“Sure. But we need to eat, Mujer. I think what I’ll do, I’ll take a look at this place of Stidge and Tamale’s. Maybe they’re right for once and we can take it, and if I think so, we will. And if I don’t think so, we won’t. Okay, Mujer?”
“Okay. Sorry I bothered you.”
“Nothing, man.” Charley waved Mujer away. Turning to Tom again, he said, “Okay. The Eye People.”
Charley doesn’t have much trouble, Tom thought, shifting gears like that. One minute he’s talking about raiding somebody’s farm, the next he wants to be told about worlds in the stars. He didn’t seem like a killer. His eyes were deep and somber, and there was something close to kind and almost poetic about him sometimes. And other times not. He really was a killer, Tom knew. Underneath the kind, underneath the poetic. But what was underneath that?
Tom said, “They live in a world of light that never goes dark and it’s so thick and dense that they can’t see the rest of the universe. In fact, they can’t really see anything at all, because the light of the Great Starcloud is so bright that there’s no contrast, there’s no way to pick out one thing against another. It like blinds you, there’s so much of it. You overdose on light. Instead of seeing, they sense, and every part of their body picks up images. All over their skins. That’s why they’re called the Eye People, because they’re like one big eye all over. You understand, they don’t exist yet. But they will; they’re one of the coming races. There are a thousand four hundred coming races listed in the Book of Moons, but naturally that’s just the ones in the Book of Moons. In fact there are billions and billions of coming races, but the universe is so big that even the Zygerone and the Kusereen don’t know a thousandth of it. But there they are, the Eye People, and their minds are so sensitive that they can reach out and feel the rest of the universe. They know about suns and stars and planets and galaxies and all that, but it’s by guess and feel and intuition, the way a blind man knows about red and blue and green. Their minds are in contact with the other worlds of the Sacred Imperium, past and future. They learn about the outside universe, and in return they show other people the Great Starcloud, which is holy because its light is so powerful, so complete. It’s like the light of the Buddha, you know? It fills the whole void. And so the Eye People—”
“Charley? They said you were through talking to him.”
Stidge.
“I’m not quite,” Charley said. Then he stood up. “Shit. All right. We’ll finish some other time. What is it, Stidge?”
“Farmhouse. Seven hundred meters down, in the fork. Man, woman, three sons. They got screens up but the electronics is lousy. We can go right in.”
“You sure of that?”
“Absolutely. Tamale saw it too.”
“Yeah,” Charley said. “Tamale’s got terrific judgment.”
“I’m telling you, Charley—”
“Okay. Okay, Stidge. Let’s go down and have a look at this place, you and me? Okay?”
“Sure,” Stidge said.
Tom stayed where he was, under a big plane tree at the side of a little mostly dried-up stream that probably flowed only in winter. He watched Charley and Stidge go off into the late afternoon shadows; and then after a while they came back and spoke with the others, and then all eight of them went off together. Tom wondered about that, what was going to happen down at the farm in the river fork. After a while he found himself wandering over that way to find out.
The farmhouse came into view in just a few minutes. It was a small white wooden building that looked about a hundred fifty years old, with dark green shingles and a huge fat-trunked palm tree out front overshadowing the porch. The red glow of a protective screen surrounded the house. Just as Tom got there the screen winked out, and then he heard shouts and screams and one very loud scream above all the rest of the noise. After that it was quiet for a moment; then there were shouts again, angry ones. Tom went to the door, thinking, Be strong and of a good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest.
He looked in. Two people, a man and a woman, were sprawled on the floor in that peculiar twisted herky-jerk way that indicated they had been killed with a spike. A third person—boy, rather, maybe sixteen, seventeen—was pressed up against the wall, white-faced, bug-eyed, and Stidge had his spike against his throat.
“Stidge!” Charley yelled, just as Tom entered. “Stidge, you crazy son of a bitch!”
“I got him,” Mujer said, coming up behind Stidge and smoothly grabbing the red-haired man’s wrist with one hand while locking his other arm around Stidge’s throat. Stidge growled in surprise. Mujer, who seemed incredibly strong for the wiry little guy he was, bent Stidge’s arm outward until the spike in Stidge’s hand was practically touching Stidge’s right ear. “Let me kill him this time,” Mujer begged. “He’s no good, Charley. He’s a wild man. Look what he just did, the farmer and his wife.”
“Hey, no, Charley,” Stidge cried in a strangled voice thick with terror. “Hey, make him let go!”
“You didn’t need to do that, Stidge,” Charley said. His face looked bleak and stormy. “Now we got two deads on our hands and two of the sons got loose, and what for? What for?”
“Should I do him, Charley?” Mujer asked eagerly.
Charley seemed to be considering it. Tom stepped forward. No one had noticed him come in; now they all looked at him in amazement, all but Stidge, whose face was to the wall. Tom touched Mujer’s arm. His eyes felt strange. He was having trouble seeing straight: everything looked glazed and blurred, as if it were coated with ice.
“No,” Tom said. “Let him be. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. Not yours, Mujer. Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. Let him be.” Tom took firm hold of Mujer’s arm and pulled it back until the spike was well away from Stidge’s face.
“What…?” Mujer was astonished. “The lunatic?” He whirled, ripping the spike from Stidge’s hand and bringing it around as if he meant to jab it into Tom’s chest.
“The Lord my God is with me, whithersoever I go,” said Tom mildly. His eyes were still out of focus. He saw two Mujers and just a red-topped blob instead of Stidge.
“Jesus,” said Mujer. “Jesus, what do we have here?”
“All right,” Charley said, irritated. “Enough of this goddamn stuff. Mujer, give Stidge back his spike.”
“But—”
“ Give it back. ” To Stidge, Charley said, “You’re lucky Tom walked in here when he did. I had a half a mind to let Mujer do you. You’re a liability to us, Stidge.”
“I’m the one turned the screen off, didn’t I?” Stidge shot back. “I’m the one got us in here!”
“Yeah,” Charley said. “But we could have gotten in and out without killing. Now we got two deads lying here and two missing. Stidge, you got to keep control of those weapons of yours. You don’t let yourself get out of hand again, you hear? Next time we’re gonna do you, you run wild. Hear?” Charley waved his hand at the others. “All right, start packing up anything we can use. Food, weapons, whatever. We can’t hang around.”
“I don’t believe it,” Mujer muttered, staring at Tom. “He hates you, you know? Stidge. I’m about to do him, and you come over and grab my arm. I don’t believe it.”
“Come out, come out, thou bloody man, thou son of Belial,” Tom said.
“The Bible again,” said Mujer disgustedly. “Damn looney.”
Tom smiled. They were all staring at him. Let them stare. He could not have countenanced killing in cold blood. Even Stidge. Tom glanced toward him. There was a cold baleful glare on Stidge’s face. He hates me even more now, Tom realized. Now that he knows he owes his life to me. But I am not afraid. Love your enemies, that’s what He taught us, do good to them that hate you, bless them that curse you. He realized that he was seeing straight again, calming down some. “Thank you,” Tom said to Charley. “For sparing him.”