Victims of Nimbo Read online

  As the girls finished their meal, Abbey asked curiously, “How do you get fish if you don’t go down to the ground?”

  “I will show you.”

  They followed Enid across a series of platforms and finally came to one that had no structure on it at all. The platform was very small, no more than ten feet square.

  “Now I will show you,” she repeated.

  Enid picked up a small line and with a hook on one end. From a bucket she took a piece of raw meat and baited the hook. A little stone was tied above the hook, likely to give some stability. “This is what we do,” she said. She knelt at the side of the platform.

  Sarah sat down abruptly, not daring to stand long on such a precarious perch. Then she and Abbey edged forward and watched as Enid lowered the line. Far beneath was a small stream. They watched the girl maneuver the line until it disappeared into the waters.

  Enid held the line out to Sarah. “Would you like to try your luck?”

  Sarah took the line and held onto it awkwardly. She had always enjoyed fishing but had never experienced anything like this.

  “Sometimes we have good luck and catch a big fish. But usually they are very small,” Enid admitted.

  Before long there was a tug on the line, though, and Sarah yelled, “I got one!” She jerked the line abruptly and felt the weight of the fish. It was evidently fairly large. She began pulling it in, hand over hand.

  Abbey was cautiously peering over the side. “You’ve got one all right, Sarah! Pull him up!”

  Sarah’s heart was thumping as it always did when she caught a fish. Finally she brought her catch up to where Enid could reach down, grab him by the jaw, and flip him over. “Oh, this is a nice one!” she cried. “He will feed a lot of us!”

  Enid struck the fish sharply over the head with a stick, and he lay still. Then she took a knife out of a small box built on the side of the platform and expertly dressed the fish out. She set aside part of it—for bait, she said—then held up the large fillets. “We will divide this among some who need it.”

  “Is that the way you usually do? Divide things?” Abbey asked curiously.

  “Oh yes. There are many poor widows here who are unable to take care of themselves. And small children too. I will show you what we do.”

  The next half hour was an eye-opener to both girls. Enid went from house to house, at each one cutting off a small portion of the fish. Some of the women they visited were quite old, and other houses had small children. But everywhere they went, the women seemed grateful. They would express their thanks to Sarah as soon as Enid told them that she had caught the fish.

  Sarah was made thoughtful by all this. When they went back to their house, carrying very small pieces of the fish for their own supper, Sarah said, “That was very kind of you, Enid.”

  “No, we just take care of each other here. All of the women do.” She looked worried for a moment and said with a frown, “And I didn’t think—we should have taken half of the fish to the king.”

  “No,” Abbey said suddenly. “He’s got plenty of servants to catch fish for him. Those women don’t have anybody. Doesn’t he ever feed them?”

  “My father actually is a very kind man. But he has many things on his mind.”

  It was an admission that King Celevorn did sometimes fail to take care of his less able subjects. Sarah noted that and determined that somehow things would have to be different. “Tell me more about your father,” she said.

  “The king is a good man. He has had only seven wives in his whole life.”

  “Seven wives!” Abbey exclaimed.

  “Uh … what happened to the women?”

  “My mother is the only one left alive. Her name is Ione. She is the first woman of the king now.”

  After Sarah listened to Enid explain the system, she said, “It’s like Anna and the King of Siam”

  “Who is that?” Enid asked.

  “It’s a story about a king who had many wives all at one time, and they were all frightened of him. And a woman went to the king’s court and convinced him that women were truly important and should not be treated that way.”

  “My father, the king, would never believe that!”

  “You never can tell until you try, Enid,” Sarah said firmly.

  They spent the rest of the afternoon with the young woman. It was getting late when they heard a strange cry. It was a wailing sound, full of distress and heartbreak.

  “What’s that, Enid?” Abbey gasped, her face paling.

  “It is not good news. I fear another one of our people has been taken.”

  Enid led them to where a crowd was gathered. There a woman sat with her hair thrown in front of her face. She was rocking back and forth and great sobs shook her body.

  “What is it?” Enid said, going over to her.

  “They have taken my Romi.”

  “Romi is taken by the Earth Dwellers?” Enid cried with a gasp.

  “He went down to look for food, and they took him. I saw it myself. They took him away. He will be a slave forever—or else he will be sacrificed to Nimbo.”

  At once Sarah said, “Is it a child? We will go down and take him back.”

  “You cannot do that.”

  Sarah turned to see Teanor standing behind them, his face stern. “The Earth Dwellers are already gone. You would never find them, and even if you did, you would be captured, too.”

  “We can try!” Sarah cried. “You can’t just let one of your people be kidnapped without doing anything!”

  “That is why I came to you for warriors!” Teanor snapped. “But I got only weak females!” He turned and stalked off, his back straight with anger.

  For a time Sarah watched Enid try to comfort the mother. But finally she and Abbey went back to their guesthouse. It was getting dark, so they quickly rekindled the small fire, being very careful to use as little wood as possible. They managed to fry the remaining bits of fish, and they ate another tomato apiece.

  “What I wouldn’t give for a big fat hamburger as big as a washtub.” Abbey sighed. They had eaten everything and knew there would be nothing else until the next day.

  Sarah’s own stomach was far from filled. She said, “It must be awful to live like this. These are small people and very strong, but they don’t get much to eat. Not a balanced diet, I’m sure.”

  “Sarah, let’s go down tomorrow, and we’ll kill a deer or something. I’m not as good a shot as you are, but we ought to be able to do something like that.”

  There were no candles, and the girls could not afford to burn firewood. Their only illumination was the silvery moonlight that came through the open windows. So there was nothing to do after dark but go to bed. They had just a thin covering, and the air was very cool, so both decided to sleep in their clothes in order to keep warm.

  Sarah was exhausted. Still, all that they had seen kept her awake. After a while she broke the silence and said, “Are you awake, Abbey?”

  “Yes. Can’t sleep.”

  “Neither can I. This is an awful place!”

  “It’s worse in some ways than places filled with monsters. I feel so sorry for the women and the children here.”

  “The boys have it pretty easy.” Sarah’s voice was tinged with bitterness. “It’s not a whole lot different from where we just came from.”

  “Oh, Sarah! Don’t be silly. Of course it’s different. Are you still mad at Josh?”

  Actually Sarah was ashamed of herself. She knew that she had been unjust to Josh and the other boys, but she stubbornly refused to admit it. She changed the subject abruptly. “Did you notice how Enid looks at Teanor?”

  “Oh yes. I saw that right away. She’s crazy about him.”

  “And he doesn’t know she’s alive!” Sarah snapped. “I’d like to pull his hair out.” Now she was cross again.

  A breeze kept blowing, making a moaning in the tops of the trees. Finally she did drift off, but she slept restlessly.

  Sarah heard a footstep, and th
en a voice said, “Are you awake?”

  She sat up at once, reaching for the knife that she always kept handy. She was groggy with sleep, but she said, “Yes. I’m awake.” Then she realized that was Enid, waiting for permission to enter. “Come on in, Enid.”

  “I have brought your breakfast,” the young woman said shyly. She held in her hand a small wooden bowl filled with fruit. “These are very good melons. I grew them myself.”

  By this time, Abbey was awake. The two girls washed their faces, using a small basin, then brushed their hair, tied it back, and sat down to breakfast.

  Enid had brought them a small melon each and a bunch of grapes. It was not much, but the melons were indeed delicious.

  “These are so good,” Abbey said. “And you grew them yourself?”

  “Everyone likes my melons. I can never grow enough of them. Most of them go to my father, of course—for his table.”

  Sarah almost spoke out about that, but she didn’t. Instead she said, “This is certainly the best melon I’ve ever eaten in NuWorld. It must be a lot of work to grow anything up here.”

  “It is. We have to haul up fresh soil, and we have to be sure the platforms are not rotten. Last year six of our people died from falling through bad platforms. But only five of them were women.”

  “Only five! Well, that’s wonderful!” Abbey muttered. She took a bite of juicy melon and wiped her chin as the juice ran down. “I wish you’d stop putting women down, Enid.”

  Enid did not understand this at all.

  “She means don’t say, ‘Only women!’” Sarah urged. “One of the things we’ll have to teach you is that women and girls are just as important as men and boys.”

  Enid looked around as if she were afraid someone would hear such talk. “Please! You must not talk like that. If anyone heard it, it would cause trouble.”

  “I don’t care,” Sarah said. “Look at you. You’re a beautiful girl, and you’re in love with Teanor, aren’t you?”

  “In love? What does that mean?”

  Both girls looked at her with shock. Then, “You don’t know what it means to be in love?” Abbey exclaimed.

  “What does it mean?”

  Both Sarah and Abbey tried to explain what courtship was. But it was a hopeless situation. Enid seemingly could not grasp it.

  Finally she asked with a puzzled look on her face, “So in your world a young man will come with gifts and sing songs just in order to get a female to be his?”

  “Yes,” Sarah said firmly. “And that’s the way it could be here.”

  “No. That will never be! All a man has to do if he wants a female, is simply to tell the king. And the king, if he likes the man, will give her to him.”

  “You’re not a piece of fish to be given away!” Abbey cried. “Don’t you see that, Enid?”

  The two girls struggled on but seemed to make little headway. Finally Abbey threw up her hands. “This is going to be harder than I thought.”

  “Yes, it is,” Sarah agreed.

  Enid kept looking at the two girls with wonder. “It must be very different from where you come from. I can’t even imagine such a place. And Teanor would never think of me as an equal. All he would do is allow me to serve him.”

  Well, we’re going to change that, Sarah thought but did not speak it.

  All that morning, the girls wandered about Cloud Land. They were amazed at the way the Cloud People had adjusted to such a strange environment. They grew their own vegetables, and they also raised a small number of birds kept in cages. They were like pigeons, only larger. These they used for food. They also had small herds of goats, which they used for milk and which they slaughtered from time to time for fresh meat.

  They both noticed that none of the men did any work at all. The women cared for the vegetables, killed the birds, did the cooking, and washed the clothes.

  “Maybe we’ll free some slaves while we’re here,” Sarah said with determination. “We’re going to try.”

  It was later in the day when Teanor came along. “The king will receive you.” He looked over toward Enid, who nodded her head and curtsied to him. “Hello, Enid,” he said. “Our clothes need washing.”

  “Yes, Teanor. I will see to it.”

  “Did you ever think of washing your own clothes, Teanor?” Abbey asked, staring at him.

  “Men don’t wash clothes. Women do that,” Teanor said. “Come along.”

  Sarah was seething inside but knew that this was not the time to argue.

  Teanor ushered the girls to the palace, and soon they were standing before the king and Prince Jere.

  “The men have not come,” the king said accusingly.

  “It’s a hard journey, sire,” Sarah said quickly. “And the way is new to them. But I have decided that we will not wait for them.”

  At that, King Celevorn gave her a puzzled look. “What will you do?” Sarah had formulated a plan the previous night as she lay tossing on her mat. She had thought it over this morning and decided that something had to be done at once. There was no way to know when the boys would come back from their hunting trip, and there was no way to know how long it would take them to follow the twisted path that led to the city in the clouds.

  “I have decided to go to the Earth Dwellers myself.”

  The prince gasped, and then he shook his head. “You can’t do that, Sarah. They will make a slave out of you!”

  “Or else sacrifice you to Nimbo,” the king said sternly. “Whatever possessed you to think of such a crazy thing? Just like a woman!”

  Sarah felt her face flush. She wanted to spit out something in anger but managed to control herself. “I’m going to talk to Chief Maroni. We don’t know that he won’t listen to reason.”

  “Reason? That man knows nothing of reason!” Celevorn exclaimed. “The way I understand it, he is totally under the power of Nomus, the high priest.”

  “He used to be a good man from all we hear,” Prince Jere admitted. “But that priest has put a spell on him.”

  “In any case, it would be suicide for you to go,” the king snapped.

  Sarah drew herself up to her full height. “I am the servant of Goél. He has sent us into dark and dangerous situations before, and he has never failed us.”

  “Goél is not here!” the king exclaimed.

  “But I am here, and I am his servant! I will leave at once. If you would make me a map so that I may find the village of the Earth Dwellers, I would appreciate it.”

  King Celevorn eyed Sarah as if she had lost her mind. “You will not need a map,” he said bitterly.

  “Why not?”

  “Because you will be caught by their sentinels. Don’t you understand, girl? We rarely dare go down from the trees anymore for fear of being caught. They cannot climb the trees, and that is all that saves us. But once one of our people falls into their hands, they are dead to us.”

  Sarah Collingwood’s courage sometimes faltered, but it did not now. She lifted her chin and said, “King Celevorn, I will show you that a female has courage. I will leave at once, and we will see what a girl can do.”

  Jere grinned broadly. “I shall write a song about that.”

  Sarah knew a sudden moment of panic, but she carefully concealed it. “I will leave at once,” she repeated. “As soon as I have checked my weapons.”

  After the two girls were gone, the king muttered, “It will be the Six Sleepers from now on.”

  “You think the other one will not go with her?”

  “She didn’t say anything about that, so I doubt it. Well, we can do nothing but wait for the warriors to arrive. After all, she’s only a girl.”

  7

  The Trail

  Sarah—Abbey? Where are you?”

  Josh entered the house eagerly, calling for the two girls as he came. The boys’ trip had taken longer than he had thought it would. Still, it had taken him almost four days just to get over his irritation with Sarah. He had not slept well, either, because his problem with
her was troubling him.

  On the way back, he’d even said to Wash, rather shamefacedly, “I haven’t been very wise about this trip, Wash. We should never have left the girls alone.”

  Wash nodded. “I agree to that,” he said. “Besides, I hate to see you quarreling with Sarah. You two are the oldest friends of any of us.”

  So as Josh burst into the house, he was firmly determined to apologize, something always hard for him. But only silence greeted his calls.

  The others filed in, and Reb said, “They’re not here? I wonder where they can be.”

  “Out hunting, probably,” Dave said. “Or maybe washing their hair down at the brook.”

  Jake, however, saw a piece of paper tacked to the wall. “It looks like they left us a note,” he said. “See what it says, Josh.”

  Josh crossed the room and plucked the paper from the wall. He did not read it at once, though, for he was looking at a second paper that was tacked under it. “Why, it’s a map,” he said.

  “A map of what?” Dave asked.

  “Don’t know,” Josh said. “Let me read the note.” He read it aloud:

  After you all left, Goél and a young man called Teanor arrived. Teanor is from the Cloud People. They are having terrible problems, and Goél wants us to go help. You are not here, and Teanor was determined to go back. We are going to accompany him, and we are leaving you a map. Come as quickly as you can.

  Sarah

  “Well, ain’t that a pretty come-off!” Reb groaned. “Those girls off on some kind of adventure to someplace we never heard of—and without us.”

  Josh’s conscience struck him hard then. “We should have been here,” he muttered grimly. “It’s all my fault.”

  “Where is that place that they’ve gone to?” Dave asked.

  “The Cloud People. Let’s see if we can make any sense out of this map.”

  He lay the other paper flat on a table, and the boys all gathered around it. They studied the map, trying to understand it, and finally Reb exclaimed, “That trail’s as crooked as a snake!”

  “It sure is.” Wash had a worried look on his face. “It goes through all kinds of woods. How we going to follow this?”