“Let me see,” Iimmi said. “I studied with Eadnu at the University of Olcse Ohlwn.”
Geo looked up and laughed. “I thought some of your ideas sounded familiar. I was a pupil of Welis. Our teachers would never speak to each other! This is a surprise. So you were at Olcse Ohlwn too?”
“Uh-huh,” said Iimmi, turning pages again. “I signed aboard this ship as a summer job. If I’d known where we’d end up, I don’t think I’d have gone, though.”
Stomach pangs were forgotten momentarily as the two looked at the rituals of Hama.
“They’re not at all like those of the Goddess,” Iimmi observed.
“Apparently not,” agreed Geo. “Wait!” Iimmi had been turning pages at random. “Look there!” Geo pointed.
“What is it?” Iimmi asked.
“The lines,” Geo said. “The ones Argo recited…”
He read out loud:
“It’s the other version of the poem I found in the pre-purge rituals of Argo. I wonder if there were any more poems in the old rituals of Leptar that parallel those of Aptor and Hama?”
“Probably,” Iimmi said. “Especially if the first invasion from Aptor took place just before, and probably caused, the purges.”
“What about food?” Urson suddenly asked. He was sitting on the altar steps. “You two scholars have the rest of time to argue. But we may starve before you come to some conclusion.”
“He’s right,” said Iimmi. “Besides, we have to get going.”
“Would you two consider it an imposition to set your minds to procuring us some food?” Urson asked.
“Wait a minute,” Geo said. “Here’s a section on the burial of the dead. Yes, I thought so.” He read out loud now:
“What does that mean?” asked Urson.
“It means that the dead are buried with all the accoutrements of the living. I was pretty sure of it, but I wanted to check. That means that they put food in the graves.”
“First, where are we going to find any graves; and second, I’ve had enough dead and half-dead food.” Urson stood up.
“Over here!” cried Geo. With Snake following, they came to the row of sealed doors behind the columns along the wall. Geo looked at the inscription. “Tombs,” he reported. He tried to turn the handles, a double set of rings that twisted in opposite directions. “In an old, uncared-for temple like this, the lock mechanisms must have rusted by now if they’re at all like the ancient tombs of Leptar.”
“Have you studied the ancient tombs?” asked Iimmi excitedly. “Professor Eadnu always considered them a waste of time.”
“That’s all Welis ever talked about,” laughed Geo. “Here, Urson, you set your back to this a moment.”
Grumbling, Urson came forward, took the rings, and twisted. One snapped off in his hand. The other gave with a crumbling sound inside the door.
“I think that does it,” Geo said.
They all helped pull now, and suddenly the door gave an inch, and then, on the next tug, swung free.
Snake preceded them into the stone cell.
On a rock table, lying on its side, was a bald, shriveled body. Tendons ridged the brown skin, along the arms, along the calves; bits of cloth still stuck here and there. On the floor stood sealed jars, heaps of parchment, piles of ornaments.
Geo moved among the jars. “This one has grain,” he said. “Give me a hand.”
Iimmi helped him lug the big pottery vessel to the door.
Then a thin shriek scarred the dusty air, and both students stumbled. The jar hit the ground, split, and grain heaped over the floor. The shriek came again.
Geo saw, there on the broken wall across the temple, five of the apelike figures crouched before the shingled leaves, silhouetted on the dappled green. One leaped down and ran, wailing, across the littered floor, straight for the tomb door. Two others followed, then two more. And more had mounted the broken ridge.
The loping forms burst into the cell, one, and then its two companions. Claws and teeth closed on the shriveled skin. Others screamed around the entrance. The body rolled beneath hands and mouths. One arm swept into the air above the lowered heads and humped backs. It fell on the edge of the rock table, broke at midforearm, and the skeletal hand fell to the floor, shattering.
They backed to the temple door, eyes fixed on the desecration. Then they turned and ran down the temple steps. Not till they reached the river and the sunlight on the broad rocks touched them did they slow or breathe deeply. They walked quietly. Hunger returned, and occasionally one would look aside into the faces of the others in an attempt to identify the vanishing horror that still pulsed behind their eyes.
Chapter Seven
A small animal crossed their path, and in a blink, one of Snake’s hands scooped up a sharp rock, flung it and sunk it into the beast’s head. They quartered it on Iimmi’s blade and had almost enough to fill them from the roast made with fire from the jewels. Following their own shadows into the afternoon, they continued silently up the river.
It was Urson who first pointed it out. “Look at the far bank,” he said.
The river had become slower, broader here. Across from them, even with the added width, they could make out a man-made embankment.
A few hundred meters farther on, Iimmi sighted spires above the trees, still across the river. They could figure no explanations till the trees ceased on the opposite bank and the buildings and towers of the great city broke the sky. Many of the towers were ruined or cracked. Nets of girders were silhouetted against the yellow clouds, where the skin of buildings had stripped away. Elevated highways looped tower after tower, many of them broken also, their ends dangling colossally to the streets. The docks of the city across the water were deserted.
It was Geo who suggested: “Perhaps Hama’s Temple is in there. After all, Argo’s largest temple is in Leptar’s biggest city.”
“And what city in Leptar is that big?” asked Urson in an awe-filled voice.
“How do we get across?” asked Iimmi.
But Snake had already started down to the water.
“I guess we follow him,” Geo said, climbing down the rocks.
Snake dove into the water. Iimmi, Geo, and Urson followed. Before he had taken two strokes, Geo felt familiar hands grasp his body from below. This time he did not fight; there was a sudden sense of speed, of sinking through consciousness.
Then he was bobbing up in chill water. The stone embankment rose to one side and the broad river spread to the other. He shook dark hair from his eyes and sculled toward the stones. Snake and Urson bobbed at his right, and a second later, Iimmi at his left. He switched from sculling into a crawl, wondering how to scale the stones; then he saw the rusted metal ladder leading into the water. He caught hold of the sides and pulled himself up.