Land Beyond the Stars
A
t Retoc the Abarian was too by what he to think coherently. With the other Tarthians of blood he had an to appear at the Royal Dock on the River of Ice and, he try to what it was about, an of Nadian had come to him.
It was cold and on the banks of the River of Ice. The two men, Retoc and Hultax had in time to see them the of the Royal Barge. Curious, he pushed closer through the of nobles. Suddenly, the was unmoored, as it and on the of the river, Nadian soldiers appeared with a on across their shoulders, the means of intra-city for Nadian royalty. But this was no Retoc saw on the platform, although they were as royalty.
The woman, and hand and foot, was the Virgin of the Wayfarers who had Prince Jlomec's death. The man, unconscious, his high on pillows, was the white who once on the Plains of Ofrid had almost Retoc.
A such as he had through Retoc's brain. He was so close he see the up-and-down motion of the giant's as he breathed. Then, the platform, he saw Volna. Volna at him. The by, was on the at the of Jlomec's bier. The were cut loose.
There was, Retoc triumphantly, no return from the Place of the Dead.
But still, the white had from what looked like death once, had and when he would have died again. What was good for Volna the Beautiful was not necessarily good for Retoc of Abaria. He only long to see the pushed out into the of the river, then he and his way to the second of observers, where Hultax among the and the officers of the Tarth. He Hultax and for a time in his ear.
Hultax's blanched. "But lord," he protested, "there is no return ... it is the man will die ... you couldn't me to...." Hultax, frightened, confused, neither think himself properly. His mouth open.
The while death and the Golden Ape stood
grinning. The while death and the Golden Ape grinning.
"Earlier, Hultax," Retoc said with a hard smile, "you action. I give you action. Take a boat. There are some down-river for the use of Nadian on their religious to the banks where the stilt-birds dwell. Overtake the barge. Board it. Slay the man and the woman."
"But I—the Place of the Dead...."
"Fool!" Retoc. "I didn't ask you to visit the Place of the Dead. That's up to you. If you them first, on the River of Ice, and can proof ... but the longer we talk, the they are. You'll go?"
It was phrased as a question; actually, it was a command. Grim-faced, the whip-sword at his side, Hultax left the of soldiers and his way downstream. A moments later he had a out into the and down-river in of the barge.
The had Ylia's on the barge, she swim for safety in the of the River of Ice. She sat now at the of Jlomec's bier, with Bram Forest's on her lap. It was very cold there on the river. Wind blew, the which along the bank. They had long since from the river's cavern. The them now through a country of ice, a tundra. The reeds, twice as tall as a man, to on the riverbanks. They everything.
Bram Forest opened his eyes, and looked at her, and smiled. He to up, as pain through his head. "We to make a of this," he said, again.
"Shh, you mustn't talk."
She close. He the animal perfume of her body, like and jasmine. Impulsively, she him on the lips. His arm around her neck. He her and of her.
"Why ..." she began, all breathless.
"Because I love you. I think I loved you the moment I saw you. But I didn't know it then." He laughed softly, gently, and she did not know why this should be so.
"Why do you laugh?"
"I was an infant, the son of the Queen. Of Queen Evalla. Portox the scientist with me, the last of the Ofridian blood, to the other of the system, to a world the of this, a world we see the sun always us, a world called Earth. There I would wait until maturity. There I would be the and the I needed. And then I would return to Tarth and right the wrong. Well, I have returned. I love you. It is enough, Ylia. I want to think of the future, not the past."
Ylia let him her again. "Isn't it the same, the and the past? Aren't they one? I too am of Ofridian blood, Bram Forest, of the nobility. There are hundreds of us, on the Ofridian Plains, where once our great nation stood."
"I didn't know that. It wasn't in Portox's training. Now Portox is dead. I him on this world called Earth. He not come to his native Tarth."
"Darling, don't you see? That's why the must be righted, why Retoc must pay for his deeds. So Portox and the millions of other Ofridians, slain, all slain, can sleep in peace. You are their champion."
"But revenge? What is if—"
"You are the of the too! Don't you see, oh, don't you? Of all the when the Ofridian nation may live again. Of all the when the nations of Tarth can live together in peace and harmony. Don't you that?"
"It's funny. I try to see my mother's face. Queen Evalla. But all I see is you. She's the past, Ylia. You're the future." He her lightly.
"There is no for anyone as long as Retoc the Abarian rules, and of Tarth, all Tarth, as his domain."
Bram Forest up. The cold blew. He looked at the blue-cold of Jlomec, in state, at the ice-choked river, at the banks of reeds. He did not have to ask where they were. He knew. "Perhaps," he said at last. "I only that if I do this thing it will be more to see that live in peace than to on a power-mad Abarian."
"Oh, Bram! That's what I wanted you to say. I wanted to you say that. For tomorrow! For all our tomorrows."
Bram Forest walked to the rail of the barge, and it, and looked out over the ice-flows. He recited:
"An ape, a boar, a stallion,
A land the stars.
A Virgin's feast, a beast,
A prison without bars."
"Why, what an poem!" Ylia cried. Then: "Hold me close, it's so cold. And I'm afraid, Bram Forest...."
"Of the Place of the Dead?"
"Yes, yes. The Place of the Dead."
"It and the are entwined," Bram Forest said musingly. "I know they are. Together, they're my destiny."
"And the of all Tarth?"
"Perhaps. Portox liked to think so, I guess."
"I like to think so, Bram Forest." She up at him tremulously. "And my as well."
"Ylia," he asked abruptly, "what do you know about the Golden Ape? You mentioned it to me once, when you I ... well, when you I your virginity."
"Why, nothing what the say."
"And what do the say?"
"It is in the most of our religious that the messenger to the Place of the Dead is a Golden Ape. Naturally, in these same beliefs, a is to kill herself. Thus, in a way of speaking, she goes to the Golden Ape. You see?"
Bram Forest at her. "What would you think if I told you the Golden Ape was real? If I told you that there actually was a Place of the Dead?"
"For the of the departed?" Ylia asked in a very small voice.
"No. Man can't to know about that. It's in the of the gods. I a place which somehow borders on Tarth and yet ... yet is the stars. A place which, when returned from it long and long ago, gave to the legends."
"Borders on Tarth ... yet the stars? How can this be?"
"Portox it and it with his science," Bram Forest insisted. "Earth and Tarth, worlds, yet so different, one by the other, on opposite of the sun. They're in the system, Ylia. Portox thought—if the memory he planted in my mind is correct—that they're in the entire universe. Somehow, a million years ago, a world split, two worlds. But ordinary space ... I don't know, the memory is ... not them. There is a of space, a place where space bends. Learn to master the and you go from Tarth to Earth, or again. That was the way Portox me, as an infant, to Earth." He his arm, her the steel-silver disc. "With this I can travel and at will. Without it, either Earth or Tarth would be my prison...." His voice off.
Then he blurted: "'A prison without bars!'"
"What...."
"The poem. Part of the poem. Anyway, Ylia, Earth and Tarth at either end of this space warp, thus through normal space where there should be no connection. And along the warp—where ordinary space-time don't matter...."
"I'm sorry, Bram Forest. I don't you."
"I'm not sure I myself. Tarth is a world. It is our science. It is the science of Earth, I believe, and Earth is a ahead of Tarth in its development. But Portox knew. Anyhow, along the warp—in ordinary along the space-time a billion light years from either Earth or Tarth, is a third world. On the it is very close. The River of Ice leads to it. We call it the Place of the Dead."
"But the Golden Ape—?"
"—inhabits the so-called Place of the Dead. Their world was dying, but Portox saved them. I think ... the science is me ... the of their was ... their world perishing, ... when somehow with his great science Portox for their use the energy in their ... their system, and saved them."
"Why do you so?"
"Words. Words only. I don't understand. I can only act."
"You can act," Ylia said, herself tight against him. "For Tarth and the future."
"For Tarth and the future," Bram Forest said, but he the words.
Ahead of them in the cold clear air a to rise. It came up so suddenly, and, in fact, the air had so from the murkiness, that Ylia was afraid. "It is in the legend," she whispered. "The Black Wall, Bram Forest. And it—the Place of the Dead."
"More accurately, an edge-on view of the space-warp, where it meets the normal world." But although he spoke the of Portox, Bram Forest did not too confident.
"We're closer to it, Bram. Hold me!"
He her. There was nothing else he do. The the on inexorably. The Black Wall ahead of them, at them, to off all the of the and all of Earth or of Tarth....
The the wall. Black and solid-seeming, solid as stone, it yet offered no resistance. The it.
Behind the barge, rope-trailing so close that its almost the wood, was a in which, and yet somehow he had Bram Forest's words, was Hultax the Abarian.
