He dived between two frondy bushes, rolled, and was up on his feet and making for a tree with low branches. A bush cracked behind him as a huge body crushed it Deyv leaped to grab a branch, but his foot slipped, and he fell heavily on his back. It seemed to be just about all over then. Still, he tried to get up, but he made the mistake of using his right arm. It caved under him, and he fell again.
Then he heard a low growling, a thrashing, and he saw that Jum had come ashore after him. The dog was leaping toward and away from the athaksum, snapping at its good eye. The riverbeast was being distracted, but its counterlunges would bring those teeth down on Jum's head at any second. Blood, however, was still flowing from the pierced eye, coating blue fur with red, soakng the dirt and making a pale-red mud.
It was no use for Deyv to try to climb into the tree. He could grab a limb with his left hand, but the useless right would keep him from pulling himself up onto it. He could run on into the woods and leave
Jum to be sacrificed. Or perhaps Jum, knowing his master was safe, would also run.
No, Jum was too busy even to see him. He'd keep tormenting the athaksum until it got him.
Deyv reached around his front with the left arm and plucked a stone tomahawk from the belt Yelling, he ran up to the beast and brought the heavy stone head down between its eyes. The creature turned, reared up, and swallowed the tomahawk just as Deyv awkwardly brought it down again in his left hand. He was lucky he didn't also lose his hand. Hard lips brushed his fist.
Then he and the dog leaped away to escape the monster's agony. With the tip of the weapon sticking out just beyond its lips, the riverbeast rolled and thrashed, crushing and splintering some bushes. Its good eye bulged; the blood from the wounded eye ran even faster; a deep gargling sound issued from its throat; its legs waved frantically. Finally, lying on its back, its spine curved, the top of its head digging into the ground, the monster died.
Deyv heard a screech behind him and whirled to face another danger, though he didn't feel up to dealing adequately with it. There was a large cat, tawny, with black rosettes, golden eyes, and wet fangs, crouching to spring.
"Now you show up!" Deyv, between pants, said.
For a long time, Deyv and Jum searched in the mud for the sword. Deyv dived many times groping for it, but the dog, after only three attempts, surfaced and barked to indicate its location. By then Deyv's arm was beginning to regain some mobility. Aejip had taken no part in the search. Though she could swim easily enough, she didn't like the water. Besides, she was hungry and totally occupied in tearing meat from the carcass's flank.
Using the sword, Deyv hacked off some portions and threw them to the dog. Then he dragged the tomahawk from the monster's throat and cut out the tongue. Some time later, he got a fire going with the bowdrill stored in a pocket of the gun case. The cooked tongue was delicious.
Meanwhile, birds, a troop of small meat-eating monkeylike creatures, and several hoglike beasts sat around at a respectful distance. When Deyv and his pets moved on, they heard the squawks, whistles, grunts, and squeals of the scavengers as they closed in on the feast.
3
BY the time the three had crossed to the other bank, the clouds almost covered half of the skies. A wind preceding them was shaking the upper parts of the trees and rippling the water. The last of the shapes floated over Deyv and then was swallowed up in the black mists overhead. A few minutes later, rain fell upon the forest, battered at the upper levels, crashed through the heavy foliage, and spilled thickly to the ground.
Deyv, Jum, and Aejip, shivering, took shelter under a gigantic toadstool, but the water flowed over their feet and paws. Aejip looked as if she were cursing. Jum looked miserable. Deyv huddled between the two, trying to get some warmth from their bodies. Thunder and lightning were by then ripping the air apart. From a distance came a crashing as a jungle patriarch fell, tearing off many of the lianas that grew around it but restrained by the rest from striking the ground.
"Aren't you sorry you changed your mind and decided to follow us?" Deyv said to Aejip.
The cat snarled.
After the lightning ceased, Deyv somehow managed to sleep. He awoke with the skies still dark but rainless. Stiff and cold, he set off down the path with Jum and Aejip ahead of him.
' Sometime later the cat went hunting. She returned with a large rodent with almost square ears. They sought out a shwikl tree and ran its batlike inhabitants out from the cavity halfway up the trunk. There was just enough room for all three to cuddle inside. Nice and warm. First, though, Deyv found some leaves and dead wood that weren't too wet for a fire, and he cooked his part of the rodent. Then he climbed up beside the hole and drew the dog up with the rope. They slept well, though they were occasionally awakened by especially vicious bites from the parasites the previous owners had left behind.
Their journey was delayed in the morning. Deyv went hunting with the blowgun and brought down an ushuthikl, an animal which looked much like an ape but whose ancestors had probably been coyotes.
The three companions ate well before proceeding. Deyv carried the uneaten portion for a time in its own skin. However, it attracted so many stinging flies that eventually the three stuffed themselves and then left the rest for the insects.
Two more sleep-times passed without special incident. The clouds had dissipated; the air had become much warmer. But a blackness was building up again.
Shortly before the trio reached their immediate goal, Jum stopped and growled. Deyv hurried into the bushes and called the animals to him. Presently three young men of the Red Skunk Tribe trotted up.
They wore their glossy black hair in coils atop faces painted scarlet; big wooden rings hung from their ears; and wooden plugs tufted with feathers at each end stuck out from their septums. Their legs were painted with vertical bands of green, red, and black. The men carried blowgun cases on their backs, long spears tipped with chert in their hands, and stone tomahawks in their belts. Obviously they formed a war party.
Deyv was tempted. He could shoot the rearmost with a dart after they'd passed. Then he'd loose his animals on them, and before they could recover from their surprise, he'd shoot at least one more.
However, it would be a great bother to carry their heads and soul eggs along. Far too much so. Still, it would be possible to cache heads and eggs in a tree hollow and pick them up on the way back.
But what if these were only the scouts of a larger party? Then he'd be in a bad situation. Best to play it safe. Nevertheless, he sighed as he watched them disappear around the bend. He'd never killed a man, never had a trophy.
After waiting a long time to make sure the three weren't a vanguard, Deyv returned to the trail. Jum again preceded him. Aejip followed the dog at a distance of seventy feet in case the three men had somehow seen Deyv and were sneaking back. The cat's nose wasn't nearly as sensitive as the dog's, but her hearing was almost as good.
On the way, Deyv spotted a meatfruit tree off the trail and collected what little the birds and beasts had missed. All three ate the conical protein-rich but evil-smelling fruit. By the time they'd finished, they came to an ujushmikl. A highway of the ancients.
Fifty-two feet wide at this point, it was made of a somewhat resilient orange substance and was marked with three white lines which formed four lanes. Deyv had no idea why the ancients had made the road or what the markings meant. Nor did he know which ancients had laid it here. According to his grandmother's stories, there had once been a series of ancient peoples, some unimaginably old. The ones responsible for this road may even have been those who'd made the Houses. And had also made the swords, rustless and self-sharpening, and the other wonderful artifacts which the earth now and then yielded.