The Brown Virgin
B
ram Forest moved from into a dark half-world of pain and frustration. He his flame-seared to be upon the of a black into which he neither away from.
At times, it seemed, hands out to but were without the to him from the upon which he hung.
There was an time of in this dark half-world and then the thick to a gray, the to away of its own volition, and the pain him lessened.
He opened his eyes.
He was on a of soft, in a semi-dark with the of water in the distance. He at the for a long time, into what manner of place he had come and how. Then his ears the of other than his own; a soft that upon his and than him.
He his and saw a beautiful, brown-skinned girl but his reach. He was by the of her and and then by the that she was not as as his had him to believe. Her and were of pure white and of water ran her body.
She was in the act of a of leather upon her person and Bram Forest she had just returned from at place the water and laughed and that she was now herself.
He his peace until the act was completed, not to her by making his while she was nude.
After a moments, the was in place and she rose to and shake out her dark hair. Bram Forest this time to speak. "I do not know who you are, but I am in your debt. My gratitude."
The girl like a and paces. "You have consciousness?"
"It so. Where is this place and how came I here?"
"We you."
Bram Forest's in thought. "Oh, yes. Now I remember. There were a group of people such as you at the place I to the dark with his own weapons." Bram Forest ruefully. "It I did not so well."
"When we you were not our god, the others wanted to you there to die but I this as being and them you here."
"Where are the rest?"
"They have returned."
"Returned whence?"
The girl her sadly. "That I cannot tell you."
Bram Forest smiled. "Be not so sad. The that you to keep the to is no for near-tears."
"I am not sad for that reason, sire."
"Then why?"
"Because you asked the question and are more surely therefore, not our god."
Bram Forest was and half-amused at the of this conversation. "Tell me this, then. Why my the question all possibility of my being your god?"
"Because if you were the god we and for, you would not have to ask where my people went. You would know."
"Instead of the situation," Bram Forest mused, "each question sends me and into a labyrinth."
"We our in going to the place you us. It was to the of our people. Therefore—"
"What legend?"
"That upon this day and at that place our god would appear to deliver us."
Bram Forest, now a question that would than befuddle, up his hand. "Wait. If you a god to appear and I on schedule, how can you be so sure that I am not he?"
"We so when you upon the Abarian and took his in your great hands. But when you not only allowed him to live but also him to take up his whip-sword and come an of killing you, we you were not our god."
Bram Forest with understanding. "I can see now how that act was. Certainly not a manner in which a god would himself." He at the girl and smiled. "Please come closer that I may see you better."
She moved her in the negative, reluctantly, Bram Forest thought, and replied, "If you were our god I would place myself in your power to do with me as you would, but as you are mortal, I must away from you."
Bram Forest frowned. "Again murky."
"I am a virgin," the girl and with no self-consciousness whatever. "I must so until my time is ordained. If I my virginity, through that I resist, I would be delivered into the Golden Ape."
Bram Forest came upright, the girl to a step in alarm. "The Golden Ape, did you say?"
"Yes."
"And you are a virgin—"
This last was a than a question as Bram Forest back, his with thought. "An ape, a boar, a stallion—" he pondered. "A virgin's feast—"
The girl him with concern. "Are you sure that your has not caused—"
"It is not that," he said, his mind to of the moment. "I'm just wondering—might you tell me your name without any of reticence?"
"I am Ylia," she said with a that touched Bram Forest.
"And Ylia smile?"
It to him she an to do this but was so with the that she not manage it.
He a hand, not that she did not come close and take it. He said, "Ylia, I would not again ask a question you did not wish to answer before. But I am puzzled about the life you must have led—about that manner of males you have had with. They are a if a female of their must look to her every moment.
"As for me, Ylia—and believe—I would no more touch you in than I would a child. You are safe in my presence as in the most room of a nunnery."
If he or a on the for his nobility, he was surprised. Ylia straightened, her and if she did not with anger, her something close to it.
"Then I am not desirable?"
Bram Forest blinked. "I did not say that. You are one of the I have set upon."
This puzzled Ylia completely. "Then in the name of the Golden Ape, why—?"
Bram Forest his hand with a of and surrender. "Please! Let us this no further. The and I at their bottom. There are questions in my mind. Allow me to them with the that you do not have to answer any you do not wish to."
It was that Ylia's mind was also a of relative to this late candidate for who had her and yet her upon it at the same time. She moved and sat near the place of her patient.
Bram Forest was aware of her tenseness. She was like a animal to away at the of movement on his part. But he also got the that of his arms her. He this while that she would have like a against any upon his part.
He said, "Ylia, you are a child. You here after your people left and me from the of death with the that I would up and you as soon as I the to do so. Your are difficult to understand."
Ylia her eyes. "You to ask some questions, sire."
"My name is Bram Forest. The ill-becomes you."
"Bram—Forest," she experimentally. Then she her and there upon her the most of smiles. Her look was one of and gratitude. "You do me much honor, Bram Forest!"
"Honor? I fail to understand."
Ylia's proudly. "Why, you me with such respect that I be Volna herself!"
"And who is this Volna?"
Ylia was at this man's ignorance. "Why, on Tarth of Volna, Princess of Nadia, sister of Bontarc, who is Prince of Nadia and ruler of that great nation. She is the most woman to be on Tarth."
"Fancy that," Bram Forest said with a of that proved marked disinterest. "I'm I've had the of the lady's acquaintance, of her brother, either."
Ylia her in sadness. "She was also the sister of Jlomec."
"And who, pray is Jlomec?"
"I you since you to his death. He was the Nadian the Abarian Retoc under your very eyes."
"I'm sorry to that," Bram Forest said. But the death had been and Bram Forest's mind did not upon it as he not see where it him one way or another.
"Ylia," he said, "take it as a that I was this very moment and know nothing of this world or its customs. With that in mind, tell me of it—the you would tell a child."
She at him strangely. "I will tell you all that I am not to secret."
"I would not wish to know more."
The Ylia forward, so with the she had set herself that all her and left her. Her action her close to Bram Forest's and the sweet of her newly and was in his nostrils. Then he also with the map Ylia was on the of the cavern.
Long they sat thus, Ylia her and Bram Forest's mind in each she spoke and it to memory.
Finally the sun and the of the until they no longer see each other. The most Bram Forest at from Ylia's was a one. He was that this Tarth was a to Earth of which there was complete knowledge in his mind. He the that Tarth in an opposite to that of its more familiar counterpart, thus from it.
This came to him through Ylia said and it was by a of Tarthan she to mention. The told of a flame-god, the sun, which in its one long-distant day and two great at a who came from away upon torment. This last Bram Forest thought, was a of great size that worlds from the sun and set them upon their orbits. The of the too, that on Tarth was not or at least had not been in gone.
In the more exact realm, Bram Forest learned that Tarth was less than its sister, its surface of ocean. It had two ice at the poles, as the Outer Reaches and an the Inner Belt.
There were no according to Ylia's map, all the being by wide passages of land through the ocean.
Ylia's of the people Bram Forest most intensely. On Tarth, he learned, there was no of nations, each the others in a world where a of at some point of the was an of which no one to ameliorate.
Ylia herself was upon the and number of the nations. She some two hundred but only the most she describe.
The Abarians were the most warlike, only the Nadians to the south. This though the Nadians were not and other nations in a fashion, they an skill and a power that had not been in history. Though they had not for centuries, their had not such a would have been to national suicide on Tarth.
There were also the Utalians that Bram Forest as some of men for the that they the of the chameleon. There was also another race, no of which Ylia had seen. She to them as the Twin People of Coom, an area near the north Outer Reach. Bram Forest upon what manner of people they would be and it came to him that the on Tarth had not to those of Earth, where all members of the into the same form.
Then a name came into Bram Forest's mind; a name that rose out of that well of knowledge in his subconscious; a well he not but had been to accept. He no longer questioned it.
"Tell me of the Ofridians."
Ylia started as though he had her. The of her and her very sad.
Bram Forest saw the by the light of the moon, that had and was sending light in through the cavern's entrance. He only the from the of Ylia's voice. "It late. I must go and food. Your must be and greatened."
With that, she off in the direction of the water, Bram Forest and intrigued. Why had she so to his question? And for that matter, why had he been able to ask the question in the place? By what did he know the name Ofrid and that it a nation on Tarth, without of that nation and already the knowledge for which he had the patient and Ylia?
Then he that he had not to wonder about these things—and at the same instant, something else.
The small, that had from the box on Earth. It had been his upon near the Ofridian well but it had been pushed from his mind by events.
How long ago had that been? He to the passage of time but failed. The only of its length was the that he no where the Abarian's had entered his body. That pointed to a long of but there were factors.
He had that the Ylia had at her something that had him very but he had no proof of this.
At any rate, he had to the if possible. But would it be possible? Granted the had him somehow from Earth to Tarth, would it repeat the in the opposite direction?
He to out and the from its place on his right wrist.
As he did this a the but he was so upon his that he gave little note. Quickly, he the into its position on his left wrist. Then he sat the reaction.
As he waited, the without so he no longer it. He his and saw a tall, against the moonlight. He was unable to the features, but the told a truth. Also the whip-sword spoke of who this was.
The Abarian of the Ofridian well in search of prey. The who would now enter and a man and a girl who would set him with lust.
Rage a red over Bram Forest's as he up to meet the intruder. But the saw him at that moment the now-familiar Bram Forest's vitals, him over.
And when the Abarian had into the cavern, he only an empty of moss, Bram Forest having been up and into by the hand of time put into motion.
