September 24, 2025 • 29 mins
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)
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter seven of the Jewels of Apdor by Samuel R. Delany.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
Matt Barrart Chapter seven. It was Urson who first pointed
it out. Look at the far bank, he said, across
from them they could make out an obviously man made
(00:23):
stone embankment. A few hundred feet further on, Jimmy sighted
the spires above the trees still across the river from them.
They could figure nothing for an explanation, till suddenly the
trees ceased on the opposite bank, and the buildings and
towers of a great city broke the sky. Elevated highways
(00:45):
looped tower after tower, many of them broken their ends,
dangling colossally to the streets. The docks of the city
just across from them were completely deserted. It was Geo
who suggested, perhaps Hama's temple is in there. After all,
Argo's largest temple is in Leptar's biggest city. And what
(01:07):
city in Leptar is that big? Breathed Urson awfully, how
do we get across, asked Yimmy. But Snake had already
started down to the water. I guess we follow him,
said Geo climbing down over the rocks, Snake dove into
the water. Jemmy, Geo and Urson followed. Before he had
(01:31):
taken two strokes, Geo felt familiar hands suddenly grasped his
body from below. This time he did not fight, and
there was a sudden sense of speed, of sinking through consciousness.
Then he was bobbing up through chill water, with the
rising embankment of stones to one side and the broad
river to the other. He switched from skulling into a crawl,
(01:54):
now wondering how to scale the stones. When he saw
the rusted metal ladder leading into the water, he caught
hold of the sides and pulled himself up. Snake came
up now, and then Urson, and at last Yemmi joined
them on a broad ridge of concrete that walled the
flowing river. Together, now on the wharf, they turned to
(02:17):
the city. Near them, piles of debris lay between two
taller buildings. After a few minutes walk, the building walls
had reached canyon size. Now, how are you going to
go about looking for the temple? Ursua asked, maybe we
can take a look from the top of one of
(02:37):
these buildings. Geo suggested. They turned toward a random building
a slab of metal had torn away from the wall,
and stepping through, they found themselves in a huge hollow room.
Dim light came from a number of white tubes set
around the wall. Only a quarter of them were lit,
and one was flickering. From the center of the room
(03:01):
was a metal sign which read new Edison Electric Company,
and beneath it in smaller letters light down the edges.
One of the huge cylinders across the floor was buzzing.
As they mounted a spiral staircase to the next floor,
the great room turned about them, sinking. At last, they
(03:23):
stepped up into a dark corridor. A red light glowed
at the end, which said exit doors outlined themselves along
the hall in a red haze. Geo moved to one
at random and opened it. Natural light fell in on
them as the others came to see. They entered a
(03:44):
room whose outer wall was torn away. The floor broke
off irregularly over thrusting girders. What could have happened to it,
person asked say Jimmy explained that roadway must have crashed
into the and nt it away. A twenty foot ribbon
of road veered into the room at an insane angle.
(04:07):
The railing was twisted, but there were the stalks of
street lights still intact along the edges. Do you think
we could climb that, asked Geo. It doesn't look too
steep for what Erson wanted to know, to get some
place high enough to see if there's anything that looks
like a temple, Oh, said Urson in a reconciled voice.
(04:32):
In general, the walk was in good shape. Occasional sections
of railing had twisted away, but the road itself mounted
surely between the shearing faces of the buildings on either
side of them. Through advancing sunset, it branched before them,
and they went left. It branched again, and again they
(04:52):
avoided the right handed road. A sign half the length
of a three masted ship hung ve decidedly above them
on a building to one side, w m T, the
Hub of World News, Communication and Entertainment. As they rounded
(05:12):
the corner of the building, Snake suddenly stopped and put
his hand to his head. What is it? Asked jo
Snake took a step backward. Then he pointed to w MT.
It hurts. What huts, asked Jimmy. Snake pointed to the
building again. Is there someone in there thinking too loud?
(05:38):
Thinking machine? Snake said, radio A radio is a thinking machine,
and is one in there that's hunting your head? Interpreted
Jimmy tentatively and with a question mark. Snake nodded. How
come the one he showed us before didn't hurt him?
(05:59):
Person wanted to know? Jemmy looked up at the imposing
housing of the w M T. H. Maybe this one's
a lot bigger, look, Geo said to Snake, you stay
here and if we see anything, we'll come back and report.
All right, maybe it stops later on, Urson said, and
(06:21):
if he ran forward he could get out the other side.
It may just stop after a hundred feet or so.
Why so anxious, asked Jimmy. The jewels, said Urson, who's
going to get us out of trouble? If we should
meet up with anything else? They were silent. Then their
shadows faded over the pavement as the yellow tinge in
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the sky turned blue. I guess it's up to Snake,
Geo said, do you think you can make it? Snake
paused for a moment, then shook his head. Well, Geo
said to the others, come on. Then around them was
a sudden click, and lights flickered all along the edges
of the road. Come on, Geo said again, and once
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more they started passing the lights, which wheeled double and
triple shadows about them over the road and the opposite railing.
When they reached the next turn off that led to
a still higher lamp, Geo looked back. Snake's miniature figure
sat on the edge of the road's railing, his feet
on the lower rung, one pair of arms folded, one
(07:28):
pair of elbows on his knees, the light above him.
Keep track of the turns, said Geo. I'm keeping Jimmy
assured him. By the time we get to the top
of whatever we're trying to get to the top of
rumbled Erson, we won't be able to see anything. It'll
(07:49):
be too dark. Then let's hurry, Geo admonished. Sinset stand
one side of the tower's copper while blue shadows hug
the other. By way of a plastic down stairway, they
mounted another eighty feet to a broader highway where they
could look down on the band of lights, which was
(08:09):
the one they had just left. They were beginning to
clear the roofs of the lower buildings. Now on this road,
fewer lights were working. They were just about to enter
a dark section when a figure appeared in silhouette at
the other end. They stopped, but the figure was suddenly
gone a little farther. Jea suddenly halted and said, there
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two hundred feet ahead of them, what may have been
a naked woman rose from the ground and began to
walk backwards until she disappeared into the next dark length
of road. Do you think she was running away from us,
Jimmy asked. Erson reached out and touched Jemmy's jewel. I
wish we have some more light around here, yea, Jimmy agreed.
(08:58):
They continued. The skeleton lay at the twilight edge of
the next stretch of functioning lights. The rib cage marked
sharp lines on the pavement with shadow from the lamps. Glare.
Do we turn back now, Erson asked, A skeleton can't
hatch you? Yemy said, But what about the live one
(09:21):
we saw? Countered Erson. And here she comes now, Geo
whispered in a cynical stage voice. In fact, two figures
approached them through the shadow as Urson, Geo and Yemy
moved closer, One stopped and then the other a few
steps before the first. Then they dropped. GEO couldn't tell
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if they fell or lay down quickly on the roadway,
but they seemed to have disappeared. Go On, asked Erson.
Go On, said GEO. Pause, go on from GEO. Two
more skeletons lay on the road where the figures had
disappeared a minute before. They don't seem dangerous, GEO said,
(10:06):
But what did they do? Die every time they see us? Hey,
Jimmy said, what's that? Listen? It was a sickly liquid sound,
like mud dropping into itself. Something was falling from the sky. No,
not the sky, but from the roadway that crossed fifty
(10:27):
feet above them. Looking down again, they saw that a
blob of something was growing on the pavement ten feet
from them. Come on, GEO said, and they skirted the
mess dripping from above them and continued up the road,
passing four more skeletons. The sound behind them turned into
a wet, sloshing. Turning, they saw it emerge into the light,
(10:51):
shapeless and jelly green, under the white flare, impaling its
membrane on the skeletons. The mass flowed a round them, faster,
covering them molding to them. There was a final surge,
a shrinking, and its shapelessness contracted into limbs, a head, feet.
(11:12):
The naked man thing pushed itself to its knees and
then stood straight. The flesh by now o pague eye
sockets caved into the face, a mouth ripped apart on
the skull, and the chest began to move with a wet,
steamy sound in irregular gasps. It began to walk toward them,
(11:35):
raising its hands from its sides. Then behind it in
the darkness, they saw more coming. Damn, said herson, What
do they one on both of two things? Yimmy answered,
backing away. More mate or more bones? Whoops, Geo said,
(11:55):
look back there. They whirled and saw seven more figures
standing quietly behind them while the ones in front advanced.
A covered flight of stairs had its entrance near by,
leading to the next level of highway. They ducked into
it and fled up the steps. Geo glanced back once
one of the farms had reached the entrance and had
(12:17):
started to climb. He was also, he realized, high enough
to get some idea of the city, which stretched beyond
the transparent covering of the steps away and a web
of lighted roadways, rising, looping, descending. Two glows caught him,
one beyond the river, a red haze that flickered behind
(12:39):
the trees and was reflected on the water itself. The
other was within the city itself, orange white, nested among
the buildings. He turned back up the steps. A gurgling
sound neared them as they reached the top entrance. Geo
had only gotten half clear of the entrance when he
yelled yikes, and then duck. They slipped from the doorway
(13:04):
and nearly fell, avoiding a mass of jelly the size
of a two story house, which flumped against the entrance.
They edged by its pulsing, transparent sides. The lamp light
pierced into it a yard and once A skull swirled
toward the surface and then sank again. Suddenly it sucked
(13:26):
away from the entrance and shivered ponderously toward them. Something
was happening at the front. Figures, three or four of
them were detaching themselves from the mother mass and preceding it.
They turned and ran along the road, plunging suddenly into
an extended, darkened section. A moment later, there was a
(13:46):
glow in front of them, and suddenly Ursu yelled, watch it. Abruptly,
the road shared off in front of them. They halted
and then approached the edge. Slowly, the surface of the
road tore away, and the girders descended, webbing toward the
ruined stump of a building from which the orange white
glow rose. The glow came from the heart of the edifice.
(14:11):
What do you think it is, asked Cheo. I don't know,
said Jimmy. They looked, and in the shadow numberless figures
were marching after them. Suddenly, the figures fell to the ground,
and flesh rolled forward from bone, congealed and rose quiveringly
into the edge of the light. Jimmy started out first
(14:32):
on the skeletal, twisted structure that descended to the glowing pit.
You're crazy, Geo said. The thing flopped forward another yard
with a sick sound. Hurry up, Geo added. With Urson
in the middle, they started out along the twenty inch
wide girder, lit from beneath. Their bodies were in the
(14:55):
shadow of the girder. Only their outstretched arms burned in
the pale orange light as they balanced themselves before them,
faintly legible on the broken building, into which they were
descending was the sign atomic energy for the betterment of man.
It was flanked by two purple tree foils. The beam
(15:16):
twisted sideways and then dropped. Yemy made the turn, dropped
to his knees and hands, and then started to let
himself down the fore feet to the next small section
of concrete. Once he saw something, let out a low whistle,
but continued to lower himself to the straitened girder. Erson
(15:37):
made the turn next, while Geo knelt in front of him.
When Urson saw what Yemmy had seen, his hand shot
to Geo's chest and grabbed the jewel. Geo took his wrist.
That won't help us now, he said. Erson expelled a
breath and then continued down slowly. Quickly, Geo turned to drop.
Now the entire beam struck over which they had just
(16:01):
come was coated with a trembling thickness of the stuff.
Globs dripped from the steel shafts, glowing in the light
from below, quivering, smoking, splashing off into the darkness. Here
and there, something half human would rise, either to look
around or to pull the collective mass further on, but
(16:23):
then it would fall back and dissolve. It bulged forward, smoking,
now bits of it shriveling off and falling away. Geo
was about to descend, but suddenly he called, wait a minute.
The others stayed still. It wasn't making progress. It rolled
to a certain point in the pale sherbet colored light,
(16:46):
globbed up, smoked and fell away, and smoked and tripped.
Can't it get any farther person asked. It doesn't look
like it, said Geo. A skeleton stood up, flush coat
in the orange light. It tottered its surface, steaming, and
then fell with a sucking noise, down into the hundreds
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of feet of shadow. Geo was holding tight on to
the girder in front of him. The pale light fell
cleanly over his hand, wrist and midway up his forearm.
What happened now made him squeeze until sweat came. The
entire gargantuan mass, which had only extended tentacles till now,
(17:30):
pulsed to the edge of the jagged road, draped itself
over the web of girders and flung itself forward on
the spindly metal threads. It careened toward them, and the
three jerked themselves back. Then it stopped quivering, It boiled,
it burned, It writhed, sinking, smoking through the spaces in
(17:51):
the naked girder work. It tried to crawl backwards. Human
figures leaped from its masts toward the edge of the road,
missed and plummeted like smoking bullets. It hurled a great
pseudopod back toward the safety of the road. It fell short,
flopped downward, and the whole mass shook beneath the smoke
(18:13):
that rose from it. It pulled free at the support tentacles,
sliding across, still whipping into the air. Then it dropped
into the shadows, breaking into a half dozen pieces before
they lost sight of it below. Geo released his hand.
My arm hurts, he said, shaking it. They climbed up
(18:34):
to the road again carefully. Any idea is what happened?
Asked Jimmy. Whatever it was, I'm glad it did, said Urson.
Something clattered below them in the darkness. What was that,
asked Ursul stopping My foot hit something, Geo said, what
was it? Asked Parson? Never mind, said Jea, come on.
(18:59):
Fifty minutes brought them to the stairway that went to
the lower Highway, Jemmy's memory proved good, and for an
hour they went quickly, Yimmy making no hesitation in turnings god,
Geo said, rubbing his forearm with his other hand, I
must have pulled hell out of it back there. It
hurts like the devil. Urson looked at his hand and
(19:22):
rubbed them together. My hands feel sort of funny too.
Jemmy said, what they've been wind bunn wind burn nothing,
said Geo. This hurts. Twenty minutes later, Yemmy said, well
this should be about eight hey, said Urson, there's snake.
(19:43):
As they ran forward. Now the boy jumped off the rail,
grabbed their shoulders and grinned. Then he began to tug
them forward. You lucky little so and so, said Urson.
I wish you'd been with us. He probably was in spirit,
if not in body. Geo laughed. Snake nodded. What are
(20:05):
you pulling us for? Erson asked, say, if you're going
to get headaches like that, you'd better teach us what
to do with them beads there. He pointed to the
jewel at Yemmy's and Geo's necks. Snake nodded and tugged
forward again. He wants us to hurry, Geo said, we'd
better get going. The road finally tore completely away, and
(20:29):
four feet below them over the twisted rail was the
mouth of a street that led into the waterfront. Snake
Yemmy and then Urson vaulted over. Erson shook his hands
painfully when he landed. Gimme a hand, will you, Geo asked,
My arm is really shot. Erson helped his friend over,
(20:52):
almost as though it had been in weight. Thick liquid
gurgling sounded behind them like a wounded thing. It emmer
merge from behind the broken highway, bulging up into the
light which shone on the ripples in its shriveled membrane.
Run it bawled Urson, and they took off down the
street in the moonlight. The ruined piers spread along the
(21:15):
water front to either side of them, some even slanting
into the silvered water. Turning once they saw it bloat
the entrance of the street, fill it, and then pour
across the broken stones, slipping across the rubble of the
smashed d wharf. When Jel hit water, he was aware
of two things immediately as the hands reached for his body. First,
(21:38):
the thong was yanked from around his neck. Second pain
seared his arm, as if the bones and ligaments were
suddenly replaced by white hot cords of steel, and every
vane and capillary had become part of a webbing of
red fire. It was a long time before consciousness. Once
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he was lifted, and when he opened his eyes, the
white moon was moving incredibly fast above him, toward the
dark shapes of leaves. Was he being carried and his
arm hurt? There was more drowsy, half consciousness, and once
a great deal of pain. When he opened his mouth
(22:19):
to scream, however, darkness flowed in swathed his tongue, and
he swallowed the darkness down into his body and into
his head, and called it sleep. A spool of copper
wire unrolled over the black tiled floor. Scoop it up quick, damn,
Let me get out of here. I run past the
(22:40):
black columns, glimpsing the cavernous room, and the black statue
at the other end, huge and rising into shadows. Men
in dark robes are walking around. Not only could they
see this time, they could hear the thinking, just don't
feel up to praying this afternoon. I am before the door,
(23:00):
and above it a black disk with three white eyes
on it through the door up black stone steps. Wonder
if any one will be up there now. Just my luck,
I'll find the old man himself. Another door with a
black circle above it. Push it open, slowly, cool on
my hands. A man is standing inside, looking into a
(23:23):
large screen of glass. Figures moving on it. Can't make
them out. He's in the way. Oh, there's another one.
I don't know whether to call it success or failure.
One says the jewels are safe or lost? What you
call it? The first one asks, I don't know any more. Besides,
(23:44):
I don't think I've taken my eyes off this thing
for more than two hours since they got to the beach.
Every mile they've come closer has made my blood run colder.
What do we report to Hama and Carnate. It would
be silly to say anything now. We just don't know, well,
says the other. At least we can do something with
(24:06):
the city of New Hope. Since they got rid of
that super amba, Are you sure they really got it?
After the burning it received over that naked atom pile,
It was all it could do to get to the
water front. It's just about fried up and blown away already,
and how safe would you call them? The other asks
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right now, I wouldn't call them anything. Something glitters on
the table by the door. Yes, there it is. In
the pile of strange equipment. Is a U shaped scrap
of metal. Just what I needed, hot damp adhesive tape.
Too quick there before they see fine, Now let the
(24:51):
door close real slow. Whoops, it clicked. Now come on,
look innocent in case they come out. I hope the
old man isn't watching. Guess they're not coming. And down
the stairs again, the black stone walls moving past out
another door into the garden. Dark flowers purple deep red,
(25:11):
some with blue in them, and big stone urns. Some
priests are coming down the path. Oops, again, there's old
thunder head. He'll want me inside, praying duck down behind
that urn. Here we go. What will I do if
he catches me? Really, sir, I have nothing under my
choir robe. Peek out, very very small sigh of relief.
(25:35):
Now canifford to be too loud around here? They're gone.
Let's examine the loot. The black stone urn has one
handle above. It's about eight feet tall. One two, three,
jump and hold on and pull and try to get
(25:56):
to the top. There we go, cold stumb between my
toes and over the edge where it's filled with dirt. Pant, pant,
pant should be just over here, if I remember right,
dig dig, dig, damp earth feels good in your hands,
al my finger. There it is a brown paper bag
(26:18):
under granules of black earth. Lift it out, Is it
all there? Open it up, peer in Down at the bottom,
beyond the folds of the edges, where the top had
been twisted tightly together, are the tiny scraps of copper,
a few long pieces of dark metal, a piece of board,
some brads. To this. My grubbed little hand adds the
(26:41):
spool of copper wire and the U shaped scrap of metal.
Now slip it into my robe. And once you get
up here, how the hell do you get down? I
always forget. Turn around, climb over the edge like this
and let yourself down. Damp my robes, cut on the handle,
(27:01):
and drop skin my shed again. Someday I'll learn. Now,
let's see if we can figure this thing out. Got
to crouch down and get to work. Here we go,
open the bag and turn the contents out in the
lap of the dark colored robe, grubby hands poking the
(27:21):
U shaped metal the copper wire. Fine, hold the end
of the wire to the metal, and maneuver the spool
around the end of the wire to the metal. And
maneuver the spool around the end of the rod, Around
and around and around. Here we go round the mulberry bush,
the mulberry bush, the mulbery bush. Here we go round
(27:44):
the mulberry bush. I'll have me a coil by the morning.
Suddenly a harsh voice in the distance, And what do
you think you're doing? Dunderhead rides again, nothing, sir, As
metal and scraps and wires fly frantically into the paper
bag the voice. All novices under twenty must report to
(28:08):
afternoon services without fail. Yes, sir, coming right along, sir.
Paper bag jammed equally frantically into the folds of my robe.
Not a moment's piece, Not a moment's Through the garden
with lowered eyes, past a dour looking priest with a
small paunch. There are mirrors along the vestibule, huge slabs
(28:32):
of glass that rise thirty feet, reflecting the blue and
yellow light back and forth from the colored windows of
the temple. In the mirror, I see pass a dour
looking priest preceded by a smaller figure with short red
hair and a spray of freckles over a flatish nose.
And as we pass into prayer there is the maddening,
(28:55):
almost inaudible jangling of metal scraps, muffled by the dark robe.
Jell woke up and almost everything was white. End of
chapter seven.
Chapter seven of the Jewels of Apdor by Samuel R. Delany.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
Matt Barrart Chapter seven. It was Urson who first pointed
it out. Look at the far bank, he said, across
from them they could make out an obviously man made
(00:23):
stone embankment. A few hundred feet further on, Jimmy sighted
the spires above the trees still across the river from them.
They could figure nothing for an explanation, till suddenly the
trees ceased on the opposite bank, and the buildings and
towers of a great city broke the sky. Elevated highways
(00:45):
looped tower after tower, many of them broken their ends,
dangling colossally to the streets. The docks of the city
just across from them were completely deserted. It was Geo
who suggested, perhaps Hama's temple is in there. After all,
Argo's largest temple is in Leptar's biggest city. And what
(01:07):
city in Leptar is that big? Breathed Urson awfully, how
do we get across, asked Yimmy. But Snake had already
started down to the water. I guess we follow him,
said Geo climbing down over the rocks, Snake dove into
the water. Jemmy, Geo and Urson followed. Before he had
(01:31):
taken two strokes, Geo felt familiar hands suddenly grasped his
body from below. This time he did not fight, and
there was a sudden sense of speed, of sinking through consciousness.
Then he was bobbing up through chill water, with the
rising embankment of stones to one side and the broad
river to the other. He switched from skulling into a crawl,
(01:54):
now wondering how to scale the stones. When he saw
the rusted metal ladder leading into the water, he caught
hold of the sides and pulled himself up. Snake came
up now, and then Urson, and at last Yemmi joined
them on a broad ridge of concrete that walled the
flowing river. Together, now on the wharf, they turned to
(02:17):
the city. Near them, piles of debris lay between two
taller buildings. After a few minutes walk, the building walls
had reached canyon size. Now, how are you going to
go about looking for the temple? Ursua asked, maybe we
can take a look from the top of one of
(02:37):
these buildings. Geo suggested. They turned toward a random building
a slab of metal had torn away from the wall,
and stepping through, they found themselves in a huge hollow room.
Dim light came from a number of white tubes set
around the wall. Only a quarter of them were lit,
and one was flickering. From the center of the room
(03:01):
was a metal sign which read new Edison Electric Company,
and beneath it in smaller letters light down the edges.
One of the huge cylinders across the floor was buzzing.
As they mounted a spiral staircase to the next floor,
the great room turned about them, sinking. At last, they
(03:23):
stepped up into a dark corridor. A red light glowed
at the end, which said exit doors outlined themselves along
the hall in a red haze. Geo moved to one
at random and opened it. Natural light fell in on
them as the others came to see. They entered a
(03:44):
room whose outer wall was torn away. The floor broke
off irregularly over thrusting girders. What could have happened to it,
person asked say Jimmy explained that roadway must have crashed
into the and nt it away. A twenty foot ribbon
of road veered into the room at an insane angle.
(04:07):
The railing was twisted, but there were the stalks of
street lights still intact along the edges. Do you think
we could climb that, asked Geo. It doesn't look too
steep for what Erson wanted to know, to get some
place high enough to see if there's anything that looks
like a temple, Oh, said Urson in a reconciled voice.
(04:32):
In general, the walk was in good shape. Occasional sections
of railing had twisted away, but the road itself mounted
surely between the shearing faces of the buildings on either
side of them. Through advancing sunset, it branched before them,
and they went left. It branched again, and again they
(04:52):
avoided the right handed road. A sign half the length
of a three masted ship hung ve decidedly above them
on a building to one side, w m T, the
Hub of World News, Communication and Entertainment. As they rounded
(05:12):
the corner of the building, Snake suddenly stopped and put
his hand to his head. What is it? Asked jo
Snake took a step backward. Then he pointed to w MT.
It hurts. What huts, asked Jimmy. Snake pointed to the
building again. Is there someone in there thinking too loud?
(05:38):
Thinking machine? Snake said, radio A radio is a thinking machine,
and is one in there that's hunting your head? Interpreted
Jimmy tentatively and with a question mark. Snake nodded. How
come the one he showed us before didn't hurt him?
(05:59):
Person wanted to know? Jemmy looked up at the imposing
housing of the w M T. H. Maybe this one's
a lot bigger, look, Geo said to Snake, you stay
here and if we see anything, we'll come back and report.
All right, maybe it stops later on, Urson said, and
(06:21):
if he ran forward he could get out the other side.
It may just stop after a hundred feet or so.
Why so anxious, asked Jimmy. The jewels, said Urson, who's
going to get us out of trouble? If we should
meet up with anything else? They were silent. Then their
shadows faded over the pavement as the yellow tinge in
(06:43):
the sky turned blue. I guess it's up to Snake,
Geo said, do you think you can make it? Snake
paused for a moment, then shook his head. Well, Geo
said to the others, come on. Then around them was
a sudden click, and lights flickered all along the edges
of the road. Come on, Geo said again, and once
(07:08):
more they started passing the lights, which wheeled double and
triple shadows about them over the road and the opposite railing.
When they reached the next turn off that led to
a still higher lamp, Geo looked back. Snake's miniature figure
sat on the edge of the road's railing, his feet
on the lower rung, one pair of arms folded, one
(07:28):
pair of elbows on his knees, the light above him.
Keep track of the turns, said Geo. I'm keeping Jimmy
assured him. By the time we get to the top
of whatever we're trying to get to the top of
rumbled Erson, we won't be able to see anything. It'll
(07:49):
be too dark. Then let's hurry, Geo admonished. Sinset stand
one side of the tower's copper while blue shadows hug
the other. By way of a plastic down stairway, they
mounted another eighty feet to a broader highway where they
could look down on the band of lights, which was
(08:09):
the one they had just left. They were beginning to
clear the roofs of the lower buildings. Now on this road,
fewer lights were working. They were just about to enter
a dark section when a figure appeared in silhouette at
the other end. They stopped, but the figure was suddenly
gone a little farther. Jea suddenly halted and said, there
(08:34):
two hundred feet ahead of them, what may have been
a naked woman rose from the ground and began to
walk backwards until she disappeared into the next dark length
of road. Do you think she was running away from us,
Jimmy asked. Erson reached out and touched Jemmy's jewel. I
wish we have some more light around here, yea, Jimmy agreed.
(08:58):
They continued. The skeleton lay at the twilight edge of
the next stretch of functioning lights. The rib cage marked
sharp lines on the pavement with shadow from the lamps. Glare.
Do we turn back now, Erson asked, A skeleton can't
hatch you? Yemy said, But what about the live one
(09:21):
we saw? Countered Erson. And here she comes now, Geo
whispered in a cynical stage voice. In fact, two figures
approached them through the shadow as Urson, Geo and Yemy
moved closer, One stopped and then the other a few
steps before the first. Then they dropped. GEO couldn't tell
(09:42):
if they fell or lay down quickly on the roadway,
but they seemed to have disappeared. Go On, asked Erson.
Go On, said GEO. Pause, go on from GEO. Two
more skeletons lay on the road where the figures had
disappeared a minute before. They don't seem dangerous, GEO said,
(10:06):
But what did they do? Die every time they see us? Hey,
Jimmy said, what's that? Listen? It was a sickly liquid sound,
like mud dropping into itself. Something was falling from the sky. No,
not the sky, but from the roadway that crossed fifty
(10:27):
feet above them. Looking down again, they saw that a
blob of something was growing on the pavement ten feet
from them. Come on, GEO said, and they skirted the
mess dripping from above them and continued up the road,
passing four more skeletons. The sound behind them turned into
a wet, sloshing. Turning, they saw it emerge into the light,
(10:51):
shapeless and jelly green, under the white flare, impaling its
membrane on the skeletons. The mass flowed a round them, faster,
covering them molding to them. There was a final surge,
a shrinking, and its shapelessness contracted into limbs, a head, feet.
(11:12):
The naked man thing pushed itself to its knees and
then stood straight. The flesh by now o pague eye
sockets caved into the face, a mouth ripped apart on
the skull, and the chest began to move with a wet,
steamy sound in irregular gasps. It began to walk toward them,
(11:35):
raising its hands from its sides. Then behind it in
the darkness, they saw more coming. Damn, said herson, What
do they one on both of two things? Yimmy answered,
backing away. More mate or more bones? Whoops, Geo said,
(11:55):
look back there. They whirled and saw seven more figures
standing quietly behind them while the ones in front advanced.
A covered flight of stairs had its entrance near by,
leading to the next level of highway. They ducked into
it and fled up the steps. Geo glanced back once
one of the farms had reached the entrance and had
(12:17):
started to climb. He was also, he realized, high enough
to get some idea of the city, which stretched beyond
the transparent covering of the steps away and a web
of lighted roadways, rising, looping, descending. Two glows caught him,
one beyond the river, a red haze that flickered behind
(12:39):
the trees and was reflected on the water itself. The
other was within the city itself, orange white, nested among
the buildings. He turned back up the steps. A gurgling
sound neared them as they reached the top entrance. Geo
had only gotten half clear of the entrance when he
yelled yikes, and then duck. They slipped from the doorway
(13:04):
and nearly fell, avoiding a mass of jelly the size
of a two story house, which flumped against the entrance.
They edged by its pulsing, transparent sides. The lamp light
pierced into it a yard and once A skull swirled
toward the surface and then sank again. Suddenly it sucked
(13:26):
away from the entrance and shivered ponderously toward them. Something
was happening at the front. Figures, three or four of
them were detaching themselves from the mother mass and preceding it.
They turned and ran along the road, plunging suddenly into
an extended, darkened section. A moment later, there was a
(13:46):
glow in front of them, and suddenly Ursu yelled, watch it. Abruptly,
the road shared off in front of them. They halted
and then approached the edge. Slowly, the surface of the
road tore away, and the girders descended, webbing toward the
ruined stump of a building from which the orange white
glow rose. The glow came from the heart of the edifice.
(14:11):
What do you think it is, asked Cheo. I don't know,
said Jimmy. They looked, and in the shadow numberless figures
were marching after them. Suddenly, the figures fell to the ground,
and flesh rolled forward from bone, congealed and rose quiveringly
into the edge of the light. Jimmy started out first
(14:32):
on the skeletal, twisted structure that descended to the glowing pit.
You're crazy, Geo said. The thing flopped forward another yard
with a sick sound. Hurry up, Geo added. With Urson
in the middle, they started out along the twenty inch
wide girder, lit from beneath. Their bodies were in the
(14:55):
shadow of the girder. Only their outstretched arms burned in
the pale orange light as they balanced themselves before them,
faintly legible on the broken building, into which they were
descending was the sign atomic energy for the betterment of man.
It was flanked by two purple tree foils. The beam
(15:16):
twisted sideways and then dropped. Yemy made the turn, dropped
to his knees and hands, and then started to let
himself down the fore feet to the next small section
of concrete. Once he saw something, let out a low whistle,
but continued to lower himself to the straitened girder. Erson
(15:37):
made the turn next, while Geo knelt in front of him.
When Urson saw what Yemmy had seen, his hand shot
to Geo's chest and grabbed the jewel. Geo took his wrist.
That won't help us now, he said. Erson expelled a
breath and then continued down slowly. Quickly, Geo turned to drop.
Now the entire beam struck over which they had just
(16:01):
come was coated with a trembling thickness of the stuff.
Globs dripped from the steel shafts, glowing in the light
from below, quivering, smoking, splashing off into the darkness. Here
and there, something half human would rise, either to look
around or to pull the collective mass further on, but
(16:23):
then it would fall back and dissolve. It bulged forward, smoking,
now bits of it shriveling off and falling away. Geo
was about to descend, but suddenly he called, wait a minute.
The others stayed still. It wasn't making progress. It rolled
to a certain point in the pale sherbet colored light,
(16:46):
globbed up, smoked and fell away, and smoked and tripped.
Can't it get any farther person asked. It doesn't look
like it, said Geo. A skeleton stood up, flush coat
in the orange light. It tottered its surface, steaming, and
then fell with a sucking noise, down into the hundreds
(17:08):
of feet of shadow. Geo was holding tight on to
the girder in front of him. The pale light fell
cleanly over his hand, wrist and midway up his forearm.
What happened now made him squeeze until sweat came. The
entire gargantuan mass, which had only extended tentacles till now,
(17:30):
pulsed to the edge of the jagged road, draped itself
over the web of girders and flung itself forward on
the spindly metal threads. It careened toward them, and the
three jerked themselves back. Then it stopped quivering, It boiled,
it burned, It writhed, sinking, smoking through the spaces in
(17:51):
the naked girder work. It tried to crawl backwards. Human
figures leaped from its masts toward the edge of the road,
missed and plummeted like smoking bullets. It hurled a great
pseudopod back toward the safety of the road. It fell short,
flopped downward, and the whole mass shook beneath the smoke
(18:13):
that rose from it. It pulled free at the support tentacles,
sliding across, still whipping into the air. Then it dropped
into the shadows, breaking into a half dozen pieces before
they lost sight of it below. Geo released his hand.
My arm hurts, he said, shaking it. They climbed up
(18:34):
to the road again carefully. Any idea is what happened?
Asked Jimmy. Whatever it was, I'm glad it did, said Urson.
Something clattered below them in the darkness. What was that,
asked Ursul stopping My foot hit something, Geo said, what
was it? Asked Parson? Never mind, said Jea, come on.
(18:59):
Fifty minutes brought them to the stairway that went to
the lower Highway, Jemmy's memory proved good, and for an
hour they went quickly, Yimmy making no hesitation in turnings god,
Geo said, rubbing his forearm with his other hand, I
must have pulled hell out of it back there. It
hurts like the devil. Urson looked at his hand and
(19:22):
rubbed them together. My hands feel sort of funny too.
Jemmy said, what they've been wind bunn wind burn nothing,
said Geo. This hurts. Twenty minutes later, Yemmy said, well
this should be about eight hey, said Urson, there's snake.
(19:43):
As they ran forward. Now the boy jumped off the rail,
grabbed their shoulders and grinned. Then he began to tug
them forward. You lucky little so and so, said Urson.
I wish you'd been with us. He probably was in spirit,
if not in body. Geo laughed. Snake nodded. What are
(20:05):
you pulling us for? Erson asked, say, if you're going
to get headaches like that, you'd better teach us what
to do with them beads there. He pointed to the
jewel at Yemmy's and Geo's necks. Snake nodded and tugged
forward again. He wants us to hurry, Geo said, we'd
better get going. The road finally tore completely away, and
(20:29):
four feet below them over the twisted rail was the
mouth of a street that led into the waterfront. Snake
Yemmy and then Urson vaulted over. Erson shook his hands
painfully when he landed. Gimme a hand, will you, Geo asked,
My arm is really shot. Erson helped his friend over,
(20:52):
almost as though it had been in weight. Thick liquid
gurgling sounded behind them like a wounded thing. It emmer
merge from behind the broken highway, bulging up into the
light which shone on the ripples in its shriveled membrane.
Run it bawled Urson, and they took off down the
street in the moonlight. The ruined piers spread along the
(21:15):
water front to either side of them, some even slanting
into the silvered water. Turning once they saw it bloat
the entrance of the street, fill it, and then pour
across the broken stones, slipping across the rubble of the
smashed d wharf. When Jel hit water, he was aware
of two things immediately as the hands reached for his body. First,
(21:38):
the thong was yanked from around his neck. Second pain
seared his arm, as if the bones and ligaments were
suddenly replaced by white hot cords of steel, and every
vane and capillary had become part of a webbing of
red fire. It was a long time before consciousness. Once
(21:58):
he was lifted, and when he opened his eyes, the
white moon was moving incredibly fast above him, toward the
dark shapes of leaves. Was he being carried and his
arm hurt? There was more drowsy, half consciousness, and once
a great deal of pain. When he opened his mouth
(22:19):
to scream, however, darkness flowed in swathed his tongue, and
he swallowed the darkness down into his body and into
his head, and called it sleep. A spool of copper
wire unrolled over the black tiled floor. Scoop it up quick, damn,
Let me get out of here. I run past the
(22:40):
black columns, glimpsing the cavernous room, and the black statue
at the other end, huge and rising into shadows. Men
in dark robes are walking around. Not only could they
see this time, they could hear the thinking, just don't
feel up to praying this afternoon. I am before the door,
(23:00):
and above it a black disk with three white eyes
on it through the door up black stone steps. Wonder
if any one will be up there now. Just my luck,
I'll find the old man himself. Another door with a
black circle above it. Push it open, slowly, cool on
my hands. A man is standing inside, looking into a
(23:23):
large screen of glass. Figures moving on it. Can't make
them out. He's in the way. Oh, there's another one.
I don't know whether to call it success or failure.
One says the jewels are safe or lost? What you
call it? The first one asks, I don't know any more. Besides,
(23:44):
I don't think I've taken my eyes off this thing
for more than two hours since they got to the beach.
Every mile they've come closer has made my blood run colder.
What do we report to Hama and Carnate. It would
be silly to say anything now. We just don't know, well,
says the other. At least we can do something with
(24:06):
the city of New Hope. Since they got rid of
that super amba, Are you sure they really got it?
After the burning it received over that naked atom pile,
It was all it could do to get to the
water front. It's just about fried up and blown away already,
and how safe would you call them? The other asks
(24:29):
right now, I wouldn't call them anything. Something glitters on
the table by the door. Yes, there it is. In
the pile of strange equipment. Is a U shaped scrap
of metal. Just what I needed, hot damp adhesive tape.
Too quick there before they see fine, Now let the
(24:51):
door close real slow. Whoops, it clicked. Now come on,
look innocent in case they come out. I hope the
old man isn't watching. Guess they're not coming. And down
the stairs again, the black stone walls moving past out
another door into the garden. Dark flowers purple deep red,
(25:11):
some with blue in them, and big stone urns. Some
priests are coming down the path. Oops, again, there's old
thunder head. He'll want me inside, praying duck down behind
that urn. Here we go. What will I do if
he catches me? Really, sir, I have nothing under my
choir robe. Peek out, very very small sigh of relief.
(25:35):
Now canifford to be too loud around here? They're gone.
Let's examine the loot. The black stone urn has one
handle above. It's about eight feet tall. One two, three,
jump and hold on and pull and try to get
(25:56):
to the top. There we go, cold stumb between my
toes and over the edge where it's filled with dirt. Pant, pant,
pant should be just over here, if I remember right,
dig dig, dig, damp earth feels good in your hands,
al my finger. There it is a brown paper bag
(26:18):
under granules of black earth. Lift it out, Is it
all there? Open it up, peer in Down at the bottom,
beyond the folds of the edges, where the top had
been twisted tightly together, are the tiny scraps of copper,
a few long pieces of dark metal, a piece of board,
some brads. To this. My grubbed little hand adds the
(26:41):
spool of copper wire and the U shaped scrap of metal.
Now slip it into my robe. And once you get
up here, how the hell do you get down? I
always forget. Turn around, climb over the edge like this
and let yourself down. Damp my robes, cut on the handle,
(27:01):
and drop skin my shed again. Someday I'll learn. Now,
let's see if we can figure this thing out. Got
to crouch down and get to work. Here we go,
open the bag and turn the contents out in the
lap of the dark colored robe, grubby hands poking the
(27:21):
U shaped metal the copper wire. Fine, hold the end
of the wire to the metal, and maneuver the spool
around the end of the wire to the metal. And
maneuver the spool around the end of the rod, Around
and around and around. Here we go round the mulberry bush,
the mulberry bush, the mulbery bush. Here we go round
(27:44):
the mulberry bush. I'll have me a coil by the morning.
Suddenly a harsh voice in the distance, And what do
you think you're doing? Dunderhead rides again, nothing, sir, As
metal and scraps and wires fly frantically into the paper
bag the voice. All novices under twenty must report to
(28:08):
afternoon services without fail. Yes, sir, coming right along, sir.
Paper bag jammed equally frantically into the folds of my robe.
Not a moment's piece, Not a moment's Through the garden
with lowered eyes, past a dour looking priest with a
small paunch. There are mirrors along the vestibule, huge slabs
(28:32):
of glass that rise thirty feet, reflecting the blue and
yellow light back and forth from the colored windows of
the temple. In the mirror, I see pass a dour
looking priest preceded by a smaller figure with short red
hair and a spray of freckles over a flatish nose.
And as we pass into prayer there is the maddening,
(28:55):
almost inaudible jangling of metal scraps, muffled by the dark robe.
Jell woke up and almost everything was white. End of
chapter seven.
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