The Days of Peleg (36 page)

Thaxad was with Serug in the chair they had first seen. Peleg could see their envelope in the distance, and closed his eyes, wishing that the day were already over.

He had never been more terrified. He would almost have preferred to drown in the pyramid’s water clock. Heights were one thing. Floating suspended in a gondola attached to a ship or the ground was another. But removing all ties to the earth and allowing the winds to carry you as far (and as high) as they wished was beyond all comprehension.

And of course the young
Wari
were useless when it came to comforting him. They felt Thaxad was equally crazy—except they believed that the chairs would continue skyward forever—and none of them was that eager to meet the
Atua
.

They had built fires to heat and inflate the envelopes until they were almost full. Then they carried them over to the chairs where they fastened them with hemp lines. After that, they just stood back and watched what was sure to be a debacle.

Peleg grit his teeth and braced for the inevitable lift. The large black envelope tugged on the poor reed bench which began to sag under the weight of the two men until Peleg finally felt his feet slowly leave the earth. He closed his eyes fiercely and gripped the edges as the chair tipped back and forth, threatening to deposit them both onto the receding ground.

Ahead he could hear Serug and Thaxad cheer as they excitedly lifted for the skies.
We are committed
, he thought despondently. A huge invisible fist gripped his stomach as he sensed their ascent. He resolutely kept his eyes closed. With no line to hold them down and no gondola to stand in, vision would only serve to panic him further.

“I can see the monkey!” Untash exclaimed on his right. “We must be over thirty meters above the ground!”

He twisted in their seat to look over his right shoulder causing the chair to shudder—and increasing Peleg’s terror.

“And I can see a large bird and Kreivan’s spider!” He turned back to address Peleg. “There are a few other designs down there, and I think I saw one of Traima’s spirals.” He glared into Peleg’s closed eyes.

“You can’t see anything
that
way!”

Curiosity mounted and eventually Peleg risked a peek. Instantly he was horrified to find himself much higher than
Zini
had ever been. He glanced down to his left and saw some simple geometric drawings—two simple triangles and a few bisecting lines. Apparently all of the fancy artwork was on Untash’s side.

Vertigo suddenly clawed at his stomach and he pitched forward in his seat, threatening to tumble to the ground far below. His heart raced feverishly as Untash grabbed the back of his neck with his huge hand and hauled him upright.

“On second thought, perhaps you
should
keep your eyes closed,” he advised.

Peleg’s eyes were already clamped shut and he nodded in submission. He gripped the side of the seat with sweaty palms and forced his head to face forward. His heart began to subside as they floated in silence.

Silence
.

Panic hit Peleg once again.
They weren’t moving
. He had spent enough time on
Zini
to know that he should be able to hear or feel some kind of breeze.

“Why aren’t we moving?” he asked his partner. “It feels like we’re just hanging here.”

“Oh, but we are,” answered Untash. “And moving very rapidly, too. We’ve arrived at the current that Thaxad mentioned, and are floating swiftly towards the southeast.”

“But I don’t feel any…” Peleg stopped as he realized his mistake. Since there was no line to hold them back, they were moving with the exact speed of the surrounding wind—hence there was no sense of passage through the air.
Zini
had always been tethered, and therefore was never allowed to travel freely with the air currents, creating a wind which blew past his ears.

“This is actually very exhilarating,” said Untash. “You can probably open your eyes, now. We’re far enough up, you can just pretend you’re looking at a picture below, and since there is no sense of motion, you might not get sick.”

“I’m
not
going to get sick,” grumbled Peleg.

He mustered his courage and forced his eyes open. Looking straight ahead he saw a large black dot with Serug and Thaxad suspended from it. He could see them talking animatedly, and Thaxad was pointing at something off to the East.

Serug looked back and waved.

Show off
, thought Peleg

The sun had burned away the clouds that Thaxad had seen earlier, and the sense of motionlessness was overwhelming. It seemed as though the two balloons were hanging in the sky, fixed against the unending blue.

A flock of finches caught his attention as they flew between them. They appeared undisturbed by the intrusion into their domain as they headed out to sea. Apparently there was some land to the west which they knew about. Perhaps even Kupé’s island.

He worked up the nerve to look downward and was startled by what he saw.

They were traveling quickly over large mountain ranges covered with thick trees and foliage. Rushing waterfalls could be seen in the distance dividing them, and Peleg was sure he saw at least one rope bridge.

He could see the ground moving slowly beneath them as they flew south, and he realized that they must be traveling very quickly indeed if, at this height, parallax still allowed the movement to be visually discernible.

Eventually he started to relax and enjoy the unfolding scenery. Ridges rolled under them and he began to savor the midday warmth under the shade of the large black canopy.

They continued traveling toward the south throughout the day, only interrupted by the shifting of their sore bottoms from the twisted reed webbing, and the one embarrassing moment when Peleg was forced to relieve himself over the side while remaining seated. Throughout the entire awkward procedure, Untash kept repeating, “I
told
you to go before we left.”

Peleg had noticed the heights of the mountains starting to decrease. At first it seemed like he and Untash were rising, but soon it was apparent they were flying over ranges of lower elevation.

As the hours passed, the direct sunlight continued to heat the air inside of their black cotton envelope, and the two passengers could feel the sweltering draft from the small opening above their heads. However, by late afternoon, their envelope was no longer surrounded by sunlight, and the internal air began to cool. Soon they were dropping gradually and Peleg’s stomach began to seize up again.

Untash read his alarm and grinned.

“You know, we have to land sometime.”

It was difficult to find sacrilegious curses when one was raised in a secular culture, but Peleg managed to unleash a few.

Despite his trepidation, Peleg was unable to tear his eyes away as the rough surface continued to move closer. They were not falling fast, but it appeared certain that they would definitely strike the ground within the hour.

Some time later, it appeared that Serug and Thaxad were flying directly for the foliage along the horizon, and with a start he watched their balloon shudder and suddenly drop down and disappear behind the trees in front of them.

Following helplessly, the choppy current began to drag them down. Just as they approached the place where the other chair had vanished, a strong downdraft caught them, and they were suddenly pulled past a large cliff which quickly receded behind them.

When Peleg reopened his eyes he could see a new mountain range beneath them—much lower than those they had just traversed. The trees which Serug and Thaxad had apparently fallen into were on the lip of a large cliff which was now behind them, and now a new terrain was revealed that, thankfully, was again several hundred meters beneath them.

The evening breeze from the east began to push them in the direction of the coast—and hopefully that of the
Urbat
. Peleg thought he could see some of the landmarks from their first two weeks of hiking, but nothing was certain from this perspective.

Peleg noticed wrinkles in the balloon in front of them, and was certain he could feel that the air from their own envelope was much cooler than earlier. Shadows were starting to lengthen, and soon the sun was practically shining into their faces. They had been hurtling through the air at the mercy of the winds for almost eight hours and now the breeze from the East was becoming stronger. It jerked the small benches and their riders as it propelled them towards the coast.

Their descent was more pronounced, now, and the ground was becoming uncomfortably close again. Somehow they
had
to stay aloft until they reached the sea. They were heading towards another ridge, and Peleg could only hope that there was another drop beyond this one.

As the sun sank towards the sea in the west, Serug and Thaxad headed directly towards the horizon, but Peleg could see they would not clear it. They flew towards the jagged boulders which rose up in front of them and Peleg waited for Serug and Thaxad to crash. At the last moment, a small cleft in the outcroppings appeared, and Serug and Thaxad slipped through to the empty air beyond, where Peleg could no longer see them.

Peleg hoped desperately that they would find the same small passage, but he could tell that they were too far to the right. They would not be so lucky.

The stiff breeze accelerated their flight, and Peleg and Untash braced for the impact. It seemed to Peleg that Untash was getting ready to jump, but just before they arrived at the craggy bluffs, they realized that their elevation was slightly higher than their predecessors. Although they were going to miss the opening, they would (barely) clear the rocky ridge.

Suddenly there were loud shouts and screams in front of them, and Peleg strained to see past the rise.

His eyes were abruptly blasted with the gleaming blue of a large ocean stretching before them, and he realized the shouts were those of excitement. He joined in with shouts of his own as his feet almost grazed the jagged summit before they found themselves flying suspended almost one hundred meters above an extremely narrow strip of beach—and the endless expanse of water which would soon be met by the setting sun in front of them.

The cool evening air continued to blow them out to sea, and Peleg could feel their rapid descent. Although there was still no horizontal breeze to be felt, he could now sense the air move past them vertically as they headed for the ocean below. It was only a matter of minutes before they crashed into the sea, but, after hours of hurtling over the rocky ground below, he actually welcomed a water landing.

The four men strained their eyes to find some glimpse of the
Urbat
to the south. There was absolutely no sign of the ship, and they had no way of knowing how much further they had to go. Also, it could easily be hidden behind the next inlet or rock outcropping. Once they ‘landed’, they would have to somehow make it back to shore and pursue their vessel on foot.

Suddenly Serug shouted something and pointed to the north. Far up the coastline was a small white object that could only be a topsail protruding from behind a small ridge. It was the
Urbat
! They had actually traveled
past
their ship! Perhaps someone would see them!

However, only someone up in the riggings could possibly spot them, and, if anyone
were
watching for them, they would most certainly be looking in the other direction.

Soon their descent would hide them completely, and, as they continued to head further out over the water, the swim back to shore would only become more difficult.

Peleg watched as Thaxad suddenly rose up on his feet, pulled himself up by the hemp connector lines, and reached up into the interior of their balloon. He could see Serug’s eyes of bewilderment, and all three wondered what the Mentor was doing.

Suddenly they saw sparks, and the next moment the envelope above Thaxad’s head began to burn. Soon the entire balloon was engulfed in flames and jagged strips of burning cotton began to peel off.

Thaxad’s and Serug’s bench plummeted as the space above their heads turned into a fireball of thick smoke which rose into the evening sky. Thaxad reached down for Serug and they both dove into the water as smoldering ashes descended around them.

Pieces of ignited cloth blew into Peleg’s face as the final two men flew through the resulting acrid cloud. Soon small fires had started on their balloon, which quickly erupted into flames. Their bench suddenly began to plummet, and Peleg and Untash hurled themselves into the sea.

Soon the four men were treading water while avoiding the incendiary particles which slowly rained down upon them. The reed benches could be seen floating nearby, covered with soot.

“Why did you do that?” asked an incredulous Peleg, after catching his breath.

“There was no reason to continue further out to sea,” answered the unflappable Mentor. He brushed back a dirty mop of wet hair and almost smiled.

“Besides, I’m hoping we attracted someone’s attention.”