Hunt the Space-Witch! (3 page)

Harkins frowned. “This Tunnel City—where is it? Who lives there?”

Jorn swung slowly around. “Either you're a simpleton or you really
are
a stranger here. The Tunnel City is one of the Old Places. Our enemies live there, in the ruins. They make war on us—and the Star Giants watch. It amuses them.”

“These Tunnel City men—they're men, like us? I mean, not giants?”

“They're like us, all right. That's why they fight us. The different ones don't bother.”

“Different?”

“You'll find out. Stop asking questions, will you? There's food to be gathered.” Jorn turned to a corn-haired young villager nearby. “Show Harkins where he's going to stay—and then put him to work in the grain field.”

A confused swirl of thoughts cascaded through Harkins' mind as the young man led him away. Slowly, the jigsaw was fitting together.

The villagers spoke a sort of English, which spiked Harkins' theory that he had somehow been cast backward in time. The alternative, hard as it was to accept, was plain: he was in the future, in a strangely altered world.

The Star Giants—who were they? Jorn had said they watched while the contending villages fought. It amused them, he said. That argued that the giants were the dominant forces in this world. Were they humans? Invaders from elsewhere? Those questions would have to wait for answers. Jorn either didn't know them; or didn't want Harkins to know.

The robot in the forest—unexplained. The Star Giant had shown it a healthy respect, though.

The tribe here—Jorn was in command, and everyone appeared to respect his authority. A fairly conventional primitive arrangement, Harkins thought. It implied an almost total breakdown of civilization some time in the past. The pieces were fitting together, though there were gaps.

The Tunnel City, home of the hated enemy. “One of the Old Places,” Jorn had said. The enemies lived in the ruins. That was clear enough. But what of these “different ones”?

He shook his head. It was a strange and confusing world, and possibly the fewer questions he asked the safer he would be.

“Here's our place,” the villager said. He pointed to a long hut, low and broad. “The single men stay here. Take any bed that has no clothing on it.”

“Thanks,” said Harkins. He stooped to enter. The interior of the hut was crude and bare, with straw pallets scattered at random here and there inside. He selected one that looked fairly clean and dropped his jacket on it. “This is mine,” he said.

The other nodded. “Now to the grain fields.” He pointed to a clearing behind the village.

Harkins spent the rest of that afternoon working in the fields, deliberately using as much energy as he could and trying not to think. By the time night approached, he was thoroughly exhausted. The men returned to the village, where the women served a plain but nourishing community supper.

The simple life, Harkins thought. Farming and gathering food and occasional intertribal conflicts. It was hardly a lofty position these remote descendants of his had reached, he observed wryly. And something was wrong with the picture. The breakdown must have occurred fairly recently, for them to be still sunk this low in cultural pattern—but the thickness of the forestation implied many centuries had gone by since this area had been heavily populated. There was a hole in his logical construct here, Harkins realized, and he was unable to find it.

Night came. The moon was full, and he stared at its pockmarked face longingly, feeling a strong homesickness for the crowded, busy world he had been taken from. He looked at the tribesmen sprawled on the ground, their bellies full, their bodies tired. Someone was singing a tuneless, unmelodic song. Loud snoring came from behind him. Jorn stood tensely outlined against the brightness of the moon, staring out toward the forest as if expecting a momentary invasion. From far away came the thumping sound of a robot crashing its way through the trees, or possibly a Star Giant bound on some unknown errand.

Suddenly Jorn turned. “Time for sleep,” he snapped, “into your huts.”

He moved around, kicking the dozers, shoving the women away from the fire.
He's the boss, all right
, Harkins thought. He studied Jorn's whipcord muscles appreciatively, and decided he'd do his best to avoid crossing the big man, for the duration of his stay in the village.

Later, Harkins lay on his rough bed, trying to sleep. It was impossible. The bright moonlight streamed in the open door of the hut, and in any event he was too tense for sleep to come. He craned his neck, looking around. The six men with whom he shared the hut were sound asleep, reaping the reward of their hard day's toil. They had security, he thought—the security of ignorance. He, Harkins, had too much of the civilized man's perceptivity. The night-noises from outside disturbed him, the muffled booms from the forest woke strange and deeply buried terrors in him. This was no world for nervous men.

He closed his eyes and lay back again. The image of the Star Giant floated before him, first the Star Giant-as-tree, then the complete entity, finally just the oddly benign, melancholy face. He pictured the Star Giants gathered together, wherever they lived, moving with massive grace and bowing elegantly to each other in a fantastic minuet. He wondered if the one who had found him today had been aware he carried an intelligent being, or if he had been thought of as some two-legged forest creature too small to regard seriously.

The image of the robot haunted him then—the domeheaded, indomitable creature pursuing some incomprehensible design, driving relentlessly through the forest toward a hidden goal. Weaving in and out of his thoughts was the screaming of the toothed birds, and the booming thunder of the forest.
A world I never made
, he thought tiredly, and tried to force sleep to take him.

Suddenly, something brushed his arm lightly. He sat up in an instant and narrowed his eyes to see.

“Don't make any noise,” a soft voice said.

Katha
.

She was crouched over his pallet, looking intently down at him. He wondered how long she had been there. Her free-flowing hair streamed down over her shoulders, and her nostrils flickered expectantly as Harkins moved toward her.

“What are you doing here?”

“Come outside,” she whispered. “We don't want to wake
them.
”

Harkins allowed her to lead him outside. Moonlight illuminated the scene clearly. The sleeping village was utterly quiet, and the eerie jungle sounds could be heard with ease.

“Jorn is with Nella tonight,” Katha said bitterly. “I am usually Jorn's woman—but tonight he ignored me.”

Harkins frowned. Tired as he was, he could see what the situation was immediately, and he didn't like it at all. Katha was going to use him as a way of expressing her jealousy to Jorn.

She moved closer to him and pressed her warm body against his. Involuntarily, he accepted the embrace—and then stepped back. Regardless of Katha's motives, Jorn would probably kill him on the spot if he woke and found him with her. The girl was a magnificent animal, he thought regretfully, and perhaps some other time, some other place—

But not here, not now. Harkins was dependent on Jorn's mercies, and it was important to remain in his good graces. Gently, he pushed Katha back.

“No,” he said. “You belong to Jorn.”

Her nostrils flared. “I belong to no one!” she whispered harshly. She came toward him again. There was the sound of someone stirring in a nearby hut.

“Go back to sleep,” Harkins said anxiously. “If Jorn finds us, he'll kill us both.”

“Jorn is busy with that child Nella—but he would not kill me anyway. Are you afraid of Jorn, stranger?”

“No,” Harkins lied. “I—”

“You talk like a coward!” Again, she seized him, and this time he shoved her away roughly. She spat angrily at him and slapped him in fury. Then she cupped her hand and cried,
“Help!
”

At her outcry, Harkins dodged past her and attempted to re-enter his hut, but he was much too late. The whole village seemed to be awake in an instant, and before he was fully aware of what had happened he felt a firm pressure on the back of his neck.

“The rest of you go back to bed.” It was Jorn's voice, loud and commanding, and in a moment the square was empty again—except for Katha, Harkins, and Jorn. The big man held Harkins by the neck with one hand and a squirming, struggling Katha with the other.

“He attacked me!” Katha accused.

“It's a lie!”

“Quiet, both of you!” Jorn's voice snapped like a whip. He let go of Katha and threw her to the ground, where she remained, kneeling subserviently. His grip on Harkins tightened.

“What happened?” Jorn demanded. “Let her tell it,” Harkins replied.

“Her word is meaningless. I want the truth.”

“He came to my hut and attacked me,” Katha said. “It was because he knew you were busy with Nella—”

Jorn silenced her with a kick. “She came to you, did she not?”

Harkins nodded. “Yes.”

“I thought so. I expected it. This has happened before.” He released Harkins, and gestured for Katha to take her feet. “You will have to leave here,” Jorn said. “Katha is mine.”

“But—”

“It is not your fault,” Jorn said. “But you must leave here. She will not rest until she has you. Go now—and if you return, I will have to Mil you.”

Harkins felt numb at Jorn's words. The last thing he would have wanted to happen was to be thrust out of the one haven he had found so far in this strange and unfriendly world. He looked at Katha, who was glaring at him in bitter hatred, her breasts rising and falling rapidly in rage. He began to feel rage himself at the unfairness of the situation.

He watched as Jorn turned to Katha. “Your punishment will come later. You will pay for this, Katha.”

She bowed her head, then looked up. With astonishment, Harkins saw that she was looking at Jorn with unmistakable love reflected in her eyes.

Jorn gestured toward the forest. “Go.”

“Right now?”

“Now,” Jorn said. “You must be gone by morning. I should not have allowed you to stay at all.”

Chapter Three

Whatever personal deity was looking out for him was doing a notably bad job, Harkins thought, as he stood at the edge of the forest. It was sadistic to bring him into contact with a civilization, of sorts, and then almost immediately thrust him back into the uncertainty of the forest.

It was near dawn. He had spent most of the night circling the borders of the clearing, postponing the moment when he would have to enter the forest again. He withdrew to the edge of the clearing and waited there. For a while, there had been the sound of repeated snapping, as of a whip descending, coming from Jorn's hut. Then, there had been silence. Harkins wondered whether Katha's punishment had not, perhaps, been followed by a reward.

Jorn had been right to cast him out, Harkins admitted. In a tribal set-up of that sort, the leader's dominance had to be maintained—and any possible competitor, even such an unwilling one as Harkins, had to be expelled. Now that Harkins considered the matter, he realized that Jorn had been surprisingly lenient not to kill him on the spot.

Only—facing this strange, wild world alone would be no joyride.

As the first faint rays of dawn began to break on the horizon, Harkins entered the forest. Almost immediately, the air changed, grew cooler and damper. The thick curtain of vegetation that roofed in the forest kept the sunlight out. Harkins moved warily, following the trampled path the Star Giant had left.

Somewhere not too far from here would be the Tunnel City. It would have to be reasonably close: in a non-mechanized society such as this, it would be impossible to carry out warfare over any great distance. And the Tunnel City, whatever it was, was inhabited. He hoped he would he able to locate it before he encountered any trouble in the forest. As an outcast from Jorn's group, he could probably gain refuge there.

Suddenly there was the sound of crashing timber up ahead. He flattened himself against a lichen-covered rock and peered into the distance.

Above the trees, the red-brown head of a Star Giant on his way through the forest was visible. Harkins considered momentarily going toward the giant, but then changed his mind and struck off along a back path. The Star Giants had let him live once, but there was no predicting their actions. There was little choice in the matter anyway; the Star Giant was rapidly moving on, covering forty feet at a stride.

Harkins watched the huge being until it was out of sight, and then continued to walk. Perhaps, he thought, the path might lead to the Tunnel City. Perhaps not. At this point, he had very little to lose no matter which direction he took.

But he was wrong. The other path might have been safe; this one was barred by a howling nightmare.

It was facing him squarely, its six legs braced between two thin trees. The creature had a pair of snapping mouths—one on each flattened, sharp-snouted head. Razor-like teeth glistened in the dim light. Harkins froze, unable either to turn and run or to dash forward on the offensive. The creature's howling rose to a frantic pitch that served as wild counterpoint for the dull booming of the forest.

The thing began to advance. Harkins felt sweat trickle down his body. The animal, white-furred, was the size of a large wolf, and looked hungry. Harkins retreated, feeling his way cautiously at each step, while the animal gathered itself to leap.

Without conscious forethought Harkins extended a hand toward a dead tree behind him and yanked down on a limb. It broke off, showering him with flaky bark. As the monster sprang, he brought the crude club around in baseball-bat fashion.

It crashed into the gaping mouth of the animal's nearest head, and teeth splintered against dry wood. Quickly Harkins ran forward—and jammed the tree-limb between the jaws of the other head, immobilizing them. The animal clawed at Harkins, but its upper arms were too short.