The Days of Peleg (25 page)

What was even more incredulous was how wrong the Academicians were back at the
Citadel
! They taught that there were between four and five thousand stars in the cosmos, and a few, who claimed that the star-field was denser to the south, extrapolated that it must be closer to six. Yet for every star that Peleg could see without the discs, he could see dozens more with them!

They had turned and anchored the
Urbat
at the mouth of the river where they had first collected fresh water in this new land. Captain Phaxâd selected Peleg, Serug, Mentor Thaxad, and Untash to travel up the river and attempt to make contact with the people who had launched the funeral pyre balloon.

Untash was a Chief in ship design and repair, and claimed to have experience in mountain climbing and living off the land. He was extremely muscular, and almost as tall as a Mentor with thick black hair which he wrapped in a large knot on top of his head. Supposedly he had spent several years hiking and climbing the Himalayan Mountains which towered above the Sutlej settlement. Peleg had spent his entire adult life in the city and would definitely need his expertise.

After several days of preparation, they had left the morning before the full moon. They each carried a small waist-pack which contained some dried food, rope, and navigation essentials. The pack itself was really a loose-knit webbing made of braided flax, and could be unfolded for use as a hammock.

Phaxâd had given them two months for their mission. Peleg still hoped to find Kupé’s city of Tiwanaku, although he couldn’t imagine an inland seaport high in the mountains. The raging, jagged river they were about to follow certainly was unusable for navigation and shipping.

Since leaving the island of Irawaru and his men, Peleg had begun to teach Serug and Thaxad their language. Now, with the onset of this new expedition, their training had greatly intensified. Peleg was certain that this tongue would be recognized by anyone they might meet since this was the land from which the islanders claimed to have been banished.

They had now been traveling upriver for almost three weeks and were camped along a ridge hundreds of meters above sea level. Their journey was rocky and difficult with many twists and switchbacks as they slowly determined the best course. The air was thin and cold at night, and Thaxad explained that air pressure was thinner the higher one went since there was less air pressing down upon them. Peleg silently worried about traveling too high and running out of air.

They still had seen no indication of human life, and, in another week or so, they would have to turn back in order to meet their deadline. Captain Phaxâd had been serious when he said he would be forced to continue without them. There was no way to launch search parties in this unknown land, and the Great Discovery must continue.

Peleg turned his discs toward Enki and recorded the positions of the tiny lights that weaved slowly around it. He had marveled when he first saw these shiny dots and thought they, too, were stars, but he soon realized that they traveled with Enki. Soon he would establish a pattern for their movements, and if successful, he would have another source of timekeeping.

Finally, he was unable to force his eyes to stay open, and he returned to his leaf-bed, hoping that tomorrow they would finally discover the people behind the flaming gondola.

He awoke to the sound of a crackling breakfast fire. Serug and Untash had caught some spider monkeys and Untash was teaching him how to prepare them. They had discovered these small monkeys a few days earlier, and they had become a real treat.

Thaxad was staring off into the northeast at an even higher mountain range before them.

“You can see where the trees stop growing,” he said to Peleg as he sensed his approach. “This river comes from up in that valley.” He pointed to a divide between two of the mountains with a large index finger.

After eating, they broke camp and continued along the river. By mid-afternoon, they were near the foothills of the next range, and the river could be seen crashing down the mountainside more like a waterfall than a stream.

They started climbing and eventually reached a ledge where the river had formed a large pool before making its plunge. They circled around the pool to find its source and found themselves entering an ever-darkening jungle.

Mountains towered on either side of them, and they made their way through the undergrowth, with small breaks in the treetops creating shafts of light.

Suddenly Serug stopped and pointed between the trees.

“Look!” he shouted.

The others gathered around him to follow his finger. Through an opening in the tree coverage were two sheer mountain ridges which formed a deep gully. High along the tops of these mountains was a thin black line which seemed to connect the two mountaintops.

They studied in silence for a while, until Thaxad spoke.

“It appears that someone has placed a large rope connecting one mountainside to the other.”

“Either that, or this land has some really big spiders,” said Serug.

Peleg pulled out his discs and studied it.

“No,” he said finally. “It’s not a rope. It’s three ropes and they seem to be connected in some way. It’s a large foot-bridge and it’s a lot further away than it looks.”

Thaxad spoke. “I believe that the chances of finding other humans by following a footpath are much greater than following this river.”

“Yes,” said Serug. “But how are we going to get up there?”

They looked at the nearly vertical climb of the ridge. They had walked and even crawled up some steep landscapes, but nothing like this.

“I can get us up there.”

Untash stared from under his bushy eyebrows with contemplative resolve.

“I have climbed mountains much larger than these. I can easily teach you the techniques. However, we will need a full day, so we should not start until morning. In the meantime, I will need to collect the ropes so that I can plan.”

The other three regarded his confidence with suspicion, but in the end agreed that it was the only course of action.

No one asked aloud how they planned to come back down.

They broke camp the next morning and made their way to the ravine. One of the rocky walls was to the north, and the other to the south.

Untash was studying the southern ridge and finally announced, “We will climb this side.” He apparently had not found the time to put his hair up, and it flowed in thick waves over his massive shoulders, reaching halfway down his back.

“But we’re trying to go north,” said Serug. “That’s the way the river appears to travel.”

“The northern face is much too smooth and has no resting areas,” Untash responded. “I could make it, of course, but we only have so much rope.”

“Besides,” added Thaxad. “Assuming that footbridge is secure, it really doesn’t matter which side we climb.”

Untash produced two lengths of rope of about fifty meters each. During the night he had managed to splice them together from their supplies.

Peleg looked up at the tiny bridge and, even though they were directly below it, it was so far above them that he could just barely make out the three separate lines.

How had they managed to get the first rope across?

Untash tied one of their ropes around his waist, allowing the excess to drop.

“Wait here,” he instructed. “I’ll be right back to show you what to do.”

With that he attached himself to the mountainside and began crawling up the rocky face. The rope trailed below him as the men watched in awe. Somehow Untash was finding every little bump and crack and pulling himself up the side with his fingers, toes, knees, and it appeared, even his chin.

A cold chill went through Peleg as he pictured himself trying to do the same. Again he had remembered too late about his fear of heights.

They watched his progress, and it soon became apparent that Untash was heading towards a narrow outcropping where a small tree could be seen curving away from the cliff edge. When he arrived, he stepped onto the ledge and untied the rope from his waist. He fastened it securely around the base of the tree, and then wrapped a section of the rope over one shoulder, around his waist, down around his buttocks, and between his legs.

Then he jumped off the ledge.

The three men below gasped as Untash bounced with his feet against the mountainside in a speedy descent. Apparently, he was controlling the rope as it passed around his body.

“That’s step one,” Untash announced when he had landed. He wasn’t even breathing hard. “Let me show you how to wrap the rope around you. Chief Peleg, do you wish to go first?”

“I’ll go,” offered Serug as Peleg breathed a sigh of relief.

“Fine.” He handed the rest of the rope to Serug who gave it a tug. It
seemed
to be fastened securely to the tree above.

“Wrap the rope around yourself like this,” Untash instructed. “This way you can control your ascent, and if you need to rest, you have a ready-made seat. Use your weight to press your feet into theside. Just take your time—we have all day.”

He turned to Peleg and Thaxad.

“After Serug has arrived at the resting spot, you two will follow him in the same manner. You will always go in this order: Serug, Peleg, Thaxad. Mentor Thaxad, your job is to pull the rope up each time and tie it to Peleg’s waist so he can bring it to me.

“Everyone understand how this works?” He reached for the second coil of rope on the ground. “Good. I’ll meet you up there.”

With that he placed the coil of rope over a shoulder and began scaling the rock face, following the path of his first rope.

As Serug began his slow climb, Untash quickly passed the first arrival point and continued on to another outcropping. There he tied the end of the rope to a large root that was protruding from the cliff-face. Peleg assumed he had tested the strength of this root in some manner.

Soon Serug arrived at his first landing and it was Peleg’s turn. He wrapped the rope as Untash had instructed, and adjusted his waist-pack. Slowly he made his way up the face. He didn’t have a word for it, but he had enough experience with
Zini
to know that looking down would make him very dizzy. Perhaps if other men came forward and admitted this nauseous, spinning feeling, there would be a word for it someday.

Finally he arrived at the spot where Serug was standing.
How could Untash have called this a landing zone?
There was barely room for two—and no room for Thaxad.

“Come on, Serug!” shouted Untash from above. The second rope was hanging down past Serug, and he wrapped himself and began his second ascent.

Eventually Thaxad arrived and began to pull the rope up. He coiled it carefully and started to place it over Peleg’s shoulder. When they realized it would interfere with his pack—and his own climb, he tied the end to Peleg’s feet.

“Just get this to Untash,” he said. He looked into Peleg’s eyes and almost smiled. “Are you going to be all right, Chief Peleg?” he asked.

“I suppose,” Peleg nodded. “This is going to be a lot higher than
Zini
ever went.”

“That’s because you always keep her tied down.”

Peleg arrived at the next landing where Untash and Serug were waiting for the rope. Again, there was only room for two, and when Untash realized that it was attached to Peleg’s ankle, he climbed around, somehow untied it and attached it to his own waist, and started out for the third landing.

They repeated this cycle several times until late in the morning they realized they were over half of the way to the top.

At this point, Serug shouted up to Untash. “We need to stop and get something to eat!”

Untash grinned and called back. “I know just the place!”

With that, he scampered toward his next landing spot, but this time it was some distance diagonally over to the left. He had spotted a larger opening which could easily accommodate all four of them. When he arrived, he climbed inside and quickly tied the rope to a large rock outcropping inside the cave.

“I can’t reach the rope!” Serug called from below. The dangling rope was hanging down past Serug, but it was several meters away from the small ledge where he was resting since it hung down directly below the cave opening above.

Untash peered over the edge.

“Sorry about that,” he said. “I’ll be right there.”

He wrapped the rope around himself and began his foot-bounce down the side. When he reached the end of the rope, he fastened himself to the mountainside and placed the end of the rope in his teeth. He crawled sideways in a spider-fashion over to Serug who took the rope from his mouth.

“Tie this end down to the same tree. There’s plenty of extra rope here, so just wrap it around yourself like normal. You just have to use your feet and climb diagonally.”

Untash looked over at Peleg who was standing with his eyes closed and spoke to him from his perch on the side.

“Peleg, you might want to remind Thaxad to untie this rope before he makes his next ascent. He’s going to have to wrap up securely and swing over before he starts climbing.”

Peleg nodded, glad that he was not the last man.

Untash scrambled up to the cave while Serug began his diagonal climb. When Thaxad arrived with the rope, Peleg relayed Untash’s instructions. This time, as he climbed, he felt a small sense of accomplishment as he found himself using his feet better—and somehow pulling himself diagonally actually made him feel more secure.

He arrived at the cave and Serug pulled him in. Sometime later, Thaxad arrived, and Untash began reeling in the second rope.

“I have never been a pendulum before,” was Thaxad’s only comment.

Somehow Untash had managed to strip to his waist, and he and Serug were already preparing food. Peleg began the long process of getting his nerves under control. For some reason, his body knew that it was now safe to shiver in fear, whereas before it might have meant a long plunge to his death.

“The worst is over,” said Untash, being careful not to speak directly to Peleg. “The rest of the climb is not as steep—it should be easier walking.”