Jerrel pulled a length of dark cloth from inside a container in the craft, fastened it to the top and bottom of our cavern. It stuck to where she put it without button or brace or tack or spike. The cloth was the same color as the tree we were in. I realized immediately, that at night, and perhaps in day at a decent distance, it would appear to be a solid part of the tree. We were concealed.
There were cloaks inside the craft’s container, red and thick. Jerrel gave Devel one, me one, took one for herself. She turned on a small lamp inside the craft. The source of its power I assumed was some kind of storage battery. It lit up the interior of our cavern quite comfortably.
Jerrel broke out some foodstuffs, and though I couldn’t identify what she gave me, except for a container of water, I lit into that chow like it was my last meal. For all I knew it was. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad, either.
Before long, Devel lay down and pulled his cloak over him and fell asleep. I was near that point myself, but I could tell Jerrel wanted to talk, that she was interested in me. She began with a few simple questions, most of which I couldn’t answer. I told her about the great ocean liner and what had happened to me, how I thought I might be in a dream. She assured me she was real and not a dream. When she laughed a little, the way she laughed, sweet and musical, it assured me my ears were hearing a real voice and that my eyes were seeing a strange and rare beauty.
Jerrel tried her best to explain to me where I was. She called the world she knew Zunsun. She took a slate from the craft with a marker, drew a crude drawing of the sun, then placed her planet two places from it. I knew enough basic astronomy to know she was talking about the planet we called Venus.
I learned there was only one language on Zunsun, and everyone spoke it, with varying degrees of accent according to region. I told her about the moon I missed, and she laughed, saying such a thing seemed odd to her, and it was impossible for her to grasp what it was I so sorely missed.
After a time, she opened the back of the sled and took out a large container of water. She also found a cloth and gave that to me to clean up with. I was nervous wiping myself down in front of her, but as she seemed disinterested, I went about it. Running water through my hair and fingers, wiping myself as clean as possible with what was provided. When I was nearly finished, I caught her eye appraising me. She was more interested than I had first thought.
I don’t know why, but Jerrel took me into her confidence. Had Devel been awake, I don’t know she would have. But I could tell she trusted me. It was an immediate bond. I have heard of and read of such things, but never believed them until then. Love at first sight was always a romantic writer’s foolishness to me, but now I saw the idea in an entirely new light, even if it was the light from a battery.
“Tordo has taken our half of the talisman,” she said. “The other half is in the city of the bird-men. Once it was whole, and its powers gave the bird-men a great advantage against us. Our people warred constantly against them. We had no real land to call our own. We moved among the trees, for we couldn’t defend ourselves well in a direct fight against the bird-men, not with them having both halves of the talisman and aided by wings.”
“Where does it come from?” I said. “What does it do?”
“I can only speak of legend. The halves have been separated a long time. One half was with our people, the other with theirs. It is said that in the far past the two tribes, weary of war, divided the talisman. This was not something the bird-men had to do, as they were winning the conflict, and we would not have lasted. But their warrior-king, Darat, felt we could live together. Against the advice of his council, he gave our people one half of the talisman and kept the other. Divided, it is powerless. United, it was a dangerous tool of war. No one remembers how it was made or of what it was made, or even what powers it possesses. When Darat died the tradition of peace carried on for many years with new rulers, but then the recent king of the bird-men, Canrad, was of a different mind. After many generations he wanted the lost power back.”
“And one of your people, Tordo, betrayed you?” I said.
Jerrel nodded. “He was a priest. It was his job to protect our half of the talisman. It was kept in a house of worship.”
“You worship half of a talisman?”
“Not the talisman. The peace it gives us. Peace from the bird-men, anyway. There are others who war against us, but they are less powerful. The bird-men could be a true threat. It surprises me that Canrad has taken this approach. The peace between us had worked for so long.
“What we are trying to do is stop Tordo before he delivers our half of the talisman. My father, King Ran, sent us. We did not want to alarm our people. We thought to overtake the thief swiftly, as we got news of his treachery immediately, Tordo’s and that of the lesser priest, the one who was with him in the flier. But it turned out Tordo was prepared for our pursuit. His actions hadn’t been of the moment, but were long prepared. He had the winged men waiting. An assistance given him by King Canrad. Tordo knows how my father thinks, knew he would try to catch him with as little alarm as possible by using a small force. He knew this because Tordo is my father’s brother, our uncle.”
“Betrayed by family,” I said. “There isn’t much worse.”
“We could go back and raise an army, but it would be too late. Two days and he will be in the city of the Varnin, and they will have both pieces of the talisman, and all of its power.”
“Seems to me, that being the case, you should have flown all night.”
Jerrel grimaced. “You may be telling the truth about being from another world.”
“You doubt me?” I asked.
She smiled, and it was brighter than the light from the battery. I melted like butter on a hot skillet.
“Let me show you why we do not fly at night. Why no one in his right mind does.”
She took hold of the cloth she had placed over the entrance to the tree cave, tugged it loose at one edge, said, “Come look.”
I looked, and what I saw astonished me. The sky was bright with the glowing insects, thicker than before. Their light showed me the sky was also full of great batlike creatures, swooping this way and that. They were the size of Conestoga wagons, but moved more lightly than the flying sled. They were snapping and devouring the shiny bugs in large bites, gulping thousands at a time.
“Fly at night, they will make sure you do not fly for long. We call them Night Wings. They rule the sky from solid dark until near first light, then they go away, far beyond the trees and into the mountains where they dwell.”
“This means your uncle has to stop for the night as well,” I said.
“Exactly,” she said. “When the Night Wings depart in the early morning, we will start out again, hope to catch up with them. They don’t have a tremendous lead, but it’s lead enough if they are able to arrive at the city of the Varnin and my uncle delivers the talisman.”
“Were you and your uncle ever close?”
“Close?” she said. “No. He was not close to my father. He felt he should have his place of rule. My guess is he hopes to do just that under the agreement of Canrad of Varnin. He would rather rule with a cloud over his head than not rule at all.”
“I would like to assist you. I have a good sword arm. I can help you stop your uncle. I pledge my allegiance to you.”
Jerrel grinned when I said that.
“I accept,” she said. “But Devel must accept as well.”
“That sounds good to me,” I said.
“For now, let us rest.”
We took our cloaks, stretched out on the floor of our wooden cave. I tried to sleep, and thought I would have no trouble, exhausted as I was. But I merely dozed, then I would awake thinking I was fighting the waters of the Great Atlantic, only to find I was indeed on Venus, sleeping in a tree, and sleeping not far away was the most beautiful and enticing woman I had ever known.