The Gate of Time

He found him sitting on a blanket on the deck. There were others close but half-hidden by the thick fog. Two Hawks called his name until the German answered. Two Hawks said, “Where’s Persinai?”

“She’s dead,” Raske said unemotionally. “Right after we escaped—and I must tell you about that some time, my red-ski

Two Hawks was silent for a while. Raske’s story could be true. On the other hand, he was capable of abandoning her if he thought she would hinder him. Whatever the truth, it would probably never be known by any but Raske.

“What do you think the future holds for us—for us two Earthmen?” Raske said. “We might be safe in Ireland for a while. I know that Perkunisha doesn’t intend to invade it until next year, maybe not for two years, if Ireland gives no trouble. Perkunisha is overextended as it is; it wants no new wars.”

“If—when—Perkunisha finds out we’re in Ireland, it’ll demand we be turned over to it,” Two Hawks said. “You know as well as I do that they won’t want us floating around. They think we’re too dangerous to them. Which is a laugh.”

“What do you mean?” Raske said. His hurt pride showed in his voice.

“This world has already sucked us dry of our—admit it—limited knowledge. We really have nothing more than some technical assistance to give it. It’s true the Blodlandish have rejected what I told them about the origin of disease. But they’ll come around to it in time. They would have done so in a few years anyway, when some native Pasteur stood up to their superstitions and fought them down. Just as all we have told them would have come about in ten years or less, anyway. We just accelerated science a little bit, that’s all.”

Raske chuckled. “You know, Two Hawks, you’re really right. I was hurt for a minute, but I can recognize the truth when I have to. Only... well, I did have what they wanted, and I was parlaying my advantages into an empire for me. If things had gone just a little bit differently.”

“They didn’t. So here we are. Doomed to be hounded to the ends of the earth because of something we don’t have. But try to convince them of that.”

He hesitated a moment, then decided not to tell Raske his plans. Raske might be harmless, even useful. However, if he saw a chance to advance himself at Two Hawks’ expense, he would not hesitate a moment. He had proved himself capable of murder and, perhaps, even abandoned the woman who had given up her country and title for him. Yet, two Hawks found it hard not to confide in Raske. There was the tie of Earthkinship between them, and the fellow was so charming. He would smile at you just before putting the knife in, and the strange thing about it was that the smile would ease the pain a little. Or anaesthetize the victim.

Two Hawks thought that, if he could be realistic, he would tell the captain of the ship to throw Raske into the sea.

He sighed and rose, saying, “I won’t turn you in. But if I hear of any skullduggery on your part, you’re done for. And this is goodbye. I don’t want to see you anymore, except at a far distance.”

“Two Hawks! You hurt me! Why?”

Raske actually did sound as if he had been cut deeply. Two Hawks walked away, knowing that he was possibly letting a wolf loose on this world but unable to sever the bonds of a common universe. Strange as it sounded, Raske’s death would be like cutting out part of his own heart.

The rest of the journey was in fog. Dublin was just as mist-shrouded. The passengers disembarked in a wet dusk. Gilbert led Ilmika, Two Hawks, and Kwasind to the home of a friend. They were there only one day when news of the plague came.

It was just as it had been thirty years ago, when Perkunisha was on the verge of conquering the Western World. The piles of rotting bodies all over the land, the weakening hunger and deadly winter, the lack of cleanliness, and the thriving of the rats had brought the Black Plague once again.

“Europe is saved from the Perkunishans; God save it now from a far worse fate,” Gilbert said. His normally red face was pale, and he was no longer smiling. “My own parents and three of my brothers and two of my sisters died the last time the scourge struck. My aunt brought me to Ireland to escape it, but it followed us, and she, too, died. God help mankind. Now you will see such a slaughter as the Perkunishans could envision only in their nightmares. They, too, will die; half of mankind will die in two years.”

“If they had listened to me...” Two Hawks said. He stopped, shrugged, and resumed. “Do we stay here and die?”

Gilbert said, “No! One of my ships is in port, in fact, the last of my ships. It’s provisioned for a long voyage. We’ll sail tonight for Hivika! Only, let’s hope we get there before Hivjka hears of the plague! Otherwise, we’ll never be allowed on shore!”

Two Hawks knew what was in his mind besides escaping bubonic plague. He said, “I’d like to hope, but I don’t have much faith in the tales of superstitious witch-doctors.”

“Why not?” Gilbert said.

And indeed, why not?

Nevertheless, as the days went by and the Atlantic was the only thing to be seen, the cold gray and sometimes angry ocean, Two Hawks grew less optimistic. Even if there were a “gate” in a cave on top of that high mountain in Hivika, it probably would not be open. The sorcerers themselves had stated that it only opened every fifty years or so and then only for a few seconds. The last time had been thirty years ago. Moreover, there was the problem of gaining access to the cave. Of all the many tabu places on the island, the cave was the most sacred. No one except the few high priests and the king were ever allowed there; the mountain itself, though close to the sea, was walled halfway up its slope and heavily guarded.

Despite his misgivings, Two Hawks enjoyed the trip. He and Ilmika had a chance for a long honeymoon. For the first time, they really became acquainted and found, much to the surprise of both, that they not only loved each other—that is, had a mutual passion—but actually liked each other. They had, of course, certain ways of thought and behaviour that aggravated the other. These were both personal and cultural. But they were willing to tell one another when the partner did something to offend, and the friction would be smoothed out. Two Hawks was happy, although he was realistic enough to know that she would always have a certain amount of arrogance. She could not help it, since she had been brought up as an aristocrat in an undemocratic world.

Two Hawks really began to feel uneasy for the first time when the vessel crossed that invisible line which would have been the shore of North America on Earth 1. Almost, he expected the ship to shudder, then rise up out of the water on a slope of land with a great crash and grind. But the Hwaelgold continued on smoothly while somewhere below was New Foundland. It went over the area in which the city of New York would have been; he imagined a sunken metropolis of skyscrapers and human bones on the streets, over which fish swam. It was sheer fantasy, or course, since in this world no man had ever seen that area. It was at least 6,000 feet below the surface, cold and dark and covered with slimy mud.

There was no part of the North or South Americas above water which had not been, on Earth 1, at six thousand feet above sea level. In the Northern Hemisphere, only a few small islands in the east (the highest part of the Appalachians on Earth 1) and a chain of islands, some rather large, in the west, existed. These were inhabited by Polynesians, presumably immigrants who had arrived 750 years ago. The South American chains, bigger in area and longer than the North, were populated by colonizers from, presumably, that island known on Earth 1 as Easter Island.