The City that Time forgot Page 4

  Gareth frowned for a moment as he tried to figure what Evvos was talking about, but Chiu, smiling, answered for him. “Wokeg, the young man, can berth with the rest of the crewmen.” Her blue eyes were sparkling. “The rest of us will have to make due with things the way they are.” Her face was serene, while Gareth and Lyndra blushed furiously.

  “Ahhh, have it yer way, Miss Chiu.” Captain Evvos replied with a knowing grin. “The owner’s cabin is unoccupied.” Gareth glanced at Lyndra, giving the woman a resigned wink as he followed Chiu’s back down the companionway.

  Gareth stood at the stern taffrail, watching the still waking city slide astern. Xoln could have been based on ancient Rhodes on his Earth, but with a pair of forty meter statues, each holding a blazing lantern at night, guarding the entrance of the harbor instead of a single huge colossus. The chill offshore breeze stiffened, leaning the Spray further as she plunged through the coastal swells and out into the Great Ocean. Gareth took a deep breath, enjoying the rich scents of the sea, and grinned. This, more than anything else, reminded him of sailing with his father when he was a boy. He was still smiling as Captain Evvos came up to stand beside him.

  “Did ye accomplish what ye set out to do?” Evvos asked as his eyes scanned both the ship and the ocean before him. “Ye been gone a long time.”

  “We reached Zubrihn, met the Eye and discovered certain truths.” Gareth chuckled. “It was a rude awakening.”

  Evvos shot him a quick look. “And now?”

  “And now…” Gareth repeated with a grimace. “Now I have to decide whether I want to commit my life to what may be a fool’s errand.”

  The scruffy captain studied the horizon for a few long moments. “If ye don’t chose the errand, what be the worst that will happen?”

  “Every person, plant and animal on the planet will die.” Gareth replied in a nonchalant voice.

  Evvos barked a laugh. “Ohhhh! Is that all? I thought it was…” He glanced at Gareth’s face and his voice faltered as his face paled. “…serious.” He finished in a whisper. “Yer not kiddin’ are ye?”

  “Nope. I wish I were.”

  “Where are ye off to now?”

  Gareth’s chuckle was dry as dust. “I wish I knew.”

  Evvos just stared at him, like you would stare at a mad dog. “We’re so screwed.”

  Gareth laughed aloud this time. “I couldn’t agree with you more. Every morning I look in the mirror, and say that very thing.”

  “What happened to yer sayin’ about a positive mental attitude?” Evvos growled.

  Gareth turned to face him fully. “Can you think of a single positive thing to say about this situation?”

  Evvos thought about it for a moment, and then a mischievous light seemed to shine from his dark eyes. “The ox is slow, but the Earth is patient.”

  Gareth’s eyes flew wide, and his jaw hung open. After a moment he began to laugh, sinking to the deck as tears rolled down his cheeks, his back against the taffrail. Finally, when he could regain his composure he asked, “Where the hell did you hear that?”

  Evvos rubbed his jaw and looked thoughtful. “Kiang Sai-Bo told me a story. Said you once heard this back where you come from; a play er something called High Road to China.”

  Gareth chuckled, remembering the old movie. “I did say that. Kiang is one of the smartest men I know and rarely forgets anything you say.” They stood in companionable silence for a long while, watching the water flow by the sleek hull, and the antics of the sea gulls. The red striped sails stood out starkly against the dark water and the ship was leaning so far that the end of the long main yard was brushing the wave-tops as they flew past. “What course are we bound for?” Gareth asked at last.

  Evvos replied immediately. “Straight south from Xoln fer a week, then turn east. At this speed it should put us in Buclite in two to three weeks.” He turned his speculative look on Gareth. “Git yerself some sleep. All of you look tired.”

  Gareth nodded. “It has been a very long journey and we’re all beginning to get worn-out and cranky.” He slapped the Captain’s shoulder in a friendly manner. “It’s good to see you again, and be back aboard the Spray.” He turned toward the companionway. “I think I’ll just lie down for a while.” In the owner’s cabin Gareth found the large bed already occupied. He stared down at the two sleeping women for a moment, considered being a gentleman and then took off his boots, adding them to the two other pair lined neatly against the wall, and stretched out between Chiu and Lyndra, both of whom appeared to be edge sleepers.

  Nine days later, two full days after the Spray had made her turn east, a vast rumble woke Gareth from a deep sleep in which he was dreaming of slumbering with an octopus. Chiu and Lyndra jerked awake and sat up, blankets clutched to their chins.

  “It’s an undersea earthquake.” Gareth confirmed, grabbing for his pants. “Depending on how close we are to shore, the earthquake could generate a tsunami.”

  Chiu’s face paled. “I know that word. It means, literally, harbor wave. In reality it means death.”

  Gareth was tugging on his boots. “Get dressed, and put your most valuable things in your pockets.” That said, he slipped the Colt into its waterproof holster and sealed the flap, then snapped the sheath on the kukri before tightening the belt around his waist. “Get up on deck as soon as you can.” He went to say more and stopped at the sight of the two women dancing around in the chill room trying to get dressed. The underwear they wore didn’t cover much, and Gareth wished there was more time.

  Catching his thought, Chiu turned to face him, her cheeks red. “You really do have poor timing.” She grumbled. Turning for the stairwell, Gareth sighed, then sprinted up the stairs to the quarter deck three at a time. He froze when he reached the top.

  “What are you doing?” He shouted to Captain Evvos.

  The captain frowned. “Turning south into the land and safety.”

  “Blödes Arschloch!” Gareth cursed. “In a case like this you head for deep water. If there is an earthquake and landslide out there.” He pointed north, to the open ocean. “A wave will be generated. The wave could easily be three hundred meters high, and it travels along the sea bed. If the ocean is four hundred meters deep out there,” he pointed again, “you won’t notice the wave. If you are close to land the wave will rise up as it hits shallower water and…”

  Captain Evvos grabbed the ship’s wheel and began yanking and yelling at the same time. “Turn the damned ship north!”

  The helmsman looked at him as if he were a madman. “But ye just said…”

  “I don’t care what I just said.” Evvos bellowed. “Turn north.”

  The Spray slowly came about and with the help of the stiff west wind, began to gather speed. There was a vast rumble in the distance, and to the north in the silvery darkness a mountain began to rise up out of the water. “Scheiße!” Gareth whispered. “Heaven help us. Helmsman, don’t head directly into the wave. Run up the front diagonally as it comes on us.” He glanced at Evvos. “It will take all of us on the wheel to hold her.” Evvos just nodded, taking the other side of the wheel. The helmsman looked scared, but there was no place for him to run.

  Gareth heard a gasp, and caught a glimpse of Chui out of the corner of his eye. “Go back into the cabin and secure yourselves as best you can. This may be a little bumpy.” He shouted out to her over the growing roar. Chiu disappeared.

  The wave began to lift the speeding boat, and at the same time the wind began to howl, filling the sails to bursting and hurling the Spray up the face of the oncoming wave. Glancing over his shoulder, far below he could see the rapidly approaching island. The wheel groaned under his hands, as the three men fought with all their might to control the vessel. Gareth blinked when they went up and over the crest of the wave so fast they dropped with a crash on the other side.

  “Hurensohn!” Gareth growled when he saw where they were heading. “Turn toward the island!”

  “What?” Captain Evvos and the helmsma
n replied in unison.

  “We’re going to land in the trees on the island. If we hit sideways, we’ll be smashed to flinders, and nobody will survive.” Without further disagreement they pulled, and the Spray began to turn. At one point the mainmast groaned and snapped with the sound of a cannon shot, falling with the rigging over their port side. Gareth felt the jerk of the dragging rigging, and the boat came around even more, now pointing directly at the island. Gareth watched in something like slow motion as the dwindling wave hurled the Spray like a javelin into a thick wall of pine and coconut trees, with a crash like thunder…

  Something was poking him in the back, just under the ribs on his left side. Gareth opened his eyes and blinked. “Scheiße.” He groaned and shut his eyes again. The branch-littered ground lay ten meters below him. Hanging there with nothing better to do, he started a slow appraisal of his current condition. Wiggling fingers and toes, he discovered that the only serious problem seemed to be a broken left arm, and a general headache that ran from head to foot. Turning as best he could he discovered that the broken stub of a branch on his left side had caught in his equipment belt, holding him suspended in the air while it jabbed him in the back. With the exception of the wind in the treetops, the woods were quiet. Gareth took a deep breath, and slowly worked the belt away from the branch with the fingers of his good arm. Suddenly he was falling. Pain flashed through his broken arm as he bounced off a lower branch with a crash, and the world went black.

  It was amazing that he hurt even more than before. He lay there for some time, the taste in his mouth reminding him ungently that he’d thrown up from the pain, somewhere along the way. He opened his eyes, and was greeted with the sight of his left arm, a jagged section of his bloody radius sticking out into the air. He frowned. It’s not supposed to be like that. He thought groggily. He stifled a scream as he rolled into a sitting position, injured arm cradled in his lap. Pieces of mast, rigging, and sail lay scattered around him, and working very slowly, he managed to cut enough torn sail with his boot knife to fashion a crude sling for his arm. With his back to a tree he discovered that standing was an adventure all in itself. In the distance he heard voices and thought seriously about calling out, but he lacked the energy. Moving slowly from tree to tree, he headed in the general direction of people. Catching the sound of a woman’s voice, he speeded up to a crawl.

  Chiu looked up from bandaging Lyndra’s head when Gareth staggered out of the woods. “Gareth!” She called out in relief, and even from this distance he could see the tears in her eyes. He gave her a lopsided grin. It was the best he could do, at the moment. “You look terrible. What’s wrong with your arm?”

  He leaned against the battered broken hull of the Spray to keep from falling. She would never ride the waves again, he was sure. “I broke my arm, I think. The bone is poking out into the air.”

  Her eyes went wide, and she quickly tied off Lyndra’s bandage. “Let me see that.” She pointed to a barrel sitting on the ground. “Sit there.”

  “Why don’t I just sit down right here?” Gareth coughed, spat out a bloody wad and slowly slid down the hull to sit on the ground.

  Chiu’s brow furrowed as she removed his sling. “I can heal minor things like cuts and bruises and arrow wounds, but this is beyond me.” She bit her lip. “You may have a broken rib too.” Fear welled in her eyes. “I don’t know what to do for you.”

  Gareth felt his consciousness pulsing in and out. “Ask Athena for help.” He managed to get out. “She got me into this mess, she can pitch in and lend a hand.”

  “But…” Chiu hesitated. “I don’t worship Athena.”

  Gareth chuckled and winced. “I don’t either, but she keeps an eye on us.”

  He saw Chiu shrug. “It’s worth a try.” The battered dark-haired woman looked up at the rapidly lightening sky. “Athena, we need your help. Gareth has been hurt and… wait, don’t take…”

  For Gareth the entire world went white, and mercifully, his pain disappeared. So, this is what it’s like to die. He mused.

  “You aren’t dead.” Athena said from the whiteness. “But you gave it a good shot. I was wondering when you were going to finally call on me. You are a very stubborn man.”

  Gareth was lying on a white floor in a white room. Under him the material was both cushioning and resilient. A tall and lovely woman was sitting beside him in a Carved Louis XVI Walnut Fauteuils chair with soft blue upholstery. For some reason Gareth didn’t think it was a reproduction.

  “You didn’t hire me to be a whiner.” He replied, sitting up. She shook her head, and smiled.

  “Repairing you was no big deal. You had all the pieces this time, so I didn’t have to make anything from scratch.”

  “I remember.” Gareth replied sourly. “That tsunami really threw a wrench in our plans.”

  Her smile didn’t waver, and her expression was mysterious. “Not as big as you might think.”

  “Okay, be all mystical on me. We need to talk about The City that Time Forgot.”

  “Later.” She murmured in a calm voice. “Your friends need you right now. I’ve stepped in and helped, a little. Lyndra had a concussion and Chiu, bless her heart, simply didn’t have the magical strength to do what was needed.”

  Gareth pushed himself to his feet, and noted that his bloody ripped clothes had been replaced. “You said those things like they were in the past tense.”

  Her violet eyes were sparkling. “You know, I believe you’re right.” Her laugh was low and warm. “I will speak with you later, my Gareth.”

  He gave her a bow and a smile. “Thank you for everything.” Then he grinned impudently. “You should know that you’re even more lovely than I pictured you in my mind, and I have a vivid imagination.” The room turned white once again.

  Chiu was already standing as he walked out of the woods, and he saw her jaw fall open. The air in the clearing smelled of pine, from the many broken branches, and blood. “Gareth?” She came forward hesitantly, and as she came closer she reached out a slender finger to touch his cheek. “What is this?” Her voice was a whisper.

  He frowned and touched his own cheek, thinking that it didn’t feel any different. “What does it look like?”

  Her blue eyes were wide. “It looks like an inverted V, slightly larger than my thumbnail and the color of blood.”

  Unconsciously rubbing his repaired left arm, he looked into the distance, seeing nothing. “The inverted V is the symbol of the Spartan warriors, possibly some of the greatest fighting men who ever lived.” His smile to Chiu was wan. “I think Athena is trying to tell me something.” He grinned at Lyndra, who was slowly pulling off the bandage Chiu had wrapped around her head.

  “Wait!” Chiu exclaimed, moving to stop the woman. “You’ll hurt yourself.”

  “No she won’t.” Gareth added to Lyndra’s wide eyes. “Athena performed a few repairs, and minor upgrades to us. Lyndra, your concussion is better, and Chiu…” Gareth grinned at the dark-haired woman. “Athena is quite pleased with you. You may find that your abilities have been enhanced, somewhat.”

  Chiu gave him a long look. “What about you?”

  “Oh, she patched me up, gave me a new set of clothes and a new tattoo.”

  Chiu’s look soured. “I suspect her modifications went deeper than that.”

  Gareth sighed. “Yeah, me too. Athena likes to… meddle.” Touching the broken hull of the Spray, Gareth looked sadly at the boat. “Our boat will never sail again.” A low groan from the bushes made him turn. The groan quickly became a string of sulfurous curses, and Gareth smiled. “Duras, is that you?”

  “Is that you, Gareth?” A scratched hand thrust its way into the air. “Gimme a hand, will ye?”

  Gareth grabbed that hand and pulled, half dragging former Captain Evvos to his feet. “It’s good to see you survived, my friend.”

  Duras fingered a gash on the side of his face. “If ye can call this survived.” He frowned at Gareth. “You look pretty spry.”


  Gareth returned a flat look. “I had some help.” He said, fingering his new tattoo.

  Duras sagged when he saw the Spray, lying broken among the trees. “She were a good boat.” Men were dropping off the broken hull to lie groaning on the ground. Most were injured to a greater or lesser extent, and only a few were walking under their own power. “Av ye seen our helmsman?”

  Gareth shook his head. “I woke up in a tree out there.” He pointed to the dense woods beyond the boat. He frowned, remembering something Athena had said, and turned to look at Chiu. “You had better take a look around. Something Athena said to me leads me to believe that things aren’t all they seem hereabouts.”

  Chiu rolled her eyes, but quickly changed into a small agile sparrow, and darted off into the shadows. Gareth and Evvos turned to the wrecked boat, and began to assist the sailors out, setting the most injured aside for treatment once Chiu returned. It the middle of the clearing someone had had the foresight to build a large bonfire. A scream off in the woods to the right made Gareth whirl, hand reaching for his Colt. A small bird shot out of the shadows, morphing back into Chiu before it had even touched the ground.

  “You’d better make a bigger fire. Something is coming out of the woods.”

  “The screaming?” He asked, drawing the Colt and flipping it on.

  “It seems that there was a pirate ship caught in the tidal wave also. The crew was ashore getting wood to make repairs when the things found them first.”

  “But, what are…” Gareth stopped as something low and gray, the size of a large pig humped out of the woods. He found himself staring. “You have got to be kidding! Killer slugs from outer space?” The thing raised small black eyes set on long waving stalks and leaped three meters to attach itself to the leg of a limping seaman. The man fell, screaming and beating at the thing attached to his leg.

  “What the…” Evvos began, but Gareth’s shout drowned him out.

  “Lie very still.” He called to the struggling seaman as he raised the Colt. His thumb flicked the weapon to single shot and he pulled the trigger as soon as the targeting reticle lit. The deafening crack echoed in the clearing, and the slug vanished in a cloud of green goo, too fine to even call entrails. The seaman swiped at his leg to reveal that the slug had already eaten through the sailor’s heavy pants, and was beginning to work on the flesh beneath. Despite the wound, the man moved very rapidly back to the safety of the fire. Four more gray shapes slid out of the woods, and some smart person tossed a torch in their direction. The leading slug reared up and hissed at the flames.