The Jewels of Aptor Page 4

  CHAPTER III

  Geo walked down into the forecastle, still deserted except for Urson andSnake. "Well?" asked Urson, sitting up on the edge of his berth. "Whatdid she tell you?"

  "Why aren't you asleep?" Geo said heavily. He touched Snake on theshoulder. "She wants to see you now."

  Snake stood up, started for the door, but then turned around.

  "What is it?" Geo asked.

  Snake dug into his clout again and pulled out the thong with the jewel.He walked over to Geo, hesitated, and then placed the thong around theolder boy's neck.

  "You want me to keep it for you?" Geo asked.

  But Snake turned around and was gone.

  "I wonder what they do?" said Urson. "Or did you find out. Come on, Geo,give up what she told you."

  "Did Snake say anything to you while I was gone?"

  "Not a peep," answered Urson. "I came no nearer sleep than I came to themoon. Now come on, what's this about?"

  Geo told him.

  When he finished, Urson said, "You're crazy. Both you and her."

  "I don't think so," Geo said. He concluded his story by recountingArgo's demonstration of the jewel's power.

  Urson fingered the stone on Geo's chest. "All that in this little thing?Tell me, do you think you can figure out how it works?"

  "I don't know if I want to," Geo said. "It doesn't sound right."

  "You're damn straight it doesn't sound right," Urson reiterated. "What'sthe point of sending us in there with no protection to do something thatwould be crazy with a whole army. What's she got against us?"

  "I don't think she has anything against us," Geo said. "Urson, whatstories do you know about Aptor? She said you might be able to tell mesomething."

  "I know that no one trades with it, everyone curses by it, and the restis a lot of rubbish not worth saying."

  "What rubbish?"

  "Believe me, it's just bilge water," insisted Urson. "Do you think youcould figure out that little stone there, if you had long enough, Imean? She said that the priests five hundred years ago could, and sheseems to think you're as smart as some of them. I wouldn't doubt if youcould work it."

  "You tell me some stories first," said Geo.

  "Oh, they talk about cannibals, women who drink blood, things neitherman nor animal, and cities inhabited only by death. Sailors avoid it,save to curse by."

  "Do you know anything more than that?"

  "There's nothing more to know," shrugged Urson.

  "She said the stories you'd tell would not be one tenth of the truth."

  "She must have meant that there wasn't even a tenth part of the truth inthem. And I'm sure she's right. You just misunderstood."

  "No, I heard her correctly," Geo assured him.

  "Then I just don't believe it. There are half a dozen things that don'tmatch up in all this. First, how that little four-armed fellow happenedto be at the pier after two months just when she was coming in. And tohave the jewel still, not have traded it, or sold it already...."

  "Maybe," suggested Geo, "he read her mind too, when he first stole it,the same way he read ours."

  "And if he did, maybe he knows how to work the things. I say let's findout when he comes back. And I wonder who cut his tongue out. Strange oneor not, that makes me sick," said the big man.

  "About that," Geo started. "Don't you remember? He said you knew the manit was."

  "I know many men," said Urson, "but which one of the many I know is it?"

  "You really don't know?" Geo asked, quietly.

  "You say that in a strange way," Urson said, frowning.

  "I'll say the same thing he said," went on Geo. "What man did you kill?"

  Urson looked at his hands for a moment, stretched the fingers, turnedthem over in his lap like meat he was examining. Then, without lookingup, he said, "It was a long time ago, friend, but the closeness of itshivers in my eyes. I should have told you, yes. But it comes to me,sometimes, not like a memory, but something I can feel, as hard asmetal, taste as sharp as salt, and the wind brings back my voice, hiswords, so clearly that I shake like a mirror where the figure on theinside pounds his fists on the fists of the man outside, each one tryingto break free.

  "We were reefing sails in a flesh-blistering rain, when it began. Hisname was Cat. The two of us were the two biggest men aboard, and that wehad been put on the reefing team together meant that this was animportant job and one to be done well and right. Water washed our eyes,our hands slipped on wet ropes. It was no wonder my cloth suddenly flungaway from me in a gust, billowing down in the rain, flapping againsthalf a dozen ropes and breaking two small stays. 'You clumsy thing'bawled the mate from the deck. 'What sort of fish-fingered sailor, areyou?'

  "And through the rain I heard Cat laugh from his own spar. 'That's theway luck goes,' he cried, catching at his own cloth that threatened topull loose. I pulled mine in and bound her tight. The competition thatgoes rightly between two fine sailors drove a seed of fury into my fleshthat should have bloomed as a curse or a returned jibe, but the rainrained too hard, and the wind was too strong; so I bound my sail withsilence.

  "I was last down, of course, and with only a few lads below on deck,when I saw why my sail had come loose. A worn mast ring had broken,caused a main rope to fly and my canvas to come tumbling. But the ringalso had held the nearly broken aft mast together, and in the wind, asplit twice the length of my arm pulled open and snapped to again andagain like a child's noise clapper. There was a rope near, and inchthick line coiled on a spike. Holding myself to a rat line by not muchmore than my toes, I secured the rope and bound the base of the brokenpole. Each time it snapped to, I looped it once around and pulled thewet line tight. They call this whipping a mast, and I whipped it tillthe collar of rope was three feet long to the top of the cleft and shecouldn't snap any more. Then I hung the broken ring on a peg near by soI could point it out to the ship's smith and get him to replace the ropewith a metal band.

  "That evening at mess, with the day's incidents out of my mind and hotsoup in my mouth, I was laughing over some sailor's tale about anothersailor and another sailor's woman, when the mate strode into the hall.'Hey, you sea scoundrels,' he bellowed. There was silence. 'Which of youbound up that broken mast aft?'

  "I was about to call out, 'Aye, it was me,' when another man beat me bybawling, 'It was the Big Sailor, sir!' That was a name both Cat and Iwere often hailed by.

  "'Well,' snarled the mate, 'the captain says that such good thinking intimes so hard as these should be rewarded. He's seen the job andapproved.' He took a gold coin from his pocket and tossed it on thetable in front of Cat. 'There you go, Big Sailor. But I think it's asmuch as any man should do.' And then he turned and clomped from the messhall. A cheer went up for Cat as he pocketed the coin; I couldn't seehis face.

  "The anger in me started now, but without direction. Should it go to thesailor who'd called out the name of the hero? Naw, for he had been downon deck, and through rain and darkness probably he could not have toldme from my rival anyway at that distance. At Cat? But he was alreadygetting up to leave the table. And the first mate, the same first mateof this ship here, friend, that we're on now, he was out stompingsomewhere on deck.

  "Perhaps it was this that caused my anger to break out the next morningwhen we were in calmer weather. A careless salt jarred me in a passageway, and suddenly I was all fists and fire. We scuffled, we banged, wecursed, we rolled. In fact, we rolled right under the feet of the matewho was coming down the steps at the time. He sent a boot into us andeight different curses, and when he recognized me, he sneered, 'Oh, theclumsy one.'

  "Now I'd had a fiery record before. Fights on ship are a breach fewcaptains will allow. This was my third, and one too many. And the mate,prompted by his own opinion of me, got the captain to order me flogged.

  "So, like a carcass to be sliced and bid on, I was lead out before theassembled sailors at the next sunrise and bound to the main mast. Ithought my wrath went all toward the first mate now. But black turnedwh
ite in my head, into something that I could bite into, when he flungthe whip to Cat and cried, 'Here, Big Sailor, you've done your ship onegood turn. Now rub sleep off your face and do it another. I want tenstripes on that one's back deep enough to count easily with a fingerdipped in salt.'

  "They fell, and I didn't breathe the whole time. Ten lashes is awhipping a man can recover from in a week. Most go down to their kneeswith the first one, if their rope is slack enough. I didn't fall untilthey finally cut the ropes from my wrists. Nor was it till I heard asecond gold coin rattle down on the deck from the first mate's hand andthe words to the crew, 'See how a good sailor gets rich,' that I made asound. And it was lost in the cheer which sprung from the other men.

  "Cat and one other lugged me to the brig. As I fell forward, handsscudding into straw, I heard Cat's voice come, 'Well, brother, that'sthe way the luck goes.'

  "Then the pain made me faint.

  "A day later, when I could pull myself up to the window and look out onthe back of the ship, we caught the worst storm I'd ever seen, and theslices in my back made it no easier on me. Pegs threatened to pull fromtheir holes, boards to part themselves; one wave washed four menoverboard; and while others ran to save them, another came and swept offsix more. It had come so suddenly that not a sail had been raised, andnow the remaining men were swarming to the ratlines.

  "From my place at the brig's window I saw it start to go and I howledlike an animal, tried to pull the bars away. But legs passed my windowrunning, and none stopped. I screamed at them, and I screamed again. Theship's smith had not yet gotten to fix my makeshift repair on the aftmast with another metal band. Nor, with my anger, had I yet even pointedit out to him as I had intended. It didn't hold a quarter of an hour.When it gave there was a snap like thunder. Under the tugging of halffurled sails, ropes popped like threads. Men were whipped off like dropsof water shaken from a wet hand. The mast raked across the sky above melike a claw, and then fell against the high mizzen, snapping more ropesand scraping men from their perches as you'd scrape ants from a tree.

  "The crew's number was halved, and when somehow we crawled from underthe sheets of rain, one mast fallen and one more ruined, the brokenbodies with still some life numbered eleven. A ship's infirmary holdsten, and the overflow goes to the brig. The choice of who became my matewas between the man most likely to live, figuring that he could take theharder situation more easily than the others, and the man most likely todie, figuring that it would probably make no difference to some one thatfar gone. The choice was made, the latter choice, and the next morningthey carried Cat in and laid him beside me on the straw while I slept.His spine had been crushed at the pelvis and a spar had pierced his sidewith a hole big enough to put your hand into.

  "When he came to, all he did was cry--not with the agonized howls I hadgiven the day before when I watched the mast topple, but with a littlesound that escaped from clenched teeth, like a child who doesn't want toshow the pain. It didn't stop for hours, and such a soft sound, itburned into my gut and my tongue deeper than any animal wailing would.

  "The next dawn stretched copper foil across the window and reddish lightfell on the straw, the board floor, and the filthy, crumpled blanketthey had laid him in. The crying had stopped and was replaced now by agasped breath, sharp every few seconds, irregular, loud. I thought hemust be unconscious, but when I kneeled to look, his eyes were openedand he stared straight into my face. 'You ...' he said to me with thenext gasp. 'It hurts ... You ...'

  "'Be still,' I said. 'Here, be still.'

  "The next word I thought I heard was water, but there wasn't any in thecell. I should have realized that the ship's supplies had probably gonefor the most part overboard. But by now, hungry and thirsty myself, Icould see it as nothing less than a stupendous joke when one slice ofbread and a single tin cup of water were finally brought andembarrassedly and silently handed in to us about seven that morning.

  "Nevertheless, I opened his mouth and tried to pour some of it down histhroat. They say a man's mouth and tongue turn black from fever andthirst after a while. It's not true. The color is the deep purple ofrotten, shriveled meat. And every taste bud on the dead flesh was tippedwith that white stuff that gets in your mouth when your bowels areupset. He couldn't swallow the water. It just dribbled over the side ofhis mouth that was scabbed with purple crust.

  "He blinked his eyes and once more got out, 'You ... you please ...' andthen he began to cry again.

  "'What is it?' I asked.

  "Suddenly he began to struggle and got his hand into the breast of historn tunic and pulled out a fist. He held it out toward me and said,'Please ... please ...'

  "The fingers opened and I saw three gold coins, two of whose historiessuddenly leapt into my mind like stories of living men.

  "I moved back as if burned; then I leaned forward again. 'What do youwant?' I asked.

  "'Please ...' he said, moving his hand toward me. 'Kill ... kill ...'and then he was crying once more. 'It hurts so bad ...'

  "I got up. I walked across to the other side of the cell. I came back.Then I broke his neck with my knee and my two hands.

  "I took my pay up. Later I ate the bread and drank the rest of thewater. Then I went to sleep. They took him away without question. Andtwo days later, when the next food came, I realized, sort of absently,that without all of that first bread and water I would have starved todeath. They finally let me out because they needed the muscle, what wasleft of it. And the only thing I sometimes think about, the only thing Ilet myself think about, is whether or not I earned my pay. I guess twoof them were mine anyway. But sometimes I take them out and look atthem, and wonder where he got the third one from."

  Urson put his hand in his tunic and brought out three gold coins. "Neverbeen able to spend them, though," he said. He tossed the little pileinto the air, and then whipped them back into his fist again, andlaughed. "Never was able to spend them on anything."

  "I'm sorry," Geo said after a moment.

  Urson looked up. "Why? I guess these are my jewels, huh? Maybe everyonehas theirs some place. You think it was old Cat, maybe, sometimes when Iwas in the brig, perhaps, earning that third coin, slicing out thatlittle four-armed monster's tongue? Somehow I doubt it."

  "Look, I said I was sorry, Urson."

  "I know," Urson said. "I know. I guess I've met a hell full of people inmy short, wet life, and it could be any one of them." He sighed. "ThoughI wish I knew which. But I don't think that's the answer." He lifted hishand to his mouth now and gnawed at his thumb nail. "I hope that kiddoesn't get as nervous as I do," he laughed. "He'll have such a hell ofa lot of nails to bite."

  Then their skulls nearly split apart.

  "Hey," said Geo, "that's Snake."

  "And he's in trouble too," said Urson. He leaped onto the floor andstarted up the passageway. Geo came after him.

  "Let me go first," Geo said, "I know where he is."

  They reached the deck, raced along the side of the cabins, until theyreached the door.

  "Move," ordered Urson. Then he rammed against the door and it flew open.

  Inside, behind her desk, Argo whirled, her hand on her jewel. "What isthe ..."

  But the moment her concentration turned, Snake, who had been immobileagainst the opposite wall, suddenly vaulted across the table toward Geo.Geo grabbed the boy to steady him, and immediately one of Snake's handswas at Geo's chest where the jewel hung.

  "You fools!" hissed Argo. "Don't you understand? He's a spy for Aptor."

  There was a sudden silence.

  Then Argo said, "Close the door."

  Urson closed it. Snake still held Geo and the jewel.

  "Well," she said. "It is too late now."

  "What do you mean?" asked Geo.

  "That had you not come blundering in, one more of Aptor's spies wouldhave yielded up his secrets and then been reduced to ashes." Shebreathed deeply. "But he has his jewel now, and I have mine. Well,little thief, there's a stalemate. The forces are balanced now." Shelooked
at Geo. "How do you think he came so easily by the jewel? How doyou think he knew when I would be at the shore? Oh, he's a clever one,with all the intelligence of Aptor working behind him. He probably evenhad you planted without your knowing it to interrupt us at just thattime."

  "No, he ..." began Urson.

  "We were walking by your door," Geo interrupted, "when we heard a noiseand thought there might be trouble."

  "Your concern may have cost us all our lives."

  "If he's a spy, I gather that means he knows how this thing works," saidGeo. "Let Urson and I take him ..."

  "Take him anywhere you wish!" hissed Argo. "Get out!"

  Just then the door opened. "I heard a sound, Priestess Argo, and Ithought you might be in danger." It was the first mate.

  The Goddess Incarnate breathed deeply. "I am in no danger," she saidevenly. "Will you please leave me alone, all of you."

  "What's the Snake doing here?" Jordde suddenly asked, seeing Geo stillholding the boy.

  "I said, leave me!"

  Geo turned, away from Jordde, and stepped past him onto the deck, andUrson followed him. Ten steps farther on, he glanced back, and seeingthat Jordde had emerged from the cabin and was walking in the otherdirection, he set Snake down on his feet. "All right, Little One.March!"

  In the passage to the forecastle, Urson asked, "Hey, what's going on?"

  "Well, for one thing, our little friend here is no spy," said Geo.

  "How do you know?" asked Urson.

  "Because she doesn't know he can read minds."

  "How do you mean?" Urson asked.

  "First of all, I was beginning to think something was wrong when I cameback from talking to the priestess. You were too, and it lay in the samevein you were talking about. Why would our task be completely uselessunless we accomplished all parts of her mission? Wouldn't there be somevalue in just returning her sister, the rightful head of Leptar, to herformer position? And I'm sure her sister may well have collected someuseful information that could be used against Aptor, so that would besome value even if we didn't find the jewel. It doesn't sound toosisterly a thing to me to forsake the young priestess if there is nojewel in it for her. And her tone, the way she refers to the jewel as_hers_. There's an old saying, from before the Great Fire even: Powercorrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And I think she hasnot a little of the un-goddess-like desire for power first, peaceafterwards."

  "But that doesn't mean this one isn't an Aptor spy," said Urson.

  "Wait a minute. I'm getting there. At first I thought he was too. Theidea occurred to me first when I was talking to the priestess and shefirst mentioned that there were spies from Aptor. The coincidence of hisappearance, that he had even managed to steal the jewel in the firstplace, that he would present it to her the way he did; all this hintedsomething so strange, that spy was the first thing I thought of, and I'msure it was the first thing she thought as well. And she especiallywould think this if she did not know that Snake could read minds andbroadcast mentally, because ignorance of his telepathy removes the oneother possible explanation of the coincidences. But, Urson, why did heleave the jewel with us before he went to see her?"

  "Because he thought she was going to try and take it away from him."

  "Exactly. When she told me to send him up to her, I was fairly sure thatwas the main reason she wanted him. But if he was a spy, and knew how towork the jewel, then why not take it with him, present himself to Argowith the jewel, showing himself as an equal force, and then come calmlyback, leaving her in silence and us still on his side, especially sincehe would be revealing to her something of which she was nine-tenthsaware of already, and would watch him no more carefully than she wouldwere it not confirmed."

  "All right," said Urson, "why not?"

  "Because he was not a spy, and didn't know how to work the jewel. Yes,he had felt its power once. Perhaps he was going to pretend he had ithidden on his person. But he did not want her to get her hands on it forreasons that were strong, but not selfish.

  "Here, Snake," said Geo. "You know how to work the jewel now, don't you;but you learned from Argo just now."

  The boy nodded.

  "Here, then, why don't you take it?" Geo lifted the jewel from his neckand held it out to him.

  Snake drew back and shook his head violently.

  Urson looked puzzled.

  "Snake has seen into human minds, Urson. He's seen things directly whichthe rest of us only learn from a sort of second hand observation. Heknows that the power of this little bead is more dangerous to the mindof the person who wields it than it is to the cities it may destroy."

  "Well," said Urson, "as long as she thinks he's a spy, at least we'llhave one of them little beads and someone who knows how to use it. Imean if we have to."

  "I don't think she thinks he's a spy any more, Urson."

  "Huh?"

  "I give her credit for being able to reason at least as well as I can.Once she found out he had no jewel on him, she knew that he was asinnocent as you and I are. But her only thought was to get it in any wayshe could. When we came in, just when she was going to put Snake underthe jewel's control, guilt made her leap backwards to her first andseemingly logical accusation for our benefit. Evil likes to cloak itselfas good."

  They stepped down into the forecastle. By now a handful of sailors hadcome into the room, mostly drunk and snoring on berths around the walls.One had wrapped himself completely up in a blanket in the middle berthof the tier that Urson had chosen for the three. "Well," said Urson toSnake, "it looks like you'll have to move."

  Snake scrambled to the top bunk.

  "Now look, that one was mine."

  Snake motioned him up.

  "Huh? Two of us in one of those?" demanded Urson. "Look, if you wantsomeone to keep warm against, go down and sleep with Geo there. It'smore room and you won't get squashed against the wall. I'm a thrasherwhen I sleep."

  Snake didn't move.

  "Maybe you better do what he says," Geo said. "I have an idea that ..."

  "You've got another idea now?" asked Urson, "Oh, damn, I'm too tired toargue." He vaulted up to the top bunk. "Now move over and be verysmall." He stretched out, and Snake's slight body was completely hidden."Hey, get your elbows out of there," Geo heard Urson mutter before therewas only a gentle thundering of his snore.

  * * * * *

  _Silver mist suffused the deck of the ship and wet lines glowed aphosphorescent silver; the sky was pale as ice; pricks of stars dottedover the whole bowl. The sea, once green, seemed bleached to blowingclouds of white powder. The door of a cabin opened and white veils flungforward from the form of Argo who emerged like silver from thebone-colored door. The whole movement of the scene made it look like apicture imagination fastens in the slow ripplings of gauze under breeze.One dark spot was at her throat, pulsing darkly, like a heart, like ablack flame. She walked to the railing, peered over. In the whitewashing a skeletal hand appeared. It raised on a beckoning arm, thenfell forward in the water. Another arm raised now, a few feet away,beckoning, gesturing. Then three at once; then two more._

  _A voice as pale as the vision spoke "I am coming. We sail in a hour.The mate has been ordered to put the ship out before dawn. You must tellme now, creatures of the water."_

  _Two glowing arms raised up, and then an almost featureless face. Chesthigh in the water, it listed backwards and sank again._

  _"Are you of Aptor or Leptar?" spoke the apparitional figure of Argoagain in the thinned voice. "Are your allegiances to Argo or Hama? Ihave followed thus far. You must tell me before I follow farther."_

  _There was a whirling of sound which seemed to be the wind attempting tosay, "The sea ... the sea ... the sea ..."_

  _But Argo did not hear, for she turned away and walked from the rail,back to her cabin._

  _Now the scene moved, turned toward the door of the forecastle. Itopened, moved through the hall, the walls, more like polished steel thanweathered wood, and went on. In
the forecastle, the yellow oil lampseemed a white flaring of magnesium._

  _The movement stopped in front of a tier of three berths; on the bottomone lay a young man with a starved, pallid face. His mop of hair wasbleached white. On his chest was a pulsing darkness, a black flame, adark heart, shimmering with the indistinctness of absolute shadow. Onthe top bunk a great form like a bloated corpse lay. One huge arm hungover the bunk, flabbed, puffy, without muscle._

  _In the center berth was an anonymous bundle of blankets completelycovering the figure inside. On this the scene fixed, drew closer ... andthe paleness suddenly faded before darkness, into shadow, into nothing._

  * * * * *

  Geo sat up and knuckled his eyes.

  The dark forecastle was relieved by the yellow glow of the lamp. Thegaunt mate stood across the room. "Hey, you," he was saying to a man inone of the bunks, "up and out. We're sailing."

  The figure roused itself from the tangle of bedding.

  The mate moved to another. "Up, you dog face. Up, you fish fodder. We'resailing." Turning around, he saw Geo watching him. "And what's wrongwith you?" he demanded. "We're sailing, didn't you hear? Naw, you goback to sleep. Your turn will come, but we need experienced ones now."He grinned briefly, and then went on to one more. "Eh, you stink like anold wine cask. Raise yourself out of your fumes. We're sailing!"