Zollocco: A Novel of Another Universe (9 page)

"What do you have in the box?" I asked him to make conversation. "Fortune-telling cards."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Would you tell my fortune?"
"Certainly, shuffle the cards -- " he took out one card that had a picture of a woman who held a magic wand and wore a blue robe -- "and make a wish."
"Hey, in this picture the woman is holding the transporter which is in the assembly room, and she is wearing a blue robe like yours."
"This is the Blue Dawn Deck. The other sects have their own decks."
"If you want to know what your future is going to be, I can tell you much better than he can. I have made some arrangements for you," sneered Raiboothnar. She had crept silently into the room. The pallor of her make-up and the contrasting black of her wig made her look like a malevolent specter in the fire's flickering light.
"What do you want Raiboothnar?" I asked testily.
"What I want, I get, be sure of that, and right now I'm going to raid the pantry for some supper."
"Would thou please to bring me hence some wine Madame?"
Raiboothnar laughed her dead laugh, "Our holy, holy Priest! See how he observes the fast. “'ll be glad to."
Raiboothnar slowly careened into the pantry.
When she had disappeared into the shadows, the Priest leaped to his feet, ran silently as a forest predator to the pantry door, and locked it. He turned to me and pointed to the hall. I bolted out of the room, seizing this chance to get the scroll. I got it, and ran with it back to the dining room. I had no place to hide it in my white Spartan cell. The Priest took it from me, hid it inside him robe, and gestured that I should go back to my place and sit down. He unlocked the door and dashed to his seat by the fire. He took the cards and quickly placed them in the shape of a tuning fork on the table.
"This card, the ace of forsythia indicates travel," the Priest said as though neither of us had been scurrying about. "Next comes a queen and a page. This means thou wilt meet a mother and a daughter on thy journey. This column begins with the nine of knives. This talks about theft."
"She better not steal anything from her new owners!" growled Raiboothnar. "Here's your wine Priest. Sorry I was so long; I had to go clear back into the wine cellar to get it. Too dark to find you a glass, so you'll just have to drink it from the bottle."
The Priest looked at her, "I thank thee," and set the bottle on the table beside him.
"Conscience bothering you Priest? Really, you must drink some. I want to see this, a Priest drinking from the bottle on Penitence Day." Raiboothnar sat down.
"Dost thou wish me to do a reading for thee?" "Oh no, I'm just waiting for you to drink your wine. I have some work to do, but it can wait until I see you enjoy the Forsythia wine I brought you."
The Priest, without hesitation, uncorked the bottle and guzzled half of its contents. Raiboothnar was really enjoying her life these days. She laughed again, and almost skipped out of the room.
"There is nothing like drinking half a bottle of Forsythia wine on an empty stomach. I shall try to finish this reading," said the Priest as he picked up a card and set in on the spread. He picked up the deck and dropped it.
I got up from the table and returned with a glass of water. "Here drink this; it will keep you from getting a hangover."
"Methinks I must lie down here and sleep," said the Priest drunkenly after he drank the water. Within a few moments he was dead asleep. I picked up his cards, set them in their box, and then went to my cell.
I awoke the next morning to the loud pealing of bells. There was a knock at my door and in response to my welcome the Priest and Priestess entered.
"Didst thou dream?" smiled the Priestess.
"I kept dreaming of snakes all night long. Psychologists would have fun analyzing my crazy dreams. How are you feeling?"
"Very well, thank thee," replied the Priest, shifting his small black case more securely under his arm.
"Come, we think that thy dreams portend some warning. Our sects have reported that this school may not receive the celebrational cleansing. The ire of the Forest Zollocco has been provoked," said the Priestess.
"We must make haste. We are charged with delivering thee to the transporter in safety. Here is thy scroll," said the Priest as he returned it. We made our way to the assembly room. We passed through the yellow hallway. The sun sparked through the windows. People in white bathrobes hurried past us in both directions. More would-be ritual bathers to-ed and fro-ed out on the sun-brightened lawn. We three also crossed outdoors near the building where I had found all the bathrooms that night. I decided to nip into one of the bathrooms to get a glass of water.
"There is a water-fountain newly installed in the ladies bathroom," said the Priestess, leading the way.
We arrived at the doors of the huge marble room with the sunken tubs. The Priestess and I were admitted, while the Priest waited for us. A large marble fountain had been installed just inside the door. The water spouted out of a carved, whale-like fish. Paper cups hung in a container beside the fountain. As I drank, the women standing around the tubs testily questioned the Priestess: "Priestess, why aren't you in your bathrobe? And where is the berry branch needed for the blessing?"
`There will be no blessing today. I may not cleanse ye of the crimes committed against the Forest Zollocco. The Forest Zollocco does not understand forgiveness so well as He does revenge. His neighboring Sister Forest Kiappia has sought to change His mind, but her efforts have been to no avail; therefore, prepare ye."
To my horror, a snake with a tuft of hair on its head slithered out of the fountain.
It reared up and regarded me, grinning. "Hello again," he said, plain as day. I jumped back in terror a full yard and a half. I saw that the Roman Baths were beginning to fill with water, and a few of the women had stepped into them. Vipers began to ooze out of the drain by the dozens; smaller snakes slithered out of the faucets.
"You better get out of here," said the snake of my acquaintance. The hair on his head wafted with his movements.
Some of the women, failing to notice the snakes that swam from the drains to the top of the water, waded into the sparkling pool. One woman was bitten. She screamed. The other women in the water realized that they were surrounded by snakes. They shrieked in terror. The women standing around the pool screamed instructions for aid to the women in the water. More snakes came out of the drain. Some of the snakes that had swum to the top of the water slithered along the water's surface to the sides of the pool. These snakes reared and slid out of the water up to the women circling the pool. Shrieks echoed madly against the walls and ceiling. Amidst the screams, the Priestess and I fled from the room. We shouted at the Priest to follow us. Mayhem erupted all over the building. The clamor of screams and of the pounding feet reverberated against the walls, floors, and ceilings. As we ran down the halls to the exit, terrified bathers swarmed from every bathroom trying to escape the reams of snakes. We bounded out the doors to find that the lawn was a writhing tangle of snakes and a forsythia danced in their midst. This threw the already screaming bathers into an even worse hysteria of shrieking. I clapped my hands over my ears and tried to think. The snakes had not yet reached the edge of the lawn where grass and buildings met. I sprinted along this margin, the Priest and Priestess right behind me. We made it to the door of the building that housed the assembly room. Dashing into the building we found that here, too, people were in a terrible commotion. As we ran by a staircase we saw why. A twelve-foot long snake, as wide in diameter as a telephone pole, was convulsing its way down the stairs.
"My Forest!" yelled the Priestess, "It's a baby cavetapesnake! How did it get in here?"
"A what?" I yelled, though I had a suspicion I didn't really want to know the answer.
"That thing is related to the human tape-worm, except it lives in caves and crevices. Creatures great and small unsuspecting enter a cave, only the cave is infested with those monstrosities, and the unwary find themselves in the belly of that foul monster."
A man was frantically pulling a fire axe from its holder in the wall. The release of the axe triggered the fire alarms. Needless to say, we kept running until we entered the assembly room. Raiboothnar, frenzied, stood pounding the glass of the lectern with a hammer. As we three rushed up to the encased transporter, the fire alarms blasted away the sense of the Priestess's command to Raiboothnar. The pulsating shrieks of the sirens were underlined by the pounding of running feet and punctuated by human screams.
Seeing the Priest, Priestess, and me, Raiboothnar screamed something. The words twisted unheard in the din,but her intent was clear as she waved the hammer at us. The sprinkler system suddenly came on. The Priestess took advantage of the distraction and grabbed the hammer away from Raiboothnar. Then, to our revulsion, tiny but lethal snakes rained down upon us from the sprinkler system. Raiboothnar, crazed with fear, let out the most horrible, high-pitched scream I have ever heard. Her ear-splitting note matched the still sounding sirens. A new sound, the frantic clanging of bells, formed with the sirens and Raiboothnar's scream to bombard us with sonic pain.
The Priest snapped open the black case he carried; in it glinted the gold of a musical instrument. Deftly he lifted the segments of the instruments from the velvet interior, twisted them together, and placed a reed into the mouthpiece. He lifted the gleaming golden flute to his lips and played over and over the sweet sequence of pitches necessary for the breaking of the transporter's outer case. He played the notes unfalteringly as the vipers rained down upon us. Marvelous the flute's music was and distinctly audible through the curtain of noise. A long crack appeared in one panel of the outer case. The crack was accompanied by another and another until the contours of a tree, a willow tree, were cut in the glass by the sweet music, Crack after crack etched the willow's long sweeping limbs in the glass, until the shards could no longer hang in place and the panel splintered to the floor, skewering a few of the tiny vipers.
The Priest and Priestess were protected from the falling little snakes by their robes. I had no such protection, but by some miracle, the snakes did not manage to bite me as they fell against my skin. The Priest swept toward the case and pressed his ring into the lock, but Raiboothnar jumped at him and bit his hand. The case did not open. The Priestess tried to extricate the clawing, biting Raiboothnar from the Priest as he tugged the ring off his hand. Raiboothnar fought for the ring like a demon, but the Priest, thanks to the Priestess, managed to throw the ring to me. I missed the catch, and the ring fell to the floor among the litter of vipers. Appalled, I stared at it. Raiboothnar dove for the ring, screaming outrageously as the little snakes bit her. I scooped up the ring and, miraculously, the little snakes still did not bite me. I leaped to the case over Raiboothnar's writhing body, my own terror eschewing my compassion. I pressed the ring to the lock. The inner case opened and I grabbed the magic wand.
“Where dost thou wish to flee?" the Priestess called into my ear with her cupped hand as she flicked dials on the transporter.
"Zollocco!" I mouthed back at her so Raiboothnar would not hear.
The last I saw was the Priest reaching for the wand.

CHAPTER FOUR
The City of Waves

Where was I now? All of the buildings were shaped like triangles. One building was a series of adjoining pyramids. The streets were standard, gray, littered affairs, but there were round things set in the ground regularly at intervals. The things looked like eyes. I felt the street was looking at me. Something kept grabbing my throat. I realized my dress was on backwards, and for this reason the collar was choking me. I felt discombobulated from having been taken apart and put back together again. It seemed the magic wand had really been a transporter. I was glad of my escape but unsettled by the means. I wondered what besides my dress had been put back backwards. No fingers came out of my kneecaps. My long hair didn't hang out of my nostrils. My feet were attached to the correct legs. The street was empty, except for one middle-aged woman.

She came up to me. "I saw you materialize," she said, politely ignoring my backwards dress. "Are you hiding from the Toelakhan force?" I thought under the circumstances "yes' would be a good answer.

"Come, I shall give you dinner and a staying-place."

This was my first encounter with one of Leekimbee's dialects.
"My daughter and I live alone. She is bettering herself. She is learning Leekimbee. She tells me the Toelakhan force does horrible things. My daughter is a good girl. She studies hard."
I couldn't help smiling. I remembered how I used to wish to be far away from my world's troubles. You certainly get what you wish for. I never dreamed I would end up on a whole different planet, never mind a whole different solar system. The women continued chattering the whole time she led me to her apartment. I listened carefully to her dialect so that I could use it. She put accents on the first syllables rather than on the second. She used short words and short sentences, but rather than sounding choppy, her speech had a rhythmic kind of crash to it. K, cr, ch, and sh sounds were held onto much longer than other sounds. She also never used any words having to do with dryness. As we walked, I noticed there was lots of mildew on the buildings. I attempted to ask if the buildings were any drier on the inside. She simply did not comprehend the notion of dryness. Being allergic to mildew, I wasn't looking forward to living in this city.
"You speak a different dialect. Your home is on another planet. I won't ask you which planet. I know you must keep that a secret," the woman said.
"Um, thank you for your discretion."
She mentioned other planets so casually, I thought. Maybe I wasn't even on Ipernia any more.
`By the way, I am Mrs. Tarnis," smiled the woman as she plodded along.
"Pleased to meet you." I could tell that something had amused the woman. Had I done something wrong?
At her apartment, Mrs. Tarnis pointed out a room where I could, "make myself dinner-ready"---change my dress around, while she put on some soup for dinner. As soon as the aroma of the soup filled the air, Mrs. Tarnis's daughter came home. "Neighteeha, I have a surprise," called the mother to the daughter. Neighteeha wore thick glasses, mousy shoulder-length brown hair, and had a grim little mouth. "How do you do?" she smiled.
"How do you do?" I returned.
"A Leekimbee speaker?" Neighteeha asked her mother.
"She is hiding from the Toelakhan force."
Neighteeha, looked at me critically. "Who art thou? Speak you the Leekimbee, long? Are you going to hide here for long, or only until after The Waves?"
Neighteeha was testing me by asking each question in a different dialect. This was amusing because of course Leekimbee is not spoken with each sentence in a different dialect. Her last question was really funny because she was stripping her lexicon of words that had k, cr, ch, or sh sounds, obviously proud that she could break from her own tongue that way. I was going to have to answer in such a way as to demonstrate my greater mastery of Leekimbee, while not offending my hostesses. How I always hated being tested this way!
"By thy leave, I be but a weary traveler. A while have I spake the Leekimbee. How long I stay is this city is still up in the air. What do you mean by `The Waves'?" That should fix her I thought. I had corrected her errors, but answered each of her questions in the matching dialect.
"Mother we are honored! How easily she uses the dialects!" exclaimed Neighteeha, a little bit awed. "Why are those murderous leaches the Toelakhan hunting you?"
How could I answer? I couldn't possibly say that they wanted to sell me as a household pet.
"I can see you do not know what the answer is. They often havesuch crazy schemes that a quiet-lived person is suddenly, bloodthirstily, pursued. See mother, here is an example right here. Your secret is safe with us. I am devoting my life to foiling the Toelakhan's harassment of the Holy Forests." All of this was said by Neighteeha with utter determination and composure.
"Neighteeha, show our guest where she will be staying."
"Come, take heart, it is said those pursued by the Toelakhan already have entered a Forest."
If she only knew, I thought.