Lord Tyger (40 page)

Eeva smiled knowingly and said, "I doubt that that hut would have lasted that long. Or that anybody came through here. How could they have made their way up against the river?"

"Gilluk said that there was once a path through the caves in the mountain and that it went alongside the river and up above it. Also, at that time, the river was smaller."

"Perhaps," Eeva said. "Anyway, there is no Wise Old Magician here."

"Then I don't know who Wuwufa and Gilluk talked to when they came here as young men to get power and wisdom," Ras said.

"Oh, yes? And how did
they
get back up the river against that current?" she said.

"I do not know. But there is a way. Wizozu told Wuwufa and Gilluk how to get back safely, but he also made them promise to tell no one else."

Eeva tossed her head impatiently and said, "All this talk will settle nothing. Let's see what's in the hut."

"You stay here until I say you can come on up," he said. "Wizozu does not like women. They drain him of his power and his wisdom. He kills them as soon as he smells them."

Eeva rolled her eyes with disgust, but she sat down on a
relatively smooth rock. He walked up the slope toward the hut. The canyon was quiet except for the rush of waters. There were no birds on the island or in the air and no plants whatsoever on the island. The sun, almost directly overhead, filled the canyon with light, but he had the impression of darkness brimming up from the waters.

The statues, carved from tree trunks, were twice as tall as he. Some had the bodies of frogs or crocodiles or leopards or unknown beasts. Most of the heads were half man, half animal. There were some carved heads mounted on tops of poles.

The hut beyond them was round and about twenty feet in diameter. Now that he was closer, he could see that most of the walls on this side were of thin slats of wood. The doorway was large and covered by a thin cloth of some material he could not identify at this distance. But he could see that something huge and black was on the other side of the curtain.

Gilluk had said that the ancient magician sat on the other side of the curtain and talked to him with a voice like the bellow of Baastmaast.

Gilluk had also said that his uncle had come here to gain extra power and wisdom so that he could slay Gilluk's father, but that the uncle had never returned. And when Gilluk had gone to the island, he had found his uncle's bones--which he recognized by their association with his uncle's war club--lying outside the hut. Vishshush had told him to throw his uncle's bones into the water and also to throw the other bones away. Vishshush had not told him why he had killed the uncle, and Gilluk did not feel like asking him.

If Gilluk's story was true, he had left the island bare of
bones. Yet there was now a skeleton lying on the path about twenty feet from the hut. The skull and the bones looked as if they were Wantso. There were no weapons in sight.

Ras passed by the first statue, which was polished mahogany and represented a frog with a gorilla-like head. It must have weighed at least a ton, and this caused Ras to think of the power that Wizozu must possess to have been able to bring this heavy statue onto this island.

He went past the statue. The closer he got to the hut and the curtain behind which Wizozu bulked so blackly, the more nervous he became. He stopped once to glance back at Eeva, to make sure that she was obeying him but also to draw some comfort and courage from the fact that another human was in this place.

He turned away from her and took a step, and then stopped again. He felt even colder, and the hairs on his neck became stiffer, if that were possible. The gorilla-faced frog statue had been looking down toward the end of the island when he had passed it. Now it was facing him.

The body had not moved, but the head had swiveled.

He stood for a minute without moving, and then walked on toward the hut. He had expected strange and wonderful and frightening phenomena, so why should he hesitate?

But he heard Eeva calling him and turned around. She was running to him and shouting something. He angrily waved her back, but she kept on coming. When she was twenty feet from him, she said, "That statue's head turned, Ras! It turned!"

"I know it!" he shouted. "I know it! Go back before Wizozu kills you!"

"But you don't understand! It..."

The voice that roared from the hut was as he had imagined Igziyabher's would be. It bellowed louder than Baastmaast; it carried up the canyon and was bounced off a rock wall and came back at him. It seized him with terror; it numbed him.

It spoke in a tongue that he did not recognize for a minute. It was as different from Eeva's English and his, as his was from hers.

"Ras Tyger! Kill the woman! I, Wizozu, command you to kill her!"

Ras came out of his numbness as if he had just left the cold waters of the lake. He turned toward the hut and the huge, dark presence within it. He shouted, "Wizozu! Why should I kill the woman who has saved my life and whom I love?"

The voice was silent for a moment. Eeva said, "Ras! This whole thing..."

The voice carried her words away as if they were chips of wood on a cataract.

"Ras Tyger! Do you want to see your foster parents again, your Mariyam and Yusufu? I, Wizozu, can bring up their ghosts and you can see and talk to them again!"

Eeva screamed, "Ras! It's all a trick! Look up at the top of the cliff up there! You can see the television tower up there! The statue must have a TV camera in its head, and there must be other cameras! And that voice is coming over a loud-speaker! Ras!"

He did not know what she meant by
television
or
TV
or
loud-speaker
. But, looking at the edge of the cliff at which she was pointing, he could see a tall, branchless tree with long, stiff arms poking out of the top.

The voice bellowed, "Do not delay, Ras! Kill her at once! She
is not the woman for you! Another woman is to be your true mate, a beautiful virgin! She has been prepared for you; she is worthy of you! Kill this slut, this vessel of impurity! Kill her at once!"

Ras shouted back, "What do you mean, Great Wizozu, when you say that another woman is to be my true mate, that she has been prepared for me? And what do you mean when you say that this woman, Eeva, is a vessel of impurity? She isn't diseased. I know, because I have lain with her. When she's had a bath and gotten some food in her belly and some sleep, she is sweet indeed! Although a crocodile's heart in her helps a lot!"

Wizozu roared angrily, "Do not talk such obscenities, Ras! Or I will kill you, too! Do as I say! I know what is best for you! Do not argue! I know! Kill that woman!"

"And if I do not kill her?" Ras yelled.

"Then I, Wizozu, may kill you! I will punish you in some way, you may be sure of that! For instance, if you do not kill her, I will not let you see and talk to the ghosts of your foster parents!"

"What do you mean, you won't let me talk to their ghosts?"

Even in the shock from Wizozu's statement, he noticed that Wizozu had called both Mariyam and Yusufu his foster parents. Was Mariyam, then, not his true mother? If she was not, who was?

"Can you really summon the dead from the underworld?"

"I do not talk idly!" the voice boomed.

"Show me. And then I will kill Eeva, if you can do what you say!"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Eeva, breast-deep in the water, hanging on to the rocks along the island's edge. She put a finger to her lips, and she waded slowly on by him. Apparently,
she was going to try to attack Wizozu from the rear with her bare hands. Her courage was admirable, certainly, but her common sense was lacking.

Ras said, "O Wizozu! Let me see Mariyam and Yusufu and Wilida, and then I will say whether or not I will kill Eeva! I must make sure that you can do what you promise!"

Wizozu was silent for a long time. His shadowy bulk did not move behind the curtains. Eeva was out of sight now. He wished that he could tell her to return to the dugout. He would take care of Wizozu--one way or another.

He sweated in the sun while he waited for Wizozu to answer. The white rocks of the island and the nearby black walls of the canyon seemed to intensify the midday heat. A slight wind was at his back, but it did not cool him. The silence became difficult to bear, and finally he opened his mouth to speak. He had to say something. However, before he could get a word out, he was stopped by Wizozu's roaring.

"Very well! It doesn't matter whether she dies now and by your hand, or later! You shall see your beloved dead! And then you shall know that I tell you the truth, and that I am so powerful that no one can oppose me!"

"Not even Igziyabher?"

Wizozu paused a few seconds and then said, "Igziyabher has given me power to do as I wish! I am His representative here!"

"I want to see Him!" Ras said. "I have many questions!"

"Ask the dead!" bellowed the voice. "Look, Ras!"

"Look where?"

"To your left! At the big boulder!"

Ras turned toward the nearest boulder, thirty feet away. It
was of granite and about eight feet high and ten feet wide. It had appeared to be solid, but now a vertical seam split it in half, and then the two parts swung outward until they fully exposed the hollow interior. This contained a smaller boulder, on top of which was a granite cup carved in the form of a bird. Behind the boulder was a tall, curved, gray spout, still dripping. The spout sank back and slid downward and disappeared behind the small boulder.

"Drink from the stone bird, Ras!" Wizozu said. "Drink, and in a short time you will see your beloved dead!"

Ras did not hesitate. He walked to the boulder and picked up the stone bird by its outstretched stone wings. Its hollowed back contained water. Ras lifted the cup so that the water ran out of the hollow down a channel carved on top of the neck of the bird. The water shot down the channel and into a hole in the back of the head and poured out through the open beak and into Ras's mouth.

He had expected some strange taste, but the liquid seemed to be only water. He drank the bird dry, set it down on the flat top of the boulder, and then, as directed by Wizozu, stepped back. The two parts of the greater boulder swung toward each other until the boulder seemed a solid rock again.

Ras waited. He felt nothing except some apprehension and, after a few minutes, disappointment. Wizozu, however, thundered at him to be patient. Meanwhile, he should think about the ghosts of those he wished to see, and soon enough they would come.

He waited while the sun began to slide downward toward its black bed. Soon, he saw a patch of yellow to his right, beyond Wizozu's hut, on the edge of the back of the island, where it suddenly curved off. The yellow rose, and it was followed by
Eeva's forehead, eyes, and nose. Ras wanted to wave her back but did not dare. He was in an agony because he was sure that Wizozu would soon see her and then all would be over for her. The heads of several of the statues had been moving, but now they centered their gaze on Eeva.

Suddenly, the barrel of a machine gun stuck out of an opening on the side of the hut toward Eeva. Ras could see its extreme end as it lowered.

He shouted at Eeva and ran forward.

Wizozu boomed, "Back, Ras! You are forbidden to come any nearer!"

Ras continued to charge. Sections of the bamboo wall on both sides of the doorway fell back, and a machine-gun barrel poked out of each opening. The great, dark bulk of Wizozu did not move behind the curtains, but the voice became even louder and its tones were more urgent.

"Back, Ras! I don't want to kill you! You don't know what you're doing!"

Then the machine guns on the side nearest Eeva--he could see two sticking out now--exploded, and fire leaped from them. Dust and chips walked across rocks toward Eeva's head as if an invisible giant with iron-hard bird-feet were striding across the island.

Eeva withdrew her head. Ras kept on running, although he expected the guns pointed at him to start firing. He cast his knife, and it went through the narrow opening between the curtains, and plunged into the great body of Wizozu, seated upon a huge metal chair. He was close enough now to see the head of the sorcerer. It was four times as large as his, black, eared with wings,
benosed with a forked horn, eyed with purple glass, mouthed with knives.

Ras wrenched his knife out of the soft, cloth body, and jumped into the center of the hut. The machine guns were no longer a danger; they had turned inward as far as they could go and now looked cross-eyed at each other. They had not fired once.

Wizozu bellowed so loudly that Ras's ears hurt. "Get out! Get out! I'll kill you! Aren't you afraid of anything?"

The voice came, not from Wizozu's mouth but from a big, metal horn-thing attached to a curved metal bar above the doorway.

The unknown controller, whoever he was, wherever he was, was powerless to hurt Ras now. Ras could not hurt him yet, but he was determined to destroy the trickery of the man who had deceived him into thinking that the Wantso had killed his parents.

He examined the hut, understood little of what he saw, but found a chest containing some devices he did understand. These were a large sledge hammer and a crowbar. With these he first wrecked the machine guns still firing at Eeva or at where she had been. He tore down the other machine guns--two on each side of the hut, and he smashed in the blind, glassy eyes on all the metal boxes inside the hut. The first one exploded, spraying glass all over the hut, but he was standing to one side when he smashed it and so was not touched. Thereafter he took care not to be in front of the one-eyeds. Eeva, entering the hut then, stopped him when he was going to cut a cable with a pair of bolt cutters.

"There is lightning in that cable," she said. "It kills as surely as lightning in the sky."

She searched until she found a trap door, and went
down into it. Ras watched her, saw her light up the cellar with a flick of a button, saw the big, metal whirring things, smelled an unpleasant odor that she said was petrol, then watched the whirring metal things die as she pulled down on a thing that shot sparks when it came loose from another thing of metal.