Icerigger - Mission To Moulokin Part 20

"A siege would be long Coftundi." The soldier-craftsman smiled, showing pearly fangs. "There mayhap be better hides to cure, sir."

"A pleasant thought." K'ferr returned the panther-grin. "Wait outside, Cortundi." The soldier turned and left.

"My fault, 'tis on me alone." Ethan heard the dis-consolate whimper, turned to see its source-a down-cast Teeliam standing back against the wall. Torch-light turned the fur on her head and shoulders to singed silver.

"I should not have come with you when I helped you to escape," she continued. "I ought fair to have killed myself cleanly then and prevented this. Rakossa is mad."

"He is mad indeed," said K'ferr, "to think he can take Moulokin. He cannot reach the city, nay, cannot breach the first wall. Truly he is driven not by common sense but by insanity." Ethan forebore from mention-ing that some of Terra's greatest generals, ancient and modern, had been thought quite mad.

" Tis me alone he seeks out," Teeliam went on sadly. "He cannot stand the thought I may finally have escaped him. I would kill myself here save that he would be more furious still at being deprived of the pleasures he doubtless has spent these past days plan-ning." Fur rippled nervously as muscles tensed.

"Come what will, in fairness I must go back to him." Her gaze rose, traveled from human eyes to Tran. "If I do this, he may depart."

"I do not understand," said K'ferr slowly, gaining more knowledge from something behind Teeliam's eyes than from her words. "It was said that Rakossa demands also crew and s.h.i.+p of you."

"Yes, he desires them, but will be satisfied with me."

"He may be," Ethan admitted, sounding more heartless than he intended, "but Calonnin RoVijar will not." He tossed a brief explanation over his shoul-der to the staring Mirmib and K'ferr. "RoVijar is Landgrave of distant Arsudun, an ally of Rakossa's in spirit if not material."

"It is not right that an entire city risk war for one person." Teeliam sounded resigned. "I will suffer whatever Rakossa has concocted for me." She made the Tran equivalent of a resigned shrug. "It cannot be worse than what I have endured before."

"We will not," Hunnar said tensely, "turn you over to the madman. Sofold does not sacrifice the innocent for the sake of expediency. Besides, as Ethan says, doing so may not sate Rakossa anyway. Of course," and he turned to face the throne, " 'tis not properly our decision to make."

K'ferr had left the throne and was pacing once again. Almost absently she said, "This business of turn-ing over your companion to Rakossa is a waste of time. We would never consider such a thing, nor permit you to do it even should that be your wish. There are more important matters to discuss." She looked to her minister.

"So the Poyos would challenge us here, at our own door, in our canyon, on our ice. Further proof of this Rakossa's insanity. Arrogance dilutes sense as _vouli_ thins strong drink. If they are in truth foolish enough to attack the gate, we will give them a welcome they will not outlive."

"If you're determined to fight, we'd better ready our own people," Ethan said. "With your permission, and our deepest thanks, my Lady, we'll return to our raft."

"Do we permit them to enter the first gate and trap them between, or stop them at the first with arrows and spears?" The compa.s.sionate Landgrave was deep in discussion of lifeshortening methods with her minister. Mirmib had presence enough to dismiss the visitors.

Ethan rose from his place at the long table in the _Slanderscree's_ galley-c.u.m-conference room. "We can't let them have Teeliam, and it doesn't seem right to let the Moulokinese fight and die over something they've had nothing to do with." Teeliam was not pres-ent to object to the first part of his statement, having been excluded from the meeting over her protests. She was too biased to render objective suggestions, Hunnar had informed her, a bias which even extended to condemning herself to death.

"Me, I'd rather welcome a chance to dally with this Rakossa and his pack." September leaned back in his Transized chair. Not designed for his greater weight, it creaked alarmingly beneath him. He rubbed his pin-nacle of a proboscis.

"I know you would, Skua. Sometimes you act more Tran than human."

September grinned, moving the hand from nose crest to white mane, and scratched. "Lad, when you've seen as much of the galaxy as I, you'll know there's nothin' especially flattering about laying claim to being part of mankind."

"No, friend Skua." September looked with surprise at Elfa. The Landgrave's daughter had seemed any-thing but pacific. Now was an odd time for appeasing att.i.tudes to surface.

Appeas.e.m.e.nt was not what Elfa had in mind, how-ever. "Ethan is correct when he says this is not the Moulokinese fight. We cannot ask them to die for us."

"But didn't you see the way that K'ferr cat was actin'?" September argued. "She's spoilin' for a confron-tation and bloodshed."

"Surely, my lady," said a disbelieving Hunnar, "you cannot be thinking of turning Teeliam over to the monster?"

"Quite so, n.o.ble knight. I cannot be." Elfa's eyes swept over the table. "But suppose Rakossa and Calonnin knew the _Slanderscree_ was not here?"

"Not wis.h.i.+n' to appear condescendin', gal, but you heard what that soldier said back in the throne room." September's nails were mere stubs compared to Tran claws, but he etched a shallow groove in the hardwood table nonetheless. "No s.h.i.+p could make the chiv marks in the ice outside the canyon that the _Slanderscree_ could."

"No known s.h.i.+p," admitted Elfa. "Yet there are many regions of this world that the Poyos, much as ourselves until recently, know nothing of. This would be true also of distant Arsudun. How could they be certain our tracks are not those of another s.h.i.+p, say a great towed barge long since dismantled for its wood by the Moulokinese?"

"Not impossible, my lady," put in Tahoding. "But how could we convince the attackers of this?"

Elfa looked embarra.s.sed. "I had not considered that far. Could we not hide our craft while representatives of the Poyolavomaar fleet inspect Moulokin's harbor?"

"Hide this vessel?" Hunnar executed a high Trannish laugh.

"No, let's think this through, Hunnar." September appeared thoughtful. "The lady, she has a point."

"What if," Ethan said after a moment of introspec-tive silence, "we took the s.h.i.+p apart. Yeah, took it apart and put the sections up on the plateau. The Poyo representatives would never think of looking up there."

"And with good reason." Hunnar tried hard not to sneer. " 'Tis a most marvelous proposal, friend Ethan, save that it would take the whole population of the city in addition to our own crew working several weeks to accomplish such a task, even if the Moulokinese have heavy engines enough to raise the large timbers and masts. We have but four days."

"No, wait a minute, now." September leaned for-ward, speaking with controlled excitement. "What the lad suggests makes sense, but in a different way. We need to get the rigger up on the plateau, and a really fair distance inland in case the Poyos _do_ insist on lookin' there, something this Rakossa is likely to try. Since we can't do it in sections, we need to move her intact."

Murmurs of polite astonishment came from several of the Tran seated around the table.

"Suppose we sail her to the upper end of the main canyon, Captain." His attention was directed at the intent Tahoding. "I'm kind o' curious to meet these Golden Saia folks myself." Ethan threw him a ques-tioning glance. Had Skua, despite his initial disclaim-ers, been as intrigued by the mysterious Saia as Ethan and Milliken Williams?

"Now with all the forces actin' on the land there, it's a fair a.s.sumption that the land of these Saias slopes fairly gently inland."

"Given that it does, friend September, and I intend no disrespect, but-what of this?" Hunnar waited to be convinced of he knew not what.

"I was on a world once," the giant said reminiscently, "similar to this one. Only the oceans were covered with gra.s.s-sort of an anemic pikapina, Hunnar, like they say grows inland here-and there were sailin'

s.h.i.+ps akin to the _Slanderscree_. They sailed easy over those green oceans, on wheels instead of skates."

"What," inquired Hunnar blankly, "is a wheel?"

Ethan sat stunned. The Tran had achieved such a high level of civilization that he'd taken an invention as basic as the wheel for granted. Now that he thought back on it, nowhere in Sofold could he recall seeing a wheeled vehicle; not a cart, not a wagon, nothing. Everything traveled on chiv, or skates. Dry land trans-port was by means of sledges, used as little as possible. And they had no need for wheels, after all, in a land where icepaths were easily constructed and frozen seas surrounded every citystate.

He finally found an example to serve as ill.u.s.tration. "Like the millstones, Hunnar, you use for making meal from dried pikapina and juice from its pulp. Like the," and he had to use the Tran term for steering control to refer to the _Slanderscree's_ own great s.h.i.+p's wheel. "You place them apart like so, with a supporting beam between like those that connect our s.h.i.+p's skates and they carry you smoothly across unfrozen lands."

"This is surely an awkward way of traveling," Hun-nar admitted, brows contorting in confusion, "yet if you say the thing works, it must be so."

"It's a proven method," replied Ethan without smil-ing. At least Hunnar and the other Tran had the idea now.

"We will need," Williams began, already drawing designs and measuring stresses in his head, "additional axles to place beneath the s.h.i.+p. While the five duralloy skates now positioned beneath us are sufficient to sup-port the icerigger's ma.s.s, I have less confidence in stone or wooden wheels, and that is the best the Moulokinese could construct. They have good quality timber. Perhaps they can be metal-reinforced, if the work of these Saia is as fine as they claim."

"Why not just make metal wheels?" wondered one s.h.i.+p's mate.

"a.s.suming these Saia are indeed not G.o.ds, they would do extraordinarily well to manufacture one wheel of such size in only four days," Tahoding pointed out gruffly. Gentle of demeanor when speaking to his superiors or the three humans, the icerigger's captain could be harsh whenever he thought one of his own crew guilty of stupidity.

"With stone or wooden wheels then," the teacher continued, calculating all the while, "we'd need addi-tional axles for additional wheels."

"Plenty of trees big enough," September agreed. "They'll be a lot easier to cut and attach than takin'

the s.h.i.+p apart would be. Of course," and his excite-ment grew tempered by thoughtfulness, "this is all a.s.sumin' the Moulokinese are willing to make 'em for us. I expect they will. I'm sure most of 'em would pre-fer to work a little harder rather than fight. A saw usually sheds less blood than a spear."

"You speak a truth which I suspect extends beyond my own world, friend September." Hunnar re-garded the giant somberly. "There are those who do not share your opinion and mine of fighting." He looked around the table. "There is also the question of obtaining permission from these Saia, whatever they may be, to travel through their lands. Given all this, I will defer a personal desire to shed Poyo blood."

K'ferr ShriVehm also had to be convinced. It took considerable persuasion by minister Mirmib to talk her out of opting for the bloodthirsty path. That accom-plished, orders were issued for an orgy of work to commence.

The industrious Moulokinese took the enormous as-signment as a challenge to their skills. When the first evening fell, lights were brought out to permit the work to continue. The central s.h.i.+pyard reeked of old oil. From a distance, it looked as if the _Slanderscree_ rested in a pool of fire.

Huge trees, cut and stored for use as masts on other rafts, were already available to serve as subsidiary axles. Metal bolts made by the Saia were brought out and used to help pikapina cable secure axle to s.h.i.+p. Four new axles were emplaced between the fore and aft pairs of duralloy runners beneath the motionless icerigger.

Hours pa.s.sed, became days. The metal-sheathed and reinforced wheels were bolted onto the four new axles. Then the runners were removed, first the pair fore and then the two aft. Wheels slightly larger than the eight already attached were placed on the runner shafts. Finally, the fifth runner, used for steering, was replaced by a steering wheel.

As expected, a brief experiment revealed that the resultant hybrid was as maneuverable on ice as a greased two-year-old. There was no way it could make any distance upcanyon against the steady, powerful winds that blew down off the plateau. The wheels would simply spin in place as the icerigger was shoved into the first cliff behind it.

Seven of the largest rafts in the harbor-and the Moulokinese built respectably big ones-were detailed to tow the helpless _Slanderscree_ upcanyon, to the end of the ice. To the land of the Golden Saia.

From there it could begin its slow journey inland.

Mirmib, however, could not give a.s.surance to Ethan and the others of safe pa.s.sage through the ther-mal regions. A representative hastily dispatched to acquire such a.s.surances had returned, typically de-hydrated and exhausted, to report that the Saia chose not to comment on the question. They had not given guarantee of safe conduct, nor had they denied it. Their sole response had been an indifferent silence.

In the absence of denial, it was decided to proceed.

"They have strange powers and commune regularly with the spirits of the interior," a solemn Mirmib in-formed the readying travelers. "You would do well to treat cautiously with them, and to avoid conflict at all costs. In addition, they might offer much more information on the true conditions you can expect inland, though they abhor it more than we do."

It was night as Mirmib addressed them. They were standing on the long dock paralleling the almost-finished, almost converted icerigger. Ethan and Hunnar were alone among a rus.h.i.+ng current of preoc-cupied craftsmen.

Winches were carefully loading the last of the five removed duralloy runners aboard the s.h.i.+p.

Hopefully, they would find another sloping canyon far away. Ethan found himself s.h.i.+vering as the minus sixty tem-perature pressed at his survival suit's adjustive potentials. On locating another such canyon they would once more replace the duralloy runners, remove the wheels, and set off for a new location, perhaps distant Yealleat. As Tahoding had pointed out, the stars were a Tran icemaster's princ.i.p.al guide to navigation, and the stars remained constant over land as well as ice.

They were loading final stores the next morning when a small raft came racing into the harbor, heeling dangerously to port as its crew hiked to maximum for top speed. She disgorged a single officer, who hauled himself up a boarding ladder with impressive speed despite the blood filtering through the fur over his left eye. The four sailors sprawled exhaustedly on the deck of the little raft looked equally battered.

"The Poyos have not waited," the officer explained to the rapidly growing group of listeners cl.u.s.tering around him. "This is the fourth day and they attacked two _hold_ ago, no doubt hoping to catch us offguard and by surprise." The bleeding soldier permitted him-self a vicious smile. "They did not, though they are stronger than we thought." He recognized Hunnar among the a.s.sembled Tran.

"It would be well for all if you were on your way as soon as possible." He took in the seven jostling tow-rafts, the cables stretching taut between them and the icerigger. "I must return to my post. Our warmth is with our new brothers. Go with the wind." He was over the side before anyone had a chance to ask questions.

Tahoding was already heading for the helmdeck. Cranes and lift cables were disengaged in a flurry of commands. _Slanderscree_ mates and harbor pilots of Moulokin took up positions in the bow. Sails began to billow, a blossoming of blue-green and gray, flow-ers of speed.

Word of the Poyolavomaar attack spread rapidly among the icerigger's crew and those of the towing vessels. The Moulokinese hurried their last-minute preparations. They wanted to return as quickly as possible, to help defend their city.

Settled in arrowhead formation around the _Slanderscree's_ bow, the seven tow rafts exchanged signals and orders. Sailors stationed astern of each turned single-minded attention to the braces where the thick cables ran out to the icerigger. Pikapina cables had never been known to snap, but they'd never been employed to pull so ma.s.sive an object as the _Slanderscree_. If one did break, given the tension that would exist be-tween dead weight and tug, the flying cable could decapitate an unwary sailor. Those stationed to watch the cable braces were all volunteers.

Ethan worried more about the effect of the plateau winds on the huge icerigger. Even with her sails furled, if the winds obtained a grip on her, she could be smashed against a downcanyon wall.

Raft by raft, each of the towing craft let out its own sails, adjusting position to catch the gentle breezes sweeping down Moulokin's protected canyon. The ca-bles grew taut, hummed. There was the sound of pot-tery breaking beneath a heavy weight which m.u.f.fled even as it broke. The icerigger ponderously started forward, sliding out of drydock as neatly as any clean birth.

Tahoding was in constant verbal communication with relay mates stationed along the length of the s.h.i.+p. Shouts rang out constantly, darting from towing raft to icerigger to raft as all concerned fought to maintain equal tension on all cables. It seemed an impossible task, but the Moulokinese proved themselves as skilled on the s.h.i.+ps they built as they were in the s.h.i.+pyards. The cables thrummed and sang of uneven pressures, but none snapped-not even during the most danger-ous maneuver, when the seven towing craft turned up the main canyon and the forceful interior winds struck them and their ma.s.sive ward.

Tacking as one, they pulled the great raft steadily inland.

Ethan rushed to the portside, found to his relief that the second wall which barred pa.s.sage downcanyon showed no sign of warlike activity. That meant the Poyos were still being stopped before the first wall. So far, the confidence K'ferr of Moulokin had dis-played earlier seemed justified.

Great walls of dark stone drew close beside them, the roofless hallway of some ancient cataclysm. At times Ethan found himself impatient for more speed, for their progress seemed abysmally slow. It was not a journey that could be hurried, however. Not when seven s.h.i.+ps had to maneuver as one.

On the fifth day, the ever-present walls began to shrink. Small side canyons, some hanging above icelevel, began to break the cliff edges. Some were smooth as they vanished into the plateau, while oth-ers dropped in steps similar to Moulokin's topography. Their own little canyonborn zephyrs contributed to the difficulty of maneuvering.

Soon they were pa.s.sing between cliff walls no more than twenty meters high. The lookouts on the _Slanderscree's_ fore and mainmasts could see over them and study the terrain beyond. They reported seeing only yellowish, windswept, inhospitable near-desert.

On the frigid morn of the eleventh day, when the canyon had ceased to be a canyon but was instead a river of ice bordered by gently sloping banks, they entered an area where clouds of steam and mist blotted out vision for all but a few meters in any di-rection. When they slid close to the banks, those on board the rafts could make out thick, towering trees whose crowns were lost in gray waterdown, boles more ma.s.sive than the largest growing in Moulokin's side canyon.

Before long a cry came from the lead raft in the triangular formation. They had reached the end of the frozen river. Cables were cast off and neatly coiled aboard the _Slanderscree_. Finally the last was disen-gaged and all seven tow rafts had moved carefully downriver from the icerigger.

The wind here was dispersed, indecisive. Quickly, Taholding had sail put on as the huge raft slid slowly but aimlessly on the ice. Orders were given, spars ad-justed. A sound new to the ears of Tran sailors pene-trated the mists: a deep, impressive rumbling. The icerigger was now traveling on land.

It stopped.

Lookouts forward reported that the first two sets of wheels were resting on a gentle beach of gravel and gra.s.s-covered rock. Tahoding considered. Obviously, they had to put on more sail. But he was still leery of sailing on naked soil. Williams, who was standing nearby on the helmdeck, did his best to rea.s.sure him.

The plump captain remained skeptical. "I would rather have good, solid ice beneath my runners than,"

he made it sound obscene, "bare ground. Still, we must gain more wind."

Additional sail was unfurled, positioned. The strongest, steadiest breeze came from the north.

Tahoding ordered the necessary s.h.i.+ft in sail position. Fresh sheets of woven pikapina billowed out to match the captain's belly. An incredible creaking and groan-ing rose from beneath the raft's hull, startling unpre-pared sailors who were used to traveling across silent, smooth ice. The crunching of stone under ma.s.sive wheels was a disturbing new sound to them. It reminded some of a s.h.i.+p's timbers breaking loose.

However unaesthetically, the third, fourth, fifth and eventually the sixth set of wheels moved inland, fol-lowed finally by the single steering wheel. There was a modest cheer of appreciation from the watching Moulqkinese on the rafts astern as the _Slanderscree_ rumbled awkwardly but steadily upslope.

Gaining confidence, Tahoding ordered a few addi-tional small sails unfurled. The icerigger picked up speed. There was a cry and gesture of fond departing from the bow of the nearest tow s.h.i.+p. Ethan and Hunnar returned minister Mirmib's arm action.

"I wonder if we shall see them again," said Hunnar fondly.

"Not if, but when," Ethan commented with surpris-ing confidence. "Sofold and Moulokin now belong to the same confederation, the union of ice, remember?"

Hunnar looked abashed. "New ideas take root slowly on my world, friend Ethan. It is still difficult for me to comprehend the meaning of so many new and strange things, all of which have taken place since your arrival in Sofold such a short time ago. I suspect that as we have more and more contact with your peo-ple, with the peoples of other worlds, events will change still more rapidly for me and for all Tran."

"I expect they will, Hunnar," Ethan confessed. The knight's words raised conflicting emotions within him. Had they chosen the right course in trying to rush these people into a galactic government? In their own way the Tran struck him as being reasonably happy with their place in the universe. Who could predict what influence some of the less lofty elements of humanx civilization would have on this proud, self-sufficient people? Despite all safeguards, such ele-ments would find their way onto Tran-ky-ky as surely as any parasite infects an unwary host.

And what was the justification for their actions thus far? The threat of a little commercial exploitation on one corner of a vast, frozen globe? Such exploitation would, if unchecked, eventually smother the hopes of this world of course, but still-.

Then he thought back to the killings, to all the horrors he'd heard about the nomadic hordes of Tran-ky-ky. Of the depredations they made on innocent cityfolk, of whole cities wiped out and the intermit-tent rule of true barbarism on this planet. He con-sidered the individual cruelties practiced by hereditary rulers unfit for their positions of power, Tran leaders the like of Tonx Ghin Rakossa of Poyolavomaar and Calonnin RoVijar of Arsudun.

No, on balance, the ledger rode high on the side of their intervention. He, Ethan Frome Fortune, absolved himself of wrongdoing. What he and his companions were attempting was done not as Counselor Firsts of the United Church, nor as ministers of the Common-wealth, but solely because they were the ones unex-pectedly afforded a chance to Do Something.

It was being done by a salesman, himself. By a teacher who was as gentle and considerate a human as he'd ever met. By a reclusive giant who was some-thing more than a cabinet minister and less than a saint. These three were committed to helping the Tran, and the Tran were now committed to helping them-selves. If many more meetings like the one which had joined Moulokin and Sofold took place, their personal decisions would all be justified.

Such lofty thoughts kept away the brutal alien cold outside his survival suit, kept him from musing on an-other likely possibility-that he might die in a lost cause on this distant, unnoticed, and wholly inhospitable world.