Cloud Walker, All Fools' Day, Far Sunset (70 page)

Paul cast his mind back desperately to the occupants of the
Gloria Mundi
. None of them had white hair. With the exception of the Swedish woman who had been – inevitably – blonde, all of them had been rather dark. And Ann – Ann’s hair had been quite black.

But there was something about the solitary woman on the bank, now only sixty or seventy metres away …

Paul had long ago decided on a plan of action if there were any
Gloria Mundi
survivors, able to move freely, in the Lokhali village. It was an extremely simple plan, but his resources were such that it was impossible to risk anything elaborate like a direct assault. For the atomic charge in the sweeper rifle was now ominously low.

However, there were still three factors in his favour: he had some element of surprise, he had a strange and powerful weapon, and he knew that the Lokhali didn’t like travelling on water.

Shon Hu and Zu Shan had already been warned to keep the barge steady on command. Now, if only …

The Lokhali had seen the barge; but though the women had come out of the water and the men had picked up their spears, no one seemed inclined to try to do anything about it. They just stood and stared – sullenly and intently. The woman with the white hair seemed to be concentrating her attention on Paul, and on the weapon he held.

With little more than forty metres separating the barge from the bank, Paul judged that now, if at all, he must make the attempt. Probably there were no Europeans left. And even if there were, the chances of being able to contact them, quite apart from rescuing them, would be pretty remote.

And yet … And yet … And yet, the woman with the white hair seemed to be meeting his gaze. That slight movement of the arm – could it be a discreet signal?

‘Gloria Mundi!
’ he shouted. ‘
Gloria Mundi!’
He raised the rifle and waved it. ‘Into the water – quick!
Venez ici! Kommen sie hier!
I’ll give covering fire!’

Suddenly, the woman with the white hair ran into the water, splashing and wading out to swimming depth. To Paul it seemed as if she were moving in horribly slow motion. But the miraculous thing was nobody looked like stopping her. Then a woman cried out and the spell was broken. A tall Lokhali swung his spear arm back, so did another. Then a third began to run after the
woman with white hair. The water was not yet up to her waist, and she still did not have free swimming room.

‘Hurry, damn you!’ he shouted. ‘Hurry!’

He sighted the rifle carefully over her head, fixing on the patch of water between her and the bank. He pressed the trigger.

The rifle whined feebly, faintly; and the water began to hiss and steam. The Lokhali who had tried to follow stopped dead. The two with spears ran towards him. The woman was already able to swim, and the bubbling water behind her had now turned into a water spout – effectively deterring pursuit and partly screening her from the men on the bank.

Then the sweeper rifle died. Its atomic charge had finally reached equilibrium.

The water spout subsided. All that was left to deter the Lokhali was a patch of very warm water – rapidly being carried downstream by the current – and a condensing cloud of steam.

One of the Lokhali hurled a spear. It fell almost exactly between the woman and the barge. By that time, she was less than twenty metres away from it, but she was making very slow progress and seemed curiously tired.

If Paul had stopped to think then, the tragedy might possibly have been averted. It did not occur to him until later that the spear might have been hurled not at the woman but at the barge.

But, without thinking, he flung the useless rifle down and dived into the water, hoping at least to create a diversion. It was not the diversion he had hoped for. Before he hit the water, the Lokhali on the bank had found their voices. By the time he had surfaced, they were being reinforced by other warriors from the village.

Another spear plunged into the river quite near to him, and then another. A few powerful strokes brought him to the woman. There was no time to try to discover who she was.

‘Turn on your back!’ he yelled. ‘I’ll tow you!’

Obediently, she turned over. He grasped her under the armpits and with rapid, nervous kicks propelled them both back to the barge. Suddenly, he felt a blow, and the woman shuddered, letting out a great sigh. He paid no attention to it, being intent only on getting them both to the comparative safety of the barge.

Somehow, he got her there.

As Shon Hu hauled her aboard, he saw the short spear that was sticking in her stomach and the dark rivulet of blood that pulsed over her brown flesh.

Then he hauled himself aboard and knelt there, panting with exertion, gazing at the contorted but still recognizable features of Ann.

‘Get it out!’ she hissed. ‘For God’s sake get it out!’

Then she fainted.

It was Shon Hu who took the spear out. Paul was trembling and crying and useless. And it was Zu Shan and Nemo who, between them, somehow managed to keep the barge on a steady course and pole it safely out of range of the Lokhali spears and away from the village.

Paul managed to pull himself together before she opened her eyes.

‘You were right, after all,’ she murmured. ‘It was an appointment in Samara, wasn’t it?’

For a moment, he didn’t know what she meant. Then it all came back to him. The
Gloria Mundi
. Champagne on the navigation deck after they had plugged the meteor holes. Philosophizing and speculating about Altair. Then Ann had told him about Finagle’s Second Law. And he had told her the legend of an appointment in Samara.

‘Ann, my dear … My dear.’ He looked at her helplessly. ’You’re going to be all right.’

With an effort, she raised herself up from the little pillow of skins that Shon Hu had managed to slip under her head. Paul supported her while she studied the wound in her stomach with professional interest.

‘It doesn’t hurt much, now,’ she said calmly. ‘That’s not a good sign. Some venous blood, but no arterial blood … That’s a bit of help … But I’m afraid I’m going to die … It may take time … You’ll have to help me, Paul. I may get terribly thirsty … Normally, I wouldn’t prescribe much liquid, but in this case it doesn’t matter … Of course, if you can plug it without hurting me too much, you’ll slow down the loss of blood.’

She leaned against him, exhausted. Gently, he lowered her to the pillow.

‘Any old plug will do,’ gasped Ann. ‘A piece of cloth, a piece of leather – anything.’

He tore a strip of musa loul, made it into a wad and tried to press it into the gaping wound.

Ann screamed.

Shon Hu made a sign to Zu Shan and drew his pole back into the barge.

He came and squatted by Ann, regarding her objectively. Then he turned to Paul. ‘Lord, what does the woman need?’

‘I have to press this into her wound,’ explained Paul. ‘But – but it hurts too much.’

‘Lord, this can be accomplished. Do what must be done when I give the sign.’

Expertly, Shon Hu placed his hands on each of Ann’s temples and pressed gently but firmly. For a moment or two, she struggled pitifully, not knowing what was happening. Then suddenly her eyes closed and her body became slack.

Shon Hu nodded and took his hands away. Paul pressed the wad firmly into the wound. Presently Ann opened her eyes.

‘I thought you must have gone back home, back to Earth,’ she murmured faintly. ‘It was the one satisfaction I had … Every night, I’d say to myself: Well, at least Paul hasn’t come unstuck. He’s on his way back home … What happened to the
Gloria Mundi?’

‘It blew itself up, according to the destruction programme, after the three of us left it to go and look for you and the others.’

Ann coughed painfully and held Paul’s hand tightly, pressing it to her breast. When the spasm was over, she said: ‘So the voyage has ended in complete disaster … What a waste it’s all been – what a terrible waste.’

‘No, it hasn’t,’ said Paul, then he looked down at her pain-twisted face and realized the stupidity of his remark. He began to stroke her white hair tenderly. ‘Forgive me. I’m a fool. But, Ann, I’ve discovered something so incredibly wonderful that – that it would seem to make any tragedy worthwhile … That’s a damnfool thing to say – but it’s true.’

She tried to smile. ‘You must tell me about your wonderful discovery … I would like very much to think that it’s all been worthwhile.’

‘You should rest. Try to sleep … You mustn’t talk.’

‘I’ll be able to sleep quite soon enough,’ she said grimly. ‘And you can do most of the talking … Now tell me about it.’

As briefly as he could, he told her about his capture by the Bayani and of the friendship that had developed between himself and Enka Ne, otherwise Shah Shan. He told her about Oruri, the ultimate god of the Bayani. Then, passing quickly over much that had happened since the death of Shah Shan, he told her of Nemo’s dreams, the legend of the coming, and how he finally made the journey to the Temple of the White Darkness. And, finally, he told her of his discovery of and encounter with the
Aru Re
.

Sometimes, while he was talking, Ann closed her eyes and seemed to drift off into unconsciousness. He was not quite sure how much she heard of his story – or, indeed, whether she could make much sense of it. But he went on talking desperately, because if she were not unconscious but only dozing, she might miss the sound of his voice.

As he talked, everything began to seem utterly unreal to him. He had never found the
Aru Re
. He was not even here on a barge, drifting on a dark river through a primeval forest, talking to a dying woman. He was dreaming.
Probably, he was still in suspended animation aboard the
Gloria Mundi
– and his spirit was rebelling, by creating its own world of fantasy, against that unnatural state that had nothing to do with either living or dying. And presently, he would be defrozen. And then he would become fully alive.

Suddenly, he realized that he had stopped talking and that Ann had opened her eyes and was looking at him.

‘Yes, I think you’re right,’ she said faintly, ‘It’s been worthwhile … I – I’m not sure I’ve got it all clearly in my head – my mind isn’t working too well. But if the part about the
Aru Re
means what I think, you’ve made the most wonderful discovery in all the ages … Oh, Paul … I’m so – so …’ her voice trailed away.

There were tears running down his face. ‘But I’ve got no one to tell it to,’ he burst out desperately, ‘no one, but—’ He stopped.

‘But a dying woman?’ Ann smiled. ‘Stay alive, Paul. Just stay alive … I’m afraid you’ve got the harder job.’

He bent and kissed her forehead. Great beads of sweat were forming on it. But the flesh was sadly cold.

‘I wish – oh, God, I wish I knew what happened to the others!’

If Ann had survived – at least until his stupid Galahad act – why could not some of the others have survived? If he could find them, no matter what happened afterwards, at least he would have human company. No! That was a bloody silly thing to think. He already had Zu Shan, Nemo, Shon Hu. All good, very good, human company. But still alien. Human but alien. Strangers on the farther shore …

‘You have accounted for three,’ said Ann in a weak voice. ‘I’m … so – so sorry, Paul. But I can account for the rest … It was on that very first night after we left the
Gloria Mundi?
’ She laughed faintly, but the laughter degenerated into a fit of coughing that hurt her badly; and it was some time before she could continue. ‘You remember we went to look for the Swedish, French and Dutch pairs … It was a long time before I found what happened to them, but I’ll tell you about that in a minute … Oh, God, Paul! We were so sure of ourselves – so clever! We were scientists. We had weapons. We had intelligence. The only thing we didn’t have was the thing we really needed – forest lore … We were so confident – such easy game … The three of us walked straight into a hunting party of these forest people – they call themselves the Lokh. We didn’t even fire a shot. They had us stripped of everything – all that lovely equipment just tossed away by savages – and trussed like turkeys in a matter of seconds … The Italian girl wouldn’t stop screaming, so they killed her … They weren’t being brutal. It was just their idea of self-preservation. They didn’t want to attract our friends, if any, or dangerous animals … Lisa – you remember Lisa? – she was very calm. But for her, I’d have probably gone the same way as Franca. But she made me keep still and quiet – no matter what they did to us … They weren’t cruel,
just inquisitive … We must have really baffled them … Anyway, they took us back to the village. They kept us prisoners for a while. Then we began to pick up some of the language. We tried to explain to them how we had come to Altair Five. But it was no use. They just refused to believe it … After a time, they let us have our freedom – more or less. After all, there was nowhere to go. We just didn’t have enough strength or knowledge … Poor Lisa. She poisoned herself … She just went round eating every damn fruit, flower or root she could find until she got something that did the trick. The Lokh didn’t know what she was up to. They thought it was very funny. She was the joke of the village … As for me, it seems ridiculous now, but I still found life very dear. So I just tried to make myself useful about the place … I began playing doctor – treating wounds, setting bones, that sort of thing … I think they got to like me … And that’s how it was until you came. The days just ran into one another. And there wasn’t any past, and there wasn’t any future. At one time, I thought I was going mad … But I wasn’t … And that’s all … And now it’s ending like this.’ She smiled. ‘Finagle’s Second Law – remember?’

Paul lifted her hand and kissed it. ‘Oh, my love. My poor love.’

‘Oh, yes, I was going to tell you about the others,’ she said. ‘The Stone Age got them. Isn’t that a joke? They had enough fire power to destroy an army, and the Stone Age got them.’

He looked at her, puzzled.

‘I’m sorry,’ murmured Ann. ‘I’m not being very coherent … There are some pretty dreadful beasts in the forest, and the Lokh protect their village by digging a ring of camouflaged pits around it. The camouflage is very good. I’ve nearly fallen into the damn things myself … They have these pits, with sharpened stakes sticking up in them, in various parts of the forest. Every now and then they go out to inspect them and see what they have caught … They took me out to one of the pits one day. There was some plastic armour, sweeper rifles, transceivers and – and six skeletons at the bottom … The twenty-first century defeated by the Stone Age … The Lokh thought they were being kind showing me what had happened to my companions … That was when I thought I might go mad.’