The Jewels of Aptor Part 24

Geo turned the switch that darkened the screen.

"When are they coming to get us?" Iimmi asked excitedly.

"Right now, probably," Geo said. Then, as best he could, he repeated the conversation he had overheard to Iimmi, whose expression grew more and more bewildered as Geo went on.

At the end the bewilderment suddenly flared into frayed indignation.

"Why?" demanded Iimmi. "Why should we be sacrificed? What is it we've seen too much of, what is it we know? This is the second time it's come close to getting me killed, and I wish to h.e.l.l I knew what I was supposed to know?"

"We've got to find Urson and get out of here," said Geo. "Hey, what's wrong?"

The indignation had turned into something else. Now Iimmi stood with his eyes shut tight and his face screwed up. Suddenly he relaxed. "I just thought out a message as loud as I could for Snake to get up here and to bring Urson if he's anywhere around."

"But Snake's a spy for ..."

"... for Hama," said Iimmi. "And you know something? I don't care." He closed his eyes again. After a few moments, he opened them. "Well, if he's coming, he's coming. Let's get going."

"But why...?" began Geo, following Iimmi out the door.

"Because I have a poet's feeling that some fancy mind reading may come in handy."

They hurried down the hall, found the stairs, ducked down, and ran along the lower hall. Rounding a second corner, they emerged into the little chapel simultaneously with Urson and Snake.

"I guess I got through," said Iimmi. "Which way do we go?"

"Gentlemen, gentlemen," came a voice from behind them.

Snake took off down one of the pa.s.sages, and they followed, Urson looking particularly bewildered.

The Priestess glided behind them, calling softly, "Please, my friends, come back. Return with me."

"Find out from her how the h.e.l.l to get out of this place!" Iimmi bawled up to Snake. The four-armed boy suddenly darted up a flight of stairs, turned a corner, and darted up another. They came out on a hall and followed Snake to the end.

All four of the boy's hands flew at the door handle, turning it carefully, this way, and back.

Two, three seconds.

Geo glanced back and saw the Priestess mount the top of the stairs and begin to come toward them. She seemed to float, her white robes flaring out from her, brushing at the walls.

The door came open, they broke through leaves, and were momentarily standing in a huge field of gra.s.s, surrounded by woods. The night was fully lit by the moon.

As they ran through the silver-washed gra.s.s, Geo turned to look behind him. The blind Priestess had slowed, her white face turned to the moon.

Her hands went to her throat, she unclasped her robe, and the first layer fell away behind her. As she came on, the second layer began to unfold, wet, deathly white, spreading, growing to her arms, articulating itself along the white spines; then, with a horribly familiar shriek, she leapt from the ground and soared upward, her white wings hammering the air.

They fled.

And other dark forms were shadowing the moon. The priestesses across the field joined her aloft in the moon-bleached sky. She overtook the running figures, turned above them, and swooped. The moon lanced white along bared fangs. The night breeze touched pale furry b.r.e.a.s.t.s, filled the bellying wings. Only the tiny, darting, blind eyes were red, rubied in a whirl of white.

They crashed into the protective bushes where the winged things could not follow. Branches raked his face as he ran behind the sound the others made. Once he thought he had lost them, but a second later he b.u.mped against Iimmi, who had stopped behind Snake and Urson, in the darkness. Above the trees was a sound like beaten cloth, diminishing, growing, but constant as once more they began to trod through the tangled darkness.

"What the h.e.l.l ..." Iimmi finally breathed softly, after a minute of walking.

"You know it's beginning to make sense," Geo said, his hand on Iimmi's shoulder. "Remember that man-wolf we met, and that blob in the city? The only thing we've met on this place that can't change shape is the ghouls. I think most animals on this island undergo some sort of metamorphosis."

"What about those first flying things we met?" whispered Urson. "They didn't change into anything."

"We have probably just been guests of the female of the species," said Geo.

"You mean those others could have changed into men too if they wanted?"

Urson asked.

"If they wanted," answered Geo.

In front of them now appeared faint shiftings of silver light. Five minutes later, they were crouching at the edge of the forest, looking down over the rocks at the white shimmerings over the river.

"Into the water?" Geo asked.

Snake shook his head. _Wait_ ... came the familiar sound in their heads.

Suddenly a hand raised from the water. Wet and green, it stood a foot or so from the sh.o.r.e in the silver ripples. The chain and the leather thong dangled down the wrist, and swaying there were two bright beads of light.

Iimmi and Geo froze. Urson said, "The jewels...."

Suddenly, crouched low like an animal, the big man sprang onto the rocks and ran toward the river's edge.

Three shadows, one white, two dark, converged above him, cutting the moonlight away from him. If he saw them, he did not stop.

Iimmi and Geo stood up from their crouched positions.

Urson reached the sh.o.r.e, threw himself along the rock, and swiped at the hand. Instantly he was covered by flailing wings. The membranous sails splashed in the water. Two seconds later, Urson rolled from beneath the layers of membrane that still struggled half on land and half in the water. He started forward up the rocks. He slipped, regained his footing, and then came on, nearly falling into Geo's and Iimmi's waiting arms.

"The jewels," Urson breathed.

The struggle continued a minute longer on the water. Something was holding them down, twisting at them. Then suddenly, the creatures stilled, and like great leaves, the three forms drifted apart, caught quietly in the current, and floated away from the rocks.

Then two more forms bobbed to the surface, faces down, rocking gently, backs slicked wet and green, shiny under the moonlight.

"But those were the ones who--" Geo began. "Are they dead?" His face suddenly hurt a little, with something like the pain of verging tears.

Snake nodded.

"Are you sure?" asked Iimmi. His voice came slowly.

_Their ... thoughts ... have ... stopped_, Snake said.

Crouched down in front of them, Urson opened his great hands. The globes blazed even in the dim light through the leaves, and the chain and the wet thong hung over his palm to the ground. "I have them," he said, "... the jewels!"