Quest of the Golden Ape Page 14

  CHAPTER XIV

  _Land Beyond the Stars_

  At first Retoc the Abarian was too stunned by what he witnessed tothink coherently. With the other Tarthians of royal blood he hadreceived an unexpected summons to appear at the Royal Dock on theRiver of Ice and, before he could even try to fathom what it wasabout, an escort of Nadian guards had come to fetch him.

  It was cold and murky on the banks of the River of Ice. The two men,Retoc and Hultax had arrived barely in time to see them unfasteningthe hawsers of the Royal Barge. Curious, he pushed closer through thecrowd of nobles. Suddenly, before the barge was quite unmoored, as itswayed and rocked on the currents of the river, Nadian soldiersappeared with a platform on poles slung across their shoulders, theusual means of intra-city transportation for Nadian royalty. But thiswas no royalty Retoc saw on the platform, although they were dressedas royalty.

  The woman, conscious and bound hand and foot, was the Virgin of theWayfarers who had witnessed Prince Jlomec's death. The man,unconscious, his head propped high on pillows, was the white giant whoonce on the Plains of Ofrid had almost strangled Retoc.

  A hatred such as he had never known flashed through Retoc's brain. Hewas so close he could see the gentle up-and-down motion of the giant'schest as he breathed. Then, beyond the platform, he saw Volna. Volnasmiled at him. The platform bobbed by, was placed on the barge at thefoot of Jlomec's bier. The remaining hawsers were cut loose.

  There was, Retoc thought triumphantly, no return from the Place of theDead.

  But still, the white giant had recovered from what looked like certaindeath once, had vanished abruptly and fantastically when he would havedied again. What was good enough for Volna the Beautiful was notnecessarily good enough for Retoc of Abaria. He watched only longenough to see the royal barge pushed out into the icy currents of theriver, then he turned and made his way to the second tier ofobservers, where Hultax stood among the lesser nobility and themilitary officers of the planet Tarth. He found Hultax and whisperedfor a time in his ear.

  * * * * *

  Hultax's face blanched. "But lord," he protested, "there is no return ...it is obvious the man will die ... you couldn't expect me to...." Hultax,frightened, confused, could neither think clearly nor express himselfproperly. His mouth hung open.

  The boar charged while death and the Golden Ape stoodgrinning.]

  "Earlier, Hultax," Retoc said with a hard smile, "you craved action. Igive you action. Take a boat. There are some moored down-river for theuse of Nadian priests on their religious pilgrimages to the bankswhere the stilt-birds dwell. Overtake the royal barge. Board it. Slaythe man and the woman."

  "But I--the Place of the Dead...."

  "Fool!" hissed Retoc. "I didn't ask you to visit the Place of theDead. That's up to you. If you slay them first, on the River of Ice,and can bring back proof ... but the longer we talk, the further theyare. You'll go?"

  It was phrased as a question; actually, it was a command. Grim-faced,the whip-sword trailing at his side, Hultax left the crowd of soldiersand made his way downstream. A few moments later he had poled a woodenskiff out into the icy current and went down-river in pursuit of theroyal barge.

  * * * * *

  The guards had unbound Ylia's fetters on the barge, knowing she couldnever swim for safety in the waters of the River of Ice. She sat nowat the foot of Jlomec's bier, with Bram Forest's handsome headcushioned on her lap. It was very cold there on the river. Wind blew,rustling the reeds which grew along the bank. They had long sinceemerged from the river's underground cavern. The swift current carriedthem now through a country of ice, a tundra. The reeds, twice as tallas a man, seemed to thrive on the riverbanks. They swallowedeverything.

  Bram Forest opened his eyes, and looked at her, and smiled. He triedto sit up, wincing as pain knifed through his head. "We seem to make ahabit of this," he said, smiling again.

  "Shh, you mustn't talk."

  She leaned close. He could smell the animal perfume of her body, likemusk and jasmine. Impulsively, she kissed him softly on the lips. Hisarm went around her neck. He pulled her head down and drank deeply ofher.

  "Why ..." she began, all breathless.

  "Because I love you. I think I loved you the first moment I saw you.But I didn't know it then." He laughed softly, gently, and she did notknow why this should be so.

  "Why do you laugh?"

  "I was an infant, the son of the Queen. Of Queen Evalla. Portox thescientist fled with me, the last of the royal Ofridian blood, to theother side of the solar system, to a world the twin of this, a worldwe never see because the sun always stands between us, a world calledEarth. There I would wait until maturity. There I would be given thestrength and the wisdom I needed. And then I would return to Tarth andright the ancient wrong. Well, I have returned. I love you. It isenough, Ylia. I want to think of the future, not the past."

  Ylia let him kiss her again. "Isn't it the same, the future and thepast? Aren't they one? I too am of Ofridian blood, Bram Forest, of thelesser nobility. There are hundreds of us, living nomadic lives on theOfridian Plains, where once our great nation stood."

  "I didn't know that. It wasn't in Portox's training. Now Portox isdead. I buried him on this world called Earth. He could not even comeback to his native Tarth."

  "Darling, don't you see? That's exactly why the ancient wrong must berighted, why Retoc must pay for his infamous deeds. So Portox and themillions of other Ofridians, slain, all slain, can sleep eternally inpeace. You are their champion."

  "But revenge? What is revenge if--"

  "You are the champion of the future too! Don't you see, oh, don't you?Of all the unborn tomorrows when the Ofridian nation may live again.Of all the unborn tomorrows when the nations of Tarth can livetogether in peace and harmony. Don't you understand that?"

  "It's funny. I try to see my mother's face. Queen Evalla. But all Isee is you. She's the past, Ylia. You're the future." He held herlightly.

  "There is no future for anyone as long as Retoc the Abarian rules, anddreams of Tarth, all Tarth, as his domain."

  Bram Forest stood up. The cold winds blew. He looked at the blue-coldbody of Jlomec, lying in state, at the ice-choked river, at the banksof rustling reeds. He did not have to ask where they were. He knew."Perhaps," he said at last. "I only mean that if I do this thing itwill be more to see that future generations live in peace than tobring vengeance on a power-mad Abarian."

  "Oh, Bram! That's what I wanted you to say. I wanted to hear you saythat. For tomorrow! For all our tomorrows."

  * * * * *

  Bram Forest walked to the rail of the barge, and gripped it, andlooked out over the ice-flows. He recited:

  "An ape, a boar, a stallion, A land beyond the stars. A Virgin's feast, a raging beast, A prison without bars."

  "Why, what an unusual poem!" Ylia cried. Then: "Hold me close, it's socold. And I'm afraid, Bram Forest...."

  "Of the Place of the Dead?"

  "Yes, yes. The Place of the Dead."

  "It and the poem are entwined," Bram Forest said musingly. "I knowthey are. Together, they're my destiny."

  "And the destiny of all Tarth?"

  "Perhaps. Portox liked to think so, I guess."

  "I like to think so, Bram Forest." She smiled up at him tremulously."And my destiny as well."

  "Ylia," he asked abruptly, "what do you know about the Golden Ape? Youmentioned it to me once, when you thought I ... well, when you thoughtI endangered your virginity."

  "Why, nothing beyond what the legends say."

  "And what do the legends say?"

  "It is written in the most ancient of our religious beliefs that themessenger to the Place of the Dead is a Golden Ape. Naturally, inthese same beliefs, a defiled virgin is supposed to kill herself.Thus, in a way of speaking, she goes to the Golden Ape. You see?"

  * * * * *

  Bram Forest smile
d down at her. "What would you think if I told youthe Golden Ape was real? If I told you that there actually was a Placeof the Dead?"

  "For the spirits of the departed?" Ylia asked in a very small voice.

  "No. Man can't presume to know about that. It's in the realm of thegods. I mean a place which somehow borders on Tarth and yet ... yet isbeyond the stars. A place which, when wayfarers returned from itmiraculously long and long ago, gave rise to the legends."

  "Borders on Tarth ... yet beyond the stars? How can this be?"

  "Portox found it and explained it with his science," Bram Forestinsisted. "Earth and Tarth, twin worlds, yet so different, foreverunseen one by the other, on opposite sides of the sun. They're unique inthe solar system, Ylia. Portox thought--if the memory he planted in mymind is correct--that they're unique in the entire universe. Somehow, amillion million years ago, a world split, becoming two worlds. Butordinary space ... I don't know, the memory is confused ... could nothold them. There is a warp of space, a place where space bends. Learn tomaster the warp and you go instantly from Tarth to Earth, or back again.That was the way Portox brought me, as an infant, to Earth." He heldaloft his arm, showing her the steel-silver disc. "With this I cantravel back and forth at will. Without it, either Earth or Tarth wouldbe my prison...." His voice trailed off.

  Then he blurted: "'A prison without bars!'"

  "What...."

  "The prophetic poem. Part of the poem. Anyway, Ylia, Earth and Tarthexist at either end of this space warp, connected thus through normalspace where there should be no connection. And someplace along thewarp--where ordinary space-time distances don't matter...."

  "I'm sorry, Bram Forest. I don't understand you."

  * * * * *

  "I'm not sure I understand myself. Tarth is a primitive world. It isbeyond our science. It is even beyond the science of Earth, I believe,and Earth is a millennium ahead of Tarth in its development. ButPortox knew. Anyhow, someplace along the warp--in ordinary distancesalong the space-time continuum perhaps a billion light years distantfrom either Earth or Tarth, is a third world. On the warp it is veryclose. The River of Ice leads to it. We call it the Place of theDead."

  "But the Golden Ape--?"

  "--inhabits the so-called Place of the Dead. Their world was dying,but Portox saved them. I think ... the science is beyond me ... theentropy of their galaxy was running down ... their world perishing,freezing ... when somehow with his great science Portox claimed fortheir use the unavailable energy in their ... their thermodynamicsystem, and saved them."

  "Why do you frown so?"

  "Words. Words only. I don't understand. I can only act."

  "You can act," Ylia said, hugging herself tight against him. "ForTarth and the future."

  "For Tarth and the future," Bram Forest said, but he hardly heard thewords.

  Ahead of them in the cold clear air a wall seemed to rise. It came upso suddenly, and, in fact, the air had cleared so suddenly from theaccustomed murkiness, that Ylia was afraid. "It is in the legend," shewhispered. "The Black Wall, Bram Forest. And beyond it--the Place ofthe Dead."

  "More accurately, an edge-on view of the space-warp, where it meetsthe normal world." But although he spoke the words of Portox, BramForest did not sound too confident.

  "We're coming closer to it, Bram. Hold me!"

  He held her. There was nothing else he could do. The current swept thebarge on inexorably. The Black Wall reared ahead of them, frowned downat them, seemed to block off all the rest of the universe and allreality whether of Earth or of Tarth....

  The barge penetrated the wall. Black and solid-seeming, solid asstone, it yet offered no resistance. The barge disappeared within it.

  Behind the barge, rope-trailing so close that its prow almost scrapedthe royal wood, was a skiff in which, shaking and afraid yet somehowtriumphant because he had heard Bram Forest's strange words, wasHultax the Abarian.