Out of Time's Abyss
adorned! Therefore their wings must be mechanical. Thus Bradley
reasoned--thus most of us reason; not by what might be possible; but by
what has fallen within the range of our experience.
What he heard them say was to the effect that having covered half the
distance the burden would now be transferred from one to the other.
Bradley wondered how the exchange was to be accomplished. He knew that
those giant wings would not permit the creatures to approach one
another closely enough to effect the transfer in this manner; but he
was soon to discover that they had other means of doing it.
He felt the thing that carried him rise to a greater altitude, and
below he glimpsed momentarily the second white-robed figure; then the
creature above sounded a low call, it was answered from below, and
instantly Bradley felt the clutching talons release him; gasping for
breath, he hurtled downward through space.
For a terrifying instant, pregnant with horror, Bradley fell; then
something swooped for him from behind, another pair of talons clutched
him beneath the arms, his downward rush was checked, within another
hundred feet, and close to the surface of the sea he was again borne
upward. As a hawk dives for a songbird on the wing, so this great,
human bird dived for Bradley. It was a harrowing experience, but soon
over, and once again the captive was being carried swiftly toward the
east and what fate he could not even guess.
It was immediately following his transfer in mid-air that Bradley made
out the shadowy form of a large island far ahead, and not long after,
he realized that this must be the intended destination of his captors.
Nor was he mistaken. Three quarters of an hour from the time of his
seizure his captors dropped gently to earth in the strangest city that
human eye had ever rested upon. Just a brief glimpse of his immediate
surroundings vouchsafed Bradley before he was whisked into the interior
of one of the buildings; but in that momentary glance he saw strange
piles of stone and wood and mud fashioned into buildings of all
conceivable sizes and shapes, sometimes piled high on top of one
another, sometimes standing alone in an open court-way, but usually
crowded and jammed together, so that there were no streets or alleys
between them other than a few which ended almost as soon as they began.
The principal doorways appeared to be in the roofs, and it was through
one of these that Bradley was inducted into the dark interior of a
low-ceiled room. Here he was pushed roughly into a corner where he
tripped over a thick mat, and there his captors left him. He heard
them moving about in the darkness for a moment, and several times he
saw their large luminous eyes glowing in the dark. Finally, these
disappeared and silence reigned, broken only by the breathing of the
creature which indicated to the Englishman that they were sleeping
somewhere in the same apartment.
It was now evident that the mat upon the floor was intended for
sleeping purposes and that the rough shove that had sent him to it had
been a rude invitation to repose. After taking stock of himself and
finding that he still had his pistol and ammunition, some matches, a
little tobacco, a canteen full of water and a razor, Bradley made
himself comfortable upon the mat and was soon asleep, knowing that an
attempted escape in the darkness without knowledge of his surroundings
would be predoomed to failure.
When he awoke, it was broad daylight, and the sight that met his eyes
made him rub them again and again to assure himself that they were
really open and that he was not dreaming. A broad shaft of morning
light poured through the open doorway in the ceiling of the room which
was about thirty feet square, or roughly square, being irregular in
shape, one side curving outward, another being indented by what might
have been the corner of another building jutting into it, another
alcoved by three sides of an octagon, while the fourth was serpentine
in contour. Two windows let in more daylight, while two doors
evidently gave ingress to other rooms. The walls were partially ceiled
with thin strips of wood, nicely fitted and finished, partially
plastered and the rest covered with a fine, woven cloth. Figures of
reptiles and beasts were painted without regard to any uniform scheme
here and there upon the walls. A striking feature of the decorations
consisted of several engaged columns set into the walls at no regular
intervals, the capitals of each supporting a human skull the cranium of
which touched the ceiling, as though the latter was supported by these
grim reminders either of departed relatives or of some hideous tribal
rite--Bradley could not but wonder which.
Yet it was none of these things that filled him with greatest
wonder--no, it was the figures of the two creatures that had captured
him and brought him hither. At one end of the room a stout pole about
two inches in diameter ran horizontally from wall to wall some six or
seven feet from the floor, its ends securely set in two of the columns.
Hanging by their knees from this perch, their heads downward and their
bodies wrapped in their huge wings, slept the creatures of the night
before--like two great, horrid bats they hung, asleep.
As Bradley gazed upon them in wide-eyed astonishment, he saw plainly
that all his intelligence, all his acquired knowledge through years of
observation and experience were set at naught by the simple evidence of
the fact that stood out glaringly before his eyes--the creatures' wings
were not mechanical devices but as natural appendages, growing from
their shoulderblades, as were their arms and legs. He saw, too, that
except for their wings the pair bore a strong resemblance to human
beings, though fashioned in a most grotesque mold.
As he sat gazing at them, one of the two awoke, separated his wings to
release his arms that had been folded across his breast, placed his
hands upon the floor, dropped his feet and stood erect. For a moment
he stretched his great wings slowly, solemnly blinking his large round
eyes. Then his gaze fell upon Bradley. The thin lips drew back
tightly against yellow teeth in a grimace that was nothing but hideous.
It could not have been termed a smile, and what emotion it registered
the Englishman was at a loss to guess. No expression whatever altered
the steady gaze of those large, round eyes; there was no color upon the
pasty, sunken cheeks. A death's head grimaced as though a man long
dead raised his parchment-covered skull from an old grave.
The creature stood about the height of an average man but appeared much
taller from the fact that the joints of his long wings rose fully a
foot above his hairless head. The bare arms were long and sinewy,
ending in strong, bony hands with clawlike fingers--almost talonlike in
their suggestiveness. The white robe was separated in front, revealing
skinny legs and the further fact that the thing wore but the single
garment, which was of fine, woven cloth. From crown to sole the
portions of the body exposed were entirely hairless, and as he noted
this, Bradley also noted for the first time the cause of much of the
seeming expressionlessness of the creature's countenance--it had
neither eye-brows or lashes. The ears were small and rested flat
against the skull, which was noticeably round, though the face was
quite flat. The creature had small feet, beautifully arched and plump,
but so out of keeping with every other physical attribute it possessed
as to appear ridiculous.
After eyeing Bradley for a moment the thing approached him. "Where
from?" it asked.
"England," replied Bradley, as briefly.
"Where is England and what?" pursued the questioner.
"It is a country far from here," answered the Englishman.
"Are your people cor-sva-jo or cos-ata-lu?"
"I do not understand you," said Bradley; "and now suppose you answer a
few questions. Who are you? What country is this? Why did you bring
me here?"
Again the sepulchral grimace. "We are Wieroos--Luata is our father.
Caspak is ours. This, our country, is called Oo-oh. We brought you
here for (literally) Him Who Speaks for Luata to gaze upon and
question. He would know from whence you came and why; but principally
if you be cos-ata-lu."
"And if I am not cos--whatever you call the bloomin' beast--what of it?"
The Wieroo raised his wings in a very human shrug and waved his bony
claws toward the human skulls supporting the ceiling. His gesture was
eloquent; but he embellished it by remarking, "And possibly if you are."
"I'm hungry," snapped Bradley.
The Wieroo motioned him to one of the doors which he threw open,
permitting Bradley to pass out onto another roof on a level lower than
that upon which they had landed earlier in the morning. By daylight
the city appeared even more remarkable than in the moonlight, though
less weird and unreal. The houses of all shapes and sizes were piled
about as a child might pile blocks of various forms and colors. He saw
now that there were what might be called streets or alleys, but they
ran in baffling turns and twists, nor ever reached a destination,
always ending in a dead wall where some Wieroo had built a house across
them.
Upon each house was a slender column supporting a human skull.
Sometimes the columns were at one corner of the roof, sometimes at
another, or again they rose from the center or near the center, and the
columns were of varying heights, from that of a man to those which rose
twenty feet above their roofs. The skulls were, as a rule,
painted--blue or white, or in combinations of both colors. The most
effective were painted blue with the teeth white and the eye-sockets
rimmed with white.
There were other skulls--thousands of them--tens, hundreds of
thousands. They rimmed the eaves of every house, they were set in the
plaster of the outer walls and at no great distance from where Bradley
stood rose a round tower built entirely of human skulls. And the city
extended in every direction as far as the Englishman could see.
All about him Wieroos were moving across the roofs or winging through
the air. The sad sound of their flapping wings rose and fell like a
solemn dirge. Most of them were appareled all in white, like his
captors; but others had markings of red or blue or yellow slashed
across the front of their robes.
His guide pointed toward a doorway in an alley below them. "Go there
and eat," he commanded, "and then come back. You cannot escape. If
any question you, say that you belong to Fosh-bal-soj. There is the
way." And this time he pointed to the top of a ladder which protruded
above the eaves of the roof near-by. Then he turned and reentered the
house.
Bradley looked about him. No, he could not escape--that seemed
evident. The city appeared interminable, and beyond the city, if not a
savage wilderness filled with wild beasts, there was the broad inland
sea infested with horrid monsters. No wonder his captor felt safe in
turning him loose in Oo-oh--he wondered if that was the name of the
country or the city and if there were other cities like this upon the
island.
Slowly he descended the ladder to the seemingly deserted alley which
was paved with what appeared to be large, round cobblestones. He
looked again at the smooth, worn pavement, and a rueful grin crossed
his features--the alley was paved with skulls. "The City of Human
Skulls," mused Bradley. "They must have been collectin' 'em since
Adam," he thought, and then he crossed and entered the building through
the doorway that had been pointed out to him.
Inside he found a large room in which were many Wieroos seated before
pedestals the tops of which were hollowed out so that they resembled