A, B, C: Three Short Novels Page 7

  “How come?” asked Urson.

  “Look, we know something is fishy about Argo. The more I think about it, the less I can put my hands on it. But if something is fishy about the Mate too, then perhaps he’s in cahoots with her. What about when he came into Argo’s cabin last night when we were there?”

  “Maybe he was just doing what we said we had been: walking by when he heard a noise. If it was his eyes we were seeing through, then he sees things awfully funny.”

  “Maybe he’s a Strange One too, like Snake, who ‘hears’ things funny. Not all strangeness shows,” Geo reminded him.

  “You could be right. You could be right.” He stood up from the lifeboat support. “Well, I’ve got something to do and can’t stand here all day. You think some more, friend, and I’ll be willing to listen. I’ll see you later.” He hauled up his rope again and started off in the mist.

  Geo looked around him and decided to search for Snake. A ladder led to the upper deck; climbing it, he saw across the boards a tall, fog-shrouded figure. He paused and then started forward. “Hello,” he said.

  The Captain turned from the railing.

  “Good morning, sir,” Geo said. “I thought you might be the Mate.”

  The Captain was silent for a while and then said, “Good morning. What do you want?”

  “I didn’t mean to disturb you if you were—”

  “No disturbance.”

  “How long will it take us to get to Aptor?”

  “Another two weeks and a half. Shorter if this wind keeps up.”

  “I see,” said Geo. “Have you any idea of the geography of Aptor?”

  “The Mate is the only one onboard who has ever set foot on Aptor and come off it alive. Except Priestess Argo.”

  “The Mate, sir? When?”

  “On a previous voyage he was wrecked there. But he made a raft and drifted into the open sea, where he had the good fortune to be picked up in a ship.”

  “Then he will lead whatever party goes to the place?”

  “Not him,” said the Captain. “He’s sworn never to set foot on the place again. Don’t even ask him to talk about it. Imagine what sort of a place it must be if probable death on the water is better than struggling on its land. No, he’ll pilot us through the bay to the river’s estuary, but other than that, he will have nothing to do with the place.

  “Two other men we had onboard who’d been there and returned. They went with the Priestess Argo in a boat of thirteen. Ten were dismembered and the pieces of their bodies were thrown in the water. Two survived to row the Priestess back to the boat. One was the sailor called Whitey, who died in the forecastle this morning. Not half an hour ago, I received news that the other one went overboard from the rigging and was lost in the sea. This is not a good trip. Men are not to be lost like coins in a game. Life is too valuable.”

  “I see,” said Geo. “Thank you for your information and time, sir.”

  “You are welcome,” the Captain said. Then he turned away.

  Geo descended the ladder and walked slowly along the deck. Something touched him on the shoulder; he whirled.

  “Snake, goddamn it, don’t do that!”

  The boy looked embarrassed.

  “I didn’t mean to yell,” Geo said, putting his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Come on, though. What did you find? I’ll trade you what I know for what you do.”

  You…sleep…came from Snake.

  “I’m sorry, friend,” laughed Geo. “But I couldn’t take a nap now for money. You’re just going to have to ‘yell’ yourself hoarse and answer some fairly direct questions. And whether knowing the answer is going to get me in trouble or not, you answer right. First of all, whose eyes were we seeing through last night? The Captain’s?”

  Snake shook his head.

  “The Mate’s?”

  Snake nodded.

  “Thought so. Now, did he want to kill…wait a minute,” said Geo. “Can the Mate read minds too? Is that why you’re keeping things from us?”

  Snake shrugged.

  “Come on now,” Geo said. “Do a little yelling and explain.”

  Don’t…know…Snake thought out loud. Can…see…what…he…sees…hear…what…he…hears…but…no…hear…thoughts…

  “I see. Look, take a chance that he can’t read minds and tell me. Did he kill the man in the bed you should have been in?”

  Snake paused for a minute. Then nodded.

  “Do you think he was trying to kill you?”

  Snake nodded again.

  “Now, one other thing. Did you know that the man who was killed this morning in your place was one of the two men who came back from Aptor with the Priestess Argo on her last expedition?”

  Snake looked surprised.

  “And that the other one drowned this morning, fell overboard and was lost?”

  Snake jumped.

  “What is it?”

  Look…for…him…all…morning…He…not…dead…hear…thoughts…dim…low…

  “Who’s not dead?” Geo asked. “Which one?”

  Second…man.

  “Did you find him?” Geo asked.

  Can’t…find…Snake said, but…alive…I…know…

  “One other question.” Geo lifted the jewel from against his chest. “How do you work this silly thing?”

  Think…through…it…said Snake.

  Geo frowned. “What do you mean? Can you tell me how it works?”

  You…have…no…words…Snake said. Radio…electricity…diode…

  “Radio, electricity, diode?” repeated Geo, the sounds coming unfamiliarly to his tongue. “What are they?”

  Snake shrugged.

  Thirty feet in front of them the door to Argo’s cabin opened, and the veiled Priestess stepped out. She saw them, and at once her hand rose to her throat. Then it dropped. Snake and Geo were still.

  Above, on the deck that topped the cabins, the dim form of the Mate was distinguishable; but Geo could not tell whether Jordde was watching them or had his back to them.

  The Priestess paused and then returned to her room.

  And the Mate walked away from the rail.

  —

  Geo got a chance to report his findings to Urson that evening. The big sailor was puzzled.

  “Can’t you add anything?” Geo asked.

  “All I’ve had a chance to do is work,” grumbled Urson. They were standing by the rail, beyond which the mist steeped thickly, making sky and water indistinguishable and grave. “Hey, Four Arms,” Urson asked suddenly, “what are you looking at?”

  Snake stared at the water but said nothing.

  “Maybe he’s listening to something,” suggested Geo.

  “You’d think there were better things to eavesdrop on than fishes,” said Urson. “I guess Argo’s given special orders that you two get no work. Some people. Let’s go eat.” As they started toward the convergence of sailors at the entrance of the mess hall, Urson paused. “Oh, guess what.” He picked up the jewel from Geo’s chest. “All you people are going around with such finery, I took my coins to the smithy and had him put chains on them. Now I’ll strut with the best of you.” He laughed as they went through the narrow way, crowding with the other sailors into the wide hall.

  —

  Night without dreams left them early, and the boat rolled from beneath the fog. Dawn was gray but clear; by breakfast-time a ragged slip of land hemmed the horizon. Halfway through the meal, water was splashing from the brims of pitchers to roll one way, darkening the wooden table; then as the boat heaved, it rolled another.

  On the wheel-deck the sailors clustered at the rail. Before them, rocks stuck like broken teeth from the water.

  In his new triple necklace, Urson joined Snake and Geo. “Whew! Getting through them is going to be fun.”

  Suddenly heads turned. The sailors looked back as Argo’s dark veils, bloated with the breeze, filled about her as she mounted the steps to the wheel-deck. Slowly she walked among the sailors. They moved
away. She stopped, one hand on a stay-rope, to stare across the water at the dark tongue of land.

  From the wheel the Captain spoke: “Jordde, disperse the men and take the wheel.”

  “Aye, sir,” said the Mate. “You, you, and you to the tops.” He pointed among the men. “You also, and you. Hey, didn’t you hear me?”

  “Me, sir?” Geo turned.

  “Yes, you—up to the top spar there.”

  “You can’t send him up!” Urson called out. “He’s never been topside at all before. It’s too choppy for any fellow’s first time up. He doesn’t even know—”

  “And who asked you?” demanded the Mate.

  “Nobody asked me, sir,” said Urson, “but—”

  “Then you get below before I brig you for insubordination and fine you your three gold baubles. You think I don’t recognize dead man’s gold?”

  “Now look here!” Urson roared.

  Geo looked from Argo to the Captain. The Captain was puzzled, true; but the bewilderment that flooded the face of the Priestess shocked him.

  Jordde suddenly seized up a marlin pin, raised it, and shouted at Urson: “Get down below before I break your skull!”

  Urson’s fists sprang up.

  “Calmly, brother bear—” Geo began.

  “In a bitch’s ass,” snarled Urson and swung his arm forward. Something leaped on Jordde from behind—Snake! The belaying pin veered inches away from Urson’s shoulder. The flung fist sank into the Mate’s belly and he reeled forward, with Snake still clawing at his back. He reached the rail, bent double over it, and Snake’s legs flipped. When Jordde rose, he was free of encumbrance.

  Geo rushed to the rail and saw Snake’s head emerge in the churning water. Behind him, Urson yelled, “Look out!” Geo dodged aside as Jordde’s spike made three inches of splinters in the plank against which he had been leaning.

  “Not him!” cried Argo. “No, no! Not him!”

  But Jordde seized Geo’s shoulder and whirled him back against the rail. Geo saw Urson grab a hanging rope and swing forward. Urson tried to knock Jordde away with his feet. But Argo moved in the way of his flying body and raised her hands to push him aside so that he swung wide and landed on the railing a yard from the struggle.

  Then Geo’s feet slipped on the wet boards; his body hurled backward into the air. Then his back slapped water.

  As he broke surface, Urson called to him. “Hang on, friend Geo, I’m coming!” Urson swung his arms back, then forward; he dove.

  Now Geo could see only Argo and Jordde at the rail. But they were struggling!

  Urson and Snake were near him in the water. The last thing he saw: Jordde suddenly yanked the chain from Argo’s neck and flung it over the sea. She screamed—and her hands reached for jewel, following its arc toward the water.

  Then hands were at his body. Geo turned in the water as Snake disappeared beneath; Urson suddenly cried out. Hands caught Geo’s arms as he tried to gulp a breath. And Urson was gone.

  Hands were pulling him down.

  —

  Roughness of sand beneath one of his sides and the flare of sun on the other. His eyes were hot and his lids orange over them. Then there was a breeze. He opened his eyes and shut them quick, because of the light. He turned over, thought about pillows and stiff new sheets. Reaching out, he grabbed sand.

  He opened his eyes and pushed himself up. His hands spread on warm, soft crumblings. Over there were rocks, thick vegetation behind them. He swayed to his knees, the sand grating under his kneecaps. He looked at his arm in the sun, flecked with grains. Then he touched his chest.

  His hand came to one bead, moved on, and came to another! He looked down. Both the chain with the platinum claw and the thong with the wire cage hung around his neck. Bewildered, he heaved to his feet. And sat down again as the beach went red with the wash of blood behind his eyeballs. He got up again slowly. The sand was only warm, which meant the clouds that had hung so thickly at dawn couldn’t have been gone for long.

  Carefully Geo started down the beach, looking toward the land. When he turned to look at the water, he stopped.

  At the horizon, beyond the rocks, was the boat, sails lowered. So they hadn’t left yet. He swung his eyes back to the beach: fifty feet away was a man lying in the sun.

  He ran forward now, the sand splashing around his feet, sinking under his toes, so that it was like the slow-motion running of dreams. Ten feet from the figure he stopped.

  It was a young Negro, with skin the color of richly humused soil. The long skull was shaved. Like Geo, he was almost naked. There was a clot of seaweed at his wrist, and the soles of his feet and one upturned palm were grayish and shriveled; Geo thought about what happened when he sat in the bath too long.

  He frowned and stood for a full minute. He looked up and down the beach once more. There was no one else. Just then the man’s arm shifted across the sand like a sleeper’s.

  Immediately Geo fell to his knees beside the figure, rolled him over, and lifted his head. The eyes opened, squinted in the light, and the man whispered, “Who are you?”

  “My name is Geo.”

  The man sat up and caught himself from falling forward by jamming his hands into the sand. He shook his head, then looked up again. “Yes,” he said. “I remember you. What happened? Did we founder? Did the ship go down?”

  “Remember me from where?” Geo asked.

  “From the ship. You were on the ship, weren’t you?”

  “I was on the ship,” Geo said. “And I got thrown overboard by that damned First Mate in a fight. But nothing’s happened to the ship. It’s still out there; you can see it.” Suddenly Geo stopped. Then he said, “You’re the guy who discovered Whitey’s body that morning!”

  “That’s right.” He shook his head again. “My name is Iimmi.” Now he looked out at the horizon. “I see them,” he said. “There’s the ship. But where are we?”

  “On the beach at Aptor.”

  Iimmi screwed his face up into a mask of dark horror. “No…” he said softly. “We couldn’t be. We were days away from…”

  “How did you fall in?”

  “It was blowing up a little,” Iimmi explained. “I was in the rig when suddenly something struck me from behind and I went toppling. I thought a spar had come loose and knocked me over. In all the mist, I was sure they wouldn’t see me, and the current was too strong for me, and…” He stopped, looked around.

  “You’ve been on this beach once before, haven’t you?” Geo asked.

  “Once,” said Iimmi. “Yes, once.”

  “Do you realize how long you’ve been in the water?” Geo asked.

  Iimmi looked up.

  “Over two weeks!” Geo said. “Come on; see if you can walk. I’ve got a lot of things to explain, if I can, and we’ve got some hunting to do.”

  “Is there any water on this place?” Iimmi asked. “I feel like I could dry up and blow away.” He got to his feet, swayed, straightened.

  “Find water,” said Geo. “A good idea. Maybe even a large river. And once we find it, I want to stay as close to it as possible as long as I’m on this place, because we’ve got some friends around here.”

  Iimmi steadied himself, and they started up the beach.

  “What are you looking around for?” Iimmi asked.

  “Friends,” Geo said.

  Two hundred feet up, rocks and thick vegetation cut off the beach. Scrambling over boulders and through vines, they emerged on a rock embankment that dropped fifteen feet into the wide estuary. A river wound back into the jungle. Twenty feet farther, the bank dropped to the water’s surface. They fell flat on wet rock and sucked in cool liquid, watching the blue stones and white and red pebbles shiver.

  There was a sound. They sprang from the water and crouched on the rock.

  “Hey,” Urson said through the leaves, “I was wondering if I’d find you.” Light through branches lay more gold on the gold hung against his hairy chest. “Have you seen Snake?”


  “I was hoping he was with you,” said Geo. “Urson, this is Iimmi, the other sailor who died two weeks ago!”

  Both Iimmi and Urson looked puzzled. “Have a drink of water,” Geo said, “and I’ll explain as best I can.”

  “Don’t mind if I do,” said Urson.

  While the bear man lay down to drink, Geo began the story of Aptor and Leptar for Iimmi. When he finished, Iimmi asked, “You mean those fish things in the water carried us here? Whose side are they on?”

  “Apparently Argo isn’t sure either,” Geo said. “Perhaps they’re neutral.”

  “And the Mate?” asked Iimmi. “You think he pushed me overboard after he killed Whitey?”

  “I thought you said he was trying to kill Snake,” said Urson, who had finished drinking.

  “He was,” explained Geo. “He wanted to get rid of all three. Probably Snake first, and then Whitey and Iimmi. He wasn’t counting on our fishy friends, though. I think it was just luck that he got Whitey rather than Snake. If he can’t read minds, which I’m pretty sure he can’t, he probably overheard you assigning the bunks for us to sleep in, Urson. When he found out he had killed Whitey instead, it just urged him to get Iimmi out of the way more quickly.”

  “Somebody tried to do me in,” Iimmi agreed. “But I still don’t see why.”

  “If there is a spy from Aptor on the ship, then Jordde is it,” said Geo. “The Captain told me he had been to Aptor once before. It must have been then that he was recruited into their forces. Iimmi, both you and Whitey had also been on Aptor’s shore, if only for a few hours. There must be something that Jordde learned from the Island that he was afraid you might learn, something you might see. Something dangerous, dangerous for Aptor; something you might see just from being on the beach. Probably it was something you wouldn’t even recognize; possibly you wouldn’t see the significance of it until much later. But it probably was something very obvious.”

  Now Urson asked, “What did happen when you were on Aptor? How were those ten men killed?”

  In the sun, Iimmi shivered. He waited a moment, then began: “We took a skiff out from the ship and managed to get through the rocks. It was evening when we started. The moon, I remember, had risen just above the horizon, though the sky was still blue. ‘The light of the full moon is propitious to the White Goddess Argo,’ she said from her place at the bow of the skiff. By the time we landed, the sky was black behind her, and the beach was all silvered, up and down. Whitey and I stayed to guard the skiff. As we sat on the gunwale, rubbing our arms against the slight chill, we watched the others go up the beach, five and five, with Argo behind them.