A World Out of Time

Gording laughed at him. "What an odd bit of luck, that I should be alive at this time!"

"And I!" Skatholtz cried.

Corbell flushed. "Could the tale have meant something else?"

"Of course. No detail is given," Skatholtz said.

"Okay. The Girls knew they'd had it. They were looking for revenge... but why in the sky? They must have lost control of the sky already. Otherwise they would have put the Earth back where it belonged, further from Jupiter, where it wouldn't get too much heat. So they couldn't have thrown a moon at Earth, long path or short path."

"The moon is coming anyway," said Krayhayft.

But Skatholtz said, "Let him speak."

"Did I tell you what Mirelly-Lyra told me? She-" he tripped on the Boyish phrases, then, "she left zero-time with a thousand prisoners. Some of them lived to reach this place. She says the Boys took them, but she escaped."

"You've lost the thread of thought," Krayhayft reproved him.

"No, it fits in. Look, if the Girls were that close to ruined, there wasn't much they could do. But if the Boys were keeping all the dikta in the same place, the Girls could wipe them out."

And as he said it he knew he was right. They all saw it... and their minds were better than his. Without the dikta there would be no more Boys. Only a dwindling population of immortals dying one by one, by accident and boredom and act of God.

"Your Mirelly-Lyra escaped," said Skatholtz, "because there were too few Boys left to hunt her down. The new dikta became pampered pets, they who had been criminals in pre-history." He barked bitter laughter. "But the moon still comes. If it is a random result of the Girls' loss of control, still it could destroy us. Even a near miss-" His Boyish went into high gear... and the others joined in... faster and faster... excluding Corbell. Suddenly the Boys got to their feet and left. They had excluded Gording, too.

For an instant Gording let his fury show... and then he relaxed. And Corbell tested his footing. Butt on smooth rock, feet in front of him against rock that seemed steady... and he dared not look behind him.

"It would not do," Gording said bitterly, "for Boys to discuss such important matters with a dikt."

"What was that about?"

"They must choose, you see. If the moon strikes the world, time ends. But if the moon comes by mischance, it may still pass close by the world. Tides. Earthquakes."

"Oh. Dikta City's right on the ocean. They'll have to move you."

"Move us how? Where? They can't let us go free. We are their treasure, their source, their valued property." Gording was angry already: almost angry enough to strike out at the nearest target.

Now: "Maybe they'll just take some women, the best they can find. Mate them with the boy-children. There's no scarcity of Boys. They can wait till the stock builds up again. After all, they have to be fairly careful with their breeding, considering that their original stock was a bunch of rejects from-"

Unexpectedly soon, unexpectedly fast, Gording leapt for his throat. Corbell pushed hard against the rock, kicked himself out from under Gording's leap. He reached over his head.

Startled from sleep, the cat-tail tried to leap away. Corbell's hand closed on its tail.

Gording hit ground and came at him again, face calm, hands outstretched for murder. He wasn't quick enough. Corbell swung the cat-tail into his face. The beast's teeth closed in Gording's neck. In that moment of distraction Corbell swung a haymaker at his jaw.

Gording jerked aside. The cat-tail was a tight fur collar, its teeth were still in his neck, but he hadn't been as distracted as Corbell had thought. Hopelessly off balance himself, Corbell watched the old man set himself and lash out.

The hard fist sank into his solar plexus. Corbell doubled over. Lightning exploded at the nape of his neck.

His belly hurt... his neck hurt... he was curled on his side in crushed strawberries. He tried to uncurl.

They were standing around him, a lot of Boys looking down. Skatholtz was shaking his head and smiling. "Magnificent, Corbell!"

"Then," said Corbell, "why am I lying on the ground hurting? Never mind." He uncurled a little more. Gording stood relaxed, his hand covering the flesh torn by cat-tail teeth. He showed no inclination to resume hostilities.

Corbell said, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. Maybe it's jealousy. You're all like . you're all smarter than I am, and it shows."

There was blood beneath the hand Gording held to his neck. He breathed heavily. He said, "I understand. You were careless with an unfamiliar language. I should not have taken offense. It will be best if I rejoin the dikta for tonight." He turned away and took two stumbling steps before hands closed on his arms.

Krayhayft was smiling. His hands made a wiping motion. "That won't serve. You can't go back to them, Gording. What would they think when your hair changed color?"

Cording laughed. "It was worth trying."

Corbell said, "Shit!"

"No, no, Corbell, you did a fine job of acting. It was the set of your muscles that betrayed you everywhere. I couldn't know why you wanted me to attack you, and I had to find out."

"I'm sorry. I couldn't think of any other way. I still don't know..."

Krayhayft said, "We'll know soon enough. The logic holds. A cat-tail bit you some days before we found you. We saw the mark. Our tradition is that the dikta may not enjoy the company of cat-tails. We know that long ago it was possible to change the nature of a living thing, and we know that it was done to cat-tails. Why should they not make dikta immortality as Boys make spit? But we'll watch you as we go, Gording, to see if you grow young.

"And as we go, Corbell, we will think of some useful punishment for your deception. Already I have an idea.

"And we go now."

IV

By dead of night the tribe moved along the shore. They carried neither food nor water. Jupiter showed a bright gibbous disk above the dark sea. The mystery planet showed too, near Jupiter. Corbell picked out other moons, and a moon shadow on Jupiter's banded face.

One of the children had gone to sleep and was being carried. The others asked a thousand questions of laughing Boys. Corbell listened to the answers. Details of the march ahead... other bands of Boys wondrous machines... the gathering in Sarash-Zillish, nothing he hadn't heard or guessed.

He waited his chance to talk to Gording alone. It never came. Gording marched at the head of the line, under escort. When Corbell tried to catch up he was barred with spear butts.

By morning they were thirsty.

By noon they were very thirsty, and loud were the complaints of the boy-children. Gording was showing the strain of unaccustomed hiking, but he showed it silently, in the slight weave to his walk and the occasional stumble.

In the afternoon they reached a river. The splashing was loud as Boys and boys drank and then swam. Here they camped. Corbell and others caught fish with makeshift hooks and lines of thread that might have come from Dikta City. Corbell was not allowed to clean his fish; he was not allowed a knife.

And this was the thread that would make wonderful strangler's cord, if it didn't cut the strangler's fingers. As he considered his fishline he caught Krayhayft gri

The river had cut a deep gorge into the former sea bottom, leaving high, sheer cliffs of layered sandstone. All day they followed the twisting, beautifully colored walls. At sunset, where the cliffs constricted and took a sharp turn, they came on a hidden village. The village occupied both sides of the river, joined by a wide bridge. Beyond the village the desolation continued to the horizon.