A Far Sunset

THIRTY-FIVE

It was Shon Hu who took the spear out. Paul was trembling and crying and useless. And it was Zu Shan and Nemo who, between them, somehow managed to keep the barge on a steady course and pole it safely out of range of the Lokhali spears and away from the village.

Paul managed to pull himself together before she opened her eyes.

‘You were right, after all,’ she murmured. ‘It was an appointment in Samara, wasn’t it?’

For a moment, he didn’t know what she meant. Then it all came back to him. The Gloria Mundi. Champagne on the navigation deck after they had plugged the meteor holes. Philosophizing and speculating about Altair. Then Ann had told him about Finagle’s Second Law. And he had told her the legend of an appointment in Samara.

‘Ann, my dear … My dear.’ He looked at her helplessly. ‘You’re going to be all right.’

With an effort, she raised herself up from the little pillow of skins that Shon Hu had managed to slip under her head. Paul supported her while she studied the wound in her stomach with professional interest.

‘It doesn’t hurt much, now,’ she said calmly. ‘That’s not a good sign. Some veinous blood, but no arterial blood That’s a bit of help … But I’m afraid I’m going to die … It may take time … You’ll have to help me, Paul. I may get terribly thirsty … Normally, I wouldn’t prescribe much liquid, but in this case it doesn’t matter … Of course, if you can plug it without hurting me too much, you’ll slow down the loss of blood.’

She leaned against him, exhausted. Gendy, he lowered her to the pillow.

‘Any old plug will do,’ gasped Ann. ‘A piece of cloth, a piece of leather—anything.’

He tore a strip of musa loul, made it into a wad and tried to press it into the gaping wound.

Ann screamed.

Shon Hu made a sign to Zu Shan and drew his pole back into the barge.

He came and squatted by Ann, regarding her objectively. Then he turned to Paul. ‘Lord, what does the woman need?’

‘I have to press this into her wound,’ explained Paul. ‘But— but it hurts too much.’

‘Lord, this can be accomplished. Do what must be done when I give the sign.’

Expertly, Shon Hu placed his hands on each of Ann’s temples and pressed gently but firmly. For a moment or two, she struggled pitifully, not knowing what was happening. Then suddenly her eyes closed and her body became slack.

Shon Hu nodded and took his hands away. Paul pressed the wad firmly into the wound. Presently Ann opened her eyes.

‘I thought you must have gone back home, back to Earth,’ she murmured faintly. ‘It was the one satisfaction I had … Every night, I’d say to myself: Well, at least Paul hasn’t come unstuck. He’s on his way back home … What happened to the Gloria Mundi?’

‘It blew itself up, according to the destruction programme, after the three of us left it to go and look for you and the others.’

Ann coughed painfully and held Paul’s hand tightly, pressing it to her breast. When the spasm was over, she said: ‘So the voyage has ended in complete disaster … What a waste it’s all been—what a terrible waste.’

‘No, it hasn’t,’ said Paul, then he looked down at her paintwisted face and realized the stupidity of his remark. He began to stroke her white hair tenderly. ‘Forgive me. I’m a fool. But, Ann, I’ve discovered something so incredibly wonderful that— that it would seem to make any tragedy worthwhile … That’s a damnfool thing to say—but it’s true.’

She tried to smile. ‘You must tell me about your wonderful discovery … I would like very much to think that it’s all been worthwhile.’

‘You should rest. Try to sleep … You mustn’t talk.’

‘I’ll be able to sleep quite soon enough,’ she said grimly. ‘And you can do most of the talking … Now tell me about it.’

As briefly as he could, he told her about his capture by the Bayani and of the friendship that had developed between himself and Enka Ne, otherwise Shah Shan. He told her about Oruri, the ultimate god of the Bayani. Then, passing quickly over much that had happened since the death of Shah Shan, he told her of Nemo’s dreams, the legend of the coming, and how he finally made the journey to the Temple of the White Darkness. And, finally, he told her of his discovery of and encounter with the Aru Re.

Sometimes, while he was talking, Ann closed her eyes and seemed to drift off into unconsciousness. He was not quite sure how much she heard of his story—or, indeed, whether she could make much sense of it. But he went on talking desperately, because if she were not unconscious but only dozing, she might miss the sound of his voice.

As he talked, everything began to seem utterly unreal to him. He had never found the Aru Re. He was not even here on a barge, drifting on a dark river through a primeval forest, talking to a dying woman. He was dreaming. Probably, he was still in suspended animation aboard the Gloria Mundi—and his spirit was rebelling, by creating its own world of fantasy, against that unnatural state that had nothing to do with either living or dying. And presendy, he would be defrozen. And then he would become fully alive.

Suddenly, he realized that he had stopped talking and that Ann had opened her eyes and was looking at him.

‘Yes, I think you’re right,’ she said faindy, ‘It’s been worthwhile … I—I’m not sure I’ve got it all clearly in my head— my mind isn’t working too well. But if the part about the Aru Re means what I think, you’ve made the most wonderful discovery in all the ages … Oh, Paul… I’m so—so …’ her voice trailed away.

There were tears running down his face. ‘But I’ve got no one to tell it to,’ he burst out desperately, ‘no one, but ’ he stopped.

‘But a dying woman?’ Ann smiled. ‘Stay alive, Paul. Just stay alive … I’m afraid you’ve got the harder job.’

He bent and kissed her forehead. Great beads of sweat were forming on it. But the flesh was sadly cold.

‘I wish—oh, God, I wish I knew what happened to the others!’

If Ann had survived—at least until his stupid Galahad act —why could not some of the others have survived? If he could find them, no matter what happened afterwards, at least he would have human company. No! That was a bloody silly thing to think. He already had Zu Shan, Nemo, Shon Hu. All good, very good, human company. But still alien. Human but alien. Strangers on the farther shore…

‘You have accounted for three,’ said Ann in a weak voice. ‘I’m … so—so sorry, Paul. But I can account for the rest … It was on that very first night after we left the Gloria Mundi She laughed faintly, but the laughter degenerated into a fit of coughing that hurt her badly; and it was some time before she could continue. ‘You remember we went to look for the Swedish, French and Dutch pairs … It was a long time before I found what happened to them, but I’ll tell you about that in a minute … Oh, God, Paul! We were so sure of ourselves—so clever! We were scientists. We had weapons. We had intelligence. The only thing we didn’t have was the thing we really needed—forest lore … We were so confident—such easy game … The three of us walked straight into a hunting party of these forest people—they call themselves the Lokh. We didn’t even fire a shot. They had us stripped of everything—all that lovely equipment just tossed away by savages—and trussed like turkeys in a matter of seconds … The Italian girl wouldn’t stop screaming, so they killed her … They weren’t being brutal. It was just their idea of self-preservation. They didn’t want to attract our friends, if any, or dangerous animals … Lisa—you remember Lisa?—she was very calm. But for her, I’d have probably gone the same way as Franca. But she made me keep still and quiet—no matter what they did to us … They weren’t cruel, just inquisitive … We must have really baffled them … Anyway, they took us back to the village. They kept us prisoners for a while. Then we began to pick up some of the language. We tried to explain to them how we had come to Altair Five. But it was no use. They just refused to believe it … After a time, they let us have our freedom—more or less. After all, there was nowhere to go. We just didn’t have enough strength or knowledge … Poor Lisa. She poisoned herself … She just went round eating every damn fruit, flower or root she could find until she got something that did the trick. The Lokh didn’t know what she was up to. They thought it was very funny. She was the joke of the village … As for me, it seems ridiculous now, but I still found life very dear. So I just tried to make myself useful about the place … I began playing doctor—treating wounds, setting bones, that sort of thing … I think they got to like me … And that’s how it was until you came. The days just ran into one another. And there wasn’t any past, and there wasn’t any future. At one time, I thought I was going mad … But I wasn’t… And that’s all… And now it’s ending like this.’ She smiled. ‘Finagle’s Second Law—remember?’

Paul lifted her hand and kissed it. ‘Oh, my love. My poor love.’

‘Oh, yes, I was going to tell you about the others,’ she said. ‘The Stone Age got them. Isn’t that a joke? They had enough fire power to destroy an army, and the Stone Age got them.’

He looked at her, puzzled.

‘I’m sorry,’ murmured Ann. ‘I’m not being very coherent … There are some pretty dreadful beasts in the forest, and the Lokh protect their village by digging a ring of camouflaged pits around it. The camouflage is very good. I’ve nearly fallen into the damn things, myself … They have these pits, with sharpened stakes sticking up in them, in various parts of the forest. Every now and then they go out to inspect them and see what they have caught… They took me out to one of the pits one day. There was some plastic armour, sweeper rifles, transceivers and—and six skeletons at the bottom … The twenty-

first century defeated by the Stone Age … The Lokh thought they were being kind showing me what had happened to my companions … That was when I thought I might go mad.’

‘Ann,’ he said, gently wiping the sweat from her forehead and feeling the terrible coldness again. I’m a fool—an absolute fool. I shouldn’t have let you talk. Please, please rest now.’

‘Sooner than you think,’ she murmured. ‘Much … sooner than you think… Don’t reproach yourself, my dear.’ Her eyes were half-closed, and there was a faint smile on her lips. ‘It was worth it to see … my husband … again … Caxton Hall, ten-thirty … A red rose .. You looked rather sweet—and a bit frightened.’

She began to cough, and this time there was some blood. The paroxysm exhausted her, but there didn’t seem to be pain any more.

‘Not long now,’ she said thickly. ‘I didn’t expect to see it up top so soon … The blood … Hold me, Paul. Hold me … It’s such a lonely business … Afterwards, the river … It’s so lovely to think of everything being washed away … Washed clean.’

He lifted her body and held it close against him, stroking her hair—the soft white hair—mechanically, while the tears trickled down his face and mingled with the cold sweat on hers.

‘My dear, my love,’ he sobbed desperately. ‘You’re not going to die. I’m not going to let you go … I’m not going to let you … I must think. God, I must think … A dressing— that’s it. A decent dressing. Then when we get to Baya Nor I’ll’ he stopped.

There had been no sound, no sigh. No anything. She just hung slackly in his arms. He was talking to a dead woman.

For some time, he sat there motionless, holding her. Not thinking. Not seeing.

Presendy, he was aware of Shon Hu’s arm on his shoulder.

‘Lord,’ said the Bayani gendy, ‘she travels to the bosom of Oruri. Let her go in peace.’

Presendy, they made a shroud of skins for her, and weighted it with stones.

Presently, as she had wished, Ann Victoria Marlowe, nee Watkins, native of Earth, slipped back into a dark and cleansing river on the far side of the sky.