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Pagina creata il 16 Novembre 1997
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Only once since the change had Lanna climbed the curving steps to the tower’s upper story. That was when she had taken Tikki up and ordered him to find Conan. Possibly Tikki could have succeeded just as easily without using the tower as a starting point, but she did not think so. The tower was ancient, and it had been a landmark long before the sea crept so close. There was something mystic about it, and it was only natural to use it as a point of departure. And wasn’t it the only spot where Mazal could get in touch with Teacher?
It was still early in the evening when she hurried up the crumbling steps with Tikki cradled in one hand. Upon reaching the small open area under the thatched roof, she stopped suddenly, clutching the coping for support while she fought back her terror of that threatening vastness spread before her. Finally she forced herself to go on and stand at the place where Mazal stood every evening.
"Tikki," she whispered, holding the bird above the protecting wall. "Tikki, you must find Conan again— but this time you must guide him home. Understand? Conan is way out yonder somewhere in the mist, and he is lost. Go, Tikki, and find him and show him the way here."
The tern spread its slender, black-tipped wings, rose from her hand, and began circling upward. When it passed from her sight above the thatch, she closed her eyes and prayed, then turned to flee down the steps.
She almost ran into Mazal coming up.
"You—you’ve sent Tikki?" Mazal asked.
"He’s on his way."
"Do you really think he can find them?"
"Of course he can! He found Conan, didn’t he?"
Mazal nodded. "But I don’t see how. I don’t understand how he can possibly—"
"Oh, if I were Tikki or any bird—I’m sure I could do it. It’s all in how you—"
Lanna turned suddenly, almost gasping, "I can’t stand it up here. Let me down."
She fled down the steps.
Her aunt followed. In the garden, Mazal said, "Sometimes I think I know you, then I realize I don’t. Nothing could have made me go to Orlo’s camp and do what you did. Yet you can’t even stand the sight of the open sea."
"It’s a horror. Don’t you feel the danger in it?"
"No. I mean, I’m not ignoring Teacher’s warning about another one of those waves. But, heavens, he doesn’t seem to realize we’ve had nine of the things since the Change. They are dangerous, of course, and I suppose a really big one could do some damage down in the harbor. But I always keep one eye on the horizon when I go fishing, or watch how the tide runs out when it’s foggy. It sucks out suddenly, you know. I’ve seen two of the things coming and had plenty of time to scramble up to a safe height."
Mazal paused, then went on, "But to come back to Tikki. I’m so worried I’m sick. Do you think the fog is going to make it hard—?"
"Mazal, when you’re able to—to sort of sense where they are, the fog shouldn’t make any difference. Don’t you see? As I started to tell you, the right direction is like a light in the dark. The only thing—"
"What is it? What worries you?"
"Oh, nothing. I—I just wish we could have known earlier the trouble they were having. But I’m sure it will be all right now...."
She wasn’t at all sure. In fact, deep down, she had a dreadful feeling that she was sending Tikki too late. The mist veils were already creeping along the coast, a sure indication that the great fogs were not far behind. When the fogs came, they could be so dense at times that even the birds refused to leave their perches.
It might take more than Tikki to guide Teacher and Conan here.
There was no longer any doubt in Conan’s mind that the great fogs had come early, and that they’d been caught in the worst part of them. This morning—if you could call this choking grayness morning—he could hardly see Teacher, swaddled in bag and blanket, a few feet away. Dr. Manski was only a disembodied voice at the forward end of the life raft.
It seemed impossible that their craft could actually be in movement. But the sail was drawing and they were moving swiftly, a fact that always surprised him whenever he reached down and tested the water with his fingertips.
But in what direction were they going?
"Wouldn’t it be better," he asked Teacher, " to come about once in a while and try another tack?"
"I doubt it. Keep the wind abeam. We’ll be less likely to sail in circles."
"Circles!" said Dr. Manski. "Ha! What difference does it make? We’ll be moving like ghosts in this haunted place for the rest of eternity."
Teacher gave a little chuckle. "My dear Doctor, I didn’t know your philosophy admitted such immaterial things as ghosts."
"Just a figure of speech," she snapped.
"Well, suppose we find our way out of this. Suppose—"
"Ha! Who’ll show us the way out? One of your voices?"
"I rather had a bird in mind," Teacher murmured.
"Bird!" she spat.
"Birds have a certain affinity with angels," he said mildly. "But I was wondering, if we reach High Harbor, how you will continue to feel about the New Order."
"I am a servant of the New Order! Nothing else matters."
"But suppose the New Order dies?"
"Don’t be ridiculous!"
"But how can it live without followers? In my years in Industria, I saw almost no young people. Practically everyone there is an oldster who lost all his family in the war. Like you, for instance."
She remained silent.
"Without children, the New Order is bound to die. You’ve been dedicating yourself to nothing."
"You’re wrong!" she cried. "We’ll have followers. Commissioner Dyce will take care of that. He has his instructions."
"Were his instructions to spread a virus that endangered every life in High Harbor? For that is what he did. He let one little girl die so he could prove the deadliness of the virus, all so he could make a profitable deal to stop it."
"You old fool, why are you telling me such a lie?"
"It is the truth, Doctor. I am a communicator, and I have been in constant touch with my daughter ever since the Change. Her husband is the doctor I put in charge at High Harbor. One thing I did not want to have fall into the hands of people like Dyce was a new power unit I had developed. It’s the simplest of things, and we all need it to save us from the drudgery we face today. But the commissioners of the New Order want it for another reason. And now they’ve got it—or at least, Dyce has it. It’s the price we’ve had to pay to that fellow before he would lift a finger to save anyone."
There was a strangled sound from Dr. Manski. Teacher said, "Is that the way to gain followers for the New Order, Doctor? And when you rebuild the world, do you want to pattern it after the monstrosity we destroyed? Or do you think a simpler approach, with neighbor helping neighbor, would be a little better?"
Conan could hardly hear her voice when she finally replied. "You—you really are Briac Roa, aren’t you?" she asked.
"What difference does it make now, Doctor?"
"A lot of difference," she whispered. "All the difference in the world." Then abruptly she gasped, and cried, "A bird! A bird just flew past my face!"
"Tikki!" Conan burst out. "Tikki, where are you?"
The tern materialized out of the mist and alighted on his shoulder.
Tenderly Conan lifted the bird in one hand. "I’m so glad to see you again, Tikki! Are you too tired to show us the way? We’re lost, Tikki. Which way is High Harbor?"
Tikki rose slowly, and almost immediately vanished in the enveloping mist.
In dismay, Conan remembered the bird’s habit of rising high and circling before choosing its direction. He called it back and tried again, and then again. But it was no use. They were defeated by the mist.
* * *
It seemed to Lanna, after hearing Jimsy’s latest report, that the world was again coming to an end. Not that it had ever really got started again after the Change. But there had been a chance, and if Teacher and Conan had only been here during the past few months, everything could have been so different.
Not once had she ever longed for the life that had vanished. In spite of all the hardships, this was better. Or it would be better, a thousand times better, if only greedy people would leave things alone.
Sick at heart, she paused and clutched a tree for support while Jimsy’s message ate through her mind. The long-delayed meeting would be held this evening. The outcome was assured, for the trade commissioner had been passing out gifts to all the group leaders. "They’re all set to kick Doc out," Jimsy had said. "Orlo’s to be the boss. An’ you know what Orlo an’ the commissioner plan to do?"
"What, Jimsy?"
"Take over your house. Doc an’ his wife, they gotta move. But Orlo says he’ll make you stay. That’s how he figgers on getting even for what you done."
Had it not been for her growing anxiety over Conan and Teacher, she might have raced home in a cold fury and made plans to defend the cottage. But in her despair of the moment, she felt helpless and defeated. She almost failed to hear Mazal calling her.
Then she became aware of Mazal’s voice in the distance, Some quality in it sent her homeward on the run.
Her aunt met her in front of the office. "I’ve just talked with Teacher," she said in a rush, her face tight with strain. "You’ve got to help us!"
Lanna stared at her. It was still morning. Never in her memory had Mazal been able to communicate with Teacher at this hour. "What—?"
"Something made me go up in the tower," Mazal hastened to explain. "Strangest thing—I picked up his thoughts immediately.... Tikki’s with them already, but the fog’s so thick they lose him every time he tries to show them.... Teacher said—" Mazal stopped for breath, then repeated, "Teacher said you’d know what to do."
Lanna could feel the blood draining from her face. "But I—I can’t do anything!"
"You’ve got to!" Mazal cried, and shook her fiercely. "You must know how to do something Teacher said you did. Now you do it! "
Lanna stood trembling. How did Teacher know what she’d once been able to do? She had never told anyone. Then she remembered that Teacher always seemed to know her thoughts without being told.
"I’ll try," she whispered. "I’ll do my best. But it’s been so long..." She added, "I’ve just talked to Jimsy. They’re going to elect Orlo this evening, and Orlo and the commissioner are going to take over the house." She repeated all that Jimsy had told her.
Mazal suddenly looked like an angry tigress. "Why, that filthy pair of toads!" she hissed. "I’ve never told Shann—you know how he hates weapons—but I’ve got a laser hidden away. Believe me, I’ll use it. If they get in this place, it’ll be over my dead body."
"And over mine," said Lanna, remembering the ax and making a grim decision about it. "Now I’m going to my room. Don’t let anybody bother me."
In her room she lay down on the cot and closed her eyes. Tikki, she thought. Tikki, I will try and reach you. Please don’t be afraid....
But the terrible part was her own fear. For a long time she was unable even to visualize Tikki because of the dreadful expanse that lay between them. Always she saw the monstrous and forever-threatening face of her enemy, stretching through the haunted miles that she must somehow manage to cross.
She cried out once and sprang from the cot, shaking, knowing her enemy had her beaten. By will alone she forced herself back upon the cot and drove her quaking thoughts outward.
It happened so quickly, so easily, that she was not even aware of the sea. One moment she was in High Harbor, and in the next she was looking out at the shrouding mist through Tikki’s eyes.
She had an awareness of many things in that instant —of Tikki’s wonder at her presence, and the rapid beating of the bird heart, the wild, free feeling of riding the air on outstretched wings as she sped past the strange craft with its three dim figures. She felt surprise at the woman, whom she had nearly forgotten, and a rush of warmth and happiness at Teacher, followed by a sudden great joy, greater than any she had ever known, as she swept close to Conan. She cried out her joy with Tikki’s voice and flew around and around him, brushing his lean face and tawny hair with Tikki’s wings. Then she hovered before him, a living compass pointing in the direction that the bird instinct told her was right.
She heard Conan say, "Tikki, what’s happened? What’s come over you?"
And Teacher answered, "It isn’t Tikki you’re speaking to now. It is Lanna. She has come to guide us home."
* * *
The mist began to thin the next day, and by the middle of the afternoon there were only creeping veils of it ahead. These suddenly parted, and Conan saw the harbor entrance directly in front of him. Beyond, anchored in the lee of the headland, lay the trade ship.
He saw Dr. Manski stare at the trade ship, then say to Teacher, "You warned them? You got the message through?"
"Yes," said Teacher. "I got through to Mazal again this morning, right after it happened. She said she had sent word immediately to everyone around the harbor, but she doubted that Dyce would believe it. Obviously he didn’t."
"The fool!" she said harshly. "The stupid fool!"
Teacher shrugged. "I’m afraid it’s too late now," he said, with a shake of his white head. "We’ll be lucky to get out of the way of it ourselves. There can’t be much time left."
As they swept through the entrance, Tikki left them for the first time and flew shoreward. Conan took a quick glance at the mist-shrouded sea far astern, then put the helm over and prayed the wind would hold for a little longer. They were almost there. In spite of the uncertainty of the moment, he could not help his sudden feeling of exaltation. He and Teacher had actually done what they’d set out to do. And in a very few minutes he would see Lanna again, Lanna in person. He wanted to shout.
But the harbor was strange to him, and he was having difficulty getting his bearings. When he’d been here last, the harbor had been a little valley with a stream at the bottom. Where was he now? Abruptly, as he turned to study the long slope coming into view on his right, he glimpsed the tower showing above the trees. He gave the helm another thrust, and the craft went skimming over the shallows and ran its bow up on the rocky beach.
"Out!" said Teacher. "Up the slope. Fast."
They scrambled across the beach, found a winding path, and began hastening upward. After so long at sea in so small a craft, the land seemed to sway under Conan’s unsteady feet. He was tired, and he realized that both Teacher and the doctor must be near exhaustion. After a short climb he paused to let them get their breath, and now through the trees high above them he made out the familiar stone cottage. As he peered at it, he was startled to discover that other people were climbing the slope ahead of them. A great many people. The trees and brush had hidden them before.
"Hey, something’s going on up there!" he exclaimed.
He started to rush forward, but stopped short as the voice that had spoken to him at other crucial times now spoke again.
"Conan," said the voice. "Your work is just beginning. You are needed here as a leader."
"No!" he cried in protest, and turned to the others. "Did—did you hear a voice just now?"
Dr. Manski looked at him strangely. "I—I heard something," she said unsteadily. "It was very faint, but it told me you had been brought here to lead, and that I must stay and help." She glanced at Teacher. "Did you—?"
The old man nodded. "Doctor, the sea has opened your inner ear. We were both told the same thing about Conan."
"No!" Conan protested again. "I—I don’t want to lead! Please, it’s your place—"
"Conan, only the very young will follow the old. Never youth. Youth follows only youth, and it must be strong. There is trouble here now, and none but you can settle it. But you must hurry."
Conan swallowed and started grimly up the path. He had not taken a dozen steps when a redheaded urchin with a bow in his hand appeared suddenly from behind a tree and stared at him goggle-eyed.
"Are—are you Conan?" asked the boy. "An’ is that Teacher behind you?"
"Yes. What’s going on up there?"
The boy spat. "It’s that Orlo. He’s made himself boss, an’ he wants to take over the doc’s house. But some of us don’t like it. Orlo, he’s joined the New Order."
The boy whirled and began bounding upward like a small goat. Soon Conan heard him crying out shrilly, "They’re here! Conan an’ Teacher! They’re here!"
This announcement instantly brought part of the crowd surging back down the slope. Hurrying in their lead came a burly, black-bearded man who Conan knew had to be the trade commissioner, Dyce. In the man’s wake, spreading out now to block the path, were half a dozen sailors of the New Order.
Conan paused, swaying on unsteady feet, while his eyes took in the line of youths circling swiftly on his left. Were they trying to get below him and cut off retreat? He was surprised to see another group, a compact bunch of boys and girls carrying sticks and bows, approaching warily on his right. This was an angry group, but mixed with their anger he could see much uncertainty among them, and even fright. One of the boys cried, "Watch it, Conan! That dirty bunch is out to get you! That’s Orlo behind you!"
It seemed incredible that something like this could be happening in the face of what was coming. Didn’t they have any idea what was in store for them?
Suddenly Conan began shouting warnings in an effort to clear the slope. He glimpsed a worried Teacher on the path below, vainly trying to do the same. But no one seemed to comprehend, and in the next instant the commissioner was upon him and had seized his arm.
"You’re my prisoner!" Dyce rumbled. "Believe me, you’ll pay for helping Patch escape. Take him, boys, and take Patch yonder. Out to the ship with them, and lock them up!".
Conan swept the restraining hands aside and sent Dyce tumbling backward. "Put a finger on Teacher and I’ll break your head!" he shouted. "Have you all lost your minds? Don’t you know you’re in danger here? Get up on higher ground! All of you! Hurry!"
The sailors, shaken as much by his strength as by the urgency in his voice, retreated. But Dyce scrambled up, infuriated.
"Danger from what?" he demanded. "You need a lesson—" Then his eyes widened at the sight of Dr. Manski scrambling frantically up the curving path.
"You stupid fool!" she screamed at him. "You’ve been told about the wave! Don’t you know that everybody this close to the harbor can be killed?"
"What kind of talk is this?" the commissioner roared back. "You had no orders to come here, Doctor! Where is your vessel?"
"Sunk!" she cried harshly. "And that’s where yours will be soon! I tell you, there’s a tidal wave coming— a tsunami—"
Dyce slapped her angrily aside and shouted, "There’s no wave coming! That tale’s just a trick. You’d better be locked up with the rest of them. Boys, come here! Orlo, give me a hand!"
Conan had time for only a quick glance in Orlo’s direction. He recognized the rangy figure in the dirty goatskin jacket, then he began shouting again, trying to turn the crowd and drive them up to safety. But in their present mood they were totally uncomprehending. They hated Orlo, but they feared him. In a sort of horror, he realized that he had only to lead them against Orlo and the slope would be turned into a battleground.
And in minutes, seconds even, a raging wall of water could be sweeping this entire area.
Behind him he heard Orlo laugh. "All that crazy sweat about a wave. Phooey, we’ve had waves before! C’mon, you guys. Let’s help Papa Dyce."
Conan whirled on him. "For God’s sake, Orlo, you and all these people will be killed if you stay here! Get going! Everybody! Get up to high ground!"
"Aw, shut up," Orlo told him lazily. "Or d’you want me to pull you apart and take you out to the ship in pieces?" Then a grin suddenly twisted his dark face as he stared at someone racing down the path. "Hold it, you guys. Here comes my little bird tamer."
Conan heard a familiar voice cry his name. For an instant out of time he forgot everything as he saw Lanna hurrying toward him, pale hair flying, dark eyes enormous in her thin face. He sprang toward her, but before he could reach her a grinning Orlo had jumped between them and grabbed her arm.
She gasped with pain, and Conan said hoarsely, "Let her go before I break your neck!"
Still grinning, Orlo flung her aside, snatched a heavy stick from one of his gang, and swung it viciously.
As he leaped in and seized the stick before it touched him, Conan wondered how quickly he could settle this insanity. He twisted the stick away, dropped it, and hit Orlo once with his fist. He caught up the sagging figure, swung it over his head, and flung it down the slope.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw the trade commissioner gape at him incredulously, then tug almost frantically at the weapon hanging from his belt. Conan picked up Orlo’s stick, swung it, and sent the weapon flying.
"Run, Lanna!" he yelled. "Run for the cottage!"
Swinging the stick, he charged the line of slack-jawed boys. "Move, you dumb idiots!" he roared. "Or do I have to beat you all to save your necks?"
They fled from him as they would have fled a raging madman. And it was as a madman that he turned the rest of the crowd and drove them to safety.
He was more than halfway up the slope when someone screamed, and he turned at a curious sound behind him. He saw the phenomenon of water being sucked out of the harbor by the unseen thing approaching beyond the headland. As he stared at it, he became aware of the figure in the goatskin jacket trying feebly to crawl up the path.
Conan swallowed and dropped his stick. Suddenly he raced down the slope, caught up Orlo in both arms, and began pounding his way upward again as fast as he could drive his all-but-exhausted body.
He reached the halfway mark and glimpsed the trade commissioner, who stood clinging to a tree, looking with a sort of blank disbelief down at his ship which now lay on its side in the nearly empty harbor. He shouted a warning to the man and struggled on, but he had climbed only a few more yards when the world suddenly exploded behind him.
Conan did not see the towering cliff of water that smashed entirely across the headland, instantly drowning the harbor in a raging flood. But he heard the mighty thunder of it and felt the earth shake under the blow—then the world was obliterated in flying spray, and a swirling tide raced around the slope, tearing at him and sweeping his feet from under him.
Somehow he managed to cling to his burden and hook one arm around a tree. It was over in seconds, the racing water retreating down the slope as quickly as it had come.-He got to his knees and tried to lift Orlo and rise. This time his strength failed.
But from all around, hurrying, came willing hands to help.