Serpent's Silver (14 page)

His thought faded out, distracted by the serpent’s feeding. The rock had a peppery taste. Seasoned with silver. The bad aspect of it was that he was beginning to like it. The worst of it was that he thought of the ingesting and could not otherwise concentrate. The serpent nature was taking over.

“Kian?” Lonny asked.

“Yes, Lonny.” He had to be careful. He wanted to merge with her, and he doubted that he should. Because their mergence would be but the prelude to mergence with the serpent, and that would be the end of their humanity. Somehow he must get out of this body and into his own and go back to his home frame and Rud and find the girl she resembled. Only—how long had it been?

“Kian, do you think we can ever return? Be in our own bodies again?”

“Of course! What a question.” Yet it was only the echo of his own doubt. His belief in that return was diminishing, but he didn’t want to discourage her. He thought of the words of a song and tried singing it to her: “Oh, bring back, bring back, bring back my body to meeeee.” It was a parody he had sung as a child, but it would do.

“I’m afraid, Kian! I just want to taste the silver and feel our body working.”

“Not
our
body, Lonny! Get that out of your head!” Of course she had no head of her own at the moment, but it was no time to quibble about terms. “You’re human, not serpent! You’re a beautiful girl!”

“Am I, Kian? Do you really think that?”

“Of course it’s true! Of course! I’m going to marry someone who looks just like you. I’m going to—” He fought back a surge of doubt. “I’m going to—to return.”

“You really think so, Kian?”

“Yes, we’re both going to return.” How, he had no idea, but he had to cling to the belief.

“I mean, that I’m beautiful?”

“Yes, yes, I told you.”

“You really mean it?”

He laughed, the mental version even more natural than the physical one. How could she doubt that? Their possible escape might be hard to believe, but her beauty was certain! “Of course!”

She evidently picked up more of that thought than he had intended. “You find me beautiful,” she said, believing. “And you would like to—to hold me and kiss me and—”

“I didn’t say that!” he protested.

“But it’s true, isn’t it?”

He discovered to his surprise that it was. He wanted to do it all with her. “Yes, but—”

“Yet you will marry this other girl?” Now she was angry. He felt the surge of it, and he could not deny the justice of it.

“I have to, Lonny. I can’t marry you. I’m from another frame. That just wouldn’t be right.”

“Not right?”

“My—my father came to our frame from another, and—” He tried to sort out the immense skein of complications that his father’s consortion with two women of Rud had generated. Kian himself was one result, and Kelvin another. What mischief. Was he to spread it farther by doing the same thing?

“Kian, Kian, I love you!” she cried, and the emotion washed through him, demolishing his bastion of objectivity as a wave destroys a castle of sand.

“I love you, Lonny,” he replied helplessly.

“I want to—to do those things with you. To hold you, and kiss you, and—”

“No!”

“And make love to you,” she concluded. “And you feel the same.”

It was as though they were blending, melding like silver. He knew he must not allow that. He tried to resist, but simply could not think. “We—we have no bodies,” he said desperately. Was that a commitment to do it at such time as they did recover their bodies? Then how could he return to his own frame? He was lost either way.

“Oh, Kian!”

“Oh, Lonny, I did not mean to—”

“I think we can do it now, Kian. Let me try.”

“Now? But—”

Then he felt her kiss on his lips. He might not have a mouth, but he had the awareness of his human anatomy, and so did she, and it was certainly a kiss.

He tried once more to resist. “We shouldn’t—”

She embraced him. Her spirit within the serpent interacted with his, and the sensation was exactly like a physical embrace, only more so, because there was nothing to get in the way. In physical bodies there could be no complete understanding; people more or less pretended that they understood each other, but it could be deceptive, as it had been with his father and his mother. His father had hardly known his mother at all. But here there were no physical barriers. He knew Lonny was speaking truly, and she knew he was not. The act of sex, physically, was said to be knowledge, but it could be nothing like this!

He gave up the unequal struggle. “Oh, Lonny! Lonny, Lonny, Lonny!” In one sense he was speaking her name, but in another he was speaking her essence, in that repetition possessing her and being possessed by her.

“Kian, Kian, Kian!” And she of him, similarly.

They no longer fought it at all. They came together, more intimately than either had imagined possible, and—

With a slurping, sucking motion daylight broke into their one functioning eye. Jolted out of their incipient mergence, they raised their silver head to the setting sun and breathed in through their nostrils and the air passages covered by their scales. They undulated, crawled, and wriggled out of the rock tunnel they had made.

Boys with big floppy ears were there for them. They shivered all their length, anticipating gentle touches, the soothing strokes, the exhilarating yet calming scent.

The boys held out their blossoms and touched their nostrils with the pink and blue flowers. They sucked in the scent in great waves. It filled their being, taking away all doubt and hope and questions. Taking away, finally, all sense of duality, and of self. They were one with the serpent.

Chapter 14

The Cliffs

JAC HESITATED OUTSIDE THE tent flap, dreading to go inside. Death had always been upsetting, though he had seen enough of it in his time. He thought of Heeto and the girl sitting in there side by side watching the body. He wanted her badly, but there could be no mistaking where her heart was. He would try to comfort her, and then, if the stranger’s body had deteriorated the least little bit, he would bury him himself. Steeling himself for an unpleasant sight, he pushed on into the tent.

The sight that met his eyes was shocking, even to him. The lovely, recently intended sacrifice was stretched out by the body of the stranger, and both were apparently dead. She had joined him in suicide!

Heeto sat cross-legged by their heads, a leather fan in his hands. There were no buzzing flies.

“Master, I could not stop her! She took the berries. She followed him.”

Trembling, Jac wiped perspiration from his forehead. The bodies were so perfect! All day long and no bloat and no smell. That beautiful face, that perfectly formed body, that had to go into the ground before it began to rot. Burying the bodies was going to be the most unpleasant task he had performed in his life. Yet it had to be done, and quickly.

“When did she—?”

“This morning, Master. Just after you left.”

He had had to choose this day to get supplies for the camp. He should have known that Lonny had something like this in mind, and taken those berries away before she got to them. Yet he had also had to get his mind off the problem, and work or activity helped.

“We’d better—” He choked on the word “bury” and simply motioned at them.

“Master, I do not believe that they are dead.”

“They’re not breathing. Have they any heartbeats?”

Heeto shook his head. “No breathing, no heartbeats, but also no stink and no bugs.”

“I’m not sure that means anything, Heeto.” Yet maybe, just possibly, it did.

“I’ve touched them, Master. I have taken their hands. It’s strange, Master, but I felt something besides their cold flesh. I was floating, Master, or felt I was floating, though I did not leave this tent. I was somewhere dark. There were rocks about, and dirt, and I could feel them the length of my body. It was not her body and it was not his; it was a serpent’s.”

“A serpent’s!”

“Yes, Master. I waited to tell you. I thought that perhaps—”

“Yes, yes, I want to try!”

“That is not what I mean, Master. I thought that perhaps you would know.”

“I know only what the stranger Kian told me. But if a serpent has them—has their spirits—”

“Is that possible, Master?”

“I don’t know.” He sat down by the dwarf, took a good grip on his feelings, and reached for Lonny’s hands.

They were cold, but there was no stiffness. Proof, perhaps, that this was not actually death. He gripped the hands and closed his eyes. “Is this the way you did it, Heeto?”

“Yes, Master, but that was this morning. I had not the courage to try it again. Perhaps it will not work now. Perhaps I only imagined it.”

“No, no. something’s happening! I sense black and roughness and—a taste.”

“A taste. Master?”

“Dirt! Bah, ugh! Now a more peppery taste. Silver! Silver ore! She likes it; he doesn’t. They’re inside it, inside the serpent!”

“I told you, Master!”

“Now I’m seeing something. Something through an eye. One eye. The serpent’s eye!”

“Only one eye, Master?”

“Yes, only one. Now she and he are talking—talking in the serpent. I don’t know the words, I don’t know what they are saying, but… they seem to be—” He swallowed, disliking this, but obliged to recognize the truth of it. “They are attracted to each other. They are kissing, and embracing, and—” He took a deep breath. “And they seem to be merging, mingling as one mind. It’s like sex, only so strange, and—” How he wished he were the one experiencing that! “Now—oh! Light! Outside, ground. Boys with flowers, extending them toward the eye. The flowers touch the nostrils, it breathes in and—”

He pulled himself away, dropping her hands. It was an experience he had never imagined. He looked at Heeto and the bodies, and he trembled and shook in every part.

“Are you all right, Master?” Heeto’s hands were on him, touching his face.

He continued to shake. “It’s—it’s—I think it’s digesting them!”

“Then they will die?”

He tried to still his shaking hands. “I think they must! I think they must! And, Heeto, this is mad, but—I think the one-eyed serpent is the one he killed!”

“Killed, Master? With your spear? In the eye socket?”

“That’s the one! The very one! I’d swear to it!”

“Calm down, Master! Calm down!”

“We can’t bury them, Heeto. Not until, until—”

“Until morning?”

“Until we have to! Until we know they are gone for good and there is only the serpent left.”

“Master, that’s so, so sad.”

“Very sad, Heeto,” he agreed heavily. “Very, very sad.” With difficulty he got his hands to stop shaking. It was such a monstrous thing to think of her there. To imagine her spirit, or “astral self,” as Kian Knight had called it, becoming a part of that gigantic serpent.

“We will leave the bodies in the tent for as long as we can. For now, we’d better sleep outside.”

“There’s nothing we can do, Master? Nothing to save them?”

“Nothing I know of,” he said, wishing it were otherwise.

*

That night there was no way he could sleep. He kept throwing off his blanket, getting up, pacing, and then lying down again. All he could think about was her, she of the beautiful eyes and long, flowing blond hair. If only there were some way to save her, to bring that splendid body of hers back to life.

At dawn he moved quietly about the camp so as not to awaken anyone. He got his best and biggest spear and tiptoed with it to his horse. He saddled and bridled the mare, rubbed her muzzle, and called her “Betts, my pet.” He fastened the spear to the saddle with his best rope and walked the mare until they were clear of the camp. He hiked up his sword, mounted, and rode at an easy walk. He had gone only a short distance when he heard the other horse. Turning around, he was quite surprised to see Heeto riding after him. He waited. The dwarf pulled up.

“Master, I want to go with you. I brought this.” He held up the weapon Kian Knight had brought with him from another world, lost, and then found again. The “worthless weapon” to its former owner, though he had not relinquished it. A Mouvar weapon was still a Mouvar weapon.

“What good do you think that will be?”

“I don’t know, Master. I just brought it.”

“Do you know that I do not expect to return?”

“If you do not, I will not.”

They rode on for Serpent Valley and its great curve of surrounding cliffs.

*

There were holes in the cliffside that he had seen before, some large, some small, many in between. The mist was still heavy as they approached. Jac kept glancing back at Heeto, adjusting his spear.

The largest hole in solid rock might have been made by the serpent they were after. But if they rode down it, would they find the serpent? Did the serpents use the same tunnels? It was surprising how little they actually knew about the serpents or about the flopears who guarded them. Yet morning after morning he had slipped into the valley to collect discarded serpentskins before the flop-eared boys arrived to pick them up. Sooner or later he might have been caught, almost certainly would have been, but now he sought a confrontation. The outcome of that would mean his death and Heeto’s as well, but it might also mean the extinction of the life force in the serpent.

A slithering sound came from one of the larger holes. He motioned for Heeto to follow him and rode his horse into one of the smaller holes facing the larger one. They waited as the sound grew nearer. Then a stir of darkness within the larger hole, and the serpent’s head appeared. As he started and stared at it, he saw that one eye was damaged; he could still see the wounds the spearhead had made.

Not giving himself a chance to think, he spurred his horse and charged with spear poised to stab into that remaining orb.

The serpent’s head came up. It hissed, long and low, disturbing the morning mists. The eye, that single strange eye, bored at him. In that dark mirror he saw her face, and on the instant of that seeing he was paralyzed.

The serpent wriggled out of its tunnel. Its great mouth opened. Drops of acid formed on its fangs and dripped to the ground, hissing.

Jac saw but could not comprehend what was happening. He was frozen in place, unwilling to move or to think of moving; his mare, being but mortal, was in similar shape. Together their eyes saw the huge head advancing, lifting back, the mouth opening wide. There was no will or thought left for avoiding the strike; still less for making an attack.

*

Back in the dark Heeto saw his master ride out with raised spear. He saw the serpent’s head rise up, though the mist fogged the details. He saw the horse stop; both horse and rider were motionless. Both were awaiting death. He saw death emerge from the hole in front of them as the serpent drew the rest of its body out and made ready to strike. They did not move.

It must not happen! He had to help! Hardly thinking what he did, Heeto pulled out the weapon from another world and raised it until it pointed over Master’s head at the gigantic head of the serpent. He pressed the trigger on the weapon, as if this would accomplish anything. He knew the weapon didn’t work; the stranger had said so.

Bright light filled the tunnel and splashed outside. Heeto was blinded by it; he felt as if that light struck right through his head! There was a WHOOMPTH noise, loud and unexpected and somehow echoing on and on instead of ending. His fingers loosened on the weapon. It slid from his hand and dropped to the floor. Unheeding, he placed his hands over his eyes, and he screamed less from pain than from shock.

Stillness.

He put down his arms. He could see again, his vision clearing by the moment. He took up the horse’s reins. In the mists that were rapidly dissipating he could see both Master and horse and the swaying form of the otherwise motionless serpent.

He rode out, hardly thinking, blinking his eyes against the mist.

The serpent remained frozen in striking position; it seemed almost a statue of itself. His master suddenly jerked, and his horse jumped, almost throwing him.

“Master, Master, kill it!”

His master got the mare controlled, raised his spear to the eye, and looked directly into the eye. “She’s not there, Heeto! I can’t see her now. She’s gone back to camp!”

“Master!” Heeto cried, hardly believing.

“I don’t know what happened. It’s not moving. Maybe it’s dead.”

A great slithering sound came from the neighboring holes. Serpents coming out to them! Master looked as dazed as Heeto felt, perhaps even more so.

“Let’s get out of here, Master! Now, while there’s a chance!”

Master’s mouth worked, as if his jaws were still partially paralyzed. Finally he nodded, and together they took off at as great a speed as their mounts could carry them.

*

Kian opened his eyes and stretched. Above him was the familiar roof of the tent; under him, the bearver hide. He turned his head to the right, expecting to see Jac, and instead saw Lonny’s lifeless form.

Even as he sat up with a cry of horror, her breathing started and her color returned. She stared at him, then sat up as abruptly as he had.

“Kian!” Spots of red came to her cheeks. “Kian, we—”

He thought rapidly, trying to deny it to himself. Wishing despite himself that it could be true, yet knowing it was not. “It must have been an illusion that we were together,” he concluded. “How could we be alive, without bodies, in the serpent? But even if it wasn’t a dream, it hardly matters. It wasn’t as though we were lying here joined. Astral bodies are like bodies we dream. Whatever they are, they don’t count.”

“Don’t they, Kian?” She sounded faintly disappointed.

“No, not really.” But was that the truth? If any part of what he remembered so clearly were true—and it had
felt
so true!—what did it mean? “But what happened? The last I remember we were—” Now he felt himself blushing. “Together in the serpent.” More than together. They had been making love! More than love.

“I remember after that,” she said almost eagerly. “I remember seeing Jac. He was on his horse and he had a spear and… and then there was a light.”

“I remember the light.” And how sorry he had been to have that serpent break out into the light of day, distracting them from their mergence within it. He knew it meant oblivion, because once they merged with each other they would be ready to merge with the serpent. Yet it had been such a wonderful experience in the making.

He reached out and took her hand. It was as cold as his own. “Jac must have come for us and slain the serpent. Reslain it, I guess.”

“Yes.” Her eyes widened in internal pain. “Oh, Kian, I hate for it to be dead!”

“So do I,” he confessed. For he had seen an entirely different side of the monster, and not an evil side. The serpent, he realized, had been brought back to life by the presence of their spirits, and perhaps could not survive well without them.

*

The two boys stayed hidden in the mouth of one of the smaller ancestor tunnels as the two mortals rode away from the cliffs. Both remained silent, watching. After the horsemen had vanished in the mists, they crept out and approached the ancestor with their blossoms. The ancestor was aware now, and pulled back at their approach.

“Hissta, sizzletack,” a boy said, extending his blossom.

The silver snout came forward. There was a great sucking sniff. The ancestor was already forgetting. But should it be happening this soon?

“Herzig must know,” the other boy said.

“Yes,” the first agreed. “We must hurry back home and tell Herzig what happened. Mortals must not be allowed to torment our ancestors.”

The ancestor snorted loud, enjoying the fragrance of the blossoms. It had seemed bemused, but now was recovering.