06 - Jewels of Aptor by Samuel R. Delany

In Jewels of Aptor, Samuel R. Delanys debut novel from 1962, we are transported to a world centuries after a devastating nuclear holocaust known as the Great Fire. Here, a young woman embarks on a quest for her destiny, aided by a mysterious four-armed youth. This captivating tale serves as a prologue to Delanys subsequent work, Captives of the Flame. (Summary by BellonaTimes)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter five of the Jewels of Apdoor by Samuel R. Delany.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain reading by MATTP. Perrard.
Chapter five. Light lowered in the sky as they walked
beside the river, keeping close to the rocky edge and
brushing away vines that strung into the water from hanging limbs.

(00:25):
Urson broke down a branch as thick as his wrist
and as tall as himself, and smote the water with
it playfully. That should put a welt on any one's
head who wants to bother us. He raised the stick
from the water and drops ran along the bark moving
sparks at the ends of dark lines. We'll aft a

(00:45):
turn into the woods for foods soon, said Yimmy, unless
we wait for animals who come down to drink. Urson
tugged at another branch, and a twisted loose from fibrous
white pulp here. He handed it to Yemy. I'll have
one for you in a moment, Geo, and maybe we

(01:06):
could explore a little before it gets dark, Geo, suggested.
Person handed him the third staff. There's not much here
I want to see, he muttered. Well, we can't slip
on the bank. We've got to find a place hidden
in the trees. Can you see what that is through there?

(01:27):
Yemi asked, where, asked Jio humph through the thick growth
was a rising shadow, a rock or a cliff? He suggested, maybe,
mused Erson, but it's awfully regular. Jeu started off into
the underbrush and the others followed. Their goal was further

(01:50):
and larger than it had looked from the river. Once
they passed across a section of ten or twelve stones,
rectangular and side by side like paving. Small trees had
pushed up between some of them, but for thirty feet
before the edge sank beneath the soft jungle floor, it

(02:10):
was easier going. Suddenly the growth became then again, and
they were at the edge of a relatively clear area.
Before them loomed the ruins of a great building. Six
girders cleared the highest wall, implying an original height of
eighteen or twenty stories. One wall was completely sheared away,

(02:33):
and fragments of it chumped the ground. The revealed dark
caves of broken rooms and cubicles suggested an injured granite hive.
They approached slowly to one side a great metal cylinder
lay askew a heap of rubbish. A flat blade of

(02:53):
metal transversed it one side, twisting into the ground, where
skeletal girders shone beneath ripped plaiting. A row of windows,
like dark eyes lined the body, and a door gaped
in an idiotic oval halfway along its length. Fascinating, they

(03:14):
turned toward the entered wreck. As they neared, a sound
came from inside the door. They stopped, and their staves
leapt a protective inch from the ground. In the shadow
of the door, ten feet from the ground, another shadow moved,
resolving itself into an animal, head long, muzzled gray. Then

(03:37):
they could see the fore legs. It looked like an
immense dog, and it was carrying a smaller animal, obviously
dead in its mouth. It saw them watch them, was
still dinner. Person said softly, Come on. They moved forward again.
Then they stopped. Suddenly the beasts sprang from the doorway.

(04:00):
Shadow and distance had made them completely underestimate its size.
Along the sprung arc flowed a canine body nearly five
feet long. Erson struck up at it and knocked it
from its flight with his stick. As it fell, Jimmy
and Geo were upon it, with theirs clubbing its chest

(04:21):
and head for six blows. It staggered and could not
gain its feet. Then, as it threatened to heave to standing,
Urson rushed forward and brought his staves straight down on
the chest. Bones snapped and tore through the brown pelt,
only to have their blue sheen covered a moment later
by a well of blood. It howled, kicked its hind

(04:44):
feet at the stake with which Urson held to the ground,
and then stretched out its limbs and quivered. The front
legs stretched and stretched, while the torso seemed to pull
in on itself, shrinking in the death agonies. The long
mouth which had dropped its prey gaped open as the

(05:06):
head flopped from side to side, the pink tongue lolling, shrinking.
My God said, chiare the sharp muzzle blunted now? And
the claws in the padded paw stretched opened into human
fingers and a thumb. The hairlessness of the underbelly had
spread to the entire carcass. Hind legs lengthened, joints reversed themselves,

(05:32):
and bare knees bent as human feet dragged themselves through
fragments of brown leaves over the ground, and a human
thigh gave a final contraction, stilled, and then one leg
fell out straight again. A shaggy, black haired man lay
still on the ground, his chest caved and bloody. In

(05:54):
one last throw, he flung his hands up to grasp
the steak and put put from his chest, but too weak,
they slipped down as his lips curled back from his mouth,
revealing a row of perfectly white blunt teeth. Urson stepped
back and then back again. The stamp fell pulled loose

(06:18):
with a sucking explosion from the ruined mess of lung.
The bear man had raised his hand to his own
chest and seized his triple cold token in the name
of the Goddess, he finally said. Jemmy walked forward now,
picked up the carcass of the smaller animal that had
been dropped, and turned away. Well, he said, I'll guess

(06:41):
Dinna isn't going to be as big as we thought.
I guess not, Geo said. They walked back to the
ruined building, away from the corpse. Hey, Urson, Geo said,
at last to the big man, who was still holding
his coins, Snap out of it, what's the matter. The

(07:02):
only man I've ever seen whose body was that broken
in that way, he said slowly, was one whose side
struck into by a ship's spar. They decided to settle
that evening at the corner of one of the building's
ruined walls. They produced fire with a rock against a

(07:24):
section of slightly rusted girder, and after much sawing on
a jagged metal blade protruding from a pile of rubble,
they managed to quarter at the animal and rip most
of the pelt from its red body. With thin branches
to hold the meat, they did a passable job of
roastin although partially burned, partially raw, and without seasoning. They

(07:47):
ate it and their hunger ceased. As they sat huddled
by the wall, ripping red, juicy fibers from the last
bones with their teeth. Night swelled through the jungle, imprisoning
them in shell of orange, flicking from their fire. Shall
we leave it going, asked Urson. Fia keeps animals away,

(08:10):
Yemi said, on leaves piled together. Now they stretched out
by the wall of the broken building. There was quiet,
an insect hum, no unnameable chitterings, except for the comforting
rush of the river's water. Geo was first to awake,
his eyes filled with silver. The entire clearing had been

(08:32):
flooded by white light from the huge disk of the
moon that sat on the rim of the trees. Yemi
and Urson beside him looked uncomfortably corpse like, and he
was about to reach over and touch Yemy's outstretched arm
when there was a noise behind him, like beaten cloth.

(08:52):
He jerked his head around and was staring at the
gray wall by which they had camped. He looked up
at the spread plain that tore off raggedly against the night.
Fatigue had washed into something unpleasant and hard in his
belly that had little to do with tiredness. He stretched
his arm in the leaves once more and put his

(09:14):
cheek down on the cool flesh of his shoulder. The
beating sound came again and continued for a few seconds.
He rolled his face up and stared at the sky.
Something crossed on the moon. It seemed to expand a moment,
spread its wings and draw them in again. He reached

(09:34):
out his arm over the leaves like thunder and grabbed
Jimmy's black shoulder. Jimmy grunted, started, then rolled over on
his back and opened his eyes. Geu saw the black
chest drop with expelled breath, the only recognition given. A
few seconds later, the chest rose again. Jimmy turned his

(09:56):
face to Geo and raised his finger to his lips.
Then he turned his face back up to the night.
Three more times, the flapping sounded behind them, behind the wall.
Geo realized once he glanced down again and saw that
Jemmy had raised his arm and put it over his eyes.

(10:18):
They passed years that way. Then a flock suddenly leaped
from the wall. Some of them fell twenty feet before
their wings filled with air and they rose again. They
circled wider, and before they returned, another flock dropped off
into the night. As they fell, this time, Geo suddenly
grabbed Jemmy's arm and pulled it down from his eyes.

(10:42):
The figures dropped through the dark like kites, sixty feet
above them forty feet thirty Then here was a thin,
piercing shriek. Jemmy was up on his feet in a second,
and Geo beside him, their staffs in hand. Here comps
breathed Jimmy. He kicked a person, but the big man

(11:04):
was already on his knees and then feet. The wings
beat insistently and darkly before them. As they stood against
the wall, the figures blew toward them, and, at the
terrifying distance of five feet, reversed. I don't think they
can get in at the wall, said Jimmy. I hope

(11:25):
the hell they can't, Urson said. The figures dropped to
the ground, black wings, crumpling to their bodies in the moonlight.
In the growing horde of shadow in front of them.
Light snagged on a meadow blade. Then two of the
creatures detached from the others and hurled themselves forward, swords

(11:46):
arking suddenly above their heads. They swung their staffs as
hard as they could, catching both beasts on the chest.
They fell backwards in a sudden expansion of rubbery wings,
as though they had stumbled into billowing dark canvas. Three
moore now leapt over the fallen ones, shrieking as they came.

(12:07):
Urson looked up and jammed his staff into the belly
of a fourth monster who was about to fall on
them from above. One got past Jimmy's whistling staff, and
Geo had to stop swinging and grab a furry arm.
He pulled it to the side, overbalancing the huge sailed creature.
It dropped its sword as it lay for a moment

(12:29):
struggling on its back. Geo grabbed the blade and brought
it straight from the ground up into the gut of
another of the creatures, who spread open its wings and
staggered back. He rested the blade free and then turned
it down into the body of the fallen one. It
made a thick sound like a crushed its sponge as

(12:51):
the blade came out again and he hacked into a
shadow on his left. A voice suddenly sounded, but inside
his head the jewels snake bawled Geo, where the hell
are you? He was still holding his staff, and now
he flung it forward spearlike into the face of an

(13:13):
advancing beast. Struck it opened up like a black parachute,
knocking away three of its companions before it fell. In
the view cleared for an instant, Geo saw a slight
spidery form dark from the jungle edge into the clearing.
With his free hand, Geo ripped the jewels from his

(13:33):
neck and flung the confused handful of thong and chain
over the heads of the shrieking beasts. The beads made
a double ee in the light at the top of
their ark before they fell on the leaves beyond. Snake
picked them up and held them above his head. Fire
leaped from the boy's hands in a double bolt that

(13:55):
converged in the center of the dark bodies. A red
flare silhouetted the jagged edge of a wing. The wing flamed,
waved flame, and the burning beast tried to take air
before it fell, splashing fire about it. Orange light caught
sharp on brown faces, chiseled with shadow, caught in the

(14:17):
terrified red bead of an eye, or along double fangs
behind dark lips. Burning wings withered on the ground. Dead
leaves had sparked now, and whips of light ran on
the clearing floor. The beasts retreated, and the three men
stood against the wall, panting watch out. Jimmy suddenly called.

(14:42):
Snake looked up as the great wings tented over him,
hiding him. Momentarily, red flared beneath them, and suddenly the
beasts fell away, their sails sweeping over the dead leaves.
Moved by wind or life, Geo couldn't tell. Dark flappings
rose on the moon, grew further away and were gone.

(15:04):
Away from the wall, they saw the fire had blown
up against the wall and was dying. They ran quickly
toward the edge of the forest. Snake said Geo when
they stopped. This is Jimmy, This is Snake. We told
you about it. Jimmy extended his hand, glad to meet you. Look,

(15:25):
said Geo, he can read your mind. So if you
still think he's a spy, Jimmy grinned. Remember the general rule.
If he is a spy, it's going to get much
too complicated. Trying to figure why he saved us like that,
Ursuline scratched his head. If it's a choice between snake

(15:46):
and nothing, we'd better take snake. Hey, four arms, I
owe you a thrashing. He paused, then laughed, huh I, Oh,
some day I get a chance to give it to you.
Where have you been anyway, Geo asked. He put his
hand on the boy's shoulder. You're wet our water friends again,

(16:07):
suggested Urson, Probably, said Geo. Snake now held one hand
towards Geo. What's that? Oh, you don't want to keep them?
Snake shook his head, all right, said Geo. He took
one jewel and put it around his neck. Geo took
the rock chain with the platinum claw from his neck

(16:28):
and hung it around Jemmy's The white eye shone on
his dark chest in the moonlight. Now, Snake beckoned them
to follow him back across the clearing. They came, stopping
to pick up swords from the shriveled darknesses on the
ground about the clearing. As they passed around the edge
of the broken building, Geo looked for the corpse they

(16:49):
had left there, but it was gone. Where are we going,
asked Urson. Snake only motioned them onward. They neared the
broken cylinder, and Snake scrambled up the rubble under the
dark hole through which the man wolf had leapt earlier
that evening. At the door, Snike turned and lifted the

(17:09):
jewel from Joe's neck and held it aloft. The jewel
glowed now with a blue green light that seeped into
the corners and crevices of the ruined entrance. Shreads of
cloth hung at the windows, most of which were broken.
Twigs and rubbish littered the metal floor. They walked between

(17:31):
double seats toward a door at the far end. Effaced
signs still hung on the walls in blank, s M,
blank K blank G. The door at the end was Ajar,
and Snake opened it all the way. Something scuttered through

(17:54):
a cracked window. The Jewel's light showed two seats broken
from their fixtures. Vines covered the front window, in which
only a few splinters of glass hung on the rim,
draped in rotten fabric. A few metal rings about wrists
and ankles. Two skeletons with silver helmets had fallen from
the seats. Snake pointed to a row of smashed glass

(18:18):
disks in front of the broken seats. Radio they heard
in their minds now. He reached down into the mess
on the floor and dislodged a chunk of rusted metal gun,
he said, showing it to Geo. The three men examined it.
What's good for, asked Urson. Snake shrugged. Are there any

(18:43):
electricities or diodes around? Asked Geo, remembering the words from before.
Snake shrugged again. Why did you want to show us
all this? Geo asked. The boy only turned and started
back toward the door. When they were standing in the
oval entrance about to climb down, Yemmy pointed to the

(19:04):
ruins of the building ahead of them, did you know
what that building was called barracks? Snake said, I know
that word, said Geo, so do, I said, yemmy, it
means a place where they used to keep celgies. Altogether,
it's from one of the old languages. Where to now,

(19:27):
Erson asked Snake. The boy climbed back down into the clearing,
and they followed him into the denser wood, where only
pearls of light scattered through the trees. They merged at
a broad ribbon of silver, the river broken by rocks.
We were right the first time, Geo said, we should

(19:48):
have stayed here. The sound of rippling sloshing, the full
whisper of leaves and foliage along the edges of the forest.
These accompanied them as they lay down on the dried
moss behind the larger rocks, and with the heaviness of
release on them, they dropped like stones down a well.

(20:10):
The bright pool of sleep. The bright pool of silver
grew and spread and wrinkled into the familiar shapes of mast,
the rail of the deck, and the whiteness of the
sea beyond the ship. The scene moved down the deck
until another gaunt figure approached from the other direction. The features,

(20:32):
though strangely distorted by whiteness and pulled to grotusquary were
recognizable as those of the captain as he drew near. Oh, mate,
said the captain silence, while a mate given answer, they
couldn't hear. Yes, answered the captain, I wonder what she
wants too. His voice was hollow, etiolated, like a flower

(20:56):
grown in darkness. The captain turned and knocked on Argo's
cabin door. It opened, and it stepped in. The hand
that opened the door for them was then as winter twigs.
The walls of the room seemed draped in spiderwebs and
hangings insubstantial as layered dust. The great dusk seemed spendly grotesque,

(21:19):
and the papers on top of it were tissued then
threatening to scutter and crumble with a breath. The chandelier
above gave more languishing white smoke than light, and the arms, branches,
and complexed array of oil cups looked like a convocation
of spiders. Argo spoke in a pale, white voice that

(21:41):
sounded like the whisper of thin fingers tearing webs. So
she said, we will stay at least another seven days.
But why, asked the captain. I have received a sign
from the sea. I do not wish to question your authority, Priestess,

(22:03):
began the captain. Then do not, interrupted, Argo, My mate
has raised the objection that your mate has raised his
hand to me, once stated the Priestess. It is only
in my benevolence. Here she paused, and her voice became
more unsure, that I do not destroy him. Where he

(22:27):
stands beneath her veil, a face could be made out
that might have belonged to a dried skull. But began
the Captain. We wait here by the island of Aptor
another seven days, commanded Argo. She looked away from the
Captain now, and a direction that must have been straight

(22:48):
into the eyes of the mate. From behind the veil,
hate welled like living liquid from the seemingly empty sockets.
They turned to go, and once more on death, they
stopped to watch the sea. Near the indistinct horizon, a
sharp tongue of land outlined itself with mountains. The cliffs

(23:09):
were chalking on one side, then streaked with red and
blue clays on the other. There was a reddish glow
beyond one mountain, like the shimmering of a volcano, and
dark as most of it was. It was a distinct darkness,
backed with purple, or broken by the warm, differing grays
of individual rocks, even through the night. At this distance,

(23:33):
beyond the silver crescent of the beach, the jungle looked rich, green,
even in the darkness, relolently full and quiveringly heavy with life.
And then the thin screams end of chapter five