charm fingered. But they did not run.

“I hold the glowing death!” screamed Carl. “Your flesh will rot from your bones, your eyes will fall from the sockets, you are dead men already! See, men of Lann, see!”

He aimed the flashlight and whirled the crank. A white beam stabbed forth, picking a savage face out of a night which suddenly seemed blacker, swinging around to another and another. A horse neighed, and a man shouted.