The ancients had had great powers, though not enough to keep them from dying out. This highway, for instance, had existed long before Deyv's great-great-great-great-grandfather was bom, and probably many generations before that. But it was not overgrown with plants, nor had trees been able to tear it apart. The green life, except for a short grass, encroached but withered when within sixty feet of the road. Floods sometimes washed out the earth beneath it here and there. By some magical means, earth sifted back under it and packed down. Earthquakes twisted it, but as time went on, it straightened out.
However, there were vast movements of the ground that even this wonderful substance couldn't resist.
Deyv had heard that far down the road, a mountain had grown up under it, and the road ran straight up the elevation and over it. The substance should have snapped apart in many places, but it had merely lengthened.
After looking up and down the road from behind a bush, Deyv stepped out. He kept to the exact middle so that if anybody blew a dart or threw a spear from the foliage, they'd have a long distance to cover.
Two years ago he'd come to this spot with a small hunting party, and he'd walked on the smooth rubbery surface for a few miles in the opposite direction. When he had turned back, he'd gone as far from home as he'd ever been.
The miles trudged by. Aejip walked on one edge of the road and Jum on the other. It was pleasant for
Deyv to walk unimpeded and with a good view of at least two miles behind and ahead. On the other hand, he felt very exposed and vulnerable. If something came from one wall of the jungle, he could run toward the other. What would he do, though, if enemies came from both sides?
The thought was troubling. Still, he stayed on the road. He knew no other path. Besides, he could really make good time on it. If what his father had said was true, a few more miles would put him outside the land of the nine tribes. However, there would be other hostile beings beyond that. And only The
Brooding Mother knew what beasts, familiar or unfamiliar, also dwelt there.
After a long time, he came to a place where the earth had sunk an unknown depth from an old quake.
Here the road disappeared under water that had collected from the recent rain. Halting, Deyv speculated about walking on the highway or skirting the edges of the water. The latter course would take him into the jungle. Who knew what humans or beasts lay near in wait, understanding that any passer-by would probably detour around the lake and so come within easy reach?
He decided to walk straight ahead until the water was too deep for that. Then he would walk on the shallower ground near the forest. The sword and the tomahawk were too heavy for him to attempt to swim very far. However, maybe he wouldn't have to swim at all.
The water rose to his ankles and then to his waist. The two animals were swimming along behind him, with Aejip making sounds of unhappiness. Deyv turned toward the right to wade where the water was shallower. Suddenly he screamed with agony and thrashed around. By the time he reached the edge of the lake, he was limping badly. He held his teeth firmly together to keep from yelling again. He hoped nobody heard his cry.
He sat down in the mud and looked at the network of thin red welts on the side of his left thigh. The pain was slowly easing, but the muscles of his thigh were still knotted. After he'd rubbed his thigh for a while, the muscles began to relax. He then rose and walked slowly through the water by the jungle. After walking a few miles at this pace, he could feel only a slight itch. He saw something round and pale rise briefly from the lake. It could have been the creature that had stung him with its poisonous tentacles.
When the road was no longer flooded, he returned to it. Far off the tip of a mountain showed, the one which his father had told him about. It didn't seem to get any nearer even after he had walked for many miles. Deyv decided he'd go to the territory at its base and work around there—unless he found a tribe along the way. At that moment, Aejip gave a soft warning cry. Deyv turned and saw a large whitish object floating about three hundred feet in the air a mile away and approaching at the speed of the wind, which was rather slow then. Deyv ran for the jungle, with the two animals close behind him. As the thing passed over he could see the boat-shaped bottom and the round holes in it. He expected to see dark objects drop from it, but he did not. It was no disappointment.
When the tharakorm was out of sight, Deyv went back to the road. He looked back often, however, since others could be coming along. After another mile Deyv came to a junction of two roads. For a few minutes he sat down at some distance from it, wondering if he should take the other road, which was at right angles to the one he'd been on.
He also looked at, but did not go close to, the strange objects at the junction. There were four tall metallic posts, each bearing a round box with four round eyes. Deyv had never heard of these. Though they seemed to be inanimate, he did not care to investigate an unknown work of the ancients. If the posts were their totem poles, it was dangerous to get too close to them. As everybody knew, totem poles were charged with magic: good magic for those who came under their protection, bad magic for their enemies.
When Deyv was about a hundred yards from the junction, the poles clanged, and the top eyes of the two poles facing him gleamed bright with a green light. Startled, Deyv gave a little leap and gasped. Turn barked once and was silent. Aejip growled. For a long time, Deyv stood still, his eyes on the glowing green lights. Then, slowly, he backed away. Suddenly, the eyes went dead, and three clangs came from the two poles.
Deyv froze again. The cat and the dog pressed against him.
After a while, Deyv whispered to Jum to go ahead on the road. The dog didn't want to do so, but he obeyed. Again, the poles clanged and the green lights came on. Jum turned to look at his master. Deyv called him back. When the dog reached a certain point, three clangs sounded, and the green lights went out.
A minute later a large rainbow-colored bird swooped down toward the road near the poles. Before it landed, the poles clanged and the green lights glowed. Startled by the noise, the bird veered away. More clanging and extinguishing of the green followed.
Deyv didn't know what was going on. He did know he didn't like it. He led his two companions off the road and out across the angle between the two roads. When he stepped upon the second road, the poles facing his way clanged and their eyes shone greenly. He went across the rubbery substance quickly, and the moment he and his pets were on the earth, the poles clanged again and the lights went out.
When he returned to the first road, he was a long way from the poles. They remained silent and unlit.
Deyv said, "Whew!" and wiped the sweat from his brow.
A few minutes later he had to run into the jungle again to hide from another tharakorm. This time he saw some heads, very tiny at this distance, stick out of the holes at the bottom.
Another sleep passed and then another. Deyv and his companions came across two other junctions guarded by poles that spoke with metal tongues and cast green with their eyes. Deyv skirted these and kept on. Not once did he see human beings, for which he was thankful. On the other hand, their absence also made him uneasy. Were the locals so scarce because there just weren't any? Or did they avoid the road for a good reason which he ought to know?
By then more of the mountain was visible. Its top was still covered with something white, but lower down it was black. Rain came again, and there were more lakes to go around. He came to a place which had suffered some catastrophe long ago. A lot of rotting trees lay along the edge of the jungle, but fullgrown new trees reared above them. The road was raised from the ground and twisted like a piece of leather. Deyv, Jum, and Aejip passed by it, regaining it when it became flat enough to walk on, even though it was rippled. About two hundred yards beyond this point was another junction. The poles there were leaning at crazy angles, and a bulge showed in the area between the two sets.