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Chapter 5 The Vulture's Borders 

        Simone had not heard any very pleasant sounds in the Fold, so the singing, when it came drifting to them from upriver, seemed to her all the more welcome. She could not make out the words, but it was merry, and the chorus--a harmonized "Wo-OH! Oh-oh-OH-oh"--approached real beauty. Yet the voices were not human.

        "Looper song, or I'm a caterpillar," was Roper's comment. "I've missed it more than I knew."

        As for the boat when it appeared, it was merrier than the song, all blue, green, and brown in the evening sunlight; a flat-bottomed twenty-footer, outlandishly shaped, and except for two small rowing seats, covered with a deck. It was poled along the near bank by two of the dog folk who sang as they went:

            The moon is blue, the moon is blue,

            Not yellow as you thought you knew.

            I say it, what I say is true.

            Come dance with me, and you will see

            The what and how and who! 

            Wo-OH...!

        They began again on the chorus but were brought up short when Snag hailed them from the bank. "Loopers! There are Sarrs here in need of a ride. Come, we'll each take a pole. It's hard work against the current, but not if you have passengers to huff and puff for you. You can teach us a song or two and tell us the latest news."

        This was certainly not the way Snag normally talked, so Simone guessed that he was putting on his breeziest manner to ingratiate himself with the Loopers.

        The taller Looper called back. "Garg, extra poles don't help much if there's too many in a boat. The Moonbeam'll ride low in the water with such a crowd on her. And what's Ulrigs doing on the Kalos so far from home? And why with a human woman and a Looper tied up? Nevermind, just take hold when I pole her close. You can tell us your story when you're on her. I'm throwing a line now. Catch!"

        It was as simple as that. Simone would soon learn that with Loopers it is always as simple as that. These two, a trader and his wife, were coming back from the river villages with a small load of grain. Rinorg the boat-Looper asked the Ulrigs every question imaginable, but did not mind at all that he got few answers. He merely invited them to share from a pot of beans that was sitting in the stern, and this they did ravenously.

        Rinorg shook his furry head till his ears swayed when he heard that Roper was a wanted criminal. "That kind will be taken before the king on a court day. Lose a paw, too, I'll bet." He brushed aside Roper's stream of protests and lies. "Nope, if these Ulrigs meant you harm, they wouldn't have brought you back to your own folk. I'm not interested in you, tail-wagger. I want to know about the young human here, so tall and skinny. Well, look, she's down asleep as quick as that!--and my wife Aldee stroking her paw, I mean her hand. I never saw clothes like that on Sarr or human. Look at her shoes! What kind of animal were they made from?"

        Snag and Snart did not know.

        "Well, you wanted a song, so I'll give you the other half of the one you've heard. We'll keep it low for the girl's sake."

            Once five is five, twice five is ten,

            And when you've been where you have been,

            Divide by two and count again.

            Come dance with me, and you will see

            The who and what and when! 

            Wo-OH! Oh-oh-OH-oh!

        His Looper wife harmonized on the chorus, and Roper also joined in.

        Simone woke, as was becoming usual, to the sound of Sarrs arguing. Rinorg's voice had ascended to a whine.

        "No! I'll not go any farther by night. We're almost in the Vulture's pale now. It's safe enough by day, but at night they spread out. There's things in there that scare me worse, Captain Snag, than that sword of yours at my throat. Don't you understand? They'll get you too. Black things. Bears. Or things that used to be bears. I've never had no trouble with real bears, myself. And flying things, bloodsuckers. Rum knows what else. A different monster for every minute of the night, as like as not. That's the Vulture's way."

        Simone saw that the last light was fading from the western sky. The Moonbeam was tied up to a tree branch and swaying ever so slowly in the weak current.

        "What's this Vulture," she interrupted. "Is he a Sarr?"

        "No, Lady," Snart said. "Whatever he is, they say he was already here when the Sarrs came to the Fold more than four thousand years ago."

        "He's been in that swamp of his ever since," added Rinorg, "and caused more misery and hurt than anyone can count."

        "Some say," said Roper, "that he's a hundred times the size of a normal bird. They say he captures other birds and animals and does such things to them that they end up possessed, full of evil spirits."

        Simone thought of the thing that had killed Raspberry. "And you say he does it with bats?"

        Roper shuddered. "Those are the worst, Lady. To be walking at night and not know when or from what direction they'll come swooping down, or how many! I'd sooner be killed on the spot than travel this part of the river by night. If we're going on, at least let me have my paws free!"

        Snart said to Snag, "Maybe we should wait till morning."

        "No," said Snag firmly. "These stories of the Vulture are surely exaggerated, and everything depends on our speed. We must pass the Forest before rumors spread about us, or we'll be captured by Loopers or Lusettas or humans. Who knows but that more Looper boats will be along soon from downriver? We must keep ahead of our own report."

        "But you said the Foresters would help us on our way," Simone said.

        "If they don't know who you are!" Snag snapped. He turned to meet the wide, questioning eyes of the boat Loopers. They were wise enough to keep still. "Snart! Untie the boat and grab a pole. We're going on."

        The Looper wife Aldee stirred. "If you're going to make us go, then give us our poles," she said quietly. "Just one a-poling is not enough, and I'd rather die doing something than sit here waiting for them to get us."

        So the couple were given their poles and the Moonbeam slipped along in the darkness of the trees, hugging the west bank--the side farthest from the Vulture's land. They went as quietly as possible.

        Early in their journey, Snag handed Simone a knife. "This is for the Fijat Killers," he whispered. "If any land on you, you must stab them as quickly as possible. Also, if we're about to be captured, use it to kill yourself. You must, you understand?"

        He went to the prow, drew his sword, and stood watch. Nothing happened for a long time, but Simone noticed that the Sarrs kept watching the far bank. Then Simone heard Aldee beside her suck in air suddenly. At once there was a crashing and crackling in the underbrush on the bank. Simone stared intently, but it was a full minute before she saw them. Large, dark shapes were moving down toward them. Snag must have seen them too, for he hastily put down his sword and took up a spare pole. Aldee paused long enough to hand a pole to Simone. Then without a word, all five of them pushed desperately. Only Roper was unable to help, bound as he was.

        As they began to pick up speed, they heard splashes behind them. Simone looked back and saw a great, ursine head protruding out of the water and moving toward them, against the current. The thing could swim! She poled till her sides ached and her arms were exhausted, and little by little, she saw the thing left behind. Finally, they had to slow their pace, but however tired, no one stopped poling. Perhaps a half hour passed, and the river broadened into a lake. As they passed along the shore, they relaxed a bit for there was now a quarter mile of water between them and anything on the Vulture's side.

        Aldee was two feet shorter than Simone, but apparently felt a motherly interest in the young of any species. She leaned near. "Don't be afraid, darlin'. Rinorg and I both hold with Karasis."

        "That's nice," said Simone uncomprehendingly. "What's Karasis?"

        Aldee ignored her question. "He'll see us through. Now just pray whatever you've been taught to say to Karasis, and keep your eyes up and east. If they come, they'll come from there, and thank the Rum we're in a place where we'll get a little warning."

        This at least Simone felt she understood all too well. She looked out intently. "I--I think I see them," she said.

        "Yes, they're coming," Aldee said calmly. "Lay your pole down, dear, and get out your knife."

        The others, too, had seen the dark flittering forms against the sky. In a moment they had put away their poles and drawn weapons.

        "Snart," Snag ordered, "one of us on each side of the Lady." They moved to defend Simone.

        "Please," Roper gasped from the floor of the boat. "Please cut me loose and get me a knife, if you love Ulrumman. I promise I won't run, I promise! I can't stand to think of them landing on me, and me not able to even whack at them. Cut me loose, or I'll throw myself in the river!"

        Simone crouched down near him.

        "No!" Snag snarled. "Only by my orders. Get away from him." But Simone cut through Roper's belt that had been used to bind him.

        "Thank you, Lady," he cried, licking at her arms and face. "Thank you for your mercy. You're worthy of your great lineage or I'm a--"

        "Silence!" Snag commanded with a glance at Rinorg and Aldee. "One more word about that and I'll kill you, Roper, before the robalts do."

        Rinorg quietly handed Roper a knife, and a moment later the cloud of Fijat Killers descended. For her part, Simone was more angry than afraid. One of these things had killed Raspberry, and she was determined to pay them back. She found however, as they all did, that the Fijat Killers swirled and hovered just out of reach, seeming to move effortlessly to dodge any blow. And they were hard to see.

        The Sarrs and Simone stood in a line, swinging swords, jabbing with knives, even using oars; but the Killers were untouchable. At this rate, thought Simone, she would soon drop from exhaustion and the Killers would swarm over her. A wing tip clipped the side of her head, and a moment later it happened again. They were getting bold. She began to panic.

        "It's no use," panted Aldee beside her. "We've got to get under cover. They can't bite through a thick tarpaulin. Here, can't we just--"

        "No!" said Snag. "Straws! Do you have any straws?"

        "You mean for breathing under water? No, we don't have any."

        "Then we'll just have to try it without. Everyone in the lake and splash them!"

        Simone jumped over the side with the others and found that, so near the shore, even the Loopers could stand with their heads above water. She stuffed her knife in her belt, crouched till her chin touched the water, and began to splash at the Killers. The others were doing the same, creating fountains of spray. They found that even the bat-things could not dodge a spray of water, and oh how they hated it! Some few that were really drenched collided with the lake's surface and skittered toward the shore. The rest withdrew to a safer distance. In a few minutes it was unnecessary to splash at them, except occasionally when one flew near to test them. The rest hovered a dozen feet over the Moonbeam. Simone even dared to imagine that a few of the things were departing back toward the east and said as much to Aldee.

        "Yes, dear, they'll have to give up," Aldee barked. "They can't bite fish! Your Captain Snag has outsmarted them."

        Little by little the cloud of Killers thinned until only a few flitted here and there. The travelers waited until these few were gone, then waited quite a while longer. Finally, they hauled themselves wearily over the Moonbeam's sides and for a while did gloriously nothing but talk about what had just happened. Sitting on the deck, Simone found herself hugging Roper on one side and Aldee on the other and wondered if she might grow fond of these dog-folk.

        At last Snag reminded them that they must go on. "That's right," said Roper. "We're not past the Vulture's land yet, and if we stay here those hulking, swimming things will catch up to us. Let's pole."

        Simone thought that Roper said this last with more enthusiasm than necessary. He was undoubtedly hoping the Ulrigs would forget that he was supposed to be tied up. Snag seemed willing to let the matter go for now, so Roper took a turn at one of the poles, and they glided on along the shore. The lake eventually narrowed and became a river again, the banks closing in beside them nearer than before.

        "Uh, Snag?" Roper ventured. "I recall there's a place a few miles along where the old Ursan bridge used to be. Some of the bridge still sticks out over the water on the Vulture's side. If there's more trouble, I'm guessing it'll be there."

        Rinorg and Aldee agreed, for though little was known about roads in the Vulture's land, a road--or the remains of one--must come down to the river from that direction. As the discussion of their poor prospects continued, Simone made the mistake of lying down. She did not intend to sleep, but fell off in about half a minute.

        Aldee woke her. "Up, child," she whispered, "and not a sound. We're near where the bridge used to be. See where I point."

        Simone got on her knees, finding that the boat under her was tied to the bank in the shadow of some willow like trees. Yes, a dark mass extended over part of the river from the east bank. On top of this and about ten feet above the water, some large creature appeared to be moving. No, more than one.

        "Rinorg thinks the rodroms, the bear things, are probably on the right bank as well as the left. They want to scare us toward the right bank, into a trap. That's why they're showing themselves on the bridge. Of course, they don't know we're here, but they expect us."

        "So what'll we do?" Simone whispered.

        "Strike an even distance between the banks and row for our lives. It's too deep in the middle for poling, so Rinorg and I will row. We've been dumping our cargo to lighten the load."

        Snag slipped back to them from the front of the boat. "We're going to try something dangerous, Lady," he said. (Simone just did keep from saying something sarcastic about how safe the river journey had been so far.) "We probably can't row fast enough to escape the enemy coming from the banks. Snart and I will use poles to push off from the beasts themselves. That may keep us ahead of them." He paused. "Lady, I'm sorry for my misjudgment in trying the river at night. I will never...." He trailed off.

        "You're sorry about your misjudgment," Simone echoed flatly. "Is that you're way of saying it's hopeless? Well, let's get on with it."

        "We could, of course, stay where we are," Snag continued as if he had not heard. "But it's very likely that the other rodroms have followed us upstream in order to close the, uh, trap."

        "I said let's get on with it."

        "Very good, Lady."

        At that moment, from not far downstream, came the sound of barks, snarls, and booming growls.

        "They've caught up to us," Snag said. "Push off, Snart, and you, Rinorg and Aldee, row hard." Snag leaped forward, crouched with a pole in his paw, and peered ahead. Their small hope of surprise was lost. The terrific noise coming from behind them had alerted the enemy. Even as they reached the middle of the river and began to near the broken bridge end, great beasts splashed into the water ahead of them, rodroms, the black bears of the Seelkir.

        Rinorg and Aldee brought the Moonbeam ever so slowly toward the line of these creatures, steering toward a gap between two of them.

        "You must not be captured," Snag shouted, looking back at Simone. "Use your knife on yourself." Then he leaped to his feet, pole held high, and tried to poke one of the floating monsters in the head. This only drove it under water. Meanwhile, the noise behind them continued, like a hundred bears fighting a thousand dogs. The river was a nightmare of noise and darkness.

        At the rear of the boat, Snart, and Roper too, had seized poles, so Simone did likewise and stood forward by Snag. They were nearly parallel to the bridge end now, and the rodroms were closing in on them. Waves from the movement of their bodies were rocking the Moonbeam. Even in the darkness and confusion, it was clear that the boat would not get through. Simone jabbed with her pole at one of the attackers and somehow missed. Then she felt the boat collide with something and begin to turn broadside to the current. A rodrom's great, dripping head came out of the water just at her feet. Too close to jab with her pole, Simone backed away screaming. Behind her a growl reverberated. The rear of the boat dipped. The sound of claws ripping wood. Her companions barking and howling. The boat was going over!

        Simone dropped the pole, crouched, steadied herself, and jumped over the rodrom in front of her, cutting the water in a clean dive. She remained submerged long enough to kick off her shoes and then surfaced and swam with all her strength, not pausing to think where she was going. Oddly, her only thought was that this water was very cold compared to the shallows she had splashed in earlier. She reached a bank before the rodroms reached her. But the nightmare continued for, dragging herself from the water,she saw it was the east bank. She fled into the Vulture's Forest .

        "Ka Sisskame! Ka Sisskame! Ka Sisskame!"

        The shout rose above ferocious growling and splashing, and Simone paused in the ravine she had stumbled into. A terrific fight seemed to be raging back on the river. She could hardly imagine that her few traveling companions were raising such a shout or putting up such a fight. What was happening?

        She tried to clear her mind as she inched along a very narrow ledge in the stony ravine wall. Perhaps, she hoped, the rodroms would be too thick of body to follow her here. On the other hand, they could probably climb anywhere. She fingered the knife handle at her belt and wondered what it would be like to use it on herself. (She had no doubt that she could do it.) What made it so necessary that she do so? Snag had not said, and it made her sick with fear to imagine the possibilities.

        A few moments later, the ledge petered out. Unless, she wished to go back, she would have to stay where she was on the rock wall, a sheer drop of many feet below her and an impossible climb to the ravine edge above her. "All right, then," she whispered gamely to herself, "I'll go back. There's no other way, so that's what I'll do." But she did not move, and at first she did not know why. Slowly, she acknowledged that she was paralyzed with terror. She could not go back toward the sounds of those ghastly rodroms. She leaned against the ravine wall and looked up. Stars. Lost children of Ulrumman.

        "Well, what's become of You?" she said to the sky. "No guts to come down here and give a little help? What about all those fine promises?"

        Of course, no one answered. Down on the river the noise was dying down and receding. Bit by bit, the minutes passed, the night passed, and finally the forest calm returned. Simone felt that she simply had to go back, if only to keep herself from falling asleep and pitching off the ledge. Her knees were weak. Still she did not move. She pictured the great head of the rodrom emerging from the river by the Moonbeam; the dead, staring eyes of the Fijat Killer by the fence row at home; and her heart turned to water. She could hardly breathe from fear.

        Presently, she heard something skittering on the stone ledge back along the way she had come. She pulled out her knife and listened, wide-eyed. It was coming nearer, something low to the ground and light weight. She called herself an idiot: it must be some harmless, nocturnal animal. But then again, was anything harmless in the Vulture's forest? Within six feet of her it stopped. It spoke.

        "Human, have you come through a door from the Old World?"

        That scratchy little voice! Raspberry was dead, but-- "Are you a Fijat?" she asked.

        "Yes. I'm the Misar Fijat Mald of the Nasseelkir, adjutant of the Council of the Forest Obscure. Please tell me, girl, is your mother Susan Tanner?"

        "Yes, yes, I'm Simone her daughter. Did you--did you know the Fijata--"

        "That's all I need to know," said Mald. "No time for anything else, great Lady. Return with me, please, to the river."

        Simone at last found her legs and began to slip along the ledge. "But why to the river?" she asked. "Isn't that the most dangerous--"

        "Shhh! Not a sound. The rodroms and other evil things are prowling. Quiet now, Lady."

        Simone followed Mald the short distance back to the Kalos, and there he left her while he searched upstream along the bank. Soon he returned.

        "One boat remains, Princess Simone. The others were broken up by the rodroms."

        "But there was only one to begin with," Simone corrected in a murmur.

        "Others followed you," Mald said, "and I with them. Fifteen Loopers in five boats, and they fought the rodroms. My challenge now is to pull the remaining boat free from the bank and paddle it here. I'm afraid I'm too small, but you, on the other hand, are too large to risk leaving the trees, whether to go under the bridge or across the road above. I smell rodroms. No, stay here. I'll go try to move the boat, since it's the only way. I may be able to stay on the bank and pull it along by a line."

        She heard him scurry off again, and this time the wait was long. She stood numb and drained, too tired to watch for the boat. At last it came, gliding along the bank to pause in front of her; and on the aft end was a Looper with a pole. Without questioning this, Simone walked forward into the water and climbed onto the deck. She laid herself down. The boat moved upstream again, and as it did, a robin sang. Dawn was near.

Chapter 6 The Village of Ruin 

        The Looper village of Ruin had not known such excitement in centuries. Everyone had abandoned both work and pleasure to crowd the riverside and witness the arrival of the Empress Simone, heir of Lila, Sisskame of Sisskames. For an hour a succession of swift boats had preceded the Empress, bringing message after message about her progress on the river and the events of the previous night. Already, they knew that she had come mysteriously from Lucilla, that she was tall and slender, that she had survived a trip up the Kalos by night, and that she was accompanied by the Noble Mald of the Fijats. But their joy and excitement were tempered by terrible news: seventeen Loopers dead or missing after a night battle on the river.

        Some of the villagers had departed downstream for burial duties; and word had come back, faster than a Lusetta, that several Rodroms would be buried as well. Their friends had at least died gloriously.

        They crowded the bank in the heat of noon, none of them more than four feet tall, all of them intensely busy with talk and horseplay. Now at last the boats began to appear, two, three, a dozen, a fleet of their brightly painted boats; and near the prow of the foremost sat a woman robed in sky blue. Someone raised a cheer, and at once the Loopers on the boats joined them.

        "The Sisskame! The Lila-me! Lady of Lucilla! The Empress! The Empress! The Empress!"

        The Empress was crying, though trying not to show it. The kindness, the care, the unreserved love she had already received from Loopers on the river had been overwhelming. Now hundreds and hundreds of them crowded the bank, pup and adult, a myriad of joyous, silly, canine faces, and all shouting for her. Maybe Raspberry had known something after all.

        She stroked the little, invisible creature at her side. "What should I do?" she asked. "How should I act?"

        "It doesn't matter," Mald said sleepily. "That's the beauty of Looper society. They have no expectations and are happy with everything."

        "But shouldn't I make some sort of speech?"

        "Yes and no. They'll love you just as much if you don't. And if you do, and muff it, well, Loopers can't tell a good speech from a bad one. If you're uncomfortable about it, just wait till we get in the Arch's house and I'll explain matters to them."

        That is what they did. First they disembarked, Mald in Simone's arms to avoid being trampled, and the Loopers crowding close, pawing her robe and licking at her hands. Then Simone slowly made her way up a hill, passing through the remains of a massive stone wall, and finding on the slope above many little wooden houses. The largest of these was three stories high, but the stories were quaintly shortened, made for the midget size of the occupants. Simone was steered to this house, where she had to bend double to get in the door.

        Since she could not stand up inside, she settled on a piece of furniture that she hoped was a Looper chair, Mald in her lap. The Arch, or mayor, of the village was presented to her--a gray muzzled, Spaniel-ish sort of Looper--and after much additional cheering and frisking about, the Loopers who had managed to fit inside settled to a murmur, eager for more news. Mald introduced himself (more cheering) and asked for a drink of water (brought with much ado). Then he stood on Simone's shoulder, a few of her long hairs lying over his invisible form, and began a story of which Simone herself knew very little.

        "For centuries," he said, "we Fijats have traveled to the Old World by the Sea Door that lies beyond the White Mountain far to the east. Riding on the backs of Dragons, our scouts have passed that Door and entered what is in that world called the Mediterranean Sea, and from there have journeyed very far to the land called Indiana. But that way has become more and more perilous. The Dragons do not swim those seas anymore because of danger from the Old Worlder's metal ships, and so a lone Fijat must find a way for thousands of miles, often in danger from beasts and humans. Only with the greatest difficulty and danger did the Lady Razabera go and return from Indiana six years ago. So you see that bringing a Lila-me through the sea Door might have proved impossible."

        The Loopers whooped and barked at the very mention of a Lila-me's coming.

        "Four Fijats," he said, "were chosen by the Forest Council this February to journey to the Far East and learn the lore of the Doors of Kulismos, the ways to and from the Old World. If another Door could be found, then they hoped to bring the Lila-me to the Fold (cheers) and end the wars that are devastating southern Eschor and threaten us all.

        "We went on the Dragon Neeree's back all the way to the White Mountain (gasps and oohs) and, having learned what we needed, returned by way of the Land of Unknown Kings. From there, we set out in twos, each pair of us on a friendly Dragon. The Misara Razabera and her friend Razatella turned aside at the south coast and journeyed up the Gulf of Saldar to the Ulrig's mountains. From there they intended to go into the Crow Wood in the Valley of Thunders and find the hidden Door of which we had been told.

        "Beld and I kept on westward on the South Sea, and I left him on your southern shore. He was to report to the Council at the Palace of Reflections. I journeyed alone, then, on the Dragon Neeree all the way around the corner of the continent to Quintusia, and there alerted the Unknown King of that Silent City that the Emperor was coming."

        The Loopers stirred. "Emperor?" questioned the Arch. "Did you say Emperor and not Empress?"

        "You see," Mald went on, "we had learned that the Door in Crow Wood was one of two ways out from the Old World. The other exit is beneath the Ruins of Lucilla. It was essential, then, that someone of the good Sarrs reach Lucilla, and quickly."

        The Loopers murmured approval.

        "The Unknown King of Quintusia has a fine boat from the East, and he took me in it far up the Kalos and then up the River of Lucilla. But as we drew near Lucilla, we began to despair. The news along the way was that the army had been ahead of us and swept the ruins clean of escaped slaves and other refugees. We saw slave galleys pass us going downstream, galleys so full that there were too many hands for the oars. When we at last reached the ruins, no one was there at all."

        The Loopers drooped visibly.

        "However, poking about, my nose led me to two very strange bags lying among the stones. Their fabric was unknown to me, and they seemed to contain objects from another world. Also, I was astonished to find the scent of Ulrigs thick in that spot. That made me think that the Door at Lucilla had indeed been used, for how else could Ulrigs have come to be so far from the Long Range?

        "My friend the Unknown King decided that he would go back down the river and try to rescue the Emperor, supposing that such a one had entered the Fold. I remained and followed the Ulrig scent till it took me out on the southern plain. And what sort of strange track do you suppose I found there?"

        The Loopers eyes were so many zeros. "What, what?" they clamored.

        "A korfy's! Also a woman's. The korfy's trail went away from hers, probably without a rider because the woman's track began from there. She must have ridden it to that point. Her track and the Ulrigs' went another way and was soon joined by the fresher scent of a Looper. The Looper had apparently followed them and joined them. All very mysterious indeed. So I went after them.

        "For days I tracked them southward across the plain and arrived exhausted and half starved at the Kalos, where they had apparently hitched a ride. Ah, but which way, north or south? Whichever way they had gone, my direction was chosen for me. I was simply too spent to walk the bank or to swim against even the Kalos' weak current. I hopped a floating branch and rode downstream, away from you. But in a few minutes I met with Looper boats, hailed them, boarded, and told them everything--including--" Mald paused portentously. "--including that the woman I was following might be Simone, sister of the Emperor Clay."

        The Loopers all nodded in unison. "His sister! Now we understand. But what about the Emperor?"

        "If he lives," said Mald (and Simone stiffened), "he is far from us, and will be difficult, perhaps impossible, to find. My task, as I saw it, was to get his sister safely to the Council. The Loopers I had met had seen no sign of her coming their way, so I persuaded them to pole all the way to the Vulture's border, you know the place, and there--we did not find the Lady. Your friends Rinorg and Aldee had picked them up, and the Ulrigs with her had forced them to dare the river at night."

        Everyone was silent, except one old Looper who apparently had not already heard the reports about this adventure. "Oh, Rum, no!" he whispered

        "Let it be on my head," said Mald, "somehow I talked those fifteen Loopers into continuing upriver, though we had only knives and poles as weapons. As silent as owls, we poled along the west bank for hours and even passed the lake in safety. But when we drew near the old bridge site, we overtook rodroms going the same direction as us. They turned back on us and attacked our five boats. It was horrible in the black night.

        "We had to jump from the boats and swim for shore. Then we ran through the underbrush and came upon Aldee--you all know her--running toward us and as dripping wet as we were. 'The Empress!' she shouted. 'We must save the Empress!' And her voice carried conviction. Until that moment we had not felt sure that the woman we were after was a Lila-me, but now a tremendous change came over the Loopers. They began shouting, 'Ka Sisskame!,' and poorly armed as they were, actually turned and attacked the rodroms. Taken with a Kuley madness, they leaped on the backs of the rodroms, slashing at their throats and stabbing at their eyes.

        "While this was going on, I searched up and down the west bank and, finding no scent of the girl, swam across to the other side. I was filled with relief to find her trail there, because I had begun to think she had drowned. Here my nose failed me. She had walked up a creek, erasing her scent. It took me some time, running about as nervous as a human, to find the scent again; but I finally found the girl in a nearby ravine and led her back to the river. In the meantime the Loopers were all dead or scattered. Several of the rodroms had died too, but when I scouted the bank I found that some of them had survived and were atop the bridge end. I did not tell the Empress this, not wishing to further frighten her. The one remaining boat was on the opposite side of the rodroms, and I despaired of how to move it upstream to the Empress, not to mention how she would pole it in her exhausted state. Then I discovered the Looper Roper hiding under its side. I searched around until I found a pole, put it in his paws, and directed him to slip the boat right under those rodroms. How they didn't see us I don't know, unless they had been blinded by the Loopers in the battle; but we got the Empress clean away."

        The Loopers all cheered and thumped their tails on the hollow floor.

        "So," concluded Mald, "a Lila-me has returned from the Old World, and she is safe. Now she must journey on to the Council, where much will be decided. As for you Loopers, no one will ever forget how a very few of you fought and died to save her. Furthermore, with her help the Fold may yet be saved."

        The Loopers erupted in more cries, cheers, dances, and tail thumping. Eventually the Arch took the floor.

        "We thank you, Misar. You have performed miracles to bring Simone here alive, and you must know that we do not blame you for the deaths of our fellow Loopers. We would have given all our lives to bring the Lila-me safely to this village. Now we're ready to send you both on to the Council, but first I beg the Empress' help in a certain matter. We have an unsentenced prisoner, and fresh news has reached me just since the Empress arrived concerning more prisoners who require judgment. Our King is far away, so perhaps the Lady of Lucilla, our great Empress, will take upon her to pass judgment on a few ruffians?"

        Simone had no answer. Mald whispered in her ear, "Roper will be one of them, of course. Go ahead and agree. You needn't actually punish anyone, you know, not when it comes to Loopers. They're notoriously lenient." Simone nodded to the Arch.

        "Thank you, your Eminence," said the Arch. "Since it will take a little time to bring in the prisoners, perhaps you would like a short rest?"

        "That includes food and a bath," whispered Mald. "They don't mention it because it's taken for granted."

        "Thank you," said Simone with a smile.

        Three or four Loopers took her upstairs--she had to bend over the whole way--to the third floor of the Arch's house and into a room dominated by an iron bathing tub, smallish but inviting. Simone seated herself again and, looking about, encountered perhaps her biggest surprise so far during her stay in the Fold. Rising from the floor to the tub were unmistakable water pipes, hot and cold.

        She pointed. "How can they--"

        "Hot springs," answered Mald from her shoulder. "The Loopers are quite ingenious when it comes to matters of personal comfort. They locate their villages over such springs whenever possible. You may have noticed, by the by, that we are in the midst of some massive ruins here that are remnants of the humans' Forest State of Ursa. I suppose the ancient Ursans built at these springs for the same reason."

        "I was supposed to come to Ursa and I did," said Simone thoughtfully. "But where are the Ursans?"

        "Long gone, Empress. Humans are few in the Forest now. You'll no doubt meet some as we travel south."

        A helpful Looper had turned on both taps and was carefully adjusting the water temperature. Another laid out on a nearby table towels, a brush, and what appeared to be actual soap. Yet another was pushing in a little serving cart laden with fruit, bread, and drink.

        "I wish you had time to see the sights here, as I have," Mald continued. "Just the foundations of the sidroig here--that's a sort of 'castle' I think you'd call it--just the foundations are monumental. Also, not a half mile north of here is the battlefield where they fought the great Battle of the Kalos five hundred years ago. The Loopers were heros then, too. They broke the flank of the Lucillan army and drove half of them into the Vulture's Forest, half back to Lucilla in a rout."

        Simone's interest in history fell as the water level rose. Soon she shooed out the Loopers and Mald and took a delicious bath. Sunshine was on the green leaves outside the windows, a grape was in her mouth, and she hardly thought about her troubles.

        The Loopers, always good hosts, kept human clothing on hand for guests, so Simone received fresh undergarments and another silken robe to replace the one that had been given to her on the river that morning. Her own filthy, tattered clothes she had discarded. She was the Empress now.

        When she and Mald returned to the ground floor, Roper was brought before them, as expected. While the Arch briefly recounted the damning facts of his case, the bedraggled thief grinned confidently.

        When his turn to speak came, "Empress," he said, "I don't, of course, expect any special treatment because of my small part in saving your life last night, or for leading you safely across the plain. I ask for nothing but strict justice."

        "Oh, bosh," said Simone, who was feeling very sleepy again. (She had napped on the way, but it had not been nearly enough.) "You want a complete and unjust pardon, and in fact you're counting on it. Well, I certainly don't have the heart to do otherwise, but then it wasn't my royal treasure you ransacked. My decision is that you be brought with me to the Council and be judged by your King Korazagel."

        Roper's grin failed. "But, Empress, you could pardon me right here and--"

        "Wasn't I clear? The thing is settled. Take him away."

        And that was that. The Arch approached again. "We have two other prisoners, Empress, just arrived."

        "Bring them in," said Simone sleepily. Perhaps it was the sound of stringed instruments drifting in from outside, but she could barely stay awake. However, her eyes opened wide when two tightly bound miscreants were literally dragged into her presence. Snag and Snart.

        "Lie there," ordered the Arch, "and don't speak till you're spoken to. Empress, these two--whom you well know--forced poor Rinorg and Aldee, Rum help their souls, to brave the river at night, and so put you yourself in terrible danger. Then when the battle came, they ran away and left you. We picked them up trying to seize an honest Looper's boat downstream. They're rogues. What shall we do with them?"

        Snag and Snart looked up at her from the floor with the steady eyes of veterans who had known worse. Simone chewed a fingernail and considered. "They'd better come along, too. To this Council, I mean. After all, they've done some good things. They saved my brother and me from Black Magi, and Snag outsmarted the Fijat Killers and saved us all. You can untie them and give back their swords. Snag, I'll be leaving soon, and you and Snart can come as my bodyguards. When we get to the Council, you may make your case for taking me to the mountains. Agreed?"

        "Agreed, Empress," Snag said.

        "Good. And next time it gets really dangerous, don't run away. Court's adjourned."

        Mald had matters to discuss with the Arch, so Simone went outside where she could stand up straight and look around. Loopers had continued to pour in from outlying areas, thousands of them, and they were making holiday of it with dances, music, songs, and games. She could have walked from bank to bank on their boats. Many had brought their pets, which included animals which Simone had never seen before as well as birds, cats, and--oddly enough--dogs. It was droll to watch a Looper teaching his little dog to play fetch.

        What was especially agreeable to Simone was that they now seemed satisfied merely by her presence, and no longer crowded her or hung on her footsteps. Passing quietly among them, she descended to a gateway in the ruined wall and further down to a creek that fed the Kalos. Here were three Loopers lounging on a typical cigar-shaped boat with its platform deck low to the water. They looked at her with anxious eyes. One, a bloodhound type, came forward wagging his tail ingratiatingly. His flop ears hung out through holes in a broad brimmed cloth hat.

        "We're going fishing up the creek. You want to come too?"

        Simone looked down at her dress. "Not in this. What's your name?"

        "Ilbee, Your Eminence. This is my sister Dranjel and her friend Korbera. Aw, please come. We got an extra fishing pole."

        "No," said Simone decidedly. "They tell me I have to go save the Fold from Dragons or something, and so I don't have time to fish. Mald would never approve." She stepped onto the deck and sat down. "Just out of curiosity--how long would we be gone?"

        Lying on her stomach on the prow, Simone pulled on slender overhanging branches, and the boat glided forward a few more feet. The sunlight came through the leaves in speckles here and there, the creek water murmured against the sides of the boat, and dragon flies whirred by.

        After having quickly caught enough fish to make them happy, the three Loopers had fallen asleep, curled up on the deck in the warmth of the afternoon. Simone had napped too and had waked to find leaves touching her face. They had drifted under branches that almost touched the creek, and she was as if alone in this little world enclosed by water and leaves. Soon she had discovered that she could pull the boat along the bank by tugging at twigs. But not too quickly. She had to take time to look at reflections, examine insects, listen to birds. In this lazy fashion she gradually pulled them into a yet smaller creek and, turning on her back, looked up through a gap in the branches at a towering summer cloud. It seemed perhaps time to nap again, but first--was it too much bother?--she probably ought to look at the shaped blocks now appearing on the bank. Perhaps something interesting....

        At her feet Ilbee jerked awake. "Oh, bother," he snapped.

        "What, a bad dream?" she asked.

        "No, they're calling us back to the village. Misar Mald wants you. You can't hear it, but we Loopers can talk to one another in a way humans don't know."

        Propped on her elbows and still half asleep, Simone considered this. "I'll bet I do know how you do it. You have dog wh--uh, I mean, you have whistles with a very high pitch."

        Ilbee started and then nodded. "I should have known the Empress would be way ahead of me." He removed a bit of metal from his hat band. "I'll have to tell them we're coming. And here I thought I'd get a little peace and quiet."

        "Do you not get many holidays?" Simone asked.

        Ilbee sighed. "Not more than eighty days out of the year, anymore. It's not like the old days, Your Eminence."

        Simone's eyebrows raised. "So you work only two hundred eighty-five days?"

        Ilbee laughed. "What, you think we're crazy? Why would anyone work like a hu--work that much?"

        "I just mean that, if you have eighty holidays, well, what do you do when it isn't a holiday?"

        Ilbee looked at her blankly.

        At the other end of the boat Dranjel yawned and opened her merry eyes under her blue hat brim. "Ilbee, she's a human, so how can she understand? On holidays we gather to dance and feast. Most other days we don't do anything to speak of. We don't build, or farm, or make war, or anything. We putter about, we play on our boats, explore the woods, that sort of thing. How many full days work do you suppose you put in last year, brother?"

        Ilbee moaned, remembering. "Times are hard and wages are down," he said. "Either helping out at the mill or on one of the trade boats, I had to work thirty days last year, sometimes five hours a day. Empress, it isn't right. I never worked so hard in the old days just to get my honey and flour and a few other things. Are they trying to turn us into drudges, take the spirit out of us? The government should do something."

        Simone exploded into a coughing fit from the effort of holding back her laughter. Ilbee regretfully raised the whistle to his mouth, but Simone gestured to him to stop. "No, don't tell them I'm coming yet. Tell Mald I'm fine, and we'll be back before supper."

        The message was sent, and in a minute or two the Loopers pricked up their ears at the reply.

        "Mald says come at once."

        "Well, am I the Empress or not? Tell him no, and tell him to stop bothering us."

        Ilbee told him cheerfully. That done, the Loopers brought out snacks--cakes and cheese--which the four of them gobbled without a trace of manners, ending by brushing the crumbs off the deck into the water. Small fish came and nibbled at the crumbs.

        "What's all this masonry?" Simone asked afterward. "I see concrete blocks here and there along the banks, and some even have letters chiseled in them."

        "Old human stuff," answered Ilbee briefly. This seemed all the explanation he had or wanted.

        "The humans of Ursa did it," added Korbera, a white-furred she-Looper with a terrier face. "I learned that in school."

        "A school which no doubt is in session for three weeks out of the year," said Simone. "I'm beginning to understand you Loopers. So what happened to the Ursans? Did they lose a war?"

        "No, Empress, but after Lucilla and Miletus were conquered up north, the trade on the rivers played out." She paused to snap at a mayfly. "And we Sarrs didn't run and hide from the humans anymore. We stood up for ourselves because Prince Kuley had come and declared the Empire. That just took the heart out of the humans. After that, for centuries they moved away and died off until finally no one was here. There's just the little Forest States downriver now, that's the only humans for hundreds of miles."

        Simone reached out and touched an inscribed stone. "What's this word chiseled here? It's faint."

        Korbera leaned over and looked. "Oh, that just says 'Lupris,' which is rightly what us Loopers are called 'cause of our light feet."

        "Why would they put your name on their stone, I wonder?"

        "Some kind of directions, I guess," said Dranjel. "They had lots of us Loopers working on these streams back here behind their sidroig, building and damning and moving cargos."

        Simone traced a letter with her forefinger. "But how did they get you to work for them?"

        "They made us slaves," Dranjel answered lightly.

        Simone pulled back her hand.

        "Oh, not all of us, of course. But some unlucky ones got caught and chained."

        "But we Loopers were lucky, really," added Korbera. "The humans hunted the Lusettas for their plumes."

        "Anyway, that was hundreds of years ago," said Ilbee, reaching out a forepaw to stroke Simone's slippered foot. "We've all been safe and happy for ever so long."

        "Yes," said Simone, "with your thirty days work a year, and your fishing and exploring and--doing what we're doing right now. I mean, when you float back into shady places and watch the reflections on the water. I used to do this on the cemetery pond at home. Is there a Kreenspam word for it?"

        "We call it om-jebbelsa," said Dranjel.

        "Scattering time upon water," Simone translated to herself. "And you've done millions of hours of it over the years. That's good. Let's om-jebbelal all afternoon."

        They did return to Ruin just before supper, and Simone endured a stern lecture from Mald on the subject of an empress' dignity, responsibility, and above all, safety. After eating, she took a walk within the walls, enjoying the antics and conversation of the Loopers. As she scanned the crowd, she caught a glimpse of an unusual creature seated among them, a largish thing, robed, ugly, and with hide plucked naked except for a shock of hair on top of its head. But this impression was just for a moment. She looked again and saw it was a human. 'So that's how we look to them,' she thought.

        As she approached the man, he stood and bowed to her, and began speaking in Gellene. "Your Eminence, I'm Demee of Ursala," he said, his gray eyebrows wagging. "I've come to welcome you to the Forest on behalf of the humans. In a few days you'll be coming to my brother Arrez's iron house upriver, and we hope to provide you hospitality."

        "That'll be fine," Simone said, remembering that an iron house, or sidroig, was a sort of castle. "That is, I mean, if it's cleared by Misar Mald. I'm going by his advice."

        "Of course, your Eminence. You are young, and Mald is known everywhere as the best of counselors."

        Simone was temporarily tongue tied. She found Sarrs so much easier to talk to. She wanted to ask this mature gentleman what she should do.

        "Well, what's this Council?" she blurted out. "What am I supposed to do there?"

        Demee looked at her with soft, gray eyes and grinned. He leaned nearer to whisper, "If you don't know, don't tell anybody. They all think you have the answers."

Chapter 7 The Iron House of Ursala 

        Athlaz was more nervous than before a philosophy examination, more excited than before battle. He went to the window grating again and confirmed that the boats had docked. Yes, he could just make them out in the dusk, though they showed no lights for fear of attracting Fijat Killers. Inwardly, he cursed his upright decision to take his regular turn in the vigil room at the top of the sidroig. Everyone else would be greeting her, while he and a few others kept the necessary watch, alert for unwanted visitors from the Vulture's Forest.

        He heard footsteps on the suspended platforms and stairways below him and, looking down through the iron grid that formed the floor of the room, saw his sister ascending through the midst of the sidroig, passing lamp after lamp. He thought she looked absurdly pretty and mature in her formal blue gown and braided hair style, worn for this special occasion. At least she ran like a twelve year old.

        Before long she was beside him, huffing and puffing, but not too spent to chatter. "Oh, Athee, I've seen her! She came off the boat with Uncle Demetrius, but she didn't say anything. Everyone said she was too tired from traveling constantly--straight through from Ruin, they say. And she's so young! You wouldn't believe it. Athee, I'm going to get to stay in her tent tonight as one of the ladies in waiting, and not even Mama will do that. Do you know she isn't even really pretty? And inhumanly tall. What else do you want to know? I'm so sorry you can't be down there. Why didn't you make one of the guard take your place?"

        "Because it wouldn't be fair, Ruthee."

        "Well, who cares about fair when you're the Master's son and there's an Empress in the house? What shall I tell you about her?"

        "Nothing, really. Maybe I'll see her in the morning."

        "I'll see her all night. It isn't fair. I'll tell you what, why don't you slip down and take a look at her before she goes up to her tent? I'll stay here and watch. It's all right, you know nothing's going to happen."

        "Papa will see me."

        "No he won't. He's distracted with all the luggage and directing of traffic. Just try to hunch down so you don't tower over everybody. Go on, hurry!" She pushed him.

        "Thanks, Ruthee." Athlaz kissed her on the top of the head, turned, and raced down toward the lower levels. He pounded along on narrow catwalks and down one suspended stairway after another. When he reached the second story, however, he paused, standing about twenty feet above the ground floor, his hand on a pipe-rail. He looked down through the open grid floor at a large reception area near the front gate, now full of crowds of Ursalans milling around.

        And there she was. High backed wooden benches were located inside the gate for the repose of travelers, and many men were sitting on them, only one woman. She was actually quite close beneath him, and so well illumined by the many oil lamps on stands that he could read her features. Curiously, no one seemed to be paying any attention to her, nor she to anyone. His father Arrez was conferring with prominent men, while others attended to a great deal of baggage which was being transferred up a wall-stair to the levels above. He could see the lamps of some of the carriers far above him within the iron house's dome, as they slowly ascended in the airy, wall-less interior. It was a moment of reorganization and the Empress was left to herself.

        Feeling almost like a burglar, Athlaz slipped down the last stairway to the ground floor, and very close now. She was indeed young, he saw with disappointment, no older than himself. Wrapped in a cloak against the cool evening, she sat straight and impassive, her hands in her lap. He read strength of character in her face, and inner resolve. Maybe her youth did not matter, he thought. It might take some years for her to fulfill the prophecies, anyway, bringing peace and glory to the Fold.

        As he watched, the Empress slumped against the bench, closed her eyes, and yawned a large yawn. And that was all it took. In that moment, Athlaz' heart was lost. She was revealed as human; a breathing, living girl with a heart that beat and soft hair on her shoulders. Even as he thought this, and without considering, he strode nearer. She looked up and, realizing that he had seen the yawn, belatedly lifted a hand to her mouth. Then Athlaz too was embarrassed and, somehow managing to become interested in a conversation nearby, he sidled away. Still, he kept catching glimpses of her over other people's heads. It made him ridiculously happy that she was not moving about, that he could look at her as often as he dared. He cared nothing now for the prophecies about Simone. What she would do was not of the slightest interest to him, only who she was.
 

        Like a castle? Indeed not! At the door of her roomy tent Simone looked out at the interior of the iron house and mentally scolded whoever had translated 'sidroig' as 'castle' in her Gellene dictionary. No, it was more like a birdcage. The morning sun flooded in through immense, grated windows, making criss crosses on the tent walls. Looking down to the ground far below her, she was confirmed in her impression of the previous night that all the floor levels were also iron gratings, as were the stairs and the few interior walls. As for the exterior walls, they were solid enough, made of massive stones that met in a dome above (so that it was almost igloo shaped). But their gridiron windows were so large that, though all was firmly enclosed, one had the feeling of being outdoors.

        Indeed, the sidroig was not made to keep weather out, but rather to exclude the Vulture's creatures. She had already seen, when she