Dark Universe (11 page)

Lorenz was silent. But it was an adamant silence. It was readily audible he was going to insist the monsters and Zivvers were working together. And Jared could understand why: If the Adviser intended to accuse him of being a Zivver, he was going to make certain the accusation also included indirect blame for the presence of the monsters.

"I'm sure Della will want to hear your decision on Unification, my boy." Anselm took the Adviser by the arm and swept the curtain aside. "I'll send her in."

Jared coughed, spanned his steaming forehead with a trembling hand and shivered.

A short while later the girl entered and drew in a sharp breath as she stood with her back against the curtain.

"Jared!" she exclaimed with deep concern. "You're boiling! What's wrong?"

He was surprised at first that she could hear his fever all the way across the grotto. But fever was heat. And heat was the stuff Zivvers zivved, wasn't it?

"I don't know," he managed.

For a moment he had almost generated interest in the fact that she was here and zivving. And that now was his chance to listen closely and perhaps hear whether there was a lessness of something around her _while_ she zivved. But his purpose faded away in another jarring shiver.

Della closed the curtain securely behind her and came over. He turned his head and coughed and she knelt before him, feeling the heat in his arms and face. And he heard her features twist with concern.

But she pushed the expression aside for something that was evidently more urgent. "Jared, I'm sure the Adviser knows you're a Zivver!"

she whispered. "He hasn't come out and said so, but he keeps reminding everybody how remarkable your senses are!"

Jared swayed forward, caught himself and sat there trembling and perspiring, his head roaring, spinning.

"Don't you hear why he made you shoot at that target among the hot springs?" she went on. "He _knows_ what too much heat does to a Zivver!

He was just trying to find out if you--"

The girl's words faded into oblivion as he toppled forward off the bench.

When finally he awoke, there was the waning taste in his mouth of medicinal mold and the vague memory of having been forced to swallow the mushy substance several times.

Too, he sensed that during the entire period--or was it longer?--he had lain semiconscious in the Wheel's grotto, Kind Survivoress had tried to force her way back into his delirious dreams. Perhaps she had even succeeded. But he could recall neither her successful intrusion nor the dreams themselves.

Now he felt only an inner calm and comfort. His throat was smooth again and the pounding fever had left his head. Even if he was not entirely well, he felt certain that only a full return of his strength stood in the way of complete recovery.

Gradually, he became aware of restrained breathing at the other end of the grotto and recognized the rhythm and depth of the breaths as Della's.

There was the firm, supple sound of thigh and calf muscles working together as she paced--nervously, he could tell by the erratic steps--to the curtain and back again.

Then she came abruptly over to the slumber ledge and shook him desperately. "Jared, wake up!"

He could tell from the urgency in her voice that she had been trying to arouse him for some time.

"I'm

awake."

"Oh, thank Light!" Some of her hair had come out of the band that held it tightly behind her head and had fallen across her face. She brushed it aside and he got a clearer impression of smooth, precise features that were taut with solicitude.

"You've got to get out of here!" she went on in a strained whisper.

"The Adviser's convinced Uncle Noris you're a Zivver! They're going to--"

There was the sound of nearby conversation in the outside world and Jared heard the soft current of air swirl around her face as she jerked her head toward the curtain, then back again.

"They're coming!" she warned. "Maybe we can slip out before they get here!"

He tried to rise but fell back down, weak and puzzled, as he suddenly realized the girl didn't customarily bend an ear toward an interesting noise, as everyone else did. She always kept her face pointed directly at anything that held her attention. Which meant she didn't ziv with her ears! But, then, what _did_ she ziv with?

The voices outside came more clearly through the curtain now.

Adviser: "Of _course_ I'm dead certain he's a Zivver! As good a marksman as he is, he couldn't hit a simple stationary target in the manna orchard. And you know as well as I do that Zivvers are confused by excessive heat."

Wheel: "It _does_ seem incriminating."

Adviser: "And what about Aubrey? We sent him out to cover over that silent sound the monster left on the wall outside. That was two periods ago and he's been missing ever since. Who was the last one to hear him?"

Wheel, coughing hoarsely: "Byron says that when he ran back into the world, Fenton was still out there with Aubrey."

Adviser, sneezing: "There you are! And if you need any more proof that Fenton's a Zivver who has conspired with the monsters, you have one of our basic beliefs to go by."

Wheel: "The one that says any Survivor who consorts with Cobalt or Strontium will become deathly sick."

They stepped deliberately toward the grotto entrance.

Wheel, with a sniffle: "What'll we do with him?"

Adviser: "The Pit'll hold him for the moment." Another sneeze.

"Being a Zivver, he'll be worth something as a hostage, no doubt."

When they drew the curtain aside Jared heard several armed Protectors taking their posts outside the grotto.

Wheel Anseim came and stood beside Jared, edging Della aside.

"Has he made any wakeful noises yet?"

"He's not a Zivver!" she pleaded. "Let him alone!"

Jared heard that her face was turned directly toward the Wheel. And again he caught the fleeting impression of her hand brushing hair away from her forehead--away from her eyes, actually.

And now he remembered that just before she had handed him the tubular object the monsters had left behind, she had brought it up before her and held it on a level with her face.

It was her _eyes_ that she was zivving with!

Anselm seized his arm and shook him roughly. "All right--up off that ledge! We can hear you're awake!"

Feebly, Jared struggled to his feet. Lorenz seized his other arm, but he shook off the grip.

"Protectors!" the Adviser shouted anxiously.

And the guards hurried in.

Although he hadn't thought it possible, the Upper Level Punishment Pit was worse than the one in Jared's own world. It occurred to him that it would be hard to imagine a more terrible penalty for wrongdoing. As a detention facility, it was escapeproof. The ledge on which he lay was fully two body lengths below the surface. And it was much narrower than his shoulders, so that an arm and leg had to dangle over the abyss.

Lowered there by rope, he lay motionless for hundreds of heartbeats--until his limbs had become numb. Then, cautiously, he had dropped one of his clickstones into the hole. It had fallen--fallen--fallen.

And many breaths later, after he had given up hope of listening to the impact, there was the faintest _kerplunk_ he had ever heard.

From remote distances came the sounds of late period activity--children at play after their Familiarization session, manna shells scraping slabs during mealtime, and a staccato frequency of coughs.

Eventually, the echo caster was turned off for the sleep period and, still later, Della came.

On a cord she lowered a shell filled with food. Then she lay with her head overhanging the mouth of the Pit.

"I almost convinced Uncle Noris you couldn't be a Zivver," she whispered disappointedly, "until that epidemic got him excited all over again."

"That sneezing and coughing?"

The steady flow of her voice wavered as she nodded her head.

"They ought to be taking mold, like we did. But Lorenz's telling them it won't work against Radiation sickness."

She fell silent and he let the manna shell clatter against the wall of the Pit. Intercepting the sharp echoes, he quickly put together a composite of the girl's features. And even more than before, he liked what he heard.

The general configuration was soft and confident. Her hair, slicked back from her forehead, had a pleasant sound and gave her face a sleek, delicate tonal balance. Somehow the total impression had much in common with the wistful music she had stroked from the hanging stones.

And he fully heard now how desirable she was for Unification.

He brought another shelled crayfish to his mouth, but paused when he realized that even now she must be zivving. Again he let the bowl strike rock to produce more sounding echoes. And he heard that her face was directed fixedly toward him. He could almost feel the intense steadiness of her eyes.

Now was hardly the time, though, to listen for whatever happened to the things about her whenever she zivved. If there were a lessening of something or other, he certainly wouldn't be able to detect it while clinging precariously to the ledge.

Nevertheless, he did seize upon one fact that had, at the moment, become clear: Since both Darkness and Light were probably connected with the eyes--perhaps especially with a Zivver's eyes--then the lessness he was listening for would no doubt have a measurable effect _on_ the eyes.

Wait! There _was_ something--back in the Wheel's grotto, when Della had bent over him to shake him awake. Some of her hair had fallen over her face. And when she had brushed it aside, wasn't there then _less hair_ before her eyes?

He slumped with a tinge of futility. No--Darkness couldn't be as simple a thing as hair. That would be too ironic--listening for something he had known all his life. Anyway, Cyrus had said Darkness was universal, everywhere. That meant he would have to listen over a broad area, all around the girl.

"Jared," she said tentatively. "You're not--I mean you and the monsters aren't--"

"I haven't had anything to do with them."

Her breath escaped with a relieved sound. "Are you from-- the Zivver World?"

"No. I've never been there."

The echoes of his words captured her depressed expression.

"Then you've spent your whole life hiding the fact you're a Zivver--just like me," she said sympathetically.

There was no point in not encouraging her confidence. "It hasn't been easy."

"No, it hasn't. Knowing how much better you can do things, but having to listen to yourself carefully every step of the way so others won't find out what you are."

"I pushed it to a fine point--too fine, I suppose. Otherwise I wouldn't be down here now."

He heard her hand slide down along the side of the Pit, as though reaching out for him. "Oh, Jared! Does it mean as much to you--finding out you're _not_ alone? I never guessed anybody else had to go through the same gestations of Radiation and fear that I did--always afraid of being found out at the next step."

He could appreciate the close relationship she must feel for him, the way her loneliness was crying out. And he sensed something within himself straining toward the girl, even though he was no Zivver in need of sympathetic response.

She went on effusively, "I don't understand why you didn't go hunting for the Zivver World long ago. I would have. But I was always afraid I wouldn't find it and would get lost in the passages."

"I wanted to go there too," he lied. And it was beginning to appear that he _could_ play the role of a Zivver simply by following her lead. "But I have an obligation to the Lower Level."

"Yes, I know."

"I don't hear--that is, I don't ziv why you didn't join up with the Zivvers during one of their raids," he said.

"Oh, I couldn't do _that_. What if I tried and the Zivvers wouldn't take me? Then everybody would know what I am. I'd be driven into the passages as a Different One!"

She rose and stood zivving down into the Pit.

"You're leaving?" he asked.

"Only until I can figure out some way to help you."

"How long do they intend keeping me here?" He tried to change position but succeeded only in almost slipping off the ledge.

"Until the monsters come back. Then Uncle Noris is going to let them know we have you as a hostage."

Listening to her footfalls recede, he was fascinated with the whole range of things that might come out of his association with the girl. Even if Light and Darkness remained elusive, he at least might learn something about this intriguing ability the Zivvers had.

It was past midsleep when Eared, his muscles cramped and aching, finally managed to ease himself into a sitting position. He tapped the manna shell against rock and listened. It wasn't a very wide hole--about two body lengths across, he estimated. And he could hear that, except for the ledge on which he perched, the sides were barren of fissures and outcroppings that might have provided handholds toward the surface.

He brought a knee up against his chest and secured his foot on the shelf. Then, with arms outstretched against the slick wall, he rose bit by bit until he was standing. Slowly, he turned around, pressing his chest against the rock. Reaching overhead, he produced sharp tones by snapping his fingers. And the sudden drop-off in the sound pattern told him that the rim of the Pit was at least another arm's length beyond his extended hand.

He remained in that position for several hundred beats before he heard all Radiation breaking loose above. Until then there had been only the normal sounds of a world lying dormant in midslumber, with an occasional outburst of coughs ruffling the relative quiet.

Then everything seemed to boil over into a great excitement and confusion as one of the Protectors sounded the fearful warning, "Monsters!

Monsters!"

Hoarse shouts, screams, and the audible agitation of people scurrying frenziedly about poured down the Pit.

Jared almost lost his balance as he tilted his head back and became aware that the entire opening above was whispering with silent sound.

Unlike the sensation experienced during Effective Excitation, however, there was only one circle of the weird monster stuff. And it didn't seem to be actually touching his eyes. Rather, it corresponded in size and shape with his audible impression of the Pit's mouth.