The Green Odyssey

14

FOR FIVE MINUTES the intermittent flashes and bellows fold that the Vings were still hammering away. Then the dark took hold again. Apparently the two had either recognized each other or else had decided that night fighting was a bad business and had steered away from each other. If this last was true, then they wouldn't be much to fear, for one Ving wouldn't attack the merchant by itself.

The clouds broke, and the big and the little moons spread brightness everywhere. The pirate vessels were not in sight. Nor were they seen when dawn broke. There was sail half a mile away, but this alarmed no one, except the untutored Green, because they recognized its shape as a sister. It was a merchant from the nearby city of Dem, of the Dukedom of Potzihili.

Green was glad. They could sail with it. Safety in numbers.

But no. Miran, after hailing it and finding that it also was going to Estorya, ordered every bit of canvas crowded on in an effort to race away from it.

«Is he crazy?» groaned Green to a sailor.

«Like a zilmar,» replied the sailor, referring to a foxlike animal that dwelt in the hills. «We must get to Estorya first if we would realize the full value of our cargo.»

«Utter featherbrained folly,» snarled Green. «That ship doesn't carry live fish. It can't possibly compete with us.»

«No, but we've other things to sell. Besides, it's in Miran's blood. If he saw another merchant pass him he'd come down sick.»

Green threw his hands into the air and rolled his eyes in despair. Then he went back to work. There was much to do yet before he'd be allowed to sleep.

The days and nights passed in the hard routine of his labor and the alarms and excursions that occasionally broke up the routine. Now and then the gig was launched, while the 'roller was in full speed, and it sped away under the power of its white fore-and-aft sail. It would be loaded with hunters, who would chase a hoober or deer or pygmy hog until it became exhausted; then would shoot the tired animal. They always brought back plenty of fresh meat. As for water, the catch-tanks on the decks were full because it rained at least half an hour at every noon and dusk.

Green wondered at the regularity and promptness of these showers. The clouds would appear at twelve, it would rain for thirty to sixty minutes, then the sky would clear again. It was all very nice, but it was also very puzzling.

Sometimes he was allowed to try target practice from the crow's nest on the grass cats or the huge dire dogs. These latter ran in packs of half a dozen to twenty, and would often pace the Bird, howling and growling and sometimes running between the wheels. The sailors had quite a few tales of what they did to people who fell overboard or were wrecked on the plains.

Green shuddered and went back to his target practice. Though he ordinarily was against shooting animals just for the fun of it, he had no compunction about putting a ball through these wolfish-looking creatures. Ever since he'd been tormented by Alzo he'd hated dogs with a passion unbecoming to a civilized man. Of course, the fact that every canine on the planet instinctively loathed him because of his Earthman odor and did his best to sink his teeth into him, strengthened Green's reaction. His legs were always healing from bites of the pets aboard.

Often the 'roller would cruise through grass tall as a man's knee. Then suddenly it would pass onto one of those tremendous lawns which seemed so well kept. Green had never ceased puzzling about them, but all he could get from anyone was one or more variations of the fable of the wuru, the herbivore bigger than two ships put together.

One day they passed a wreck. Its burned hulk lay sideways on the ground, and here and there bones gleamed in the sun. Green expressed surprise that the masts, wheels and cannon were gone. He was told that those had been taken away by the savages who roamed the plains.

«They use the wheels for their own craft, which are really nothing but large sailing platforms, land-rafts, you might say,» Amra told him. «On these they pitch their tents and their fireplaces, and from them they go forth to hunt. Some of them, however, disdain platforms and make their homes upon the 'roaming islands.'»

Green smiled but said nothing about that fairy story because disbelief excited these people, even Amra.

«You'll not see many wrecks,» she continued. «Not because there aren't many, for there are. Out of every ten 'rollers that leave for distant breaks, you can expect only six to get back.»

«That few? I'm amazed that with such a casualty ratio you could get anybody to risk his fortune and life.»

«You forget that he who comes back is many times richer than when he sailed away. Look at Miran. He is taxed heavily at every port of call. He is taxed even more heavily in his home port. And he has to split with the Clansmen, though he does get a tenth of the profit of every cargo. Despite this, he is the richest man in Quotz, richer even than the Duke.»

«Yes, but a man is a fool to take risks like these just for the remote chance of a fortune,» he protested. Then he stopped. After all, for what other reason had the Norsemen gone to America, and Columbus to the West Indies? Or why were so many hundreds of thousands of Earthmen daring the perils of interstellar space? What about himself, for instance? He'd left a stable and well-paying job on Earth as a specialist in raising sea crops to go to Pushover, a planet of Albireo. He'd expected to make his fortune there after two years of not-too-hard work and then retire. If only that accident hadn't happened…!

Of course, some of the pioneers weren't driven by the profit motive. There was such a thing as love of adventure. Not a pure love, however. Even the most adventurous saw Eldorado gleaming somewhere in the wilds. Greed conquered more frontiers than curiosity.

«You'd think the ruins of 'rollers would not be rare, even if these plains are vast,» said Amra, breaking in on his reflections. «But the savages and pirates must salvage them as fast as they're made.»

«Your pardon, Mother, for interrupting,» said Grizquetr. «I heard a sailor, Zoob, remark on that very thing just the other day. He said that he once saw a 'roller that had been gutted, by pirates, he supposed. It was three days' journey out of Yeshkayavach, the city of quartz in the far North. He said their 'roller was a week there, then returned on the same route. But when they came to where the wreck had been it was gone, every bit of it. Even the bones of the dead sailors were missing.»

«And he said that that reminded him of a story his father had told him when he was young. He said his father told him that his ship had once almost run into a huge uncharted hole in the plain. It was big, at least two hundred feet across, and earth had been piled up outside, like the crater of a volcano. At first that was what they thought it was, a volcano just beginning, even though they'd never heard of such a thing on the Xurdimur. Then they met a ship whose men had seen the hole made. It was caused, they said by a mighty falling star…»

«A meteor,» commented Green.

«…and it had dug that great hole. Well, that was as good an explanation as any. But the amazing thing was that when they came by that very spot a month later, the hole was gone. It was filled up and smoothed out, and grass was growing over it as if nothing had ever broken the skin of the earth. Now, how do you explain that, Foster-father?»

«There are more things in heaven and earth than ever your philosophies dreamed of, Horatio,» Green nonchalantly replied, though he felt as though he wasn't quoting exactly right.

Amra and her son blinked. «Horatio?»

«Never mind.»

«This sailor said that it was probably the work of the gods, who labor secretly at night that the plain may stay flat and clean of obstacles so their true worshipers may sail upon it and profit thereby.»

«Will the wonders of rationalization never cease?» said Green.

He rose from his pile of furs. «Almost time for my watch.» He kissed Amra, the maid, the children, and stepped out from the tent. He walked rather carelessly across the deck absorbed in wondering what the effect would be upon Amra if he told her his true origin. Could she comprehend the concept of other worlds existing by the hundreds of thousands, yet so distant from each other that a man could walk steadily for a million years and still not get halfway from Earth to this planet of hers? Or would she react automatically, as most of her fellows would do, and think that he must surely be a demon in human disguise? It would be more natural for her to prefer the latter idea. If you looked at it objectively, it was more plausible, given her lack of scientific knowledge. Much more believable, too.

Somebody bumped him. Jarred out of his reverie, he automatically apologized in English.

«Don't curse at me in your foreign tongue!» snarled Grazoot, the plump little harpist.

Ezkr was standing behind Grazoot. He spoke out of the side of his mouth, urging the bard on. «He thinks he can walk all over you, Grazoot, because he insulted your harp once and you let him get away with it.»

Grazoot puffed out his cheeks, reddened in the face and glared. «It is only because Miran has forbidden duels that I have not plunged my dagger into this son of an izzot!»

Green looked from one to the other. Obviously this scene was prearranged with no good end for him in view.

«Stand aside,» he said haughtily. «You are interfering with the discipline of the 'roller. Miran will not like that.»

«Indeed.» said Grazoot. «Do you think Miran cares at all about what happens to you? You're a lousy sailor and it hurts me to have to call you brother. In fact, I spit every time I say it to you, brother!»

Grazoot did just that. Green, who was downwind, felt the fine mist wet his legs. He began to get angry.

«Out of my way or I'll report you to the first mate,» he said firmly and walked by them. They gave way, but he had an uneasy feeling in the small of his back, as if a knife would plunge into it. Of course, they shouldn't be so foolish, because they would be hamstrung and then dropped off the 'roller for the crime of cowardice. But these people were so hotheaded they were just as likely as not to stab him in a moment of fury.

Once on the rope ladder that ran up to the crow's nest, he began to lose the prickly feeling in his back. At that moment Grazoot called out, «Oh, Green, I had a vision last night, a true vision, because my patron god sent it, and he himself appeared in it. He announced that he would snuff up his nostrils the welcome scent of your blood, spilled all over the deck from your fall!»

Green paused with one foot on the rail. «You tell your god to stay away from me, or I'll punch him in the nose!» he called back.

There was a gasp from the many people who'd gathered around to listen. «Sacrilege!» yelled Grazoot. «Blasphemy!» He turned to those around him. «Did you hear that?»

«Yes,» said Ezkr, stepping out from the crowd. «I heard him and I am shocked. Men have burned for less.»

«Oh, my patron god, Tonuscala, punish this pride-swollen man! Make your dreams come true. Cast him headlong from the mast and dash him to the deck and break every bone in his body so that men may learn that one does not mock the true gods.»

«Tahkhai,» murmured the crowd. «Amen.»

Green smiled grimly. He had fallen into their trap and now must be on guard. Plainly, one or both of them would be aloft tonight during the dark hour after sunset, and they'd be content with nothing less than pitching him out over the deck. His death would be considered to have come from the hands of an outraged god. And if Amra should accuse Ezkr and Grazoot she'd get little justice. As for Miran, the fellow would probably heave a sigh of relief, because he'd be rid of a troublesome fellow who could carry damaging stories of a certain conspiracy to the Duke of Tropat.

He climbed up to the crow's nest, and settled gloomily to staring off at the horizon. Just before sunset Grizquetr came up with a bottle of wine and food in a covered basket.

Between bites Green told the boy of his suspicions.

«Mother has already guessed as much,» said the lad. «She is a very clever woman indeed, my mother. She has put a curse upon the two if you should come to harm.»

«Very clever. That will do a great deal of good. Thank her for her splendid work while you're picking up my pieces from the deck, will you?»

«To be sure,» replied Grizquetr, trying hard to keep his sober face from breaking into a grin. «And Mother also sent you this.»

He rolled the kerchief all the way off the top of the basket. Green's eyes widened.