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"The person who made the prints is wearing boots," he a
The heels are rather high. And the soles have some kind of marks impressed on them. I'd say their wearer weighs about one hundred and thirty pounds. And he limps on his right leg."
Deyv felt somewhat better about the possible vicious-ness of the tenant. He'd never heard of a god or demon who wore boots. Then he thought that that was just the problem. He'd never heard of one, but this was a long way from his homeland. He started to feel bad again. He felt even worse when Sloosh said they should track the person into the jungle. Deyv consoled himself with the thought that at least
Sloosh hadn't said they should go across the bridge.
The footprints led them around the base of the spire, where they found a small cave. This held the remains of fires and a bundle of blankets. Far below the mouth of the cave lay the scattered bones of various animals.
Other tracks led them here and there to places where the person had buried his excrement or had been stalking animals.
They returned to the cliff. Sloosh looked at the shimmering as long as he could. When he turned away, he said, "I could be wrong, but I'll venture that that is an entrance to another universe. Feersh, do our descriptions sound like the one The Shemibob gave of her gateway?"
"Something like it," the witch said. "Only she said that hers wasn't open yet."
"Really? How would she know when it would be?"
"She didn't say."
"Did she send slaves through it to test it?"
"She tried to, but they refused. They said they'd rather die."
Deyv could understand that.
"The Shemibob also told me that she'd sent mechanical devices on wheels into it. They didn't come back, and they failed to transmit any information."
"She should have gone in herself," Sloosh said.
Easy for you to say, Deyv thought.
"It shouldn't be difficult to enter the shimmering," the Archkerri said. "It's not just a matter of closing one's eyes, though. Feersh is blind, yet she too feels nausea and dizziness. Perhaps it also emits subsonics or supersonics. The dog evidently heard it before he saw it. I'd volunteer to be blindfolded and have my ears stopped up, but I am, I must admit, too large and clumsy to crawl across that log.
Compared to you bipeds, anyway. Who would like to try it?"
No one spoke up.
"I thought so. It's not that you lack courage. Any animal has that. You lack the desire to know, which raises sapients above the animals. Which makes you what, then?"
"You don't have to shame us," Deyv said. "We're ashamed as it is. At least, I am. I thought I was brave.
But now I know I'm a coward. Never mind. I will be called that. I won't, I can't, face that terrible thing."
Sloosh put his war axe in the strap attached to his belt at the junction of his upper and lower torsos. He walked past the group into the forest and after a while returned with a waxy substance he'd dug out of an avashkutl tree. He filled his earholes with this and waited for it to dry. Then he got down on the log with his eyes closed and lowered his upper trunk until it was parallel to the log. Grasping the log with his hands, his legs dangling, he began dragging himself over the abyss. The others, unable to look long into the shimmering, glanced now and then to observe his progress.
After a few feet, Sloosh stopped. "I still feel fear. But it's not as strong. However, I am still having to fight it with all my will. I hope I can continue, especially after my scornful words to you. Crow was never on my diet."
A moment later he said, "I opened my eyes for a quick look. If s strange, but the closer I get, the less bright it is. However, it's just as nauseating."
Deyv's shame became anger.
"If he can do it, then I can!" he said loudly. "I won't be shown up by a plant-man, a vegetable-thing!"
A moment later, he wished he had said it only to himself. Now he couldn't back out
The Archkerri was halfway over when he stopped again. He started to buzz a word, but it changed into an exclamation of amazement. A face had popped out of the shimmering.
It was so unexpected and so strange that Deyv forgot for a moment his horror and looked straight into the shimmering. It was a man's, if anyone who grew hair on his face could be called such. The hair was long and dark, falling in a bushy cascade that would have reached his waist if it had been visible. The hair on the head, also dark, was cut short. On top of it, visible only because the man was leaning over, was a small round dark cap. It fitted closely the back of his head. His skin was as pale as Vana's but with a sallow color. The eyes under the thick black brows were large and dark. His nose was big and hooked. . If Sloosh was startled, he was no more so than the owner of the face. Deyv heard a strangled shout, and then the man disappeared. A moment later, he was back again. He stared at the plant-man and at the group down the path. He said something in a strange tongue. Then he stepped out, seeming to hang on to something beyond the shimmering with one hand. The other, hand held a large square dark object, which looked at first like a box. But it had strange designs on one side, and when the man gestured with it, it flopped open a little. The covers seemed to contain square leaves of some kind.
Deyv had never seen such exotic clothes. The man wore a long black blanket which had been cut so it fitted around his shoulders. Cylinders of the same material clothed his arms, and the ends of the cylinders were sewn to the blanket. Under this was a black vest, and under that another garment of white. On top of this, fitting around the neck, was a white ring, at the front of which was a narrow black cloth that hung down onto the vest.
His waist and legs were covered with a single garment to which cloth cylinders were attached so his legs could fit into them. These were stuffed into black leather boots.
The man howled his gibberish at Sloosh, shaking the black box-thing in his hand. He seemed to be trying to warn the plant-man about something. He didn't sound as if he meant to attack Sloosh.
Suddenly, water trickled out of the shimmering near its bottom. The man looked down at it, looked up at
Sloosh, and shouted more unintelligible words. The trickle suddenly became a gush. It poured out over the end of the log. Then it subsided into a trickle again. Shortly thereafter, another gush came, larger than the first. This, too, subsided, only to be succeeded by an even bigger one. This soaked the man's garments up to his thighs.
The man shouted once more, pointed down at the other end of the log, then dipped his hand into the shimmering as if to indicate the near end. He let loose of whatever he was hanging on to, teetered, and put his hands together, the box still in one of them. After this, he opened his arms, turned, grabbed at something beyond the shimmering, and was gone.
Sloosh at once started moving backward. Though this method of travel was more difficult than the forward, he managed to go faster. There was something panicky in the haste of his ma
They grabbed hold of the skin under the tough leaves and aided him in lifting his buttocks. But he was too heavy.
"Thanks," Sloosh buzzed. "I'll make it myself! Just get out of the way!"
He got up on his hind legs, hanging on to the log with his hands, and then he lifted the front legs up.
Crouching, still clutching the log, he backed onto the edge of the cliff. He raised his upper torso then and turned around. Vana and Deyv had run away as if something terrible was bounding after them.
Just as Vana and Deyv reached the others, they heard screams. They whirled. The near end of the log was just disappearing over the cliff. It struck a projection below with a crash, starting a small avalanche of stones. Later, another crash came faintly up over the cliff.