Philip Farmer - The Green Odyssey

He wondered whether it was pure accident that they had brought with them the charms in the shapes of spaceships? And if they'd also accidentally discovered that towers modeled after the charms would stop the roaming islands?

Whatever the answer, it lay buried in the prehistoric.

«Hurry up,» said Grizquetr, pulling on Green's hand. «Mother has a surprise for you, but don't tell her I told you.»

«That's nice,» replied Green absently, his mind still upon the news of the Earthman's death. Hang it all, why must he always be kept in suspense, must always be improvising from moment to moment, always in the dark, never knowing what was coming next nor what he was going to have to do? Oh, for one day of peace and assurance!

«Father!»

«What, what?» said Green, startled out of his reverie and stopping halfway up the steps to the porch. Suddenly something black and small launched itself at him and landed on his shoulder.

«Lady Luck! Why are you shivering so?»

«Better run, Dad!» said Grizquetr. «There's Miran coming out of the door! And soldiers behind him!»

He ended with a wail, «Motherr-r-r-r!»

The sight of Amra, Inzax, and the children being marched out between musketmen was enough for Green. He turned away and spoke softly but savagely.

«Keep your backs to them! Don't look back! We're far enough away in the dark so they might not recognize us. Especially in this crowd!»

A minute later he and the boy and the cat were looking around the corner of a large building. They saw the soldiers commandeer a rickshaw and put the prisoners in it. Then four of them walked behind the vehicle as it was pulled away.

«They-they'll be put in the Tower of the Grass Cat,» said the boy, shaking with fury. «Oh, that devil Miran! That fat old devil! He's the one who's accused Mother of witchcraft! I know! I know!»

«He didn't accuse her,» said Green, «but me. She's guilty through association with me. Well at least we'll know where they are for a while.»

«There go Miran and the soldiers back into the hotel.»

«Waiting for us,» said Green. «They'd have a long wait. Well, let's go. First things first. We'll buy a ticket, see the ship. I have to know where it's located, what type it is, et cetera. Luckily I've enough money on me to do that. But we'll be broke then. You have any?»

«Ten axar.»

«That's not much, but it's enough to pay for a rickshaw ride to the windbreak.»

At the box-office, Green bought two tickets, then walked up the steep flight of steps with Grizquetr. At the top he found himself in a large group standing on a platform beneath a wooden roof. This was for the curious who wanted to get a preview of the demons' vessel. Tomorrow the gates would be opened to admit a vast crowd, who would sit on the hard wooden seats of the amphitheatre that had been built fairly close to the ship.

The ship itself was an Earth naval vessel, a two-man scout. It pointed its needle nose upward, resting upon eight jet-struts, gleaming in the moonlight. Its naval insignia, a green globe crossed with rocket and olive branch, was a smudge in the shadows. Nevertheless he could make it out. He felt his breast swell and he choked with homesickness.

«Ah, so near, yet so far,» he murmured. «Even if I get to you, then what? What if the poor devil of a survivor turns out to be a navigator? Still, he ought to know enough to get her off the ground and into space. And from there on, with interstellar drive, we ought to be able to get home, somehow.»

He sounded plaintive, even to himself, for he knew how vast space was and how complicated astromathematics was. And of course there was no guarantee that the Earthman would even be a navigator. He might just be an officer or perhaps a civilian official who was being ferried in one of the swifter small ships.

Then there was the awful possibility that the vessel might have landed here because there was something wrong with it, and that it could not rise again even if it had a full crew. In fact, that was the most logical explanation.

He sighed and turned to the boy.

«This may be for nothing, but we can't just sit down and watch. Let's take off for the windbreak.»

«What are we going to do there?» asked Grizquetr, as they walked down the steps.

«Well, we're not going back to the yacht,» Green answered. «Soldiers'll be waiting there to arrest us. No, we'll go to the other side of the 'break. Stealing another 'roller isn't going to get us in any more trouble than we're already in.»

The boy's eyes widened. «What're we doing that for?»

«We must return to the island-fortress of Shimdoog.»

«What? Why, that's a hundred miles away!»

«Yes, I know. And we won't be able to make the speed going back that we did coming. We'll have to do quite a lot of tacking to sail against the wind, and that'll eat up our time. But there's nothing else to do.»

«If you say so, father, I believe you. But what is there on Shimdoog?»

«Not on. In.»

Grizquetr was a bright lad. He was silent for a minute, so silent Green could imagine he heard the wheels turning within his head. Then he said, «There must be a cave on Shimdoog like the one on the cannibals' island. And you must have gone into it that night we stayed in the 'break. I remember waking up and hearing you and Mother say something about your being gone and about Miran following you.»

Grizquetr paused, then said, «If there is a cave-entrance there, why haven't other people gone into it?»

«Because it has been declared taboo, off limits, by the priests of Estorya. It was done so long ago that I imagine that the priests themselves have forgotten why they forbade its access to men. But it's not hard to reconstruct the historical causes. Once, I suppose, the island was populated by cannibals. At the time the Estoryans captured the island they exterminated the aborigines. They found the cave mouth was a holy place for the savages. So, thinking that it held demons-and it does, in a way-they built a wall around it and set up a statue of the Fish Goddess, facing inward and holding in her hand a symbol to restrain the imprisoned fiends from breaking loose. That symbol, of course, is the same charm that is sold on the streets of Estorya, that circumscribes the country and the island of Shimdoog. It is the same as the spaceship that landed near the King's palace.»

Green hailed a rickshaw and continued his account while they rode through the still-crowded streets. There was so much noise that he felt quite safe talking, provided he kept his voice soft.

By the time they had reached the northern end of the windbreak, Green had told the boy all he thought he should hear at that time. If, later on, his trip to Shimdoog proved successful he would enlighten him even more.

For the present he was concerned with the problem of getting transportation. Fortunately they found almost at once a nice little yacht with speedy lines and a tall mast. The craft must have belonged to a wealthy man, for a watchman sat close to it before a little fire just outside his shed. Green walked up to him, and when the fellow rose, his hand suspiciously resting upon his spear, Green struck him on the jaw, then followed with a hard right to the pit of his stomach. Grizquetr completed the job by hitting him over the head with a length of pipe he'd picked up off the ground.

Green emptied the handbag of the watchman and was pleased to see several coins of respectable denominations.

«Probably his life-savings,» he said. «I hate to rob him, but we have to have money. Grizquetr, do you remember those slaves who were drinking and gambling outside the Striped Ape Inn? Run to them and offer them six danken if they'll tow us out of the 'break. Tell them we're paying them so much because it's so late at night, and also to keep their mouths shut.»