The Gates of Creation

He was silent for a while, thinking that skates would enable them to make much better progress. The problem was getting them down.

They passed another long-necked, hyena-bodied, deer-antlered beast. This one did not offer to bother them. It bit into a rock of the vitreous substance, ripped out a chunk, and chewed upon it. It kept its eye upon them, groaning with delight at the taste of the rock, its stomach rumbling like defective plumbing in an old house.

They went on and soon came within three hundred yards of a herd of the creatures, all grazing upon the rocks. There were young among them, awkwardly chasing each other in play or nursing from the mothers. Some of the bulls bray-wailed at the intruders, and one kept pace with them for a while. They passed antelope-like animals, marked with red diamond-shapes on white and with two horns that intertwined. Bone skates grew at the end of their legs.

Wolff began to look for a place to sleep. He led them into a semi-amphitheater, a level between four hills. "I'll stand first watch," he said. He designated Enion as next and Luvah after him. Enion protested, asking by what authority Wolff could pick him.

"You can refuse to take your share of responsibility, if you wish," Wolff said. "But if you sleep when your turn comes, you may wake up in the jaws of that."

He pointed past Enion's shoulder, and Enion whirled so swiftly he lost his footing. The others looked in the direction in which Wolff's finger was pointing. On top of one of the hills, a huge maned animal was glaring down at them. Its head was that of a short-snouted croc­odile and its body was catshaped, the feet ending in broad cups.

Wolff put the the beamer on half-power and shot. He flicked the actuation plate briefly and aimed towards the hairs of the mane. The hairs crisped and smoked, and the beast roared, turned, and disap­peared beyond the hill.

Wolff said, "Now, somebody has to be officially given authority. So far, we've avoided, that is, you've avoided, a decision. You've more or less let me run things. Mostly because you're too lazy or too occupied with your own petty problems to face this issue. All right, now's the time to settle this. Without a leader whose orders will be immediately obeyed in emergencies, we're all lost. So what do you say?"

"Beloved brother," Vala said, "I think that you have shown that you're the man to follow. I vote for you. Besides, you have the beamer, and that makes you the most powerful of all. Unless, of course, some of us have hidden weapons we've not displayed as yet."

"You're the only one who has enough clothes to conceal weap­ons," he said. "As for the beamer, whoever is on guard will have it."

They all raised their eyebrows at this. He said, "It's not because I trust your loyalty. It's just that I don't think any of you would be quite stupid enough to try to keep it for yourself or try to take off on your own. When we resume the march, I expect to get the beamer back."

All then voted, except for Palamabron. He said that he did not have to vote, since it was obvious that he would be overruled by the majority, anyway.

"Surely brother, you were not going to nominate yourself," Vala said. "Even you, with all your hideous egotism, could not think of that."

Palamabron ignored her. To Wolff he said, "Why am I not one of the sentinels? Don't you trust me?"

"You can stand first watch tomorrow night," Wolff replied. "Now, let's all get some sleep."

Wolff sat guard while the others slept on their hard beds of white rock. He listened to the distant animal cries: the bray-wails, roars, and some new sounds, a shrill fluting, a plaintive sobbing, a whis­tling. Once, something beat out a gonging, and there was the flutter of wings overhead. He rose to his feet now and then and slowly pivoted around to cover all points of the compass. At the end of a half-hour, he woke up Enion and gave him the beamer. He had no watch to determine the tune, any more than the others did, but, like them, he knew the measured passage of tune. As a child, he had gone through a species of hypnosis which enabled him to clock the sec­onds as accurately as the most precise of chronometers.

For a while, he did not sleep. He was worried about the first watch of the next night, when Palamabron would be entrusted with the beamer. Of all the Lords, he was the most unstable. He hated Vala even more than the others. Could he withstand the temptation to kill her while she slept? Wolff decided he would have a talk with Pala­mabron in the morning. His cousin must understand that if he killed her, he would have to kill them all. This he could do with the beamer, but he would be alone from then on. This was a curious thing. Though the Lords could not stand to be with each other, they could stand the idea of being alone even less. In other circumstances, they would want no one but themselves, of course. In these, they shared a dread of their father and some comfort in having compan­ions in misery and peril.

Just before he went to sleep, he had an idea. He swore. Why had he not thought of it? Why had not the others? It was so obvious. There was no need to creep and slip along on the ground. With boats, they could travel swiftly and much more surely. They would be safe from the predators. He would see what they could do about this in the morning.

He was propelled from sleep at dawn by shouting. He sat up to see Tharmas shooting at a maned beast, one just like the liongator he had scared off by singeing its hair. The beast came down the hill swiftly, plop-plopping as its suction pads pulled free. Behind it lay three dead mates. The survivor came within ten feet and then dropped, its snout cut half off.

Tharmas held the beamer while he stared at the carcass. Wolff shouted at him to turn the power off. The ray was drilling into the side of the hill. Tharmas suddenly realized what he was doing and deactivated the weapon. By then, most of the charge was gone. Groaning, Wolff took the beamer back. Now he was down to his final power pack.

The others went to work swiftly. They took turns with the knives of Theotormon and Vala and stripped the tough hides off the dead beasts. This was slow work, both because of their ineptness and be­cause they kept sliding on the glassy surface. And they could not re­frain from arguing with him, saying that all the hard work was for nothing. Where would he get the framework for the boats he pla

He told them to shut up and keep on working. He knew what he was doing. With Luvah, Vala, and Theotormon, he shuffled off to the nearest bushes. Here it was necessary to use more power to kill an animal that was eating the berries and refused to give up its claim. It was like a Chinese dragon. It hissed and struck threateningly at them before they got within its range. Its skin was as thick and ridged as armor plate and could be penetrated only by a beam at full-power. Even its eyes were protected. When Wolff shot at these, the ray struck transparent coverings. The creature began waving its head wildly so that Wolff could not keep the beam on one spot. Eventu­ally, he cut through the armor back of the head, and it turned over and died, exposing the serrated plates and tiny suction discs on which it made progress.

"If this keeps up, we'll be out of power," he said to the others. "Pray that that time does not come."

Wolff tested the toughness of the bark of the bushes and found it to be strong indeed. Chopping down the bushes and slicing off lengths to make a framework for the rough coracles he had in mind would be long hard work and ruin the sword. It was then, glancing at the caterdragon-as he called it-that he saw a ready-made vessel. Well, not quite finished, but it should need less work to complete than the original boat he had in mind.