Zollocco: A Novel of Another Universe (25 page)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Cavern

My staff had yet another use. I relied upon it to test the sureness of the boulders before I set my foot upon them. I wondered what light source prevented the caves from being totally dark. My map of the cave systems glowed in the dark. I neared the mouth of the cave. I shivered. The caves were as dank as dank could be, and now a wind from the cave's mouth engulfed me with chill air and the taste of salt. I fetched my robe out of the basket and put it on. I studied the way before me. There were boulders, but what was between the boulders? In the poor illumination, I could not tell whether the black surface was water or sand. Again I used my staff. Sand lay before me. Gingerly I made my way, testing with my staff before I took each step. The sand was soft, and so a pleasure to walk upon, but I couldn't help fearing that I might tread into quicksand. There was none. My caution with the staff, however, saved me from walking into little rivulets of water.

Soon I was standing on a beach shrouded in a daytime twilight. The ocean was spread before me, breaking little waves upon the shore in its eternal, sublime agitation. I looked aloft at the dome that rose so uncannily high above the face of the deep. An immense fissure in that dome admitted the streams of daylight and allowed the partial illumination of this underground sea. Way off to my right a beacon of light pulsed from a just-discernible lighthouse.

I decided it would be best to go to the lighthouse and wait there. The clean smell of the ocean reminded me I was hungry, and so I found myself a boulder to sit upon while I devoured the food from my basket and marveled at this cavern trapped sea. I walked along close to the lap of the water where the sand was moist enough to make walking in boots feasible. Occasionally I had to scamper away from a long lick of foaming water, and constantly I had to hold my robe up and wound tightly around me to keep it from getting dirty from the clinging sand. This game of keeping as close to the water as possible eventually worked its sorcery and I ran laughing full tilt along the side of the sea. When I was worn out from all of this, I walked away from the reach of spray to get a rest from the hard but fun effort of dodging it.

The lighthouse was a long way away, and I walked for hours. The light from the enormous fissure overhead was fading, but since I was nearing the lighthouse, the beacon served to guide me. As I approached the lighthouse, I saw it was built on top of a hillock of boulders. I was pretty tired by this time, and it was weary work climbing up boulders with a staff and basket that had grown unaccountably heavy. When I reached the top of the boulders, I saw that now I had to climb stairs.

The lighthouse was built on stilts. I studied the stilts and the boulders. The water line clearly reached only the halfway mark of the boulders, so even the approach to the boulders would never ordinarily be submerged. The lighthouse was pretty small. The house section of the lighthouse was tiny but it contained a cot, a lamp, a shower, and a stove. Thick dried reeds were stacked against the wall. I laid a fire in the stove, tested the water in the shower, was pleased that the water was warm and fresh, disrobed, washed my clothes (except my robe,) hung the clothes on the stove to dry, and showered. I got out of the shower just in time to remove my clothes from the stove before they singed. They were still too wet to wear so I got on the cot and used my robe as a blanket. I grabbed my basket and searched for food. Well, there was only one piece of food left, a roll. I decided to save it for breakfast. I drank some water, turned off the lamp, and went to sleep.

The foghorn woke me up. A deep, heavy dark engulfed all. In the intense black, nothing was visible out the window. I groped for the lamp, switched it on, and by its light put some more of the reeds in the stove. Wrapping my robe about me, I opened the door to look out. The lamp light, spilling out into the night, bounced against a dense fog. Beckoned by the mysterious, silent beauty of the fog that swirled around the doorjamb, I crept down the staircase into the hush of the fog. I couldn't see anything at all, not even the open door, not even the fog. Yes, that was right. Whenever I had been out in dense fog before, I could see the fog swirled about me, but here I couldn't. I could feel the press of tepid moisture, but I couldn't see at all in the utterly pervasive dark. The foghorn sounded much more loudly out here, its pulsating wails smiting my ears relentlessly. I didn't think the beacon was on; was its beam trapped by the fog, or did the light switch off when the horn switched on?

Large droplets of water splattered on my face. She-rain was what the people in the City of Waves called the big round globules of water that came down almost one at a time. Yawning, I carefully negotiated the fog-hidden stairs. Only when I reached the stoop could I see the doorway which was dimly illuminated by the lamp. Fog was seeping into the room. I shut the door on the brisk sea air and on the loudness of the foghorn. I loved going to sleep lulled by the tap of raindrops on the roof and windows. I slept heavily. My day's hike in the desert heat and my day's hike beside the ocean had worn me out. When I woke up, I shivered. I put a few more reeds in the stove and hastily put on my now dry clothes. Although I was sure it must be morning, I had to put the lamp on. He-rain, small quickly falling droplets, rattled the windows. There was quite a wind out, and the fast and hard driving he-rain streaked across the face of the ocean in a sharp slant. Taking my umbrella, I braved a look out the door.

The door was torn from my hand and slammed wide open against the side of the house The he-rain pierced me like nails, but I was too appalled to retreat immediately. The water level covered the boulders completely. The stairs led down to ocean waves. I was cut off from the shore. Of course that wasn't entirely true since there no longer was a shore. The beach was utterly submerged; the waves crashed against the walls of the cavern. Well, at least the Toelakhan would not be too likely to follow me here in this weather. I hauled the door shut and then moved the cot closer to the stove. I glumly ate my one roll and drank some water. Then I just sat staring at the window. The he-rain was now so strong it prevented me from seeing out the window. The beacon came on and pulsed like a strobe. I wondered morosely how long I would be trapped in here. What if the rain caused the entire cavern to fill up with water? I must stop. Such thoughts led to hysteria. I decided I didn't have to worry until I heard the waves pounding against the house. So of course, I waited for the waves to start pounding against the house. I decided that alternating holding my breath while I listened and then gasping for air was not good for my health.

I'd just gotten myself very successfully calmed down and was building a sculpture with the reeds to while the time away, when a pounding on the door almost gave me apoplexy. I stared at the door. Staring did not make the pounding stop. I got up and opened the door. The wind ripped the door out of my hand and slammed it against the house.

A man wearing an enormous raincoat, an enormous rain hat, and a rope tied around his waist said, "Bit of weather we are having."

I stared at him.
"Well, let's go," he said.
The man's rope was attached to a rowboat in which sat  two other people. The rowboat was moored to the rail of the steps.
"Don't you want to get to the spaceport priestess?"
I had nothing better to do than risk my life and limb in a rowboat in a storm.
"We'll take you to the mother ship which can't land here of course, no port and all rocks."
I returned the reeds to their stack, donned my robe, grabbed my basket, turned off the lamp, and looked around to see that I had left nothing behind and was leaving things pretty much as I had found them. The stove still had a small fire burning. I looked at it uncertainly.
"Don't worry about the stove fire, it is safe to leave it."
I raised the hood of my robe and opened my umbrella. My rescuer took a firm hold of my arm. I did need the help-the force of the wind almost sucked me from the opening. It was incredibly difficult to get the door shut. I tried to help but gave up and clung to the rail while the man did the work. Once he had succeeded, this knight in dripping raingear fastened his grip on my arm, and we wrestled our way down the stairs and into the bucking rowboat. One of the two awaiting us held the rowboat steady while the other reached out his arm, steadied me, and guided me to a seat in the bow. My companion, who had never lost his vice-like grip on my arm, sat next to me and pulled a life jacket over my head. While I fumbled to tie a pair of strings, he deftly fastened my belt. This done, he nodded at the others to start rowing. The one who had steadied the boat untied the mooring and jumped to his seat. As the pair pulled on the long oars, the three men tried to introduce themselves but the wind carried away their voices. I held onto the boat and the meager contents of my stomach for dear life. The man beside me took turns spelling the others.
As the lighthouse dwindled in size, a huge ship became visible in the distance, and we made our way towards it. Soon the side of the ship loomed above us. This made me extremely uneasy. I imagined the ship falling over on us. Ropes with hooks were lowered to us. My saviors fastened the rowboat to the hooks, and we were hauled up the side of the ship. The rowboat bumped into the ship and then swung way out over the heaving, foaming sea as we were jerked slowly upwards. One end of the rowboat and then the other pitched as the sailors above us struggled to haul us up in the stinging he-rain. At last when the now rainwater filled rowboat was fastened with stout ropes to the rail of the ship's deck, a pair of arms sheathed in slick raingear half lifted, half dragged me out of the rowboat and onto the deck. The three sailors who had rescued me from lighthouse nimbly climbed onto the deck carrying my things when they saw I was safe.
"Look!" the sailor who had pulled me to safety screamed over the storm. His arm extended pointing in the direction of the lighthouse.
I turned, as did everyone, just in time to see the beating waves topple the lighthouse into the sea. I discovered I had instinctively stepped back to get out of the way, and was clutching at the nearest object of support. This object was one of the three who had freed me from the lighthouse. My basket, umbrella tucked neatly in it, was hung over his arm.
"Come on with me, I'll show you to your cabin," he said.
Foamdust, as he said his name was, showed me to a very comfortable cabin. There I laid out my soaked robe to dry and set out the things in my basket to dry. Dry clothes and towels had been set out for me. I was soon quite comfortable. A knock on the door announced a steward inviting me to the dining room for lunch. It seemed the ship was an excursion ship and the dining room was very prettily appointed with blue tablecloths and blue curtains at the portholes
"The rain is clearing right up," the steward smiled as he seated me at the table with the people who had rowed me from the lighthouse. A waiter appeared with a huge tray laden with food. I was beginning to feel quite guilty. The people of this planet were giving me so much; I wanted to repay them, at least for my boat fare and this food. Although it was their custom to be quite free with their food, enough was still enough.
`I'm Desertwave, this is Foamdust, and this is Copper." The two men nodded as they were introduced
I nodded back. A middle-aged woman in a white uniform
sporting a badge walked up to us. The men rose.
"Sit, my pirates. That voyage in the rain was enough upping-and downing for one day."
I wished she hadn't reminded me; my stomach lurched at the thought. The men seemed to think being called pirates very funny.
"Yes, we've pirated away the Toelakhan's prize!" Desertwave winked at me.
The woman whom I presumed was the Captain addressed me, "Glad to have you aboard. We understand from our friends in Oasis that you were under a vow of silence which lasts until this evening."
I nodded.
The Captain continued, "Don't feel uncomfortable about keeping your vow even though we may chatter away at you and ask you every sort of question. Sailors are an inquisitive lot in these trapped waters.
I smiled at her.
"Sit down Captain," said Foamdust, "So that we can sit down and eat."
The Captain laughed `No I can't, but let me tell our visiting priestess that some of the crew and the passengers, on hearing you were going to be joining us, were hoping that you would tell their fortunes."
"Some of the crew Captain? Fess up, you want to know if this sea-roving son of yours is ever going to get married," teased Desertwave.
"All right, I admit it, my sea-roving pirate of a son," laughed the Captain raising her eyebrows in a question at me.
I nodded, happy for an opportunity to have a way of paying my debt.
"Good, well, I'll see you later then." The Captain sauntered off.
"Now you are in for it, priestess, half the ship will be lined up outside of your cabin this evening, and the other will be lined up tomorrow. If you are lucky, we will reach the Spaceport in good time, and you won't have to do everybody," said Copper.
"The tide came in pretty quickly this morning. Did you make it to the lighthouse before the he-rain?" asked Foam dust.
I nodded matter-of-factly. The men looked interested. I was
enjoying having lunch with three good-looking, nicely muscled young men.
"You came in the she-rain?" asked Copper.
I shook my head. The three men stared at me.
"You came before the fog?" said Foamdust with disbelief.
I nodded my head vigorously.
"Long before the fog? asked Copper.
"Copper that can't be--"
I nodded my head that I had.
"But that's not possible," said Foam dust
I shrugged.
"But you couldn't have gotten there before the fog set in coming from the Savannah caves. The only way you could have gotten there that quickly would be if you came by way of the sorceress's cave."
I nodded my head.
"You came by the sorceress's cave?" the three chimed in horror.
I nodded solemnly, thinking of the spider.
"You came by way of the spider's trap door?" asked Foamdust.
I nodded and made a face remembering the giant arachnid's eight eyes reflecting me while I sprayed it with the paralyzer.
"Seatrees! You were lucky the tide was low," said Desertwave.
I looked at him. I didn't like the sound of that.
“If it had been high tide, you would have been trapped in the lair of the spider. The ocean covers the beach and fills those caves. The spider eats some of the fish it catches," Desertwave informed me as he jabbed at a morsel of food on his plate with his fork, much in the manner the spider had reared its pincers to jab at me.
My mouth dropped open. I looked at each of them a turn. They really didn't seem to be joking. I swallowed. Why hadn't the sorceress warned me? Of course, that was just a rhetorical question. She knew full well I wouldn't have gone that way if I'd known, and I would be sitting in a Toelakhan cell eating slop rather in the company of three daring and handsome sailors.
Seeing the look on my face Foamdust changed the subject, "Did you know that just a thousand pregnancies ago this ocean did almost entirely fill its cavern?"
Interested, I looked a question.
"Yes, the Grand Fissure--you noticed the Grand Fissure as you walked along the beech?"
I nodded.
Foamdust continued, "Back then the Grand Fissure was very narrow-- "
"It was only as wide as a sail cactus is tall," contributed Copper. Foamdust gave Copper a look and went on with his story, "and none of the Minor Fissures existed."
"People built bridges over the Grand Fissure, and it wasn't possible to navigate its length in a boat because at many points it was too narrow, added Copper.
"But we had begun to misuse our planet even then," resumed Foamdust.
"Oh, the abuse started several hundred pregnancies before then," disagreed Copper.
Foamdust ignored him and continued, "And the snows on the poles melted completely so that people were able to grow something they called lawns there. Everybody wanted to move to the poles and have lawns."
"But all the water seeped underground to this ocean," Copper put in.
"Since the cavern was already nearly full, the extra water filled it the rest of the way and made the slender fissure crack wide open."
"The bridges fell into the water." Copper's embellishments no longer seemed to bother Foamdust.
"The delicate balance of this ocean's independent ecological system was utterly disrupted."
"So was the weather system of the land above since it no longer snowed at the poles. The lawns dried up and died."
Copper was eagerly caught up in the tale.
"Strange seismic activity began to occur and the poles literally sank a few thousand feet."
"Since towns were built directly over the poles, people's houses fell straight down and disappeared. At the South Pole, the people had been celebrating a holiday; so most of the townspeople were flying kites in a field on the outskirts of the pole town. When their towns sank, they at least were able to run to safety. At the North Pole, only one man survived. He said he had dreamed the night before that he should go ballooning the next day, and so he was just setting off in his balloon when the land sank."
Here Desertwave had to put in his two cents, "It is said all of the animals and the locomotive vegetation deserted the poles a few hours before the poles sank."
Foamdust, eager to keep the tale going said, "When the poles sank, the Minor Fissures split the ground above the sea, and a portion of the cavern's wall gave way flooding valleys that were farm lands. It was chaos. If the troubadours and ollaves had not made a great song, and if the sorceresses had not spun a great magic, the planet would have wobbled on its axis and spun out of orbit."
Copper nodded, eyes wide with awe as he spoke: "Ipernia knew of our distress before it happened and encouraged our creatures and vegetation to remain alive while priests and priestesses from all the sects and orders hurried here to help to create a new ecological balance," said Foamdust.
"Even the most holy, the most secret, the most divinely talented Holy Folk came here--The Realm of Circle," Copper added in a voice husky with wonderment and emotion.
"We are still working to reclaim our planet from destruction, and the Beloved Forest World Ipernia has never ceased her aid to us," solemnly spoke Foamdust.
"Our world is now a very beautiful, special world. Ipernia has told our people not to reproach ourselves for our neglect of our world. Sorceresses have dreamed, ollaves have foretold, and troubadours have sung that this ocean desired to be opened and human action was in accord with that desire although our action was clumsy and poorly thoughtout."
"Trees sprouted in the mountains, and this the ollaves informed us, was a sign from Ipernia that we were at last understanding ourselves as part of our planet," finished Foamdust.
Copper, still enthusiastic said, "The place where the ocean broke free from a wall created an open-air sea with beaches. Isn't it amazing that salt water can exist outside of protective walls?"
I smiled.
Foamdust added, "There is a very pretty town there, too.
We are very happy that Aridia, a desert planet, has three sea-side cities, two on islands and the seaside town above."
Desertwave said with a hint of sadness in his eyes, "Don't forget the dozen or so villages in the caves that lead from the sea to the topside."
Just then, the Captain's voice came over a load speaker, "Passengers, in a few moments we will be sailing beneath the famous and beautiful Willow Fissure. I do encourage you to come to the deck to view this incredible formation which is said to be a special gift from Ipernia."
"Let's go," said Desertwave, just as he had when he appeared at the door of the lighthouse.
We were all finished eating, and so we trooped upstairs. Many people were gathering there.
"Passengers, I will now turn the mike over to First mate Crestdune," the Captain's voice announced from the speakers.
"Passengers, this is First Mate Crestdune. You can see ahead of us the light streaking from the cavern ceiling. Keep your eyes fixed on that place, and you will see one of the greatest natural treasures of our planet."
Desertwave was grinning. "Look over there," he said to me. I looked where he was pointing. It was hard to catch his words because the First Mate was speaking very loudly and without pause about the fissure. Gigantic stalactites hung from the ceiling and we were drifting towards them.
"We are almost under the Willow Fissure, passengers. Heads up so that you don't miss it."
Everyone craned their necks to look upwards.
"Passengers, the good ship Bedouina and the Troubador Excursion Company is proud to bring to you the Willow Fissure, gift of the Beloved Forest World Ipernia, treasure of the planet Aridia!"
I looked up and sucked my breath in amazement. Above us a celestial glow, the daylight from the land above, streamed through an enormous fissure which seemed to be etched by a master artist in the shape of the Dessert Willow Artoin had taken me to see. Glorious is the only word to describe it. It took us a good half hour to sail the length of the Willow Fissure. I stayed on the deck and watched the light stream from it as long as it was visible, about two hours. At times, birds from the land above swooped down through the fissure, chasing each other, and then swooped back up out of sight again.