Part 14 (2/2)
He pushed harder, then leaned all his weight against the boundary.
”Here. Let me try.” Stepping up beside him, the black litah lifted a paw to expose five-inch-long talons, pointed like knives and sharp as razors. Claw and dig as he might, they made absolutely no impact on the wall. The litah could not even leave scratches. It was the same with the dark blue-green floor underfoot.
Having stood patiently by while his friends satisfied their curiosity, Ehomba now turned and once again headed off westward. A thoughtful, somewhat chastened Simna followed. He was not upset or uneasy: only curious.
It was delightfully cool within the corridor, with even the sun having acquired a blue-green tinge. The surface underfoot was smoother than the ground outside but not slippery: ideal for running. Only the absence of water concerned him. Their water bags were more than half full, but despite the containers he toted on his back, Ahlitah needed to carry drink for Hunkapa Aub as well. That portable source would begin to run out in less than a couple of weeks.
In response to his query, Ehomba a.s.sured him that he had no intention of keeping to the corridor for anywhere near that length of time. His sole intention in disappearing into it was to find a means of escape and a temporary refuge from the fire.
”What is this place, bruther?” Within the pa.s.sageway, voices acquired a deeper cast, reverberant and slightly echoing.
”I told you when I was looking for one.” The herdsman angled to his right. ”Careful, there is a bend here. We are in a tomuwog burrow.”
”Hoy, this is a burrow?” Looking to right and left, Simna could see clearly in every direction. The only difference from what he would have accounted as normal was that everything he saw was tinted varying degrees of blue-green. ”By Geletharpa, what is a tomuwog? I've never heard of such a creature, much less seen one.”
”You will not see one,” Ehomba told him. ”Unless you know how to look for them. They are difficult to track, even for the Naumkib. I am considered one of the best trackers in my tribe. There is no reason to hunt them, since they make poor eating. But in times of difficulty, their burrows can provide a place to hide. We were lucky.” He started to slow. ”Ah, this is what I was looking for. We can rest here awhile.”
A baffled Simna slowed his own pace to a walk. Try as he might, he could discern no difference in their surroundings, and said so.
As he took a seat and began to unburden himself of his weapons and pack, Ehomba smiled patiently.
”Stretch out your hands. Walk around a little.”
The swordsman proceeded to do so. To his surprise, he discovered that they had entered a blue-green chamber some twenty feet in diameter. The ceiling had also expanded, allowing poor Hunkapa Aub to straighten up at last. He stretched gratefully.
Simna found himself drawn to a seven-foot-wide zone of glistening aquamarine-tinted light. It formed a translucent mound that reached perhaps a fourth of the way to the ceiling. Extending a hand, he found that his fingers pa.s.sed completely through the phenomenon, as would be expected of something that was composed entirely of colored light.
”What's this? Some distortion in the corridor?”
”Not at all.” Taking his ease, Ehomba was unpacking some dried fruit from his pack. ”That is a tomuwog nest.” When the swordsman drew his hand back sharply, his lanky friend laughed softly. ”Do not worry. It is empty. It is the wrong time of the year.”
While Hunkapa Aub sighed heavily and stretched out on the floor, trying to work the acc.u.mulated cricks and contractions out of his neck and back, the black litah explored the far side of the enclosure. Realizing that he was hungry too, Simna rejoined his friend. Outside, beyond the walls of the enchanted chamber, blue-green antelope were methodically cropping blue-green gra.s.s, entirely oblivious to the presence of the four travelers conversing and eating not more than a few feet away.
”These tomuwogs,” the swordsman began, ”what do they look like?”
”Not much.” Ehomba gnawed contentedly on dried pears and apples. ”The tomuwog live in the s.p.a.ces between colors.” Mouth half full, he gestured with his food. ”That's where we are. In one of the s.p.a.ces between blue and green.”
”Excuse me, bruther? That doesn't make any sense. There is no s.p.a.ce between colors.” The swordsman's brow furrowed as he struggled with a concept for which he had no reference points.
”There's blue, and then there's green. Where and when they meet, they melt together.” He made clapping motions with his hands. ”There's no 's.p.a.ce' between them.”
”Ordinarily there is not,” Ehomba readily agreed. ”Except where the tomuwog dig their burrows. It is just a tiny s.p.a.ce, so small you and I cannot see it. Cats can.” He nodded to where the litah was still exploring the far reaches of the chamber, poking his head into bulges and side corridors. ”Ask Ahlitah about it sometime.”
”But this is not a tiny s.p.a.ce we have been running through, and are sitting in now,” Simna pointed out.
”Quite true. That is because it has been enlarged by one or more tomuwog to make a burrow.” He gestured with his free hand. ”As I have already told you, this is one of their nesting chambers. Tomuwog burrows are hard to see and harder to find, as you would expect of something that only occupies the s.p.a.ce between colors. I was hunting for one while the fire was closing in around us. As I said, we were lucky to find it.” Finis.h.i.+ng the pear, he started on a dehydrated peach.
”The walls of their burrows are very tough. They would have to be, or people would stumble into and break through them all the time.”
”And we've pa.s.sed these things before?” Simna made stirring motions in the air with one downward-pointing finger.
”Of course. They are not common, but are widespread. I remember a particularly large burrow from the mountains near Netherbrae, and one in the desert where we encountered the mirage of the houris. And there were a number of others.”
”By Guoit, why didn't you ever point one out to me, bruther?”
Ehomba shrugged. ”There was no need to. You would not have enjoyed entering them anyway. Most were warm burrows.”
The swordsman's expression twisted. ”There are different kinds of burrows?”
”Certainly. It depends which colors the tomuwogs are burrowing between. If red and yellow, which are hot colors and seem to be more common, then the burrow will be warm, or even scalding. If the blue is separated by black instead of green, then conditions inside the burrow can be extremely cold.” He smiled appreciatively. ”Blue-green is best, though it is still a little warm for running. A darker blue, more indigo, would have made for an even more comfortable refuge.”
Simna sat shaking his head in amazement and disbelief. ”To think that such wonders exist all around us, in every time and place, and want only the knowing of them to be seen and utilized.”
”Oh, there is much more, my friend. Much more.” The herdsman bit into a large, crunchy piece of preserved apple. ”The world is awash in marvels that most men never see. Usually it is because they are too busy, too hurried, to look. Looking takes time. One does not become a good tracker overnight.”
Simna nodded slowly. ”Or a good hand with a sword. In the learning of that, I bled a lot. It took me many years, many curses, and many cuts before I became proficient.”
”As does the acc.u.mulation of any worthwhile knowledge,” Ehomba agreed.
Tilting and turning his head, Simna took in more of the remarkable chamber. ”The corridor we came through was not large for a person, but pretty big for a burrowing animal. These tomuwogs must be of good size.”
”See for yourself.” Putting the remainder of his food down slowly and carefully, Ehomba nodded to his right. ”Here comes one now.”
XIII.
Simna paused with food halfway to his mouth. Sensing the approach of the burrow's owner, the black litah growled a warning as it moved off to one side. Eyes s.h.i.+ning, Hunkapa Aub put both hands together and murmured delightedly.
”Pretty, pretty.”
The adult tomuwog was bigger than any of the travelers, but it was only partially there. A glittering, roughly cylindrical shape, it entered the nesting chamber on noiseless feet of aquamarine light. One moment it stood out in sharp relief, the next it was reduced to a drifting cloud composed of splintered sapphires. With each step, portions of its supple, streamlined body slipped in and out of sight. Half solid, half illusion, it inspected them warily out of eyes that were pale blue mother-of-pearl.
It had a short tail that struck blue-green sparks from the air as it flicked nervously from side to side, and a narrow snout of a face that glittered as if faceted. Huge sparkling pads front and rear resembled flippers more than feet. The edges of these appendages caught the ambient light and bounced it back in clipped, prismatic jolts to the retinas of onlookers. The s.h.i.+mmering claws had to be sharp, Simna reflected, to slice a path between two colors.
Filtered blue-green light danced off the creature's flanks, so bright that from time to time the entranced intruders were forced to turn their faces away from so much brilliance and blink away tears. Simna found himself wondering what a tomuwog that inhabited the s.p.a.ce between red and orange might look like, or between purple and red. Certainly they would be no less colorful than the singular slow-moving one before them.
That the tomuwog was aware of their presence there could be no doubt. Twinkling eyes examined each of them in turn. Upset at their presence but apparently convinced they posed no immediate threat, it proceeded to haul itself over to the glittering, glimmering nest and settle itself atop the pile of carefully scavenged color.
Resuming eating, but slowly so as not to startle the placid creature, Simna leaned over to whisper to the herdsman. ”Where do they come from, bruther? Eggs?”
”I am not sure.” Observing the remarkable beast, Ehomba wore a satisfied smile. ”I believe they lay light. This light then matures according to the predominating colors within which it is brought up, and becomes a full-grown tomuwog. As I have said, they are shy creatures and difficult to see. They almost never wander outside their burrows.”
A sudden thought caused the swordsman to put down the remainder of his food. ”Hoy, what do they eat? Doesn't look like it has any teeth.”
”That is a real mystery, Simna.” In contrast to his hesitant companion, Ehomba had no trouble finis.h.i.+ng his food. ”No one has ever seen a tomuwog eating. I would not think there was much to eat between blue and green, but if my elders had not explained it to me I would not have thought there was much s.p.a.ce there, either. Perhaps they forage on little bits of wandering moonlight, or the motes we see dancing in a shaft of afternoon suns.h.i.+ne. Since no one knows what they eatwith, it is understandable that n.o.body knows what they eat.” Seeing the look on his friend's face, he added, ”Whatever it is, I do not think that people are a part of its diet.”
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