in all my travels far and wide across this world. That I can vouch.”
Thirg sighed. Always it was the same. He had seen that much himself —a partially
dismantled subassembly that his naturalist friend had shown him many
twelve-brights before, taken, it was said, from such remains as Dornvald had
mentioned. It had been unlike anything that Thirg had ever seen from the innards
of any familiar kind of animal, with tissues of crude, coarse construction, and
components clumsy and ungainly. A strange sample of workmanship for a Lifemaker
to have sent down from the sky as proof of His existence, Thirg had commented.
And of course, the naturalist hadn’t actually seen the descent with his own eyes
. . . but the traveler that he had obtained the trophy from had bought it from a
hunter who had been present. Thirg had never known what to make of the whole
business. He still didn’t.
By late-bright, weary and hungry, the party had crossed through the pass and
descended into the valley on the far side, which after a long trek through
barren, hilly terrain brought them to Xerxeon, the last inhabited place before
entering the Wilderness. It was a small farming settlement of crude dwellings
fabricated from titanium and steel crop-pings, centered upon a few rudimentary
servicing machines and generators which supported a few score families and their
animals. The scrubland around the village had been cleared to make room for a
few meager fields of domesticated parts and body-fluid manufacturing facilities
which the peasants toiled long hours to keep supplied with materials and
components.
Dornvald, whom the villagers evidently knew from previous visits, paid for
provisions with a “tax refund,” and as dark came over the sky the outlaws
commenced taking rest and refurbishment in turns while the others stayed awake
to keep watch. After seeing to his steed and Rex at a feed shop nearby, Thirg
was almost dropping by the time his turn came to lie down in a robeing-service
bay and plug himself into the socket that would deactivate his circuits and send
him for a while into blissful oblivion. He awoke refreshed and recharged, with
new bearing liners, filters, electrical contacts, and fluids; fresh plating
gleamed on his abraded surfaces. With feelings of well-being, Thirg was ready to
face the new bright that lay ahead. There would be no rest on the next dark, for
apart from infrequent top-ups taken from the wild-grown hydride cells which they
would carry with them, the riders would not find food again until they reached
the far side of the Wilderness.
Before Thirg was even fully awake, Geynor rushed in from the street. “Good,
you’re up. We have to get out fast. Come on!”
“What? Are the soldiers here?”
“No time to explain.”
Thirg followed Geynor outside and found the whole village in panic. Most of the
doors and windows were heavily barred. A few fearful faces peered out here and
there; in the central square between the houses, the village Headrobeing and a
group of elders were haranguing Dornvald and his outlaws, who were loading up
their mounts and obviously preparing to move out in a hurry. On the far side of
the square more robeings were down on their knees chanting hymns. Groork stood
in front of them, his arms spread wide in supplication, gazing up at the sky.
Everything was bathed in a radiance of ghostly violet that seemed to be coming
from overhead.
Thirg had taken three paces across the square when he stopped dead, his head
tilted back and his body frozen into immobility with disbelief. A smooth,
slender, elongated creature, with rigid, tapering limbs and plumes of light
streaming from its underside, was hovering motionless in the sky to the east, as
if watching the village. There was no way to judge its size or distance with any
certainty, but Thirg’s immediate impression was that it couldn’t be all that far
away. He stood, and he gaped.
“The Lifemaker has sent His angel of wrath down upon us!” the village
Headrobeing moaned, wringing his hands. “Begone from our midst, Dornvald,
Bringer-of-Woes and Dealer-with-the-Accursed. See what retribution awaits even
now us who accepted your treacherous bribes.”