"Watchers got easy, yeah easy," Sooleyrah sang. "Easy trip leader, no reason; d.a.m.n no reason." He did a double-back step, and whirled, his flying foot narrowly missing Kreech"s mouth.
"Reason next time," he sang, and laughed.
Behind him, Kreech did the whirling step, just missing the next in line, and he too laughed; then the third man followed it, and the kick and laugh traveled back down the hill, undulating in the darkness. Sooleyrah, slim and graceful and dark-bearded, did a slide, three jumps, then rolled on the ground, leading always upward, toward the vaults. They stood black and distant against the night sky at hillcrest, jagged storehouses of darkness.
"Don"t matter anyway," Kreech told him. "Don"t matter, Sooleyrah, don"t leader matter. Go good, go bad, no difference." He rolled, following Sooleyrah up the hill, and the small bells he carried in his tattered shirt pocket tinkled dully. "You heard he said, don"t matter."
"h.e.l.l d.a.m.n, yeah," Sooleyrah sang. "d.a.m.n yeah, d.a.m.n fat boy, d.a.m.n he knows." He paused, straining on tiptoes to look back down the line. The fat boy was only a little way behind them, puffing and gasping already as he tried to follow the upward dance; he wasn"t accustomed to it, as anyone could see. His gray-washed tunic was splotching dark with sweat; his hair, cut short at ear-length, fell in sweat-strings down his forehead.
Kreech paused, turned, looked back, and so did the next man, and the next, and so on until the one in front of the fat boy turned suddenly to stare at him; and the fat boy yipped, startled, then caught on to it and turned to look back himself.
Sooleyrah laughed again, and returned to his dance. "d.a.m.n fat boy no good anyway," he sang. "No good, know nothing, no good, know nothing."
"h.e.l.l d.a.m.n yourself," Kreech said. "d.a.m.n fat boy almost a thinker. d.a.m.n d.a.m.n almost." almost."
Sooleyrah snorted, and did a particularly difficult series of jump-steps deliberately for the confounding of the almost-thinker back down the line. "d.a.m.n-almost as good as nowhere, nowhere," he sang. "That"s thinkers now anyway, nowhere, nowhere. Nowhere."
"Except fat boy," Kreech said.
"h.e.l.l fat boy," Sooleyrah said, lapsing from song in his disgust. "Fat boy don"t know, but you know, I know. Vaults still there-there!"-he pointed up the hill, still dancing-"so what"s fat boy know? So we dance, we sing, careful, d.a.m.n careful."
They were halfway up the hill now, the luminescent groundstars merging into a bright mist spread over the valley below, where only occasional widely s.p.a.ced bones of buildings thrust up into the open night air. The rest of the valley, all the way to the mountains, was groundstars from here.
Above them, up the hill, blackness grew and deepened with each step, and the ma.s.sive vaults loomed black against the weak, scattered light of the skystars. The vaults covered the crown of the hill, most of them broken or crumbled or even exploded by now-the result of centuries of raids by the valley robbers. Those that still stood were all empty inside, or so the thinkers had said, but Sooleyrah didn"t believe them. There were always more vaults to open-always had been, always would be. h.e.l.l d.a.m.n foolishness to say there weren"t, or wouldn"t be.
If the vaults all became empty, there would be no toys, no starboxes, no tools to replace those worn and broken or maybe thrown away dull, and no samesongs or pictures or any of the other things that had been stored there for the valley people. Which was ridiculous, and unthinkable, and Sooleyrah wouldn"t think it.
So he danced on upward, darting to right and left, rolling and tumbling, laughing into the empty air, while behind him, one by one, the others pointed after him to the vaults, and danced and tumbled, and echoes of his laugh faded back down the line.
Lasten, the fat boy, was frightened. He had never been on a raid before, had never been trained for it. He knew he would make some disastrous mistake at any moment, and then the others would turn on him. Or, if they did get to the vaults without trouble, it would be a night for the Immortals.
Probably gas or the sound-without-sound, he thought. Not so afraid of a blinding-least you can get back down the hill from that. But it be something killing for me, yeah Not so afraid of a blinding-least you can get back down the hill from that. But it be something killing for me, yeah.
Well, he was lucky to be alive anyway: all the other thinkers had been killed the night before. Ma.s.sacred by the robbers-just lined up in the hub-square and stoned to death. Oh, the screaming and panic, the ones who tried to run with their ankles hobbled, the manic singing and shouting of the robbers-Lasten shuddered, hating himself for his cowardice, hating the way he had hidden in an unused bas.e.m.e.nt where groundstars were so thick they made a shimmering fog. Hiding, he had heard all of it anyway, had even seen some of the worst scenes, the most vivid ones; they"d invaded his mind in waves of terror from the thinkers or, sometimes, exultation and a kind of crazed kill-frenzy from the robbers. For Lasten, the fat boy, was a weird, one of the 10% of human mutations that managed to live in each generation.
Some were born with extra toes, or no feet at all; these were the common ones, the ones who lived as easily as anyone else, accepting t.i.thes from the market thieves as they rocked back and forth in the dirt and listened for rumors to sell. Others were born already dead or dying, with jellied skulls or tiny hearts unable to support life. And a few, a very few, had extra things that no one else had: not just extra hands or grotesquely oversized private parts (like Kreech, like Kreech), but talents talents. Lasten"s father, for instance, had had a talent for numbers; he could remember how many seasons ago a thing had happened, or how often it had happened during his lifetime, or even put numbers together in his head to make new numbers. And Sooleyrah claimed he had a place somewhere in his head where everything was always level, and that was why he was such a good dancer.
Lasten could hear people"s minds. Not their thoughts, for people don"t have thoughts inside; Lasten heard emotions and mind-pictures, whatever was strongest in the consciousness of those around him. Red hate, boiling and exploding; sometimes pure fear, blue-white, rigid; s.e.x fantasies that echoed disturbingly in Lasten"s own mind. They came at him unbidden; he couldn"t shut them out when they were really strong, as they had been last night. Blood, blood on the ground, dark blood spurting from crushed skulls, a trail of red where one man had tried to drag his battered body away to safety. And screaming: Lasten had heard the screams of both the killers and the dying, and had found himself, when it was over, huddled in a corner and still screaming himself, his throat hoa.r.s.e and ragged. He was crying, and he had emptied his stomach and his bowels simultaneously, helpless to stop either.
And it had all been unnecessary, because they wouldn"t have killed him anyway. He wasn"t yet a thinker.
Yeah, only thinkers got the death, only official thinkers. Dumb robbers don"t know I"m a thinker too, just not entered yet. Dumb robbers don"t know h.e.l.l d.a.m.n thing.
Lasten tripped over his feet trying to accomplish a whirling jump-step; he fell gasping to the ground, and for a second he thought he"d lie there, let the line pa.s.s him while he caught his breath. But the next in line kicked him sharply, kicked him again and again, and Lasten moaned and struggled to his feet. He ran weakly to catch up to the line ahead, sweating and whimpering. He knew he"d never get back alive from this raid. Probably none of them would.
Should try to get away, roll out into the dark where they can"t see, maybe they"d go right on by. Couldn"t stop to look for me, no; rest of the line has to keep up or the approach goes bad, sure it does. d.a.m.n dumb robbers.
But he didn"t have the quickness to get out of sight before they"d catch him and drag him back into line, and he knew it. Yeah, d.a.m.n dumb robbers were going to get themselves killed, blown up, burned-and fat boy thinker Lasten was going to get killed with them, because he couldn"t get away.
"Fat boy fell down," Kreech laughed, stepping high behind Sooleyrah"s had. "Daipell kicked him, kicked him, kicked him, fat boy got up."
Sooleyrah paused, looked angrily back down the hill. The fat boy was back in line now, clumsily following the steps. Sooleyrah could hardly see him now, they had progressed so far up into the skystar darkness; but the fat boy"s size stood out against the brightness of the valley groundstars below.
"Fat boy messes up my approach, I"ll kill him, smash him with rocks, rocks," Sooleyrah chanted. "Yeah, like the rest, make him a thinker too. No good, any thinker." Abruptly he whirled, and did an easy dance-skip straight up the hill. Kreech immediately followed him.
"Told you leave him back, leave him back," Kreech sang. "No good dancer yeah you"re right, d.a.m.n d.a.m.n right. No good for the rest." right. No good for the rest."
"Fat boy dances right or I d.a.m.n smash him with rocks," Sooleyrah said.
"We don"t smash n.o.body if we"re dead too. No good dancer, no good approach, no good at the vaults. Get ourselves dead, because of fat boy."
Sooleyrah slowed his dancing even more than he already had. He did a waddle-step, then giggled and broke into a tension-high laugh. "Go slow, go easy for fat boy. Go easy so he can follow, so we get into vaults right, no killing tonight. Waddle waddle, kind of dance fat boy does all the time anyway." He giggled again. "Make sure no killing at vaults, show d.a.m.n almost-thinker vaults still there. Yeah, let him see for himself, no different from always, always..."
Kreech leaped forward quickly and tripped him. Their feet tangled together and they both fell, Sooleyrah"s lean form sprawling loosely, Kreech"s bulkier body hitting the spa.r.s.e gra.s.s heavily. Sooleyrah rolled over quickly and was on his feet almost immediately. Kreech grunted and bounded up too.
"Go bad there," he sang. "Too much the same, go bad, go lousy. Got to go good good, Sooleyrah, go good good, go good good."
The next man in line caught up to them, and he deftly tripped Kreech and fell to the ground beside him, following the lead. Sooleyrah whooped his laughter, whirled and danced on up the hill.
"Yeah, go good tonight," he sang. "Just let fat boy thinker see, yeah, then tomorrow we smash him, d.a.m.n d.a.m.n yeah." yeah."
And it was all so useless, so senseless. Lasten puffed and sweated trying to follow the lead of the man ahead of him in the line, trying to duplicate each movement, each step, every twist or hop or gesture; that was the rule when the robbers went up to the vaults, and if you didn"t follow it they might stop long enough to kill you. Senselessly, uselessly.
Because it didn"t matter. The whole ritual of the dance-approach, the singsong chanting, the leader and the watcher...all unnecessary. The robbers thought they were conquering taboos by the skill of their dancing whenever they made a successful approach to the vaults, and they thought they"d failed when instead they encountered the vault-fires, the blindings, the deaths...but fat boy Lasten who had been trained as a thinker knew better.
d.a.m.n yeah, know better than dumb robbers.
The robbers could have walked straight up the hill to the vaults, no wandering snakelike line, no jumping and dancing, no chanting. They could have approached any of the vaults, and they would have gotten in without incident...or else they would have been ga.s.sed or blinded or killed. Sometimes a raid would get through the Immortals" defenses, and sometimes it would mean danger and death, but it had nothing to do with the dance or the rituals.
Yeah, dance it right and you get in, or dance it wrong and you get killed. Stupid, stupid.
Lasten"s people had been thinkers, the ones who kept the old knowledge...or what remained of it. They knew that the vaults were guarded not by curses or demons, nor by strange magic laws that judged and recorded the dance steps of generations of ignorant vault robbers. No, these vaults had been protected by the Immortals in ways even the thinkers no longer knew...but it was not magic. There were hidden eyes surrounding each vault, and they defended against invasion with a variety of weapons. Gas was one, explosions were another; that was plain enough. The sound-without-sound was not so simple, nor the blinding lights, but they were all the same, only defenses left to guard the vaults.
The world that had created those vaults was gone, destroyed in bombings and explosions and gases so powerful they had killed most of the Immortals. They screamed and died, screamed and died, until only a handful were left, grubbing among the ruins, their women bearing strange children, and all of them dazzled by the groundstars that filled the low places everywhere.
Each spring now, as soon as the thaw was complete, the people of the valley held memorial for the past and the thinkers told the story.
The man ahead of Lasten was waddling now, laughing as he glanced back to see the fat boy follow the lead. Lasten cursed in ragged gasps, but he waddled after him as the man leaped forward to trip the dancer in front of him. The two of them fell sprawling to the ground, and giggled and laughed as they rose.
"Hey yeah, fat boy," the dancer ahead of him sang, "come get me, fat boy, your turn to trip ole Sharksey," and he danced in a circle, waiting, giggling, challenging.
Lasten sucked harsh air into his lungs, gathered what strength he had and ran forward to swing a leg and trip the man. But his aim was short; he felt himself falling, off balance, saw Sharksey"s face suddenly angry, and then he was on the ground gasping weakly, and Sharksey muttered "Sisterson!" and leaped upon him.
The man"s weight was not great, but the impact knocked the rest of Lasten"s wind out of him. He moaned weakly, hardly feeling the elbows Sharksey was wielding freely as he rolled off him and got to his feet. "d.a.m.n lousy fat Lasten, should"ve been made a thinker so you"d be killed too. No good dancer, d.a.m.n d.a.m.n no good. Get us all killed, yeah, only maybe we kill you, kill Lasten, hey kill fat boy, yeah? Yeah? Unless you get no good. Get us all killed, yeah, only maybe we kill you, kill Lasten, hey kill fat boy, yeah? Yeah? Unless you get up up, fat boy, up up right now, right right now, right now! now!"
And Lasten struggled to his feet while Sharksey continued to dance around him cursing and threatening. He stood up shuddering, and Sharksey sang, "Okay, dance it right, dance right...oh yeah, or we kill you, Lasten, and you know it, you know it, don"t you?" He laughed, whirled and danced on upward to follow the others.
Lasten watched him go, seeing him through a red mist like crimson groundstars swarming around his head. In his mind he still felt the throbbing hatred, the promise of death that was more than just promise; Sharksey really wanted wanted to kill him. He gasped in air, and the mist began to dissipate-and suddenly his legs were cut from beneath him as the next dancer in line leaped forward to trip him in his turn. Again he was on the ground, but this time, driven by fear of the antic.i.p.ation he"d felt from Sharksey"s mind, he got up quickly and danced, or lurched, or shambled, step by step up the hill after the line. to kill him. He gasped in air, and the mist began to dissipate-and suddenly his legs were cut from beneath him as the next dancer in line leaped forward to trip him in his turn. Again he was on the ground, but this time, driven by fear of the antic.i.p.ation he"d felt from Sharksey"s mind, he got up quickly and danced, or lurched, or shambled, step by step up the hill after the line.
No more mistakes for Lasten, no, he told himself. Dancing don"t matter to the Immortals, but it does to the filthy robbers, murdering robbers, and they"ll really kill you, won"t make no difference why you die Dancing don"t matter to the Immortals, but it does to the filthy robbers, murdering robbers, and they"ll really kill you, won"t make no difference why you die.
But d.a.m.n them, d.a.m.n them forcing me here when I"ve told them the vaults are empty.
Sooleyrah had reached the gates now. There had once been a strong wall here, he"d heard that, but it was virtually demolished by generations of robbers who had torn it down barehanded, stone by stone, and the stones were littered all around, some scattered back down the hill where they"d rolled or been thrown. Fifteen or twenty yards to the right was a pit where once a bad dancer had caused an explosion. Of the wall only the gates remained, twin steel markers pitted and rust-flaking with age. Night moss had crept up the sides of the gates, half covering them with dark green fur. Overhead the cold skystars hung silently.
"Okay, we go in," Sooleyrah chanted. "We go in, go in-hey we go in now! now!" and he danced forward, through the gates as quickly as he could (many robbers had been killed there, though none within Sooleyrah"s memory), and on the other side, the inside, he paused and did shuffle-steps, humming a high keening song while Kreech and one, two, three more followed him through.
"Now we"re in," he said softly to Kreech, and they turned to survey the vaults. Behind them more of the line danced through the gates, slowed and finally stopped like Sooleyrah and Kreech, panting, staring around them at the vaults.
"Which one?" Kreech asked. "You been here three, four times in a row now, so which one we go into?"
Sooleyrah"s eyes narrowed as he studied the vaults. They crowned the entire hilltop, vaults of many sizes and shapes, some tall, like obelisks, others domelike, still others jointed with odd angles and designs. Sooleyrah had always been afraid of the vaults-for their size alone, even if they hadn"t been so dangerous. They towered into the sky above; and when the robbers entered those doorways the arches stretched far overhead to encompa.s.s echoing empty darkness.
"Starboxes are kept in the vaults for us, no other reason, yeah?" he said to Kreech. "And samesongs, and tools; some toys maybe too, lots of shapes, yeah? Plug "em into the starboxes and yeah, they work, they work. Now why unless they"re for us? Who else, Kreech, who else?"
"n.o.body," Kreech said. "n.o.body but us to take "em."
"Yeah, yeah, n.o.body," Sooleyrah said, turning slowly in the night, in the poised silence of the hilltop and the looming vaults. He looked back down the hill and saw the rest of the line coming through the gates, and the gates themselves now seemed to lead out, to lead downward, back to the brightness of the groundstars. He saw Lasten come panting and shuffling through, and suddenly he grinned.
"Hey, fat boy Lasten can pick us a vault. Almost-thinker says they"re all empty, h.e.l.l he knows. Remember what the rest said? Rest of the thinkers? Said they could remember which vaults were used up, remember how many vaults there were, and all empty now. You remember? Yeah? d.a.m.n dumb thinkers been fooling us for hey long long time. Send us up here instead of them, make us take the chances, oh yeah, they just tell us which vaults to go to. Oh sure, oh yeah, smart old thinkers, and every one dead now, about time." time. Send us up here instead of them, make us take the chances, oh yeah, they just tell us which vaults to go to. Oh sure, oh yeah, smart old thinkers, and every one dead now, about time."
Kreech kicked over a loosely planted stone; underneath it were faintly glowing crawling things that scurried in small circles and quickly burrowed into the ground, hiding.
"Yeah, always hated the thinkers," Kreech said. "Always knew they were liars-well, didn"t all of us? Hey yeah, good, get Lasten up here and make him pick out our vault tonight."
"Yeah okay, pa.s.s the word back," Sooleyrah said, then turned his back to the line and stared again at the vaults. But almost immediately he had another thought; he said to Kreech, "Lasten picks our vault, and he"s first one to go in tonight. First one. Place of honor, yeah?" He laughed.
"First one in gets killed if the approach wasn"t good," Kreech said. "Oh yeah, place of honor."
"Fat boy needs it," Sooleyrah said. "Bring him here."
Lasten"s fear sharpened when they came for him. Why did they want him now, when they were through the gates and at the portals of the vaults themselves? Surely they wouldn"t kill him now, up here on the silent hilltop. What reason, what reason? (Unless they were going back to human sacrifice in front of the vaults. No No.) But the flickering impressions that reached him from Sooleyrah"s mind, when he was brought to the leader, had nothing of murder in them. There was hatred, yes, and the soft spongy feel of gloating. But not murder, no, nothing overt.
"Hey Lasten, you almost a thinker, yeah?" Sooleyrah said, and his voice was so quiet, almost friendly. But not his mind.
"I wasn"t entered," Lasten said cautiously.
"Yeah, we know. Okay, but you know a lot of stuff, yeah? Know a lot about vaults, which ones are dangerous, which ones maybe empty, we hear. Now, not all all of "em empty, Lasten, not of "em empty, Lasten, not all all of "em. You almost a thinker, you not dumb, yeah?" of "em. You almost a thinker, you not dumb, yeah?"
"The thinkers told you they were all empty," Lasten said, "so you killed the thinkers. Now if I still say that, you"ll kill me me."
Sooleyrah smiled widely, glancing at Kreech. "No, no, Lasten, you not dumb. Okay, now what vault do we go to tonight?"
A chill scurried up Lasten"s back, touching the nape of his neck spider-softly.
"You want me to pick the vault?" he asked. "Why me? Why, Sooleyrah?"
Sooleyrah laughed, enjoying himself. "h.e.l.l d.a.m.n I know what vault to pick. Thinkers always do that, always. So no more thinkers, but we got you Lasten. So you pick."
So I pick-and if the vault is empty, it"s my fault, not Sooleyrah"s. Sooley rah maybe not so sure about the vaults after all, eh?
"You scared to pick one yourself, Sooleyrah? Scared you can"t find a vault with your pretty things? Yeah, you"re scared, scared."
But he shouldn"t have said that. Sooleyrah leaped forward and grasped Lasten"s arm, painfully squeezing the soft flesh, twisting the arm behind him. Lasten cried out in pain, and bent over trying to escape the pressure. Sooleyrah jammed his arm up against his shoulder blades.
"Not scared, fat boy; not scared, just smart. Thinkers knew about vaults, they taught you, yeah? Sure, Lasten, sure, we know. Then thinkers said all vaults empty, no use making raids any more, yeah? Yeah? Well, maybe thinkers got something up here they don"t want found, eh? Robbers not so dumb, Lasten, and Sooleyrah not dumb either. You pick vault, you you, and it better better not be empty!" not be empty!"
Or they"ll stone me right here, Lasten thought, seeing that as a bright certainty in Sooleyrah"s mind. Only way Sooleyrah could make up for leading a failure raid. Yeah, and the robbers would love another stoning, especially up here where the magic is. Magic and death, oh yeah, they"ll love it Only way Sooleyrah could make up for leading a failure raid. Yeah, and the robbers would love another stoning, especially up here where the magic is. Magic and death, oh yeah, they"ll love it.
"And you you go into vault first, Lasten," Kreech told him with happy malice. "Sure, go into vault first, Lasten," Kreech told him with happy malice. "Sure, you you, Lasten, place of honor for you."
Place of death, Lasten thought. Oh, you dumb d.a.m.n robbers, lousy murdering superst.i.tious- Oh, you dumb d.a.m.n robbers, lousy murdering superst.i.tious- "Which one, Lasten?" Sooleyrah said, applying pressure to his arm. "Which one?"
And Lasten, the almost-thinker, suddenly laughed.
"Yeah, okay," he said, and giggled again, a giggle just like Sooleyrah"s or Kreech"s, only higher pitched, thinner. "Okay, yeah, okay, okay..."
Sooleyrah let go of his arm, stepping back. "You take us to an empty vault, you won"t be laughing," he warned.
"Yeah, oh yeah, I know," Lasten said, managing to stop his giggling. It wasn"t that funny, after all; in fact, probably it wasn"t funny at all.
"That one," he said, pointing to the vault nearest to them. "We go there."
Sooleyrah and Kreech both stared. "That one? Fat boy, you crazy? Nothing in that vault, nothing there since before you or me born!" one? Fat boy, you crazy? Nothing in that vault, nothing there since before you or me born!"
"Hey, yeah," Kreech said. "First vault ever emptied was that one, that one right there, don"t you know that?"
"Sure, I know, sure. But that"s the one we go to tonight. And you look close, robber leader and watcher, you look close and you"ll see vault"s not not empty. You want more pretty stuff stored in vaults, you just look close tonight!" empty. You want more pretty stuff stored in vaults, you just look close tonight!"
He began to walk confidently toward the nearest vault, while behind him Sooleyrah and Kreech looked angry, then uneasy, and finally they turned and motioned the rest of the party to follow them as they moved after Lasten.
Sure, d.a.m.n robbers emptied this vault first thing, Lasten was thinking. Been in this one so often you can"t count, clearing it out, every piece they could find, everything the Immortals stored here. Only that just means it"s a safe vault, all the defenses used up or burned out so long ago. Nothing here to blind me, burn me, kill me. Safe vault, yeah...but maybe not so empty as they think Been in this one so often you can"t count, clearing it out, every piece they could find, everything the Immortals stored here. Only that just means it"s a safe vault, all the defenses used up or burned out so long ago. Nothing here to blind me, burn me, kill me. Safe vault, yeah...but maybe not so empty as they think.