Shardik Read online

  Among the trepsis the bear was lying on its side, its head drooping toward the water. The eyes were closed, the jaws a little open and the tongue protruding. Seeing for the second time its enormous shoulders and the unbelievable size of its body, the hunter was possessed by the same trancelike sense of unreality that he had felt two days before: yet now, with this, there came a sense of being magnified, of being elevated to a plane higher than that of his own everyday life. It was impossible that there should be such a bear--and yet it lay before him. He had not deceived himself. This could indeed be none other than Shardik, the Power of God.

  There was no more room for the least doubt and all that he had done had been right. In an anguish of relief, in fear and awe, he prayed, "O Shardik, O my lord, accept my life. I, Kelderek Zenzuata--I am yours to command forever, Shardik my lord!"

  As his first shock began to subside, he saw that he had also been right in guessing that the bear was sick or injured. It was clearly sunk in a coma altogether different from the sleep of a healthy animal. And there was something else--something unnatural and disturbing--what? It was lying in the open certainly, but that was not all. Then he perceived. The trepsis vine grows quickly: it will grow across a doorway between sunrise and sunset. The bear's body was covered here and there with trailing stems, with leaves and scarlet flowers. How long, then, had Shardik lain beside the pool without moving? A day? Two days? The hunter looked more closely, his fear turning to pity. Along the exposed flank, bare patches showed in the shaggy pelt. The flesh appeared dark and discolored. But surely even dried blood was never so dark? He went a little forward down the slope of the pit. There was blood, certainly; but the wounds appeared dark because they were covered--crawling--with torpid flies. He cried out in disgust and horror. Shardik the leopard-slayer, Shardik of the Ledges, Lord Shardik returned to his people after untold years--was lying flyblown and dying of filth in a jungle pit of weeds!

  "He will die," he thought. "He will die before tomorrow--unless we can prevent it. As for me, I will go down to help him no matter what the danger."

  He turned and ran back across the open ground, smashed his way noisily through the belt of undergrowth and raced on between the trees toward the place where the Baron had left him. Suddenly he felt himself tripped and fell sprawling with a jolt that left him dazed and winded. As he rolled over, gasping for breath, the floating lights before his eyes cleared to reveal the face of Bel-ka-Trazet, awry as a guttering candle with one staring eye for flame.

  "What now?" said the twisted mouth. "Why do you run about making a noise like a goat in a market pen, you coward?"

  "... tripped ... my lord ..." gasped Kelderek.

  "It was I who tripped you, you craven fool! Have you led the bear upon us? Quick, man, where is it?"

  Kelderek stood up. His face was cut and he had twisted his knee, but mercifully his wounded shoulder had escaped.

  "I was not running from the bear, my lord. I have found him--I have found Lord Shardik--but he may well be in the sleep of death. Where is the Tuginda?"

  "I am here," she said, from behind him. "How far away, Kelderek?"

  "He is close, saiyett--injured and very ill, so far as I can judge. He cannot have moved for over a day. He will die--"

  "He will not," replied the Tuginda briskly. "If it is indeed Lord Shardik, he will not die. Come, lead us there."

  Halting on the edge of the pit, Kelderek pointed in silence. As each of his four companions reached the verge he watched them closely. Bel-ka-Trazet started involuntarily and then--or so it seemed--averted his eyes, as though actually fearful of what he saw. If fear it was, he had recovered himself in an instant and dropped, like Kelderek, behind the cover of the weeds, whence he stared down into the pit with an intent, wary look, like that of a boatman scanning rough water ahead.

  Melathys barely looked down before raising her hands to either bloodless cheek and closing her eyes. Then she turned her back and sank to her knees like a woman stricken to the heart by dreadful tidings.

  Sheldra and the Tuginda remained standing on the verge. Neither appeared startled or made any move to conceal herself. The girl, impassive, had halted behind and a little to the left of her mistress, her feet apart, her weight on her heels, her arms hanging loosely at her sides. It was certainly not the posture of one who was afraid. For a few moments she stood looking down without moving. Then, raising her head with the air of one recalling herself to her proper business, she looked toward the Tuginda and waited.

  The Tuginda's hands were clasped together at her waist and her shoulders rose and slowly fell as she breathed. Her stance gave a curious impression of weightlessness, as though she might actually be about to float down into the hollow. The poise of her head was alert as a bird's; yet for all her eager tension she seemed no more afraid than the servant standing at her elbow.

  Bel-ka-Trazet rose to his feet and the Tuginda turned and stared at him gravely. Kelderek remembered yet again how Melathys, two nights before, had gazed silently into the faces of the men who had stumbled their way to the Upper Temple; and how he himself had been in some way divined and selected. No doubt the Tuginda too possessed the power to perceive without asking questions.

  After a few moments, turning away from Bel-ka-Trazet, the Tuginda said calmly, "Sheldra, you see that it is Lord Shardik?"

  "It is Lord Shardik, saiyett," replied the girl in the level tone of liturgical response.

  "I am going down and I wish you to come with me," said the Tuginda.

  The two women had already descended some yards when Kelderek, coming to himself, started after them. As he did so Bel-ka-Trazet caught him by the arm.

  "Don't be a fool, Kelderek," he said. "They'll be killed. Even if they're not, this nonsense need be no business of yours."

  Kelderek stared at him in astonishment. Then, without contempt, certainly, for this gray and ravaged warrior, but with a new and strange sense of having traveled beyond his authority, he answered, "Sir, Lord Shardik is close to death." Quickly inclining his head and raising his palm to his forehead, he turned and followed the two women down the steep slope.

  The Tuginda and her companion had reached the floor of the hollow and were walking swiftly, with as little hesitation as the women with the lantern had walked into the fire; and Kelderek, since he judged it better not to leap or run for fear of rousing the bear, had not overtaken them before they stopped on the nearer side of the pool. The grass was damp underfoot and he guessed that it must be watered and the pool filled from the same underground source as that which fed the brook on the open slope beyond.

  The pool, knee-deep and perhaps a little broader than a man could jump, was fringed all along the farther side by the scarlet trumpet-flowers, half-hidden among their masses of palmate, hairy leaves. There was a fetid smell of filth and sickness and a buzzing of flies. The bear had not moved and they could hear its labored breathing--a sodden, injured sound. The muzzle was dry, the pelt staring and lusterless. A glimpse of the bloodshot white of one eye showed beneath the half-closed lid. At close quarters its size was overwhelming. The shoulder rose above Kelderek like a wall, beyond which could be seen only the sky. As he stood uncertain the bear, without opening its eyes, lifted its head for a moment and then wearily let it fall again. Even so, a man in grave illness tosses and moves, seeking relief, but then, finding in movement nothing but wretchedness and futility, desists.

  Without thought of danger, Kelderek took half a dozen splashing steps across the pool, plucked the cloth from his wounded shoulder and, soaking it in the water, held it to the bear's muzzle and moistened its tongue and lips. The jaws moved convulsively and he, seeing that the great beast was trying to chew the cloth, soaked it once more and squeezed the water into the side of its mouth.

  The Tuginda, bending over the bear's flank with a frond of green fern in one hand, had evidently got rid of the flies in one of the wounds and was examining it. This done, she began searching over the whole body, sometimes parting the pelt with he
r fingers, sometimes using the stalk of the frond as a probe; Kelderek guessed that she was removing flies' eggs and maggots, but her face showed no disgust, only the same care and deliberation that he had seen while she dressed his shoulder.

  At length she paused and beckoned to him where he stood in the pool. He scrambled up the bank, the hollow stems of the trepsis bursting under his feet with a soft "Nop! Nop!" Feeling for a hold, he inadvertently grasped for a moment the curved claws of the off forepaw, each as long as his hand and thick as his finger. He reached the top, stood beside Sheldra and looked down at the body.

  The bear's belly and flank were marked with long, singed streaks, black or dirty gray in color, as though scored with a burning torch or hot iron bar. In several places the pelt, four fingers thick, had been burned away altogether and the bare flesh, withered and contracted into furrows and proud ridges, was split by cracks and open sores. Here and there hung a cluster of bluebottles' eggs or a maggot that the Tuginda had overlooked. Several of the wounds were putrescent, oozing a glistening green matter that had discolored the shaggy hair and clotted it into stiff, dry spikes. A pulpy mess of yellow, withering trepsis showed that the helpless creature had urinated where it lay. No doubt, thought Kelderek, the hindquarters too were fouled and full of maggots. But he felt no revulsion--only pity and a determination at all costs to play his part in saving Shardik's life.

  "There is much to be done," said the Tuginda, "if he is not to die. We must work quickly. But first, we will go back and speak with the Baron and I will tell the priestess what we require."

  As they made their way up the side of the pit she said to Kelderek, "Take heart, clever hunter. You had the skill to find him and God will grant us the skill to save him, never fear."

  "It was no skill of mine, saiyett--" he began, but she motioned him to silence and, turning her head, began speaking in low tones to Sheldra. "--need both tessik and theltocarna," he heard, and a few moments later, "if he recovers we must attempt the Singing."

  Bel-ka-Trazet was standing where Kelderek had left him. Melathys, white as the moon, had risen to her feet and was standing with eyes fixed on the ground.

  "There are many wounds," said the Tuginda, "and several are flyblown and poisoned. He must have fled from the fire across the river--but of that I was already sure when Kelderek first told us his tale."

  Bel-ka-Trazet paused as though deliberating with himself. Then, with the air of one resolved, he looked up and said, "Saiyett, let us understand one another, you and I. You are the Tuginda and I am the High Baron of Ortelga--until someone kills me. The people consent to obey us because they believe that each of us, by one means or another, can keep them safe. Old tales, old dreams--people can be ruled and led by these, as long as they believe in them and in those who draw from them power and mystery. Your women walk on fire, take away men's names out of their minds, plunge knives into their arms and take no hurt. That is good, for the people fear and obey. But of what help to us is this business of the bear, and what use do you mean to make of it?"

  "I don't know," answered the Tuginda, "and this is no time to be discussing such things. At all costs we have to act quickly."

  "Nevertheless, hear me, saiyett, for you will need my help and I have learned from long experience what is most likely to follow from this deed and that. We have found a large bear--possibly the largest bear that has ever lived. Certainly I would not have believed that there could be such a bear--that I grant you. But if you heal it, what will follow? If you remain near it, it will kill you and your women and then become a terror to the whole of Ortelga, until men are forced to hunt and destroy it at the risk of their lives. Even supposing that it does not kill you, at the best it will leave the island and then you, having tried to make use of it and failed, will lose influence over the people. Believe me, saiyett, you have nothing to gain. As a memory and a legend, Shardik has power and that power is ours, but to try to make the people believe that he has returned can end in nothing but harm. Be advised by me and go back, now, to your island."

  The Tuginda waited in silence until he had finished speaking. Then, beckoning to the priestess, she said,

  "Melathys, go at once to the camp and tell the girls to bring here everything we are going to need. It will be best if they paddle the canoes around the shore and land down there," She pointed across the pit to the distant, northern shore at the foot of the long slope.

  The priestess hurried away without a word and the Tuginda turned back to the hunter.

  "Now, Kelderek," she said, "you must tell me. Is Lord Shardik too sick to eat?"

  "I am sure of that, saiyett. But he will drink, and he might perhaps drink blood, or even take food which has been chewed small, as they sometimes do for babies."

  "If he will, so much the better. There is a medicine which he needs, but it is an herb and must not be weakened by being mixed with water."

  "I will go at once, saiyett, and kill some game. I only wish I had my own bow."

  "Was it taken from you at the Upper Temple?"

  "No, saiyett." He explained.

  "We can see to that," she said. "I shall need to send to Ortelga on several matters. But go now and do the best you can."

  He turned away, half-expecting Bel-ka-Trazet to call him back. But the Baron remained silent and Kelderek, walking around the pit, made his way to the brook and at last drank his fill before setting out.

  His hunting lasted several hours, partly because, remembering the leopard, he moved through the woods very cautiously, but mainly because the game was shy and he himself nervous and disturbed. He had trouble with the bow and more than once missed an easy mark. It was late in the afternoon before he returned with two brace of duck and a paca--a poor bag by his usual standards, but one for which he had worked hard.

  The girls had lit a fire downwind of the pit. Three or four were bringing in wood, while others were making shelters from branches bound with creeper. Melathys, seated by the fire with a pestle and mortar, was pounding some aromatic herb. He gave the duck to Neelith, who was baking on a hot stone, and laid the paca aside to draw and skin himself. But first he went across to the pit.

  The bear was still lying among the scarlet trepsis, but already it looked less foul and wretched. Its great wounds had been dressed with some kind of yellow ointment. One girl was keeping the flies from its eyes and ears with a fan of fern fronds, while another, with a jar of the ointment, was working along its back and as much as she could reach of the flank on which it was lying. Two others had brought sand to cover patches of soiled ground which they had already cleaned and hoed with pointed sticks. The Tuginda was holding a soaked cloth to the bear's mouth, as he himself had done, but was dipping it not in the pool but in a water jar at her feet. The unhurried bearing of the girls contrasted strangely with the gashed and monstrous body of the terrible creature they were tending. Kelderek watched them pause in their work, waiting as the bear stirred restlessly. Its mouth gaped open and one hind leg kicked weakly before coming to rest once more among the trepsis. Recalling what the Baron had said, Kelderek thought for the first time, "If we do succeed in healing it, what, indeed, will happen then?"

  11 Bel-ka-Trazet's Story

  WAKING SUDDENLY, Kelderek was aware first of the expanse of stars and then of a black, shaggy shape against the sky. A man was standing over him. He raised himself quickly on one arm.

  "At last!" said Bel-ka-Trazet, thrusting his foot once more into his ribs. "Well, before long you will be sleeping sounder, I dare say."

  Kelderek clambered to his feet. "My lord?" He now caught sight of one of the girls standing, bow in hand, a little behind the Baron.

  "You took the first watch, Kelderek," said Bel-ka-Trazet. "Who took the second?"

  "The priestess Melathys, my lord. I woke her, as I was told."

  "How did she strike you? What did she say?"

  "Nothing, my lord; that is, nothing that I remember. She seemed--as she seemed yesterday; I think she may be afraid."

>   Bel-ka-Trazet nodded. "It is past the third watch."

  Again Kelderek looked up at the stars. "So I see, my lord."

  "This girl here woke of her own accord and went to take her watch, but found no one else awake except the two girls with the bear. The girl who was supposed to have the watch before her had not been woken and the priestess is nowhere to be found."

  Kelderek scratched an insect bite on his arm and said nothing.

  "Well?" snarled the Baron. "Am I to stand here and watch you scratch yourself like a mangy ape?"

  "Perhaps we should go down to the river, my lord?"

  "I had thought as much myself," replied the Baron. He turned to the girl. "Where did you leave the canoes yesterday afternoon?"

  "When we had unloaded them, my lord, we pulled them out of the water and laid them up among some trees nearby."

  "You need not wake your mistress," said Bel-ka-Trazet. "Take your watch now and be ready for us to return."

  "Should we not be armed, my lord?" asked Kelderek. "Shall I get a bow?"

  "This will do," replied the Baron, plucking the girl's knife from her belt and striding away into the starlight.

  It was easy going to the river, following the course of the brook over the dry, open grass. Bel-ka-Trazet walked with the help of a long thumb-stick which Kelderek remembered to have seen him trimming the evening before. Soon they could hear the night-breeze hissing faintly in the reeds. The Baron paused, gazing about him. Near the water the grass grew long and the girls, in dragging the canoes, had trampled a path through it. This Bel-ka-Trazet and Kelderek followed from the shore to the trees. They found only three canoes, each stowed carefully and covered by the low branches. Near them, a single furrow ran back toward the river. Kelderek crouched down over it. The torn earth and crushed grass smelled fresh and some of the weeds were still slowly moving as they re-erected their flattened leaves.

  Bel-ka-Trazet, leaning on his stick like a goatherd, stood looking out over the river. There was a smell of ashes on the breeze but nothing to be seen.