Destiny's Road Part 38

Over the ridge was another valley, Destiny rife along the bottom, Earthlife running up the slopes, birds that hovered like hawks. The sky was tattered clouds and fluttery winds that would not support heavy Destiny birds. Those birds must be Earthlife.

Ten felons hunted and feasted on burrowing creatures. It seemed strange to be eating at noon. Merchants and yutzes didn't do that either.

Their intestines had forgotten about meat, and some were having trouble.

They talked as they lay about the slopes, and continued as they moved on.

"I signed a contract I shouldn't have," Andrew Dowd said. He was walking off his anger. He walked fast, and Jemmy matched his pace just to see if he could.

"Didn't you say you were being robbed?"

"Robbed, yeah. They were my partners."

"I had the idea they were holding you at gunpoint."

Andrew only grinned over his shoulder.

But he'd certainly implied. . . "Were they trying to kill you?"

"The courts are screwy, Jeremy. I wasn't sure I'd get justice."

Jemmy dropped back by a little. Andrew was half-smart and dangerous.. . and maybe his own record was no better.

"I don't remember any of it," Duncan Nick told Jemmy. "My mother got killed when someone got careless with a weed cutter. My aunt and uncle, they already had Marie. Now Momma was dead and suddenly they've got four, and I didn't look like the others. Daddy already knew about me. When the summer caravan came by, he took me. Carnot wagon. Maria wasn't any too pleased."

Jemmy guessed: "Your stepmother?" "My older sister."

"Is that when you saw Mount Canaveral?"

"Oh, I wasn't much past two. Funny I remember anything at all. But I saw Mount Canaveral when some of us went swimming and fis.h.i.+ng at Swan Lake, years later. Winslows chased us off."

"So the restaurant was still going?"

"Then. I was only thirteen." Duncan looked around him. Barda Winslow was trailing, well out of earshot. "So me and my two friends, we went back to the Swan six years later. But it was empty. So we went through three of the big houses on the n.o.b and hid out in the Swan.

I suppose you'd think I was crazy, a Crab shy forgetting about speckles."

"I can't imagine it."

"But I grew up here. Hereabouts, not just in Destiny Town but everywhere, speckles is free. We don't need much. Earthlife animals have nerves too, you know."

"So?"

"Hey, w.i.l.l.ya?"

"What?"

"You told me once. Why is it that we don't have to worry so much about speckles? The Earthlife and Destiny life grow together.. . ?"

"Yes. Jemmy, these valleys are all Earthlife and Destiny mixed.

It's like that around Destiny Town too. Earthlife animals learn to eat Destiny plants that secrete pota.s.sium. The ones that don't, get stupid and die. The Crab isn't like that. Nothing's like that unless it's near the Winds. See, the pota.s.sium has to be there."

"w.i.l.l.ya, how did caravans get started?"

"Don't know. Lucky for the Crab s.h.i.+es, though, eh?"

Barda thought it over while she walked. "I know some of what's in the lessons," she said. "A little. Daddy didn't give us much time to learn."

"But you've got tapes and computers? Like in Spiral Town?"

"Sure. You can't get to them, though. They're in the libraries, and you don't have identification."

"The caravans-"

"They keep the Crab s.h.i.+es going."

"Why?"

"Jeremy, you're one yourself."

"I know, but why? When there were only two hundred of the first settlers and another fifty children, why not move us then?"

Barda walked silent for a bit. Then, "h.e.l.l, why not? I never thought of that. But the stories-"

She'd trailed off oddly. Jemmy asked, "What do they say about us?"

"You had to be fed by hand. You were meaner than snakes-I mean your ancestors, of course. Couldn't move you then, I guess, and they tried speckles on a few of you and you must have brightened up. Jemmy, I guess they got tired of you."

Speckles-shy.

Two hundred adult-sized angry infants who had to be fed, clothed, washed, toilet-trained. The lucky ones who recovered would be more or less ambulatory but no d.a.m.n use to anyone. Transplanting two hundred Jael Harnesses would be a nightmare.

Jemmy was, he discovered, crying. Destiny Town had the planets, and Spiral Town was left to savagery.

He dropped back so that Barda wouldn't see tears, and he said, "Without speckles we would have died. They must have brought speckles.

They could watch us getting well. Why not move us then? Now they have to keep bringing us speckles."

Barda shook her head. "It's stranger than you think. You talked to Duncan?"

"Yeah."

"There were only forty in Cavorite, right? And two died early. Now it's two hundred years later, and the merchant women almost always get pregnant on the Road, and the men leave children too. They do it to keep the gene mix. But why go so far? You tell me."

Now Jemmy could picture the settling ma.s.s of extruded mountains pus.h.i.+ng the flat land away, until from the sky it would seem to run in parallel wrinkles. They crossed wrinkle after endless wrinkle. At evening they crossed another ridge- And the Road was below.

Heads lined up along the edge of rock, showing nothing more of themselves, looking down.

There was n.o.body on the Road.

It was another valley, another wrinkle, with another ridge beyond.

The Road was one edge of a fast-moving stream lined with Earth-green bushes. Jemmy's view to the right showed no more than Road and river running on, dipping and reappearing, finally curving out of sight.

Left, the ridge ran two or three klicks and then splayed out into a flattopped peak. Andrew whispered, "Where are we, Barda? Is that Canaveral? I've seen pictures. Not from this angle-"

"It's Mount Canaveral," Duncan Nick said. "The restaurant was just past. . . it must be half a klick this side, just around that curve. The lake too."

They spoke without looking at each other, their eyes on the Road.

Andrew said, "An hour's walk and it's getting dark. d.a.m.n, if anyone saw ten of us sneaking up on an empty building. . . okay. The rest of you wait here. Stay the night. Barda, it's you and me. Whatever we find down there, you're the owner, or the owner's daughter. I'm your husband-or not yet?"

"Not yet," she decided. "Lovers, but I want Daddy's approval. You want to meet my parents and it has you a little scared."

"What if they're not there and someone else is? Do I threaten to call the police?"

"For Earth's sake don't lose your cool until Ido!" Barda hissed.

"Okay."

"We're too far from anyone else. Daddy kept guns. If it's Daddy...

keep your cool."

"Ready?"

His better judgment told him to be quiet, but Jemmy said, "Not you, Andrew."

Andrew turned. Jemmy said, "Don't take it wrong, but you look as crazy as a pigeon in a fool cage. Grow some meat over your cheekbones, soften those eye sockets, you could pa.s.s. Not now. I'd say Duncan. He's gaunt, but at least he knows the Swan."

Barda Winslow looked at the men and women lined up along the rock crest. They waited her judgment.

She said, "You, Jemmy."

There was n.o.body in sight. They scrambled down to the Road. Jemmy looked at the fast-moving water. He asked, "Can you swim?"

"There's a bridge. Now we just walk, right? A little tired. We've been swimming."

"Where are our towels?"

In the pack?" "Good."

"Now, you might see a bus go by."

"Bus?"

"If you see a box full of people being pulled by a tug, and they're looking out the windows at you, just look back. I'll wave it on."

"Tug?"

"Tractor. Pulling machine. You see them a lot. Back at the Windfarm, that was a tug pulling the speckles cart."

Oh, that was a tug. "A flat metal thing that hugs the ground? Hip high. The top is Begley cloth?"

Barda nodded.

The light had faded to a silver circle above the west: Quicksilver light blurred by haze.

The bridge was wood. It wasn't in good shape, with only one handrail, and it shook as they crossed.

The Swan loomed, a lightless shadow against a hillside, twice the size of Bloocher Farm. Brenda's jittery voice led him toward it. "That bridge will need some serious repair. Place hasn't collapsed; good. What do you think, go in the front?"

"Is there a bell? Bloocher Farm had a bell."

The front door was twice a man's height. Barda waved her arms about. "The bell rope's gone. I think Daddy's gone too, and he took the bell. Daddy, it's Barda!"

They listened. Barda whispered, "No lights. The sign is out. You don't close an inn at night. You just charge higher if they wake you up.

Daddy, it's Barda! I've brought a-" A nice hesitation. "-friend!"

Nothing.

Barda pulled and pushed the door. "Locked. Come on around."

The kitchen door was lower and wider, wide enough to pa.s.s a cart.

Barda pulled and it swung open. "The lock's broken."

Jemmy suggested: "Duncan?"

"Sure. Well, come in. Here." She hooked her fingers into his waistband and led him. There was nothing else to guide him, but Barda moved by memory and scent.

"Not even night-lights. Daddy must have taken the guide spot with him. Kitchen," she said, and he smelled old food smells and smoke.

"Dining hall. Wow, he took the tables and chairs too, and the carts.

Stairs here. Watch it! There was a banister. Stay along the wall." And, "These were the guest rooms."

"Sounds good to me."

But she kept moving, down to the end and another flight of stairs.

Then a strange smell, flowery-"My room. Watch your feet."

He'd kicked something. "What's that?"

"Don't know. Clutter. We'll have to sleep on the floor."