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"I suppose so ... One of these days-not just now-I'll explain how life is on
the surface. Customs and habits are more complicated-more intimate, even more
'boisterous'-than in the Shelters."
"Hmmf," sniffed Zap 210. "Why are you heading toward the forest? Isn't it
another secret place?"
"I don't know." Reith pointed to the clouds. "See the black trails hanging
below? That's rain. Under the trees we might stay dry. Then, night is coming
soon, and the night-hounds. We have no weapons. If we climb a tree we'll be
safe."
Zap 210 made no further comment; they approached the grove.
The dyans reared high overhead. At the first lines of boles they stopped to
listen, but heard only a breath of wind from the oncoming storm.
Step by step they entered the grove. The sunlight shining past the clouds
projected a hundred shafts and beams of dark golden light; Reith and Zap 210
walked in and out of shadow. The nearest branches were a hundred feet above;
the trees could not be climbed; the grove offered little more security from
night-hounds than did the open downs ... Zap 210 stopped short and seemed to
listen. Reith could hear nothing. "What do you hear?"
"Nothing." But she still listened, and peered in all directions. Reith became
highly uneasy, wondering what Zap 210 sensed that he did not.
They proceeded, wary as cats, keeping to the shadows. A clearing free of boles
opened before them, shrouded by a continuous roof of foliage. They looked
forth into a circular area containing four huts, a low central platform. The
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men and women, a pair at each tree. The men were represented with long
nutcracker chins, narrow foreheads, bulging cheeks and eyes; the females
displayed long noses and lips parted in wide grins. Neither resembled the
typical Khor man or woman, who, as
Reith recollected, almost exactly resembled one another in stature,
physiognomy and dress. The poses, conventionalized and rigid, depicted the act
of copulation. Reith looked askance at Zap 210, who seemed blankly puzzled.
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Reith decided that she interpreted the not-too-explicit attitudes as
representations of sheer sportiveness, or simple "boisterous conduct."
The clouds submerged the sun. Gloom came to the glade; drops of rain touched
their faces. Reith scrutinized the huts. They were built in the usual Khor
style, of dull brown brick with conical black iron roofs. There were four,
facing each other at quadrants around the clearing. They appeared to be empty.
Reith wondered what the huts contained. "Wait here," he whispered to Zap 210,
and ran crouching to the nearest hut. He listened: no sound. He tried the
door, which swung back easily. The interior exhaled a heavy odor, almost a
stink, of poorly cured leather, resin, musk. On a rack hung several dozen
masks of sculptured wood, identical to the male faces of the carved trees. Two
benches occupied the center of the room; no weapons, no garments, no articles
of value were to be seen. Reith returned to Zap 210 to find her inspecting the
carved tree trunks, eyebrows lifted in distaste.
A purple dazzle struck the sky, followed immediately by a clap of thunder;
down came rain in a torrent. Reith led the girl at a run to the hut. They
entered and stood with rain drumming upon the iron roof. "The Khors are an
unpredictable people," said Reith, "but I can't imagine them visiting their
grove on a night like this."
"Why would they come at any time?" demanded Zap 210 peevishly. "There is
nothing here but those grotesque dancers. Do the Khor look like that?"
Reith understood that she referred to the figures carved upon the tree trunks.
"Not at all," he said. "They are a yellow-skinned folk, very neat and precise.
The men and women are exactly alike in appearance, and disposition as well."
He tried to recall what Anacho had told him: "A strange secret folk with
secret ways, different by day and by night, or at least this is the report.
Each individual owns two souls which come and go with dawn and sunset; the
body comprises two different persons." Later, Anacho had warned: "The Khor are
sensitive as spice-snakes! Do not speak to them; pay them no heed except from
necessity, in which case you must use the fewest possible words. They consider
garrulity a crime against nature ... Never acknowledge the presence of a
woman, do not look toward their children: they will suspect you of laying a
curse.
Above all ignore the sacred grove! Their weapon is the iron dart which they
throw with accuracy. They are a dangerous people."
Reith paraphrased the remarks to the best of his recollection; Zap 210 went to
sit on one of the benches.
"Lie down," said Reith. "Try to sleep."
"In the noise of the storm, and this vile smell to all sides? Are all the
houses of the ghaun so?"
"Not all of them," muttered Reith. He went to look out the door. The
alternation of lightning glare and dying twilight upon the tree-statues
presented the illusion of a frantic erotic jerking. Zap 210 might soon begin
to ask questions to which Reith did not care to respond ... Upon the roof came
a sudden clatter of hail; abruptly the storm passed over, and nothing could be
heard but wind sighing in the dyan trees.
Reith returned into the room. He spoke in a voice which rang false even to his
own ears: "Now you can rest; at least the sound is gone."
She made a soft sound which Reith could not interpret, and went herself to
stand in the doorway. She looked back at Reith. "Someone is coming."
Reith hurried to the doorway and looked forth. Across the clearing stood a
figure in Khor garments: male or female Reith could not determine. It went
into the hut directly opposite their own. Reith said to Zap 210: "We'd better
leave while we have a chance."
She held him back. "No, no! There's another one."
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The second Khor, entering the clearing, looked up at the sky. The first came
from the hut with a flaring cresset on a pole, and the second ran quickly to
the hut in which Reith and Zap 210 were concealed. The first took no notice.
As the
Khor entered Reith struck hard, ignoring all precepts of gallantry; in this
case male and female were all the same. The Khor fell and lay limp. Reith
jumped forward; the Khor was male. Reith stripped off his cape, tied his hands
and feet with sandal thongs and gagged him with the sleeve of his black coat.
With Zap
210's help he dragged the man behind the rack of masks. Here Reith made a
quick search of the limp body, finding a pair of iron darts, a dagger and a
soft leather pouch containing sequins, which Reith somewhat guiltily
appropriated.
Zap 210 stood by the door gazing out in fascination. The first to come had
been a woman. Wearing a woman-mask and a white frock, she stood by the cresset
which she had thrust into a socket near the central platform. If she were
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