And the breach widened.
I sensed it, even in my withdrawal. But it touched me not. What cared I if my companions fought or were friends? As for myself, it was a matter of indifference to me whether I lived or died, so why should I worry if they were not friends?
One day I woke from deep, dreamless slumber to hear them talking excitedly. I levered myself up on one elbow, wondering what had attracted their interest in the eternal gloom here at the bottom of the world; and then I felt the hot sunlight upon my face, and knew, or guessed, the reason for their agitation.
“Saints and sages, lad, ‘tis a mighty sea!” Klygon burbled, seeing me awake. “An open place at last, under the sky… the trees fall behind, and you can see their tops, by all that’s holy! What a sight! A sea!”
“I guessed something of the sort, feeling the sunlight on my face,” I muttered. Klygon laughed and writhed with glee. It must have been a wonderful, a thrilling experience, to see the open silvery sky, brilliant with the jade fire of day, after such an eternity spent in damp, fetid darkness.
For me there was only the darkness. For them it was daylight at last …
All that day we let the stream carry us into the vast body of water, whose farther shores, said Delgan, could not even be glimpsed. I had not even known that the World of the Green Star possessed seas till now, although perchance I should have guessed it, since the Laonese tongue possesses a word for sea… zand, they call it.
That evening we beached on a small islet, a mere hummock of coarse grasses which heaved up from the fresh waters of the inland sea. Here grew berries of a kind unknown to us, and an edible root called the phashad, whose hard outer shell hides a tender, nutlike pulp very delicious when cooked.
We ate, stretched out on the thick grasses, under sunset skies whose splendors I could only remember.
None of us had the slightest idea where we were, or what might happen next. Or so it seemed at the time, at least.
Quite suddenly I woke and lay there without moving, wondering what it was had roused me from my deep slumbers. A thud, startlingly loud in the susurration of lapping waves; that, and a muffled cry.
Then something moved near me in the darkness that bound my eyes, and hands touched me lightly. Before I knew what was happening, the unseen hands had taken from the my swordbelt, the zoukar, and the coil of Live Rope by my side. Then the Weather Cloak was whisked from over me—I had been using it for a blanket.
“What—?”
Delgan’s voice came to me in the murmurous slither and slap of the restless waves. Soft, amused, careless, was his voice.
“I’m sorry, my young friend, but there are things I must do. A pity—to relieve you of your weapons, but I have need of them. Soon, you will need them no more, for dead men fight no battles.”
In the darkness of my blinded world, I heard him chuckle at his own mocking wit. It was a hateful sound, smug and sardonic.
“You filthy swine, would you rob a blind man?” I growled, coming to my feet and reaching out for him.
He eluded my grasp with ease. In the next instant his hands struck me in the chest and I slipped and fell, feet tangled in the coarse grasses. Had I the use of my eyes, I could have broken him in two, such was my fury; lacking their use, I was as helpless as a child to oppose him.
“I regret the necessity,” he said casually, from some lit tle distance away. “But from this point on, I cannot indulge myself in the pleasure of your company. A blind boy and an ugly fool would only encumber me henceforth. To put it bluntly, dear boy, I no longer need you.”
My fury and despair choked me.
“Was it for this I saved you from the worm, at the cost of my sight?” I raged. He laughed, light and easy, enjoying himself.
“In so doing, you but repaid me for rescuing you from the pit,” he said. “Tit for tat. And now we are even.”
“We are not even! You have robbed me while I slept! And what have you done to Klygon?”
“He, too, has left you. Not of his own free will, of course; an involuntary matter.”
“Have you killed him, then?” I said, my voice raw and hoarse.
He only laughed by way of reply.
Then I heard a peculiar rustling sound, and a heavy splash. I got to my hands and knees, feeling around in a disoriented fashion. He was stealing our boat! I knew it from the sounds he was making, but could do nothing about it. I did not even know where he was, or in which direction, or precisely where the two of them had pulled our leaf-craft up on the shore of the little islet.
Then I heard him push free of the shore, the wallow of waves as the hull skewed out into the stream, and his grunt as he heaved himself all wet and dripping up into the light little craft. Could I have wept with my seared, unfeeling eyes, I would have wept in that black abysmal moment from sheer rage and helplessness. But I could not weep.
“Farewell, dear boy! I go to reclaim a destiny greater than any you could imagine. Do not think too harshly of me; my need is more pressing than yours. In my own country, I am a king. The needs of wandering savages such as yourself count for little against the destinies of great men. I would tell you who and what I truly am, if I thought you had the intelligence to understand it, but you lack the wit to realize my grandeur, so I will keep silent.”
His voice now came from quite far out in the darkness which surrounded me. I uttered a strangled sob and shook my fist in impotent fury.
He laughed.
“Give my regards to the fish!”
Fumbling and feeling about me in the thick grasses, I eventually found the body of Klygon.
The mysterious blue man had clubbed him while he slept. I touched his knobby brow and my fingers came away wet and sticky with what must have been Klygon’s blood. I felt his chest with trembling fingers; a faint, sluggish pulsation came to me. He yet lived, then! Well, Klygon had a harder skull than Delgan had guessed, thank God.
I tore away a bit of my breechclout, sopped it in the fresh water of the sea, and bathed his face, clearing away the dried blood as best I could by touch alone. He groaned and said something.
“Rest easy, old friend. We’re not done for yet,” I said.
“That filthy… blue-skinned… villain,” he groaned.
“I know. I know. He relieved me of all my weapons; and he took the boat. We’re marooned here, I’m afraid. A blind man and a man with a broken head… well, maybe someday we’ll run into the high and mighty Delgan of the Isles again. Then, maybe, with a bit of luck, we can even the score a mite…
“I knew him for a rascal, and a vagabond… from the first, lad, I didn’t trust the dog… him and his sly, smirking, clever ways… sucking up to you, winning you over… but it takes a better man nor him, to fool the likes of Klygon…”
“I should have listened to you from the first. I should have known you were a better judge of character than I! That I didn’t, has brought us to this sorry place, where we are likely to be eaten by fish when the tide rises, unless we starve to death first. Can you forgive me, Klygon, old friend?”
“There, lad, don’t be after blaming yourself,” the little man growled, wincing with pain as I bathed his bruised head with the wet rag. “I had a feeling the swine didn’t have the heart of an honest man like the likes of us… I thought there was something about him smacked of treason and treachery… either he had the black heart of a traitor, or the white heart of a stinking coward…”