The Buttoned Sky

  CHAPTER IX

  And now the squire has trapped the Mink, And now he sets him free, And now the Mink is hunted down On hill and vale and lea.

  He pants and gasps, his legs grow weak, His eyes with sweat are blind; In squire's halloo and hound's mad bark He hears his death behind!

  --Ruck's Ballad of the Mind

  They took Revel to the top of a hill just behind Ewyo's mansion. He wasstripped to the buff, but on his feet were stout sandals of horsehide intriple thickness, so that he could run well and give them a good hunt.On the crest they untied him, and he stood naked in a ring of the horsedgentry, rubbing his wrists and glaring at them. Beside him were Jerranand the mutilated Dawvys, who both wore their customary shirts andtrousers.

  Running his eyes over the squirachy, Revel saw with a strange thrill ofhorror the Lady Nirea, on a deep-chested roan stallion, as cool anddistant as the moon ... and as beautiful, he thought bitterly. Well, buthadn't he had her? He, a rucker born had loved this woman of the gentry!Let her watch him die--small compensation that would be!

  He bowed to her. "May you be in at the death," he said clearly, and hadthe satisfaction of seeing her face go white.

  "Give the Mink his fangs," said Ewyo. The burly squire was all inscarlet silk and purple velvet, with white calfskin boots on his thicklegs. At his command, Rosk threw the tall rebel a belt with twoholsters, in which were thrust two short iron daggers. "By rights youshould go without, Mink," said Ewyo, "but it's more sport to chivvy afox with a bite in him. Now, you have till the count of three hundred."

  "Five hundred is customary," interrupted Nirea.

  "Three is plenty for the savior of the ruck. Hold your tongue, Lady." Heleaned over his steed's head. "Three hundred, Mink, and then we comeafter you. Your course is down this hill and straight away toward thesea. Don't try to escape the straight, either, because the hills arerimmed with guards who'll blow your guts out if you cross the line; andsome thousands of your slimy kin are clustered on those hills to watchtheir hero die." He nodded to the woman beside him, a blonde wench withvicious amber eyes. "Begin the count, Jann."

  The blonde said loudly, "One, two, three--" and at the third word Revelwas off, running like a slim brown stag down the slope of the hill.Behind him came Dawvys and Jerran. The little man cried, "Don't wait,Revel lad. Save yourself if you can. Remember you're the Mink!"

  "I wish to Orbs I wasn't," he growled, and hit the bottom, skimmed overa patch of raw rocks and struck the green beyond. As he ran he buckledthe belt around his waist, with a knife hanging on each hip. He had notexpected these, and though Ewyo thought he'd lose only a hound or two,Revel intended to take at least a pair of squires with him into theunknown....

  He was a fine runner. By the time Lady Jann had counted two hundred andfifty, he was half a mile down the straight, which was a belt of landsome quarter of a mile wide and twenty long, ending above the sea on acliff's edge. As the squire had said, he would not be able to break offthe straight, for guards and packed mobs lined it and a naked man wouldbe far too conspicuous heading toward them.

  Now he thought of his two comrades in ill fortune. Neither of them was arunner of any caliber. Should he wait and help them?

  Selfishness said _no_--and unselfishness said _no_, for wasn't his firstduty to the ruck, not to his friends? Didn't he owe it to humanity tosave himself? And besides, he was a lusty young buck, and didn't want todie.

  But he glanced back, slowed, waited till the two had come panting up tohim, and thrusting an arm around each waist, ran them forward with him,ignoring their protests.

  * * * * *

  They came to a coppice of elms, grown thick with brambles and clutteredwith deadwood. It covered perhaps an acre. Revel ploughed into it,cursing as the thorns stabbed his naked hide. Too late he realized heshould have skirted it. In the rare quarter-seconds when the brancheswere not snapping or the brush whipping noisily aside from theirprogress, he could hear the faint barking of the great hounds; even, hethought, the whoops of the excited gentry as they started down the hillon their fiery stallions. He pictured Nirea, her slate-hued eyesgleaming, her creamy skin aflush as she leaned forward eagerly for thefirst sight of the Mink. Damn her!

  Abruptly the earth slanted off to the right, so that Revel, who wasstill pushing Dawvys and Jerran, went headlong into a patch of nettles,losing his balance at the unexpected dip and shoving both companionsdown on their faces. Dawvys rolled, yelping at the pain of scratches onfresh wounds, then vanished with a howl. Revel crouched, staring,unbelieving. In a moment the head of the plump rucker came up out of theearth.

  "What in Orbs' names--"

  "It's a pit," said Dawvys. "It was covered with trash." His eyes werewide and frightened. "Go on, Revel. I can't run another step."

  The Mink thought swiftly. Dawvys was right, he could run no longer.Quickly Revel shoved the man's head down, threw several branches andbushes across the mouth of the pit, began to disguise it, talking as heworked.

  "Lie down and be very still, old fellow. Jerran and I will make enoughof a trail for the hounds to follow, and only bad luck will discover youto them. If we escape, we'll come back tonight for you." The pit wascamouflaged, looked like a mound of trash beside the trail. Revelmurmured a good-bye, and went plunging on through the coppice to theother side, Jerran following him nimbly with the strength of secondwind.

  Now they could truly run, for Jerran, though forty-two, was no antique;and Revel had the thews of a woods lion. The way before them was smooth,grass cropped close by the sheep of Ewyo, gently rolling mounds oneafter another so that skimming down one slope gave them impetus to dashup the next. A faint cheer came to them from the left. The ruck was ontheir side.

  Perhaps if I die well enough, thought Revel, my death may spark arevolt, and so count for something. He felt at the hilt of the irondaggers. Just give me Ewyo, he prayed to whatever higher powers theremight be; just let me have one thrust at Ewyo the Squire!

  From the crest of the highest hill he looked back, as Jerran sucked forbreath. The gentry were just topping a rise some half mile behind. Notbad! But the dogs were much closer. They had gone through the coppicewithout discovering Dawvys; now, with any luck, they never would.

  Revel ran on. His feet thudded on rock, slithered on grass, shuffledthrough the mire of a narrow swampland. Here trees slashed at him, therea woodchuck sprang out of his path and made him stumble with suddenpanic. His chest labored, drawing in air; his legs pumped and ached.Then he came to a river.

  It was some ten yards broad, with a swift current. He said to Jerran,"If we can make headway against that current, land up-stream on theother side, we may have a chance."

  The runty yellow man shook his head. "Look up," he gasped. Above themsoared a score of globes, plainly marking their position for the gentry.

  "The filthy schemers," growled Revel. "The foul cheats! They call this agame, yet 'tis as easy for them as it would be to shoot at us in a smallsealed room!" He bent down. "Get on my back, little one." Jerran climbedon, and Revel grasped his legs, told him to hang tight around his neck,and leaped into the river.

  Only thirty feet across, it was yet quite deep, and Revel sank like adropped rock. When the water above his head was so opaque that he couldnot distinguish anything save a dull mirky lightness, he struck outdownstream. For a full minute he swam with the current, then began torise, Jerran clinging weakly to his neck. The Mink thanked his Orbs--no,not them, but whatever brought him luck--that he was one of the fewruckers who had taught himself to swim....

  * * * * *

  He had gone farther by swimming than he might have running, for thecurrent was like a demon with a thousand legs, all speeding it on andcarrying him with it. His head lifted clear of the waters in the centerof the stream, and Jerran behind him broke into coughs and gurgles.Revel looked for globes, and saw them upriver, lifting and fallinguncertainly. He said, "Take a breath!" did so himself,
and sank again.This time he stayed under for the space he could have counted fifty,then rose again near the far bank.

  He was among trees, birch and poplar and evergreen, that grew to thewater's brink. He struggled ashore, carrying a limp Jerran, and fellwith his burden beneath a single giant oak, which sheltered him from thebuttoned, all-seeing sky.

  "Rest a while, Jerran. We've put plenty of distance behind us."

  Yet when he stood up and gave his friend a hand, five minutes later, hecould already hear the baying of hounds.

  A touch of panic threaded down his spine--not the panic that flared anddied when a woodchuck startled him, but the panic of any hunted creaturewho, do what he may, still hears the pursuers close behind him. Thesound of the howls told him the dogs had crossed the river. He lookedup, but saw no orbs. No dog scents a man two miles off. Who had betrayedthem? Or were the gentry presuming that they must have crossed?

  He broke trail for Jerran through a section that a great bear would havefound hard going, all vines and tough saplings and snake holes that sunkbeneath his sandaled feet. His body was by this time a hatched networkof pain and scarlet stripes, oozing blood.

  He had expected the mass of impeding vegetation to be a thin patch atbest, but it went on and on, and the trees thinned so that the sky wasopen above them. It was a matter of time only till the globes spottedhim. The hounds were louder. Once he heard the shout of a man, thin andhigh in the distance.

  At last he was on solid, uncluttered ground again. He looked down at hisskin, wondering if it would ever be smooth and whole again. His body hadbeen gouged, gashed, torn, disfigured.

  "Va-yoo hallo! Va-yoo hallo-lo-lo-lo-lo!" The terrible cry rang behindhim, and turning, he saw two horsemen cresting a hill to the side of thepatch of bad ground.

  Then it dawned on him how they had been followed; for behind thestallioned squires rose the hills, which bordered the straight huntingcourse, and on them showed small dots of color, the keen-eyed watchersof the gentry. No matter where he ran on this long narrow coursingground, there would be eyes upon him.

  At least the ravening dogs were not nearby. He picked up Jerran, tuckedhim under one arm, and dashed for the shelter of the evergreen woodsbefore him. The hoofs of the horses pounded behind. He dodged in amongthe pines, and the mournful call lifted--"Gone to earth! Go-ho-hon toearth!"

  "Damn you, put me down!" rasped Jerran. "Am I a child, to be carted likethis?" Revel dropped him. They skittered from tree to tree, and then acharging horse was on them, and Jerran was rolling aside, bleating withfear of the hoofs, while Revel turned and stood foursquare in the path.As the stallion all but touched him, he jumped aside, jumped back, sothat the head of the beast passed him but the rider was struck andclutched and hurled from his saddle, losing his trumpet-gun as he fell.The Mink was sitting astride him before he could bounce up, and tworuthless hands took him by the throat and tore out his jugular. Thesecond rider at that instant drew rein behind them, and lifted his owngun for a quick shot.

  Jerran hurled a rock. It took the squire on the head, spilled him out ofhis saddle, and the subsequent proceedings interested him no more.

  "Two guns, by Orbs!" crowed Revel, gathering them up. "And two horses!"He put a foot into the stirrup of the second one, but it shied madly atthe touch of a bloody, naked man; dashed forward, startling the other,and together they vanished among the trees. "Hell!" said Jerran, takingone of the guns; "nothing gained but two bullets, Mink."

  "Two bullets is two more slain squires. Come on!"

  * * * * *

  The evergreens gave out shortly, and they were in a valley channeled bysluggish rivulets and grown with noxious weeds and clumps of coarsegrass. Some distance away, a priest walked slowly, head bent, his doublescalp lock flopping down over the radiant blue-green robe. Above him,apparently in communion with him, hung a golden globe.

  Revel shifted his gun up and took aim at the orb. He must risk a shot,rather than a god's exposure of his whereabouts. The priest looked up,saw him, yipped in surprise, and the orb shot up ten feet just as Revelfired.

  One bullet wasted. Jerran fired as the echoes of the Mink's shotracketed away, and the priest crumpled in on himself, a glittering sackof dead meat.

  "You fool!" said Revel, with a brief, pithy anger. "The man I could havestabbed or broken in two. The sphere is beyond us now." It was slantingup an invisible incline, faster than he had ever seen one travel before."Come on," he snarled. "We've got to travel!" He threw away the uselessgun and ran for his life.

  Behind him, to left and then to right, rose the calls. Hoofs thundered,dogs baying out afresh as they sighted their quarry, and the valleyfilled with sound and horses, dogs and men. Over and over the callsrang, and the air above the fugitives was filled with watching gods.Revel ran as he had never believed he could run, and the calls, thecalls, the calls beat upon his eardrums....