The Golden Ape
H
ultax the Abarian himself. He had as every nerve-ending in his had with pain. Did this have something to do with the warp—warping?—Bram Forest had mentioned. Hultax the Abarian did not know. But he did know that he was alive, as alive as anyone be or had a right to be in the Place of the Dead. And he did know, gratefully, that the cold of the River of Ice was gone.
He how long he had been unconscious. He his eyes. A balmy, pink-tinted sky. A pink sun, not on the horizon, when the sun might be pink, but overhead. On the horizon—Hultax again and he was mad—a second sun, smaller, paler, the of green in color.
The was in ruins. It had up on some rocks. The of Jlomec, Prince of Nadia, had been clear. He see it on the bank, also in ruins. He up unsteadily, then through the water in which he'd consciousness, over to the of the barge. The of his right hand were from the of his whip-sword. Slay Bram Forest and the girl if the hadn't already killed them? He his head. Bram Forest more about this place, this world of the pink sun and the green sun, than he did.
He over the wreckage, and came upon the two bodies. He on his them. They were with blood. They were broken—broken being the only word that them. They had been crushed, by timber, by the of Jlomec as it over the side. There was not a in either of their bodies, at least a major bone, which had not been crushed.
They were dead.
With a which himself, Hultax the Bram Forest's words. It was the with the which gave Bram Forest the power to appear and at will, as Retoc had described. Or, as Bram Forest had put it, to the worlds. Carefully, Hultax took the bracelet—it was intact—from the crushed, arm of Bram Forest's corpse. He his own arm with it and felt, or he felt, an of power through his body. Without looking at the of the man and woman who had love and, it, died in each other's arms, he his way from the river bank across a green meadow. Far in the he saw a dark which looked like a forest. It was many miles away, almost at the limit of vision.
Yet, incredibly, it to up at him. It was not that Hultax the Abarian walked with a warrior's long toward the forest. It was as if the toward him. A different world. He Bram Forest's vaguely. A world? Something like that. Naturally, Hultax was afraid. This was the Place of the Dead, wasn't it? But still, Bram Forest's if little-understood scientific his fear. Besides, didn't he have the bracelet-disc-amulet? What to him now?
Bylanus the Golden Ape, only two-thousand seven hundred years old, as Golden Apes went, saw the of the from a great distance. He his through warp-space and the of a man away from the wreckage. Bylanus squinted, and his on the saddle. Bylanus was fifteen tall and eight-hundred pounds. The he rode, about twice the size of an Earth elephant, looked like a blown-up a Tarthian and an Earth horse.
Bylanus stared, then sat up very in his stirrups. Something on the man's arm. Bylanus gaped.
It was the of Portox-saviour.
Bylanus used his will to the man. The man, still along, toward him.
Bylanus from his and prepared to bow, all fifteen and eight hundred of him, the man.
At Hultax think only of fleeing. Abruptly him a monster-stad and a man. No, not a man. A man-like with soft, smooth, lusterous, fur. The stad—the not-quite-stad—was five times than a had a right to be. The man, as he Hultax, was almost three times Hultax's height. Man? No, not a man. Hultax, with to the spot, unable to run, opened his mouth to out. But his were paralyzed.
This was no man. It was the Golden Ape of legend, the Golden Ape of the Place of the Dead....
"Portox-saviour," said the Golden Ape distinctly. Then he pointed a almost the size of Hultax' at the Hultax wore.
Hultax took a and the returning to his legs. Like all officers, he was an opportunist. He had to be, for in one had to upon opportunity as soon as it appeared, if one were to win at all....
Hultax said, his voice steady: "You may rise."
The Ape did so. The the ground, and great flew. Hultax was trembling, but the Ape, speaking in Hultax' own language, in the language of all Tarth, said: "Are you from Portox? It like only yesterday he was here although, of course, your people and mine measure time differently."
"I am from Portox," Hultax said. He he keep his from trembling.
"Portox-saviour said that one day a man would come, to ask us for help as Portox helped us in our time of troubles," the Ape proclaimed.
"Yes," Hultax muttered.
"What of help do you wish?"
Hultax stared, saying nothing. He did not know what to say. He the to make something up. Somehow, he it was important. He without how he that his life might on his answer.
"Well?" the Golden Ape asked gently.
"I ... that is...."
The Ape's as he looked at Hultax. "You are from Portox?"
"Yes, yes. Of course."
"I see you have the bracelet."
"Yes, here is the bracelet."
"And the of Portox?" the Ape. "The Portox you would wear?"
"I—I the in my journey," Hultax, not about any cloak. There, he thought, that ought to satisfy him.
But the Ape said: "There was no cloak."
"No cloak? No cloak!"
"I that up, to test you. You're not from Portox."
The the ground and looked up and then at Hultax, snorting. Hultax, trembling, he melt into the ground.
"Still," Hultax said, shaking, "I am from Portox. You to me. You...."
"We shall see," the Ape said, still pleasantly. "Come."
The ground rolled, or so it to Hultax. The ahead of him, then trees were all around him, then they on a plain again.
"Where—did you take me?"
The Ape smiled. He despite his size, despite his fur. The the ground impatiently.
"Behold," said the Ape.
Something on the of the screamed. It was an and it the on Hultax's bull-neck. He his whip-sword and the forest.
"Well, man," the Golden Ape, "and do you need a weapon? Portox told us we would know his man his man, unarmed, would be able to the wild of the Kranuian Wood. And you?"
The came again. Terrified, Hultax did not his aside. Wild boar? What wild ... time later ... to the Ape....
The emerged. It was almost as big as a man and with dirty hair. Its were two long. The but perfectly still. The Golden Ape waited and watched. The charged.
Hultax's right arm and the of the whip-sword through air and the boar's shoulder. The screamed, and came on.
It was, Hultax in despair, only a wound. The came on, bleeding, furious. He to aside. He at the whip-sword and it came loose, making him his balance. The him, screaming.
Never its pace, the him, and about, flying, to again. Hultax' voice in his throat. The was on him again, its as razors....
Finally it clear, Bylanus and the stallion. Then it and, slowly, with great dignity, into the Kranuian Wood, which was its home.
The man, Bylanus saw at a glance, was dead. As an imposter, he had to die. Bylanus a with a large, sharp-edged stone, and rolled the in. As he did so he noticed that the bracelet—the of Portox-saviour, or, more probably, a copy of that to him—had been battered, punctured, and by the boar. Even if it had been the bracelet, the steel-silver of Portox-saviour, it would now be useless. Sighing, Bylanus it with Hultax' body.
Bylanus his and toward the river. He have himself there, but the day was and clear, and he was in no great hurry. At last he the of the of Nadia. He did not pause to Jlomec's bier, he had such before.
Something in the itself him. There was a man. There was a woman. That fit the ritual—two to on its way. This was the of the Nadians. But the man....
On the man's arm, the arm with blood, was a mark. It was as if something—say, a of metal—had protected the arm at one point. For the upper arm was a of skin not like the rest, wide in the shape of a disc, then narrow all around.
The of Portox-saviour! Bylanus. Had this man it? Had the imposter, now by the wild boar, taken it from him?
Oh Portox-saviour, Portox-saviour, how long dead? Am I too late, is it too late for this man, your heir...?
As as he could, the Bylanus the two and put them in his saddle-bags. He the Kranuian Wood astride. The its up, alert, ready. They psychokinesthized.
And in a with Bram Forest and Ylia, of were dead.
