Episode 57

 

 

 

Garm found himself being more excited at seeing Gennetta than he thought he would be. Though they were fond of each other they only met once in a blue moon. They hadn’t done any kissing since those early days and their relationship had settled into a fond friendship. Garm still liked her very much, but she’d never given him any encouragement in the romantic department, and seeing he wasn’t a forward sort of fellow, their love life (such as it had been) fell by the wayside. Still he found himself hurrying his footsteps, eager to get there.

‘Got to be careful though,’ he thought to himself. The Rider had a fearful reputation for tracking down runaways. He had spies everywhere, constantly patrolling the borders of the slum city. He also had a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Garm felt particularly vulnerable out here in the open. He felt like everyone could see him, but he couldn’t just head straight for the mountains because of the honey-trap-trees bordering the valley’s edge. He had to skirt round them for another twenty miles at least before he could hide himself in the foothills.

He mused to himself while he walked. Things had definitely changed. The Seesh knew he was sympathetic to the humans now and it was becoming too dangerous for him to go back to his old job. He also suspected that the Seesh knew all about his contact with the cave-women and that meant he too had become a refugee and would probably have to hide in the caves from now on. His heart skipped a little beat at the thought. Gennetta had been the first woman he helped escape, and he felt a bit sentimental about her. He wasn’t bringing her good news though. He knew she was fond of Earthlings and he knew she was going to be very upset that this group were already in the hands of the Seesh. He wondered too whether Eric the Ore-miner knew them, but he doubted that. There was something like fifty billion Earth people so the chances were slim.

Garm stooped to pick a fruit and slowed his pace thoughtfully. What the Seesh was planning seemed outrageous given the numbers involved. To get rid of all those humans for a handful of Ahram seemed absurd. What made the Ahram more worthy of surviving? Who was to judge? The human civilization was so much more advanced than theirs. Sure, Ahram had the bones…but the bones relied on the power of hundreds of thousands of women doomed to sleep deep underground for all eternity. The Seesh had assured him that things would change once they had a proper planet to live on, but Garm wasn’t so sure he would surrender his power all that easily. But what else could they do? Just sit and wait for the end? The valley was dying; that was sure. He’d already seen signs of it just in his lifetime: lowering temperatures at night, heat waves during the day, patches of desert beginning to form like blight amongst the greensward. But how could they in all conscience justify their continued existence when it was to be built on the blood of so many other creatures…even human creatures, whose penchant for war and annihilation was well documented.

Garm came to himself with a start as he realized he had stopped walking and was gazing into the distance as he pondered these problems, much the way he used to do when thinking or writing in his library at home. It struck him that there would be no more parchments…no more writing, or conversing with colleagues on the riddles of the universe. He was an outlaw now. No more time for daydreaming.

 

He was quite surprised that it took him so long to find the entrance to the cave. There had been a moment of panic when a seemingly new boulder had blocked his way; blocked what he thought was the entrance. But the landscape had changed around here so much that nothing was familiar anymore and he had to backtrack for a few miles before he finally found the real entrance, very much overgrown.

When he entered the caves it struck him how cold and damp and dark it was and felt a pang of conscience for the girls having to live their whole lives in here. He had brought his own portable bonecraft light that helped to keep away the chill but even so, the decrease in temperature slowed his metabolism down and he was forced to ease up his pace. The passages looked like they hadn’t been used in years and he began to worry if the women even travelled these old tunnels anymore. It wasn’t long however before he got that familiar feeling of being watched.

“Gennetta? Shim?” He called out to let them know that he wasn’t an intruder. “It is me. Garm.”

A girl he didn’t recognize stepped out of the shadows and beckoned him to follow her.

 

His meeting with Gennetta was a bit of an anti-climax. The actual meeting was not as exciting as the anticipation of it. She looked different to the picture he held of her in his head. She looked older…and wiser. She kissed him on the cheek in a sisterly sort of way and gave him a very warm, welcome hug.

“Art thou well?” she asked, still holding his hands in hers. “I have missed thee and thy company.”

“I am well thanks, though a little troubled in mind.”

“Ah. That means it is bad news?” She indicated to a bone bench with cushions on it. “Please sit. Wouldst thou like to eat first or tell thy story?”

“I am sorry to be so unmannerly but my story cannot wait. Already it might be too late.”

“That doth not bode well.”

And that’s when Eric walked in. Garm knew of Eric’s existence and had more or less been prepared for meeting him sooner or later. What he hadn’t been prepared for was the way Gennetta smiled at Eric when he entered the room. Garm’s world turned upside down as Eric leant over and gave Gennetta a kiss on the cheek. The feeling between the two was as tangible as treacle.

When Eric entered the room he only had eyes for Gennetta, and assumed that the other person in the room was another female. When he finally noticed Garm he got the shock of his life. It was quite something to walk in and find your (naked) girlfriend entertaining a naked man. Not only that but it was also the first male Ahram he had ever seen and his hackles rose like a dog.

“Come sit here next to me,” said Gennetta to Eric, pretending not to notice the tension between them and patting the seat next to her. Garm noted with painful precision how her eyes glowed and glimmered and followed him around, and the way she laid her hand gently on his arm almost drove Garm through the roof of the cave. The two men never took their eyes off each other.

“Let me introduce thee,” she said in English. “Garm, this is Eric. Eric…This is Garm. He is the one who helped me escape from…from the Seesh’s captivity.”

“Hi,” said Eric stiffly, and stretched out to shake Garm’s hand. Garm, for all that he tried, couldn’t move a muscle. His emotions were at such odds with each other that his snout was turning bright green from the turmoil inside him.

Finally he managed to shake himself out of his seizure and said stumblingly, “I er…welcome,” and belatedly stuck out his hand.

‘What is going on with me? Surely I am crazy to be jealous of a human?’ thought Garm. He tried telling himself that she was merely being extra nice to Eric because of his terrible situation; but there was no escaping the intimate smiles and gestures that she lavished upon him. Garm felt his heart hit rock bottom. She was in love with Eric, and Eric was obviously in love with her. He could see that all too plainly. When Gennetta finally turned to look at Garm he saw that she considered him only as a dear old friend, nothing more. There was no spark, no lightning in the air as there was between her and him.

“He is very fortunate that thou rescued him,” said Garm in Ahramese.

“Indeed. He has recovered well from his ordeal.”

Garm was painfully aware that she chose to speak English and realized he was being overly rude by trying to exclude Eric from the conversation.

“But please. What is this dire news that thou hast for us?”

Garm took a long sidelong glance at Eric and then began his story.

“Did thou know that very recently an Ahram patrol captured a group of humans in the forbidden zone and that they have been brought into the valley?”

It took Eric’s brain about three whole seconds to comprehend what Garm had said. He was so busy sizing him up as a potential threat that he was only half listening.

“Humans?” he exclaimed, rising off his seat at the same time. Then feeling a bit silly he sat down again. “A group of Humans?” he said.

“Yes,” said Garm, and looked at Gennetta for an answer to his question.

Gennetta paused for a very long time, not quite sure how Eric was going to respond to what she had to say.

“Yes,” she said. “We were aware that a group of Earthlings had been found.”

Now Eric looked at her in wonder, struck speechless by the turn of events.

“We even tried to rescue them as they were taken through the mountain tunnels,” she continued, casting an anxious sidelong glance at Eric.

Once again Eric took several seconds to digest this information and put two and two together.

“That…” he said, “that time…..the blood?” was all he managed to get out.

“When those girls were injured, yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want to worry thee. Thou needed to recuperate, to recover all thy strength. Had we succeeded in rescuing them, things would have been different,” she said, looking pleadingly into his eyes for him to forgive her. Eric looked at her for a long time, so long in fact that he lost the thread of the conversation and sat staring at her with vacant eyes. Garm could see that his spirit was no longer in the room. He looked more closely at this human and saw a strange cast to his visage. From his recent experience with the other humans he saw that something was not quite right with Eric. There were unusual dark markings on his face just under the skin, and green rings under his eyes that looked different from the others. He also noted for the first time that Gennetta’s ministrations towards him had a certain air of concern, as if she was worried about him.

“Where are they now? Are they well?” asked Eric, suddenly coming back to himself.

“They were well the last time I saw them, but the Seesh has them now.”

For a long time you could have heard a bone needle drop. Finally Gennetta gave a little sigh.

“Well, I suppose we had better start making plans.”

“What does that mean?” asked Eric, “…the Seesh has them? What is going to happen to them?” he asked, “and who are they? How many are there?”

Garm tried to swallow his dislike for this man and answered as politely as he could.

“The Seesh is our ruler. He has never before had to deal with humans so we do not know what he will do, but I believe it will not be pleasant for them. As to their number, they are five: three women and two men. One of the men is of a black colour, very large, almost as tall as an Ahram; and he is blind. I do not think it is a recent injury. I believe he has been blind since birth. They are all as healthy as can be expected after their journey. And I can add, they must be quite resourceful to have survived in the forbidden zone.”

“What is the forbidden zone?” said Eric, scratching some kind of irritation on his arm.

“It is a dead zone on the other side of this ring of mountains. Burning deserts by day and deadly ice flows by night. Nothing can live there. Here in the valley there is no ice. The bones keep a constant temperature and the mountains keep the ice out.”

“So what are we going to do?” asked Eric, hugging his arms across his chest as if to alleviate a discomfort.

It was then that Garm noticed the small but very noticeable ridges of reptile skin running down the back of Eric’s arms, the scaly green skin standing out starkly against his soft, pink human skin. The area immediately surrounding the growth was red and inflamed. This was what he had been scratching. None of the other humans as far as he could remember had displayed such growths.

Gennetta noticed his glance and said “It is a recent and worrying occurrence. I believe it is the effect of the Merwood we gave him for his fever.” Merwood was a medicine mainly given to children to stimulate their growth hormones and prevent diseases. It was obviously designed to stimulate reptile hormones by the looks of it.

“There is also evidence of growth down his spine and the backs of his legs.”

Garm’s mind was having trouble taking in the ramifications of this new development.

“The growths have ceased, or slowed down at least, since he stopped taking the Merwood, that is why we suspect it. Unfortunately he still needs it occasionally to alleviate the pain.”

 

A few weeks earlier, when the first signs had appeared, Eric had been shocked and frightened. He felt like he was being taken over from the inside by an alien growth, just like those old fashioned horror movies. He had to use all his will-power not to let his anxiety get out of hand. It had taken them a while to realize that it was the Merwood causing the growths. What was frightening was that it had probably altered his D.N.A. and he was as good as turning into an Ahram. He was stunned silly. It had been impossible to accept at first and his mind kept racing around like a dodgem car, trying to duck and dive away from the obvious facts. But there was no getting away from it; no way of waking up from this nightmare.

Normally Eric was a pragmatic man and not given to hysterics and emotional outbursts. More than most people - because of his profession - he was quick to accept adversity. It’s what kept him alive. But there were many ramifications he had to think about and deal with. For example, if the transformation was irreversible, how long would it take before he wasn’t human anymore, and what did that mean? Would the change be fatal to his system? Secondly, would his mind be able to withstand the shock of becoming an alien creature? Or would he go stark staring mad? He realized that the change was relatively slow so he would probably have time to get used to it and adapt, but still, it was a big leap for a human mind to take.

On the other hand, and on a lighter note, running round the back of his mind was a thought that was dying to be entertained - that if he survived the change, then he and Gennetta could….well….be together more completely….physically as well as spiritually. He took a long hard look at Gennetta and then at Garm. Would he like to look like that, like an Ahram? He guessed he wouldn’t mind so much because he wasn’t much of a looker anyway. But would Gennetta still love him once he had changed? And what if he turned into a really ugly Ahram?

Once again that faraway look came into Eric’s eyes and he sat without any awareness of his surroundings for many minutes. Garm just shrugged and carried on speaking.

“We need to talk about the humans,” he spoke purposely in Urghanese. “I fear the Seesh is going to sacrifice them to the worm.”

Gennetta just nodded her head somberly.

“He might. We can only hope that the Worm has no stomach for their flesh.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Eric, waking up and catching the last few words.

“We were talking about the Worm,” said Gennetta kindly.

“That doesn’t sound good. But I suppose you had better tell me.”

Gennetta sighed and clasped her hands together nervously.

“For thee to understand these things, I believe it is time for me to finish the story I have been telling thee. It will give thee a better idea of the plight of thy fellow earthlings, and perhaps in the telling there will occur to us some unseen solution or plan that may help us save them.”

The two men looked intently at her and she began.

“Remember I was telling thee about how the sun began to die and that we were on the very brink of extinction when the Great Dragon awoke to lay an egg which had so much power that it shone as brightly as a sun? Well, this new source of energy came just in time to save a large portion of the hibernating Ahram, who, as their world began to warm up, started coming back to life. For many thousands of years we prospered and multiplied as the baby dragon incubated within the egg and gave off a glorious light. Of course it would be many millions of years before the egg hatched so we were assured of sunshine and heat for a long time to come.” Gennetta paused for a moment.

“Then disaster struck for the second time.” Gennetta stared into space as if she was actually seeing the event unfolding.

“By pure chance a large comet, cutting across our solar system, collided with the egg. The egg was completely destroyed and the baby dragon inside was killed. It was an enormous catastrophe. With one stroke we lost our life support.” Gennetta clasped and unclasped her hands nervously.

“The comet, travelling at great speed and now imbued with supernatural power from the egg’s life-force, tore a hole in the universe and opened up a wormhole which by sheer chance came out in your galaxy back home, the Milky Way.

“Be that as it may, the effects of the egg’s sudden disappearance was devastating. Millions died during the ensuing ice age; others survived by retreating into the caves, or digging tunnels deep into the warm heart of the planet and only coming up every few months to feed, either on the bio-spores in the sand once the vegetation had disappeared, or to collect manna which now fell instead of rain.

“Of course, as it grew colder, we spent longer periods of time hibernating, and it was during these periods that we women became consummate dreamers. I do not know why the men could not do it; perhaps they lacked the discipline needed to concentrate for so long, or they did not have our womb connection to nature. We learned how to control our dreaming bodies and to travel anywhere we wanted to go. Humans call it lucid dreaming, or astral projection. Anyway we eventually travelled down the wormhole in our dreaming bodies and that was how we discovered the Earth and its people. We were very curious about these alien creatures and spent many years observing them.” At this she sighed and lapsed into silence.

“Ah, such happy and sad times. So little do I feel like recounting all this, but it needs to be told.” With a shrug of her shoulders she pulled herself together again. Looking up at them once more, she continued her story.

“We were particularly attracted to your places of worship, mainly because of the music and the singing. This to us was the most beautiful thing we have ever heard. We spent many, many years there and over time, we too learned to sing. We love singing now; it is the source of our power. Of course the sermons and the readings from the Big Book were equally as wonderful, especially the stories concerning angels. We often felt that the minister was talking about us in those ancient times. Maybe he was. But what pleased us much was the language used in the Big Book. That reverential way of speaking resembled most closely our own style of speech and struck a chord with us. We adopted many of the words and forms and that is why our English sounds a bit old fashioned to you. Anyway, it is no wonder that we sometimes spent more time on earth than we did back here, for there was nothing to do here except sleep.” Gennetta took a moment to pause and take a drink of water. The two men were looking at her with rapt attention. She took a deep breath and continued her story.

“In the meantime, the dead dragon-baby carcass, now freed from its egg-shell, orbited this world for many centuries like a grim reminder of our impending death until gravity finally did its job and it plunged to the ground. The impact of such a sizeable body raised a ridge of mountains around it and these created a little haven, blocking out the nightly ice-flows that ravaged our planet. Of course, once the corpse entered our atmosphere it began to decompose. But in this enormous rotting corpse was our salvation, for here was a source of food and warmth for the Ahram who started coming out of their hibernation and flocked to it in their droves. We literally lived inside the carcass. The flesh afforded us much needed protein and the residual energy in the bones kept us warm. It also began heating up the valley which encouraged the plant and animal life to return and to start growing again.

“There was one unexpected side-effect though. Feasting on the rotting flesh of the baby dragon was also a worm. It was just a normal worm, but because of the supernatural power of the dragon meat, it began to grow to huge proportions and started to threaten the lives of the Ahram living here. In fact it consumed quite a few of us before a plan was devised and the worm driven out into the forbidden zone beyond the mountains.

“So it was the bones that saved us. Those curved pillars in the valley that I showed you are the dragon-baby’s ribs…and the heat of its bones is what is keeping the valley alive.”

Gennetta paused to make sure that Eric was still with her and listening. His eyes were as big as saucers and nearly put her off her stride. But she coughed and carried on.

“But that is only part of the story. A great discovery was made, and like all great discoveries, they can either be used for good or for evil. An Ahram female discovered that the bones had more than just heat and light to offer. By accident she discovered that they contained immense power. She found that if she was in her dreaming body, she could make the bones do anything she wanted…fly….she could even make them fire bolts of energy. She began by levitating small pieces of bone at first, but soon found she could manipulate very large chunks. All she had to do was direct her intent with her song. She sang to the bones.” She paused and stared down at her hands for a while.

“Of course when the men tried to do this they failed for, as I told you, men cannot sing. But they wanted this power. They needed it because they knew the bones were not going to last forever.

“So the men set about devising a way to harness this new power that the women had discovered, and to fashion a spaceship that could take them through the wormhole to this planet that the women had found there - Earth. In the beginning the women agreed to help build and fly the craft, until they realized the men, and more precisely, the Seesh, had more sinister intentions. The Seesh, knowing that humans were a warlike race, did not believe that they would be willing to share their world with the Ahram and began to draw up plans for taking over the Earth by force. The females refused to go along with the scheme and stopped working on the project. They had come to like the earth people, often taking on human forms and interacting with them in their dreams, much as I do with thee,” she said with the faintest trace of a smile.

“Of course the men would not take no for an answer. They rounded up most of the women, many hundreds of thousands of them, and buried them in a deep underground cavern somewhere in the forbidden zone, where the freezing cold forced them into hibernation. A special bone was placed in the pit with them to ensure they could never leave it, even in their dreaming bodies. They were trapped, body and soul.”

“But why did they force all those women into hibernation?” asked Eric.

“It was a way that men could take the women’s power away from them. To facilitate this, as I said, a very special bone was buried with them. This is the key to the men’s power and again it was the women who discovered it, much to their own detriment. They found that this certain bone, the hyoid or singing bone from the throat of the baby-dragon, was like a magnet for dreams and could be used to store up dreaming energy. So in effect, the sleeper’s dreams (if they were close to this bone) were captured and stored in it. Once the men knew about this, and the fact that they could then use this energy to control the bones, it was the beginning of the end for the women.

“The men began harvesting the women’s dreams, and imprisoned their song in this bone. Then they fashioned two croziers from this self-same bone and these acted as conductors, or power conduits from the main hyoid bone, allowing the men to take control of the bones and make them do what they wanted. With these croziers they would be able to build and fly their space ship and power the weapons they had made for the destruction of humanity.” She paused again, as if debating whether to add a sidebar.

“Two croziers were fashioned. One black, one white. One positive, one negative. The Seesh would have liked to have had complete control but the power would not work without a balanced pair. Because his work was for destruction, the Seesh chose the negative, stronger force for himself. The other he relegated to the Rider, a cousin of his, inferior in every way and ultimately under the Seesh’s sway. He does what the Seesh wants and is little more than his left hand. He is encumbered with all the menial jobs like ensuring the workers give their best, and that the Breeding Dens are properly run.”

Gennetta paused to let all this sink in. Also it was such a depressing thought that she was left without energy to continue.

“But there is little left to tell, so I will finish quickly.” She took a deep breath and looked up at the two men.

“We have looked for these hibernating women for many years but have never found them. We have sent out patrols but all with the same result. Only the Seesh knows where they are and how to get to them. We built this flying egg of mine to help us search the wastelands, but still nothing. Myth has it that even if we found the women, and this is where we come to the gist of the story, there is no way we could help them escape because of the giant worm. Drawn to the emanating power of the dreamers, it has become the guardian of the women by the simple expedient of being given a virgin female Ahram as a monthly sacrifice, and that way the Seesh keeps it always in the vicinity of the sleepers.”

“And this will be the fate of the humans he has captured?” asked Eric.

“I fear so, for the women anyway, unless the Worm is only partial to reptile flesh….but I would not hold out too much hope.” With that she lapsed into silence again. The two men waited patiently for her to resume.

“Where was I…?” she began at long last. “Oh yes. Once, while searching for the women, we sighted the Worm and followed it in the hopes he would lead us to its lair, but it burrowed deep into the desert sands and disappeared underground. But as I said, we would not know what to do with them if we found them…never mind the problem of transporting hundreds of thousands of women through the desert.” Gennetta gave a little sigh. She started to say something and then stopped as if she had thought better of it. Then she started again, a bit hesitantly.

“There is an old myth that says a flute was once fashioned from this hyoid bone which had the power to subdue the worm, but no one has ever found it that we know of. Perhaps the Seesh has it.” She looked down at her lap and intertwined her fingers.

“The Warship is very near to completion now,” she continued. “They have had to work fast because the wormhole is closing. They have only a few moons left to make their attempt before it becomes unstable.”

She stopped for a while and looked around. “Not a happy tale, but one we have lived with for a long time now. Still we do not give up hope. Thanks to Garm we now have a way to fight back. By him giving us women freedom he has given us a chance to save your planet. But we are running out of time.”

“Can’t you sabotage the rocket?”

“We have tried but it is too big and we are helpless against the croziers. Their power is immense. The women here are too few, with too few weapons, and are no match for them,” replied Garm.

They all pondered this thought for a while and then Gennetta spoke.

“I presume thou shalt be staying with us?” she asked Garm.

“I would consider it a privilege to stay here and help thee with thy plans.”

“I am glad,” she said and smiled warmly at him. “But now I would like to rest. Perhaps I shall think more coherently when I am rested. Shim will show thee to thy room,” she said to Garm, and laying her hand on Eric’s arm, allowed him to lead her out of the room.

 

 

*

 

 

Gennetta slept and dreamed the deepest dream she ere had dreamt. Although she was aware, she had little control over the dream. It seemed some other force had hold of her.  She found herself high above the desert sands, drifting on the wind like a Batasaur, wheeling and calling to her soul’s echo.

Soon she espied a curious speck amidst the burning sands below and glided down to get a closer look. There she saw a house with a red shingle roof and a chimney, standing all alone in the middle of the desert. There was a lawn and a driveway, but no road for it to lead to. The red brick walls were unremarkable and the windows were wooden framed and painted white. Within a heartbeat she was standing outside one of them and looking in.

She saw a child’s room, beautifully furnished with bright colours and paintings on the wall, of animals and trees and children playing in the breeze. There was a little pink bed upon which was laid out a frock with pictures of strawberries placed around the hem and neck. All in all a captivating scene.

At first she thought the room was empty, and then she saw, upon the floor, a little girl seated and humming a happy tune. It was such a sight that made her smile, until a snake slithered over the window sill nearby and sidled up to the singing sibling.

“Aren’t you a pretty thing,” said the little girl, and stroked its shiny head.