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The rope ladder hadn't been drawn all the way around its windlass. About ten feet hung down below the edge. Deyv explained what he had to do. The Archkerri didn't reply, but he must have been thinking of what would happen to Deyv if he failed. He may also have wished to tell Deyv not to cry out if he did fall. Or perhaps he was calculating how long it would take Deyv before he struck the ground. Who knew what went on in the mind behind the cabbage leaves?
Deyv wondered, fleetingly, what Vana would think if his body came through the darkness and splashed in front of her. That was a strange thought, he thought even more fleetingly. What did she care?
Or perhaps he might fall on the Yawtl. Though he hadn't killed Hoozisst, as he'd felt like doing, and though he'd treated him as a comrade, which he was, in a sense, he still was angry because the Yawtl had stolen his egg. At least, if he, Deyv, fell on Hoozisst, then the thief would die, too. There was some satisfaction, though not much, in that visualization.
Deyv would have liked to ask Sloosh if his grip was still strong. He needed reassurance. It didn't matter, however. He had to act now, whatever the situation was.
Gripping the Archkerri's lower body with his legs, Deyv untied the rope around his waist. Then he slowly slid down the rope, only a few inches from the triple cable, and when he was a few feet below
Sloosh's legs, he began to swing on the rope. Back and forth he went until he could almost reach the dangling rope-ladder with the fingertips of his extended right arm.
Then, at the next swing inward, he released the grip of his left hand and fell outward. His right hand missed the first three rungs but closed on the next to last. And his left hand snapped around and seized the bottom rung, and his toes banged into the side of the shaft.
The ladder held firm.
He gasped with relief. Until then he couldn't be sure that the windlass around which the ladder was wrapped had been locked. If it hadn't been, the drum would have spun out, and he would have fallen clinging to the ladder, which would have smashed on the ground below.
He pulled himself up with arms and shoulders until he was up enough to get a foothold. Then he climbed quickly up the ladder and was over the edge.
Sloosh's leaf-covered head was turned toward him. Deyv signaled that he must return down the cable to the ground. There was no way of getting the plant-man onto the tharakorm except up the rope-ladder.
While Sloosh was letting himself down, much more quickly than he'd ascended, Deyv studied the windlass at close range. Though he'd never seen such a machine before, he figured out within a minute how to unlock it. Having done this, he began to unwind it slowly. The weight of the rope-ladder, over six hundred feet long, was immense. The windlass had a brake, however, which was operated by foot.
And it must have been oiled recently, since it didn't squeak.
Looking down through the hole, he could not see the ground or the people on it. The Archkerri had disappeared into the darkness. Deyv wouldn't be able to see the ladder reach the earth, but when it could no longer be let down, he guessed it would be there. If there was a surplus, it wouldn't matter.
When the drum was almost bare, Deyv relocked the windlass. It would take some time before the first person came up, so he might as well look around. He would not go out of sight of the windlass, however. He didn't want any of Feersh's crew to find that the ladder had been lowered and to raise an alarm.
Having taken his blowgun out of its case and fitted a dart into it, he went to the center entrance of the ship-creature. A wooden cabin had been built over it. Its door was closed. He circled the cabin, noting that it had two windows on each side, both too small for him to wriggle through. At least one person was inside, snoring.
For a moment, he considered entering through the door and killing the sleeper. There might be others, however, and so more than he could handle. It was best to wait until all his party had boarded and rented after the arduous climb. He prowled the deck, looking through the windows of the other two wooden cabins. One seemed to be unoccupied, but that could be because it lacked snorers.
The tharakorm on each side of that on which he stood also had cabins. According to Yawtl, the center creature was the residence of Feersh the Blind and her brood. The one on his left, looking toward the bow, held the khratikl; the one on his right, the human slaves. The witch and her family numbered six.
The Yawtl had said that one of the major dangers was Feersh's Emerald of Anticipation. This was a large green translucent stone she always wore suspended from a leather cord around her neck. Its name came from its ability to predict events anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours before they happened.
"She told me that it was a stone of some sort which grows in the land of The Shemibob," Hoozisst had said. "There are uncountable numbers of these stones, but very few dare enter the glittering evergrowing land which is known to some as The Shining House of Countless Chambers. Others call it The
Jeweled Wasteland or The Bright Abomination.
"Feersh, however, must have had the courage to trespass on its very edge. She would've chipped off a jewel and fled with it. It is said that she was stricken blind shortly thereafter. I don't know if there is any truth in that story. I doubt it. Not the story about The Shemibob. There is no doubt that the monsterwitch exists. I mean Feersh's claim that she stole the Emerald herself. As is well known, witches seldom leave their homes, be they Houses of the ancients, castles, caves, or tharakorm."
Sloosh interrupted then. "That is because they have become too dependent on their ancients' artifacts, and they feel uneasy unless they are surrounded by them. They have no tribes, and they can't trust anyone except their families, and sometimes not even them. In fact, most witches suffer from a sickness of the mind that makes them unable to venture from their homes without great fear. They are prisoners of their own powers."
"Anyway," Hoozisst had continued, "the witch told me that she can 'speak' to the Emerald and give it information about situations that might occur. The precious stone then replies, telling her what is most likely to occur. I don't mean that the Emerald actually has a voice. It responds by showing within its interior certain designs. Only the witch can interpret these. Or so she said."
"If she's blind," Vana had asked, "how can she see the designs?"
"She is dependent upon her eldest daughter, Jowanarr, who describes the designs to her. Jowanarr will become the head of the family when Feersh dies. If she isn't too old to bear children then, she will have them by a slave picked for his intelligence, good looks, excellent physique, and virility. If she's barren, then her sister Seelgee will bear the children, but Jowanarr will still head the family.
"But that doesn't matter. What does matter is that Feersh promised that after I'd stolen thirty eggs, I'd get the Emerald. She would then teach me how to give the information to the stone and how to read the designs. I should have known that she was lying, the bitch!"
"You were very lucky you weren't killed," Deyv had said. "You should have been, even though a tree broke the fall."
"We Yawtl are tough," Hoozisst had said. "Besides, I'd grabbed a blanket from the shoulders of her son
Jeydee, and by holding on to its four corners I slowed my fall somewhat. Still, it was luck more than anything else that kept me alive. The tree-gods saved me so that I could get my revenge."
Whatever the abilities of the Emerald, it wasn't warning Feersh now. But then she didn't know about his party, Deyv thought. Or, if she did, she wasn't worried about them. After all, the stone was dependent upon the data she gave it, and if that was insufficient, the stone didn't have what it needed to make the right prediction.