Planet of Adventure Omnibus (72 page)

The children
padded on and on through the exercise, the silence broken only by the shuffle
of their feet. Nothing could be learned here, thought Reith. He looked in both
directions, then set off to the left. An arched tunnel gave upon another
balcony, which overlooked a chamber even larger than the first: a refectory.
Tables and benches were ranked down the middle, but the chamber was vacant
except for two Pnumekin, who sat widely separated, crouched low over bowls of gruel.
Reith became aware of his own hunger.

He heard a
sound. Along the balcony came a pair of Pnumekin, one behind the other. Reith’s
heart began to thump so loudly he feared they would surely hear the sound as
they approached. He pulled down his head, hunched his shoulders, moved forward
in what he hoped to be the typical Pnumekin gait. The two passed by, eyes
averted, thoughts on matters far removed.

With somewhat
more assurance Reith continued along the passage, which almost immediately
expanded to become a roughly circular node, the junction for three corridors. A
staircase cut from the natural gray rock curved down to the level below.

The corridors
were desolate and dim; Reith thought them unpromising. He hesitated, feeling
tired and futile. The charts, he decided, were of no great help; he needed the
assistance, willing or otherwise, of a Pnumekin. He was also very hungry.
Gingerly he went to the staircase and, after ten seconds of indecision,
descended, begrudging every step which took him farther from the surface. He
came out into a small anteroom beside the refectory. A portal nearby gave upon
what appeared to be a kitchen. Reith looked in cautiously. A number of Pnumekin
worked at counters, presumably preparing food for the children in the exercise
room.

Reith backed
regretfully away, and went off down a side passage. This was dim and quiet,
with only a few light-grains in the high ceiling. After a hundred feet the
passage jogged to the side and came to an abrupt end at the brink of a
drop-off. From below the sound of running water: more than likely a
disposal-place for waste and garbage, Reith reflected. He halted, wondering
where to go and what to do, then returned to the anteroom. Here he discovered a
small storage chamber in which were stacked bags, sacks and cartons. Food,
thought Reith. He hesitated; the chamber must frequently be used by the cooks.
From the exercise room came the children, walking in single file, eyes fixed
drearily on the floor. Reith backed into the storage room: the children would
discern his strangeness far more readily than adults. He crouched at the back
of the room, behind a pile of stacked cartons: by no means the most secure of
hiding places, but not altogether precarious. Even if someone entered the
chamber he stood a good chance of evading attention. Reith relaxed somewhat. He
brought forth the portfolio and folded back the limp blue leather cover. The
pages were a beautiful soft vellum; the cartography was printed with most
meticulous care in black, red, brown, green and pale blue. But the patterns and
lines conveyed no information; the legend was set forth in undecipherable
characters. Regretfully Reith folded the portfolio and tucked it into his
jacket.

From a
counter in front of the kitchen the children took bowls and carried them into
the refectory.

Reith watched
through a cranny between the cartons, more than ever aware of hunger and
thirst. He investigated the contents of a sack, to find dried pilgrim-pod, a
leathery wafer highly nutritious but not particularly appetizing. The cartons
beside him contained tubes of a greasy black paste, rancid and sharp to the
taste: apparently a condiment. Reith turned his attention to the serving
counter. The last of the children had carried their bowls into the refectory.
The serving area was vacant, but on the counter remained half a dozen bowls and
flasks. Reith acted without conscious calculation. He emerged from the storage
room, hunched his shoulders, went to the counter, took a bowl and a flask and
retreated hurriedly to his hiding place. The bowl contained pilgrim-pod gruel
cooked with raisin-like nubbins, slivers of pale meat, two stalks of a
celery-like vegetable. The flask held a pint of faintly effervescent beer, with
a pleasantly astringent bite. To the flask was clipped a packet of six round
wafers, which Reith tasted but found unpalatable. He ate the gruel and drank
the beer and congratulated himself on his decisiveness.

To the
serving area came six older children: slender young people, detached and
broodingly self-sufficient. Peering between the cartons, Reith decided that all
were female. Five passed by the counter taking bowls and flasks. The last to
come by, finding nothing to eat, stood in puzzlement. Reith watched with the
guilty awareness that he had stolen and devoured her supper. The first five
went into the refectory, leaving the one girl waiting uncertainly by the
counter.

Five minutes
passed; she spoke no word, standing with her eyes fixed on the floor. At last
unseen hands set another bowl and flask down on the counter. The Pnumekin girl
took the food and went slowly into the refectory.

Reith became
uneasy. He decided to return up the stairs, to select one of the passages and
hope to meet some lone knowledgeable Pnumekin who could be overpowered and put
in fear for his life. He rose to his feet, but now the children began to leave
the refectory, and Reith stood back. One by one, on noiseless feet, they filed
into the exercise room. Once more Reith looked forth and once more retreated as
now the five older girls issued from the refectory. They were alike as
mannequins from the factory: slender and straight, with skins as pale and thin
as paper, arched coal-black eyebrows, and regular, if somewhat peaked,
features. They wore the usual black cloaks and black hats, which accentuated
the quaint and eerie non-earthliness of the earthly bodies. They might have
been five versions of the same person, although Reith, even as the idea crossed
his mind, knew that each made sure distinctions, too subtle for his knowing,
between herself and the others; each felt her personal existence to be the
central movement of the cosmos.

The serving
area was empty. Reith stepped forth and on long quick strides crossed to the
stairs. Only just in time: from the kitchen came one of the cooks, to go to the
storage room. Had Reith delayed another moment he would have been discovered.
Heart beating fast, he started up the stairs ... He stopped short and stood
holding his breath. From above came a soft sound: the pad-pad-pad of footsteps.
Reith froze in his tracks. The sounds became louder. Down the stairs came the
mottled red and black feet of a Pnume, then the flutter of black cloth. Reith
hurriedly retreated, to stand indecisively at the foot of the stairs. Where to
go? He looked about frantically. In the storage room the cook ladled
pilgrim-pod from a sack. The children occupied the exercise-chamber. Reith had
a single choice. He hunched his shoulders and stalked softly into the
refectory. At a middle table sat a Pnumekin girl, she whose supper he had
commandeered. Reith took what he considered the most inconspicuous seat and sat
sweating. His disguise was makeshift; a single direct glance would reveal his
identity.

Silent
minutes passed. The Pnumekin girl lingered over the packet of wafers which she
seemed especially to enjoy. At last she rose to her feet and started to leave
the chamber. Reith lowered his head: too sharply, too abruptly-a discordant
movement. The girl turned a startled glance in his direction and even now habit
was strong; she looked past him without directly focusing her eyes. But she
saw, she knew. For an instant she remained frozen, her face loose and
incredulous; then she uttered a soft cry of terror, and started to run from the
room. Reith was instantly upon her, to stifle her with his hand and thrust her
against the wall.

“Be quiet!”
Reith muttered. “Don’t make any noise! Do you understand?”

She stared at
him in a kind of horrified daze. Reith gave her a shake. “Don’t make a sound!
Do you understand? Nod your head!”

She managed
to jerk her head. Reith took away his hand. “Listen!” he whispered. “Listen
carefully! I am a man of the surface. I was kidnapped and brought down here. I
escaped, and now I want to return to the surface. Do you hear me?” She made no
response. “Do you understand? Answer!” He gave the thin shoulders another
shake.

“Yes.”

“Do you know
how to reach the surface?”

She shifted
her gaze, to stare at the floor. Reith darted a glance toward the serving area;
if one of the cooks should happen to look into the refectory, all was lost. And
the Pnume who had descended the stairs, what of him? And the balcony! Reith had
forgotten the balcony! With a sick thrill of fear he searched the high shadows.
No one stood watching. But they could remain here no longer, not another
minute. He grasped the girl by the arm. “Come along. Not a sound, remember! Or
I’ll have to hurt you!”

He pulled her
along the wall to the entrance. The serving area was empty. From the kitchen
came a grinding sound and a clatter of metal. Of the Pnume there was no sign.

“Up the
stairs,” whispered Reith.

She made a
sound of protest; Reith clapped his hand over her mouth and dragged her to the
staircase. “Up! Do as I say and you won’t be harmed!”

She spoke in
a soft even voice: “Go away.”

“I want to go
away,” Reith declared in a passionate mutter. “I don’t know where to go!”

“I can’t help
you.”

“You’ve got
to help me. Up the stairs. Quick now!”

Suddenly she
turned and ran up the stairs, so light on her feet that she seemed to float.
Reith was taken by surprise. He sprang after her, but she outdistanced him and
sped down one of the corridors. In desperation she fled; in equal desperation
Reith pursued, and after fifty feet caught her. He thrust her against the wall,
where she stood panting. Reith looked up and down the corridor: no one was in
sight, to his vast relief. “Do you want to die?” he hissed in her ear.

“No!”

“Then do
exactly what I tell you!” growled Reith. He hoped that the threat convinced
her; and indeed her face sagged; her eyes became wide and dark. She tried to
speak, and finally asked: “What do you want me to do?”

“First, lead
the way to a quiet place, where no one comes.”

With sagging
shoulders she turned away, and proceeded along the corridor. Reith asked
suspiciously, “Where are you taking me?”

“To the
punishment place.”

A moment
later she turned into a side corridor which almost at once ended in a round
chamber. The girl went to a pair of black flint cabochons; looking over her
shoulder like a fairy-tale witch, she pushed the black bulbs. A portal opened
upon black space; the girl stepped through with Reith close behind. She touched
a switch; from a light-panel came a wan illumination.

They stood on
a ledge at the edge of a brink. A crazy insect-leg derrick tilted over profound
darkness; from the end hung a rope.

Reith looked
at the girl; she looked silently back at him with a kind of half-frightened,
half-sullen indifference. Holding to the derrick, Reith looked gingerly over
the brink. A cold draft blew up into his face, and he turned away. The girl
stood motionless. Reith suspected that the sudden convulsion of events had put
her into a state of shock. The tight hat constricted his head; he pulled it
off. The girl shrank back against the wall. “Why do you take off the hat?”

“It hurts my
head,” said Reith.

The girl
flicked her glance past him and away into the darkness. She asked in a soft
muffled voice, “What do you want me to do?”

“Take me to
the surface, as fast as you can.”

The girl made
no answer. Reith wondered if she had heard him. He tried to look into her face;
she turned away. Reith twitched off her hat. A strange eerie face looked at
him, the bloodless mouth quivering in panic. She was older than her
underdeveloped figure suggested, though Reith could not accurately have
estimated her age. Her features were wan and dreary, so regular as to be
nondescript; her hair, a short black mat, clung to her scalp like a cap of
felt. Reith thought that she seemed anemic and neurasthenic, at once human and
non-human, female and sexless.

“Why do you
do that?” she asked in a hushed murmur,

“For no
particular reason. Curiosity, perhaps.”

“It is
intimate,” she muttered, and put her hands up to her thin cheeks. Reith
shrugged, uninterested in her modesty. “I want you to take me to the surface.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

She made no
answer.

“Aren’t you
afraid of me?” Reith asked gently.

“Not as much
as the pit.”

“The pit is
yonder, and convenient.”

She gave him
a startled glance. “Would you throw me into the pit?”

Reith spoke
in what he hoped to be a menacing voice. “I am a fugitive; I intend to reach
the surface.”

“I don’t dare
help you.” Her voice was soft and matter-of-fact. “The
zuzhma kastchai
[xxi]
would punish me.” She looked at the derrick. “The dark is terrible; we are
afraid of the dark. Sometimes the rope is cut and the person is never heard
again.”