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After a while, they saw that they'd been mistaken about the crew. It was neither human nor Yawtl.
Enormous whitish things crawled around on the deck. Moreover, there were no railings, no helmsman's wheel, though the upper part of a rudder stuck above the water, no ropes to the sajls. Other items were lacking, but by then those on the tharakorm had no time to think about these. They were only ten feet above the water's surface, then five, then they had landed.
If they hadn't been lying flat on the deck, they would have been thrown heavily, perhaps bounced out, into the lake. Otherwise, the touchdown was uneventful. The tharakorm rose and dipped in the heavy swells, and it began to settle. Soon, water washed over the railing. More time passed. Deyv stood up. At the moment, they didn't seem to be sinking. The wind and the current were pushing them slowly out from the shore.
The nearest sailship turned into the wind and began tacking toward them. The booms of its fore-and-aft rigged sails were moving, but Deyv didn't know anything about deep-water sailing and so couldn't know just why the changes were being made. As far as he could see, the slug-things on its deck were doing nothing except crawling around.
Some strange things were growing on or attached to the hull and the masts. They looked at first like flowers with short yellow stalks and blue petals with green centers. Their roots wrapped around the masts or clung to the sides of the hull. The flower-heads turned this way and that as if they had eyes.
Those on the hull sca
He expected the. vessel to come directly to the tharakorm. Instead, it sailed by at a distance of forty feet.
When it had gone some way past, it began to turn again. Now it was headed directly toward the tharakorm. Was it going to ram them?
Feersh and the others had untied themselves from the masts. Her children and the slaves didn't want to take to the water. As long as they weren't sinking, they saw no reason to swim. The witch swore at them and told them that they would soon be so far from land they would never be able to swim to it. If it wasn't too late now.
It was. As Feersh drove her people with screams and insults toward the bow, the surface nearby began boiling. They halted, staring, ignoring the witch. Up shot a frighteningly enormous creature, purple-gray, fi
When it fell, it made a deafening smashing sound, and waves covered the decks of the tharakorm and almost washed away a woman. The slaves and Feersh's children ran screaming toward the mast behind the aft cabin, knocking Feersh over. The whirlpool formed by the monster's dive seemed about to suck in the tharakorm.
Suddenly, the leviathan appeared behind them, soaring up again, seeming without end. When it curved and dived, its colossal rounded head striking the water, the spray flew all over those on the tharakorm and was followed by even larger waves than the first time. Deyv saw one of its eyes, small compared to the body yet larger than his head. It looked cold and yellow and hungry.
Then he saw that the sailship was passing by the tharakorm again. It was only ten feet away. The flowers on the hull did have eyes, green with black irises. They, too, looked coldly at him before dipping to stare into the water again.
The flower-eyes on the masts were also observing the crowd on the tharakorm.
Some of the slugs seemed aware of the strangers. Others ignored them. They were shaped like sausages and of a pale-white translucency. Dark curving things, probably part of the skeleton, were visible below the wet slimy-looking skin. A myriad dark spots, very tiny, were just below the skin. Small seallike flippers, at least a score, lined each side of the body. The tail was slightly bifurcated. In front of the blunt head were big green eyes with black centers. They didn't seem to be part of the head; they gave the impression of being attached to it. Perhaps, Deyv thought, they were flower-eyes growing on the skin.
And their roots went through the skin and flesh to the nervous system inside the skull. If it had a skull.
There was no nose or air slits. The mouth held row upon row of tiny triangular teeth. He couldn't see any tongue.
The deck on which the slugs crawled was black and looked leathery. It was level and smooth except for three openings, one ten feet from the stem, one in the middle, and one ten feet back from the bow. There were no railings, and the water line was only three feet below the deck. The hull was a smooth shiny dark-green substance, perhaps bone of some kind.
As the beast passed, it left the hint of an odor, more like a wet shaggy dog than anything else.
For the third time the leviathan dived up from the surface. Though it was farther away, it was close enough to scare its watchers. The sailship-creature swerved sharply toward it, and when the leviathan rose again, it was almost under the bows. The sailship caught the monster crosswise as the fish came down. Though Deyv couldn't see what the sailship was doing, it seemed to have closed down on the fish.
With what? he thought. A little later he found out. The sailship turned, allowing him to see the upper part of a mouth stretching out over the struggling monster.
"The bow has lips!" Vana cried.
"The mouth has teeth!" Deyv cried. He was awed. He was also frightened. What if the fish hadn't been enough to eat, and the creature that looked so much like a sailship decided to have the tharakorm for dessert?
Like a dog with a bone in its teeth headed for a place to bury it, the sail-beast sailed toward the horizon.
After a while, it turned and began sailing close-hauled against the wind.
Whitish streaks slipped over the bow and onto the fish. Other slugs went into the water from the side and swam toward it. It had ceased to struggle, and if it wasn't a carcass, it soon would be. The slugs swarmed over it, biting out big chunks. When the sailship was closer, Deyv could see that some of the slugs had apparently satisfied their hunger. Now they were carrying large pieces in their mouths and crawling back up the bow. A swarm covered the bow, forcing others to dive into the sea, from which they would shoot out and up onto the deck.
Deyv thought that the slugs must have suckers on their bellies which enabled them to cling to the vertical walls of the bow.
Sloosh came up to Dew and said, "We must start swimming. But if we do, either a big fish or those white things will get us. It poses an interesting dilemma, doesn't it?"
"Maybe the white things won't consider us good eating," Deyv said. "After all, we're not marine life.
They may not be familiar with human beings and so might think us dangerous."
"There's only one way to find out, unfortunately," the plant-man said. "As you may have noticed, the tharakorm is now sinking. The cells are begi
He turned toward the bow. Over his shoulder, he buzzed, "You can hang on to me while I swim."
The Yawtl screamed, "But what about the treasures of the witch? We can't leave them here! They'll be lost, lost!"
"Yes," Sloosh said. "A pity."
"Can't you expand the vessel of the ancients and put the instruments in it? We can tow it behind us!"
Dew and Vana, despite the seriousness of the situation, laughed. Sloosh buzzed derision.
"All right, all right!" The Yawtl yelped. "So I'm crazy! If you had any sense of value, you'd be out of your mind, too!"
"Kiss them good-bye, if you wish," Vana said.
Sloosh went into the water with all of the weapons of his party in his two hands. His upper torso reared out of the water from just above the waist. Jum and Aejip leaped in and began swimming alongside the