Living Island

 I removed the Builder's Glass from its sheath at my belt, slid open its sections, and adjusted the focus.

"It is hard to assess its dimensions," I said, "but it is small, ovoid in shape, perhaps with a long axis of eighty paces, a short axis of forty paces."

. . .

"Here," said Clitus, "but perhaps not there. The surface may still be hot."

"I do not think so," I said, adjusting again the focus of the Glass. "Our tiny islet is inhabited."

"Visitors, fishermen?" asked Clitus.

"I suppose so," I said. "They have seen us, unfortunately. I would have preferred that not to be the case. They are launching small skiffs away. They are fleeing the islet."

"Why should they flee?" asked Thurnock.

"Perhaps they do not recognize the ship," I said. "Perhaps they have had unpleasant dealings, unwelcome interactions, with others. In any event, they are not eager to make our acquaintance, and, clearly, they are in no need of succor, rescue, water, supplies, or such."

"How many are there?" asked Thurnock.

"Perhaps a hundred," I said, "now emerged from the cover of the driftwood, debris, and such."

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Page 24

We stood on a gray, coarse surface, the texture of which reminded me of the hide of the common, nine-gilled Gorean shark.

But it was hide or skin, which I conjectured might be a foot or more thick. At first, I was much aware that the object on which I stood was not still, not anchored in place, was not like an island, but was responsive to the water, that it rested in the water, that it floated.

. . .

Several yards away, to my left, where the object narrowed somewhat, a previously submerged portion of the object had suddenly reared upward, shedding water, and, simultaneously, roaring and hissing, there was towering expellation of hot, moist air and water. This phenomenon lasted for ten or fifteen Ihn, creating a towering mist, which then, slowly, dissipated, descending in a cascade of droplets.

. . .

There was then a lengthy, auditory intake of breath which lasted several Ihn. It was hard to guess at the volume of oxygen that the creature had drawn within its body, but it must have been considerable.

"How often does the island breathe?" I asked.

"When it wishes," said a villager.

"It can go more than a day," said another.

"It has its breathing door," said another. "It closes the door when it puts its head under water. It does not wish to drown."

"Why does it put its head under water?" I asked.

"It must eat," said a man.

One of the fellows laughed.

"I saw no eyes," I said.

"The eyes are underneath," said a man, "like the paddles, the beak, and tentacles, where it finds its food. I do not know if it could see in air or not."

. . .

"They are large," said a man. "There is as much below the water as above the water."

"More, much more," said another.

"Some are larger than others," said a fellow. "It depends on their age."

"This one is somewhere between a hundred and two hundred years old," volunteered another.

"Young," said another man.

"Do you not fear that it will dive, that it will submerge?" I asked.

"We have our boats at hand," said a man.

"There is always warning, a restlessness," said a man.

"They seldom go beneath the surface oftener than every ten or fifteen years," said a man.

"Then to mate," said a short fellow.

. . .

"What do you call these things?" I asked.

"Living islands, of course," said he who seemed first amongst those met on shore.

"This one is called 'Isle of Seleukos'."

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Pages 95 - 97

"I suspect," I said, "living islands, being alive, can move."

"And do," she said. "They swim. How else could they seek food?"

"This island," I said, "seems inert, phlegmatic, immobile, passive."

"So are they all," she said. "How else could they be mistaken for islands? They are a massive life form, which moves little and, after feeding, can sleep for weeks, which two characteristics much diminish its need for food."

"And the men, conveniently accessing new fishing grounds, share their catch with the island," I said.

"Each benefits the other," she said.

"The richest fishing is in shallower water," I said, "where light can nourish plants, and fish come to feed on the plants, and larger fish come to feed on smaller fish."

"Shallower water is not always close to shore," she said. "In many places there are broad, risen plateaus under the water, sometimes several pasangs in width, plateaus which are often no more than twenty or thirty feet under the surface of the water. They make excellent fishing grounds."

"If the islands sleep," I said, "how can they breathe?"

"Easily," she said. "They lift their breathing door from the water, expel used air and inhale fresh air, all this done in their sleep."

"The men told me a living island can go more than a day without breathing," I said.

"That is true," she said. "But usually they do not go so long."

"I have seen brush on at least one living island," I said.

"The men do that," she said. "Some soil, some seeds, some plants. That is done to fool strangers into thinking that the living island is an ordinary island. Too, for those who are familiar with these islands, it makes clear that a given island is spoken for, that it is claimed."

"How long do living islands live?" I asked.

"I do not know," she said. "Some say a thousand years."

"For their feeding," I said, "they must seek fishing grounds."

"When one encounters a living island in the wild," she said, "one may be sure the fishing will be good."

"I do not understand," I said.

"In that way," she said, "they help the men find good fishing."

"In the wild?" I asked.

"But not in the wild," she said, "the men, ranging widely in their boats, can locate fresh fishing grounds. In that way, they can help their living island."

"This is hard to understand," I said.

"The living island is a predator, and territorial.," she said. "Their rage and contests are hideous to behold. I have only heard about this, of course. But once, when I was a girl, I swam near the head of the island, which is forbidden. I saw the beak and tentacles, under water. I have never forgotten that. I have never swum there again."

"It is hard to think of a living island, so placid and somnolent, as predacious or territorial," I said.

"Older, stronger islands will drive younger, weaker islands away," she said. "It has to do with what the fishing grounds can support."

"There must be many predators at a fishing ground," I said, "sharks, sea sleen, fanged eels, wide-mouthed grunts, and such."

"The living island is concerned only with its own kind," she said.

"I do not see how men can be of help in such matters," I said.

"They locate fishing grounds and bring their islands to them. In this way the men help the island and the island, in turn, helps the men, giving the men a rich offshore camp or base."

"But such," I said, "would require the living island to be moved, and not only to be moved, but to be moved purposely."

"Of course," she said.

"Is this possible?" I asked.

"Certainly," she said.

Suddenly much seemed to fall into place. "How is this done?" I asked.

"We have not acted so in months," she said.

"How is it done?" I asked.

"There are various ways," she said. "All animal life withdraws from strong stimuli, perhaps because such stimuli, surprising and unexplained, are often associated with the presence of a danger, such as a predator. The most common way of doing this is to create noise, say, the striking together of chains of pots and pans dangled under the water."

Sound, of course, is amplified under water. A shark, for example, can respond to the thrashing of an injured fish better than two hundred yards away. "This stimulus is disfavored by the island, and it moves away from the sound. In this way it may be guided in any direction."

"How do men determine the course?" I asked.

"As mariners," she said, "some by compass, others by the sun and stars."

"There are other ways, too, the island may be moved?" I asked.

"By striking on the hide," she said, "with wooden mallets. That does not hurt the island, as far as we can tell, but it does tend to move away from the annoyance. There are cruel ways, too, but we do not practice them on the Isle of Seleukos, for we care for our island, ways such as digging in the hide and striking nerves with pointed sticks, and digging in the hide and applying hot irons to the wound."

"It seems that this would make the island an enemy of men," I said.

"The islands do not even know that men exist," she said.

"You have been more than helpful, Cuy," I said. "I have learned much. I am very grateful."

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Pages 100 - 103

"I am Xanthos," he said, "the son of Seleukos, headman of the village of Seleukos, on Thera."

"We have heard of the village, and your father," I said.

We had heard of such things, and others, while on the living island, the Isle of Seleukos.

"It is a village well known on Thera," he said.

"We have also heard of the Isle of Seleukos," I said, "the living island."

"That is far less known," he said.

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Page 161

"It is still unclear to me how the corsairs could have been evacuated from Daphna," said Thurnock.

"Happenstance," said Clitus, "a passing fleet."

"Or a single living island controlled by corsairs," I said, "a single living island reacting to the arrival of dozens of message vulos, message vulos surprisingly returning messageless to their cot, a single living island much as that we saw at sea, in departing from Daphna."

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Pages 175 - 176

"I have been in touch with Seleukos, here on Thera, as you requested," said Sakim. "The village of Seleukos is being rebuilt, and the living island, the Isle of Seleukos, moves amongst living islands which have spied for the raiders or abetted them in some way."

I recalled the likelihood that, long ago, one such island had transmitted our position to the corsairs.

"To what effect?" I asked.

"Much effect," he said. "The cooperation of such islands with the corsairs, surely enemies, had always been founded on fear, that if they refused to cooperate, their villages would be destroyed. They are now muchly freed of that fear. Currently corsairs are reluctant to strike villages, and, soon, even should they lose their apprehension of a lurking Peasant army, they would, with the likelihood of only modest loot, be likely to face warned, dangerous fighters, recruited perhaps from several adjacent villages. That is a prospect unappealing to corsairs."

"Too," I said, "those on the living islands could always simply neglect reporting sightings, and such."

"Not so easy," said Sakim. "Many islands were posted with a partisan of the pirates."

"And what of such partisans?" I asked.

"Their foreheads were branded, on the recommendation of Seleukos," said Sakim, "and they were subsequently put ashore."

"It seems then," I said, "that the living islands need no longer supply services to corsairs."

"Most never did," said Sakim.

"I expect," I said, "that bows will sooner or later reach the living islands."

"In many cases," said Sakim, "they have already done so."

"If a living island was threatened," I said, "its population, too, could board their vessels, fishing and otherwise, and abandon the island."

"That is true," said Sakim.

"Yet you seem troubled," I said.

"One living island," he said, "is not associated with a village. It is possessed by, and manned by, brigands, villains clearly imbanded with corsairs. It was that island which evacuated the corsairs stranded on Daphna, after the quest for The Village of Flowing Gold."

"I think I know the island," I said. "We saw it, Thurnock, Clitus, and I, and others, when we had been a day or more away from the coast of Daphna, where we had supposedly left corsairs to an unpleasant fate. I recall thinking that our speed must be unusually swift, measuring it against a presumably stationary island. Now I understand that that was an illusion, for the island was moving, too, indeed, moving in the other direction."

"Not only moving, but, I gather, moving rapidly," said Sakim.

"I think so," I said.

"The islands are commonly guided by, and moved by, gentle means," said Sakim, "say, noise, which it finds aversive, light taps on its body, a soft thrusting against its bulk, and such."

"But the movement produced," I said, "tends to be gradual."

"It can take a day to move a living island a pasang," said Sakim.

"How then could the brigand island, if that is what it is, an island manned by brigands, move so quickly?"

"By the application of means less gentle," said Sakim, "gouging, wounding, exacerbating wounds, applying hot irons, torches, and such."

"I anger," I said.

"Remember," said Clitus, "it is not a kaiila, a verr, a bounding hurt, even a vulo. It is a living island, gigantic and sluggish."

"Still," I said.

"Such things have a dull, inactive physiology," said Clitus. "They lack irritability. They are inert, insensitive."

"Yet," I said, "they respond to stimuli, benign or intense, and the hot iron, a fierce, fiery goad, elicits more response than pans clanking under water or the pressing of a paddle or oar."

"The living island cannot feel pain," said Clitus.

"You do not know that," I said.

"That is true," said Clitus, thoughtfully. "I do not know that."

"Men camp upon them, even live upon them," said Aktis.

"Each life form, in its own way, can be good for the other," I said.

"It is unlikely that the living island even knows it is inhabited," said Clitus.

"That could be," I said.

"Perhaps they can feel discomfort," said Clitus, "but not pain."

"Who knows?" said Aktis. "Perhaps there is a point."

"A threshold might be reached," I said.

"They cannot feel pain," said Clitus.

"You cannot know that," I reminded him.

"I do not think they can feel pain," said Clitus.

"Perhaps," said Aktis, "they remember, and are patient."

"Let us not discuss things we cannot know," I said. "We do know, or at least believe firmly, that that living island, the Brigand Island, if you like, rescued stranded corsairs, and conveyed them to safety, possibly even to the vicinity of Sybaris, following their ill-fated adventure on Daphna, seeking The Village of Flowing Gold."

"That seems clear," said Sakim.

"But the debacle of The Village of Flowing Gold," I said, "could not have been anticipated. Yet the Brigand Island was available, ready to be brought into play. The reason for its existence then, or its justification, must be independent of its possible utility in such an incident."

"May I speculate?" asked Sakim.

"Do so," I said.

"I think," said Sakim, "its utility is best seen as fourfold. First, it is fully enleagued with the corsairs, unlike other living islands. Thus it could police and threaten other islands, ensuring their cooperation. Second, it could give the corsair ships a port at sea, out from Sybaris, a depot where they could obtain water, food, and other supplies, and even, if necessary, repairs. In this way the corsair ships could remain longer at sea. It could also serve as a warehouse for bulky or unusually valuable loot, not easily disposed of at a given time in Sybaris. Thirdly, it could support the corsair fleet in action, interfering with attacked vessels, impeding movements, blocking escapes, even delivering reinforcements to the corsairs in the way of boarders equipped with grappling irons and scaling ladders."

"You spoke of its utility as fourfold," I said.

"I am uneasy with respect to the fourth utility," he said. "I hesitate to speak of it. It is terrible, and it has never been, as yet, enacted."

"You are amongst friends, and fellows," I said.

"We have speculated on the oddity of the corsairs' concern with villages, even prosperous villages," he said, "so large an expenditure of effort for so little gain."

"And the apparent subsidizing of the corsairs," I said.

"I think that ambition looks higher and further," he said.

"The possible fourth utility?" I said.

"It is based," he said, "on something I heard long ago in Sybaris, when I lay in a half stupor in the tavern, The Living Island. A mariner spoke, whom I now realize must have been a corsair. He was telling of something he himself had overheard."

"Proceed," I said.

"What can this be but hearsay based on hearsay?" he asked.

"Sometimes," I said, "nothing is something, and a little may be much."

"There was thinking going about, following what was heard," he said, "that it might be possible to attack, loot, and raze not a village but a town."

"Most towns have walls," I said.

"Yes," he said.

"I do not think that Lurius of Jad, our dear Ubar of Cos, would be likely to approve of a town being attacked. Towns mean revenue."

"This had nothing to do with the Ubar," said Sakim.

"It seems that Archelaos, governor of Thera, grows ambitious," I said.

"The town would not be on Thera," said Sakim.

"Presumably it would have to be a small town," I said, "but one prosperous - and perhaps one expected to be soon enriched?"

"As by a fair," said Sakim.

"Mytilene," I said.

"I fear so," said Sakim.

"Mytilene has walls," I said.

"That," said Sakim, "is where the Brigand Island, as we have spoken of it, becomes relevant. Consider the corsair fleet, in its full strength, seven ships with crews, supplemented with mercenaries, accompanied by the Brigand Island, itself not only a transport for additional mercenaries, but conveying an arsenal of supplies and siege equipment."

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Pages 218 - 222

"The barge is slow," I said. "Yet it returns every third day."

"It cannot go far then," said Thurnock. "Not to Chios or Daphna."

"It must transfer its cargo to another carrier," I said, "one large, one capable of many loads, and waiting."

"A living island," said Clitus.

"I fear so," I said.

"The Brigand Island," said Thurnock.

"Almost certainly," I said.

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Page 239

"I think," I said, "it was barged to a living island, then near Sybaris, one I have thought of as the Brigand Island."

"It would destroy such an island," said Thrasymedes.

"It may have," I said.

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Page 257

"The corsairs' living island, the Brigand Island, may be about," I said, "too low to see, with cots of vulos which will home to at least the flagship of the corsair fleet."

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Page 309

"We are aground!" cried Sakim.

But ground seldom rises and shakes, recoiling. The contact had been made neither with rock or wood, not with stone, nor beach, nor grating sand. It was as though the Tesephone had inadvertently struck, or had been struck by, some enormous living mountain, a mountain which could live and breathe, could lift itself and then, trembling, subside, and draw away.

The Tesephone, tilted, slid down the side of the living island, splashing into the water. At the same time, I heard cries from the island. "We have found them!" we heard. "spears and shields! Arm your bows and slings! Release the vulos."

"The enemy!" shouted Thurnock.

"Away!" I called to the helmsmen.

Most Gorean vessels south of Torvaldsland are double-ruddered. This makes the vessel more responsive and agile than a single-ruddered vessel, a feature important in naval warfare, both in attack and flight. The two rudders, each with its own helmsman, are commonly engaged with one another, or coupled, in such a manner that they move in unison. Uncoupled, each is independent of the other, which feature, particularly should one rudder be damaged or destroyed, permits the vessel to proceed unimpaired.

Almost at the same time as the impact the early morning fog parted and, briefly, I glimpsed several tents, many men, some seizing up weapons, some great heaps of stone blocks, of the sort which had been used in the great catapults of the mercenaries near Mytilene, and a flare of fire to the right. Too, water began to rumble beneath the surface suggesting an agitation or a disturbance of some sort. At the time I did not understand the likely explanation of this seeming subsurface tumult or thrashing. Too, I did not understand, then, the meaning of the flames to the right. I thought they might be igniting bundles of pitch for use as missiles, but I saw no visible catapults, or any means for delivering such missiles. Then the fog closed in again, and I could see little or nothing through the fog save for the dim incandescence of the fires being lit or stoked to the right.

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Pages 318 - 319

"Living islands, as sluggish as they may seem," said Sakim, "are alive and in some respects very aware and sensitive, that having to do with detecting fish, locating desirable feeding grounds, and such. Too, the behavior of living islands, like that of other forms of life, those of a sufficient degree of sensitivity, is susceptible of modification, even training of a sort. I would guess that the mercenaries associated ships with feedings, an easy enough thing to do. In this way, the island would tend to seek out ships, this behavior, when successful, being rewarded by the mercenaries."

"The sea is still large, very large," said Thurnock.

"The living island," said Sakim, " can detect the sound of an oar striking the water at a distance of pasangs."

"In the moment the fog parted," I said, "it was clear the island was heavily freighted."

"Stone blocks, many men," said Thurnock.

"How many men?" I asked.

"I would guess four hundred," said Thurnock.

"At least," I said.

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Page 320

"It is not only ships we must fear," said Sakim.

"How so?" I asked.

"It is the island, as well," he said.

"I do not understand," I said.

"Surely you saw the fire kindled on the island, noted the turbulence in the water," said Sakim.

"Speak," I said.

"The great beast was in excruciating pain," said Sakim.

"How is that?" I asked.

"You saw the fire," said Sakim.

"Surely," I said.

"Those who inhabit the living islands or have their camps on them," said Sakim, "move and guide the islands, when they wish, by gentle pressures, from which the beast withdraws."

"True," I said.

I had learned that much from my brief time on the Island of Seleukos.

"The mercenaries are heartless and cruel," said Sakim. "You saw the fire. They do not respect the island or care for it. They goad it. They spur it to do their bidding; they exploit it, pitilessly, mercilessly, by sharp instruments and blazing irons."

Thurnock growled in fury.

"See how low the beast was in the water," said Sakim. "Consider the weight with which it is still burdened, the huge blocks of stone, inhumanly not discarded, even after the destruction of the catapults."

"Would we had a hundred ships," said Thurnock, "to go back and free the beast, to scrape the parasitical scum from its hide."

"We can do nothing for the beast," said Sakim.

"We must think of escape," I said.

"We can easily outdistance a living island," said Clitus.

"Do not be too sure," said Sakim.

"The danger is the corsair fleet," said Clitus, "should it detect us, given its armament and its presumed changes of oarsmen."

"Do not underestimate the effects of jabbing, pointed metal poles, serrated blades, and white-hot irons affecting the Brigand Island," said Sakim, "nor the willingness of the mercenaries to kill it in their attempt to overtake us."

"The corsair fleet is faraway," said Clitus.

"Perhaps not so far," I said. "We do not know."

"Even now," said Clitus, "we are slipping away in the fog,"

"The fog will lift," said Thurnock.

"By that time," said Clitus, "we will have disappeared."

"You forget one thing, my friend," said Sakim. "should the mercenaries lose touch with us, they need only give the Brigand Island a temporary surcease of its pain, and, soon, it will seek us of its own accord."

"The behavior of seeking ships for food," said Thurnock.

"Abetted by the acuity of its senses," said Sakim, "senses capable of detecting the entrance of an oar into water, the creaking of rudders, from pasangs away."

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Pages 321 - 322

"The hith, nearly exterminated on land," said Sakim, "took to cover and plenty, to the vast world of the sea."

"It breathes air," I said.

"Of course," said Sakim.

"Like the living island," I said.

"Yes," said Sakim.

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Page 327

"We will have the cover of darkness," I said.

"But there is the Brigand Island," said Sakim. "It can trail us, like a sleen of the sea."

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Page 331

"Four corsair ships followed me," said Tab, "even in darkness, unerringly. it is uncanny. It speaks of the hands of Priest-Kings. I could not slip away."

"It is done by means of a living island," said Sakim, "that island we speak of as the Brigand Island, a pathetic, enormous aquatic beast under the control of corsairs and mercenaries. It is that which has followed you. As a sleen, tenacious and swift, can follow scent on land, tenacious and swift, a living island can follow sounds, disturbances, stirrings, in the water, schooling fish, the wake of a passing vessel, and such. The enemy has taught the island to associate feeding with ships, so it seeks ships."

"Why would it leave the corsair ships?" asked Tab.

"They will not feed it," said Sakim. "So it seeks another ship.

"And it would lead them to the Dorna," said Tab.

"It is so," said Sakim.

"It will get no feeding from the Dorna," said Tab.

"The island does not know that," said Sakim.

"For Ahn we rowed swiftly," said Tab.

"The corsairs torture the island with pain, spurring it to greater and greater speed," said Sakim. "I wonder that they have not killed it by now."

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Pages 335 - 336

"I do not understand," said Clitus. "Why do they not move? Why do they not act?"

"The answer to your question approaches," I said, pointing.

"Tents in the sea, like sails, men with ladders?" said Thurnock.

"They are using the island, the living island!" cried a man.

"It is like land, living land, rushing upon us!" cried a helmsman.

"Steady," I said. "Steady."

"Tragic, innocent, overloaded, abused beast," said Thurnock.

Men with burning irons were thrusting them into the body of the island, while it, as if it would escape from the pain, was driving toward us. I caught the scent of living, burning flesh.

"Thus," said Thurnock, "they turn a dumb animal into a weapon."

"It must be in agony," said a man.

"Perhaps such things cannot feel," said another.

"It will find no food here," said Sakim, "only pain."

"That is perhaps to our advantage," I said.

The Dorna was between us and the onrushing behemoth, the living island. On its present trajectory it would make contact with the Dorna full on her starboard side. The mercenaries on the island, swarming forward, were intent to bring their ladders into play a moment after the island's impact on the Dorna's hull, perhaps then stove in. But Tab, by oars and rudders, was already struggling to bring the prow of the Dorna toward the island, which maneuver would minimize the width of the expected impact.

"Good Tab!" I cried.

The iron-shod ram, mounted in such a way as to withstand the grievous shock of tearing through reinforced planking, cut a short, sharp, linear, bloody furrow in the hide of the living island and then, as it was riding over the beast, the beast, reflexively, reared upward, like a hill of muscles, as though to dislodge some predator, which caused the Dorna, given its inertia, to ride over the crest of this hill, pause for a moment, and then plunge downward, slicing through the massed mercenaries, dividing and disrupting their formation, and crushing several. There was much screaming, much confusion, a splintering of ladders, a tumbling of rectangular blocks of stone, intended originally to be ammunition for the great catapults, the tearing loose of tent pegs which had been pounded into the flesh of the island, and a scattering of tents rising from the back of the island like startled birds. At the same time the island, with a great roaring noise, exhaled a towering, violent spume of warm air and water. This rose a hundred feet into the air, and droplets fell like warm rain, drenching the island.

The flesh of the island then began reacting to the trauma of its wound, to shudder and ripple, contracting and expanding, its edges, or coasts, disappearing on one side or the other for a moment and then rising again, shining and dripping. Some parts of the island, more central parts, remained dry, but elsewhere, like tides, water washed its surface to a man's knees and then his waist.

"The island is sinking!" screamed a man.

The faces of many of the mercenaries were pale with horror.

Several, here and there, fought, and slew one another, to attain a place, sometimes no more than a yard high and wide, on one or another of the modest prominences in the flesh of the beast, a footing on certain irregularities, corrugations, blemishes, sealed lesions, and layers of twisted, knotted scar tissue.

Given the unexpected action of the Dorna, its inadvertent plunging into the ranks of the mercenaries, scattering all and crushing many, and the ensuing behavior of the injured, perhaps maddened, beast, war was far from the minds of most of the mercenaries, that despite the urgings and howling of certain officers, some of whom were knee deep in water.

Nature herself, it seemed, had declared a truce.

The hill-like mound of flesh which had risen under the Dorna, reacting to its inadvertent, bloody intrusion, had shrunk down, considerably, almost immediately, a moment after the Dorna's plunge amongst the mercenaries. The ship was now rocking, its planking holding, the ship responsive to the continuing agitation of the surface beneath it. The few serviceable oars of the Dorna were out from the thole ports, almost like narrow wooden legs to keep the tormented craft from pitching on its side. Several oarsmen had leapt over the gunwales and were trying to force the Dorna back into the churning water, that it might once more find itself in its proper element. At the same time I had had the Tesephone brought to a position where it would be abeam of the Dorna should that craft manage to extricate itself from its current position and require assistance, and if it could not do so, we would be close enough to take swimmers aboard. Many Gorean vessels, when not in port, beach, or half-beach, themselves at night, where a camp is made, one sometimes rudely fortified. I mention this lest it seem surprising, or improbable, that portions of the Dorna's crew were outboard, attempting to free their ship from the shore of the living island. Their travail was brief, however for the shore of the island drew back under them, and inclined downward, as though, water rushing in, it would so rid itself of an unwelcome visitor. Men clambered back aboard the Dorna.

. . .

Tab had the Dorna backoared from the Brigand Island, whose tremors had now subsided, and whose pilots were already struggling to rekindle fires in which irons might be heated, enabling them to control the course and speed of their vast mount.

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Pages 339 - 341

"The three corsair vessels to starboard are, for the moment, inert," I said. "I do not think they realize what has occurred here. Their strategy, I suspect, was to take the Dorna, either by further damaging her or beaching her on the Brigand Island. Clearly the mercenaries, given their ladders and formation, were intending, if possible, to board her in one way or another, either from the Brigand Island or the beach."

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Page 342

"Do not fear the Brigand Island," said Sakim. "It was wounded, torn, and burned. It was abandoned near Chios. It was left there. You saw it left behind. The mercenaries fear it. They want nothing more to do with it. Could it follow us, it would have done so.

It may be dead."

"Do you think," I asked, "that it can feel?"

"Surely," said Sakim.

"Really feel?" I asked.

"Yes," said Sakim. "It must have some rudiments of feeling, however simple and primitive, else it could not respond to irons, to gouging instruments, to fire."

"It must be a patient beast," I said.

"I do not think it knows that men exist," said Sakim, "only that pain and pleasure exist."

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Page 349

"The Brigand Island, in all its simplicity, enormity, and inert sluggishness, has been trained to associate ships, some ships, randomly selected, with a reward, a feeding. Accordingly, it follows ships, hoping to be fed."

"The corsair ships will not feed it," said Clitus.

"No," said Sakim, "but it is easy for them to follow the beast while it seeks a different vessel, hoping to be fed."

"But we will not feed it," said Clitus.

"The beast does not know that," said Sakim.

"And who knows," I said. "Perhaps we will feed it."

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Page 356

"With them," said Sakim, "is a darkness in the water, a plateau in the sea."

"The Brigand Island," said Thurnock.

"I see smoke," said Clitus.

"From the fires by means of which they torture the beast to do their bidding," I said.

"It does not even know the source of its pain," said Sakim.

"I rage," snarled Thurnock.

"Doubtless, in its pursuit of the last two nights, it was not goaded by fire and iron," I said. "Its pursuit would have been painless, it not having been necessary, or expedient, to alter its course or hasten its progress."

"After surcease, the sudden return of agony must be excruciating," said Clitus.

"It is a dumb beast," said Thurnock. "It is not like a reluctant slave girl who, to her misery and tears, grasps, with a single stroke of the whip on her stripped fair body, that she will henceforth obey the least of commands and suggestions with perfection, instantly and unquestioningly."

"One no longer needs the glass of the Builders," said Sakim. "I can make them out, clearly now."

"As can we all," said Clitus.

asked Thurnock.

"I expect them to do what is simplest, and exposes their ships to the least risk," I said.

"They will bring the Brigand Island alongside, and we shall find our floating citadel besieged," said Sakim.

"I expect they will be lavish in expending their mercenaries," I said.

"The more who die the more loot to be distributed amongst survivors," said Clitus.

"And those in the ships, the elite, risk nothing," said Thurnock.

"We cannot withstand dozens of ladders and hundreds of men," said Thurnock.

"The Brigand Island will move to the starboard side," said Sakim. "It is being so goaded."

"The oars of the enemy ships, save those of one, rest," said Clitus.

"That ship," I said, "will be the ears and eyes of the corsair fleet. It will approach more closely, not closely enough to be in danger, but close enough to monitor developments and, if need be, intervene and direct operations. It, by signals, will remain in contact with the main body of the fleet, the four ships held in reserve."

"Its oars now rest," said Clitus.

It lay some hundred yards astern of our small 'fort in the sea'.

"The Brigand Island approaches," said Sakim.

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Pages 357 - 358

At this point the massive, heavy body of the Brigand Island had slipped some seven or eight feet back, away from the side of the Tesephone. I did not know if this was intended, and wrought by iron and fire, or if it were the result of some movement internal to the beast itself.

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Page 359

A violent tremor shook the beast.

"They are bringing it against the hull again," said Clitus. "The irons glow, the spikes gleam; the enemy churns agony once more into its gaping wounds."

"How can a beast stand such torment?" asked Thurnock.

"Perhaps it has no feeling," said Clitus.

"If it had no feeling, it could not be goaded, or guided, by such means," said Sakim.

"But it may not know feeling as we know it," said Clitus.

"Perhaps not," said Sakim.

"It does not even know the source of its misery, only its misery," said Thurnock.

"In a moment the beast will be once more against our hull," said Clitus.

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Page 360

Shortly thereafter, scarcely had war sandals been pressed on the first rungs of the braced scaling ladders, than a sudden, hideous tremor shook the beast, a violent stream of air and water exploded upward from its breathing hole, and its enormous body reared a dozen feet from the water, scattering ladders and men. Then it submerged, and the water was filled with startled, struggling men, ladders, tents, supplies, and a camp's debris. Steam and bubbles had hissed up as the water flowed into the fires and drenched the spurring, heated irons by means of which its movements had been controlled.

"It may be under the ship!" cried Sakim.

"No!" I said, pointing. "See the water, to starboard!"

Then the water seemed quiet.

Might not that monstrous body move beneath the ship?

I then feared Sakim's alarm might soon be warranted.

"Where is it?" said Clitus.

"I do not know," I said.

"It is gone," said Clitus.

"I do not know," I said.

"The observation ship of the corsairs approaches," said Thurnock.

It was clearly its intent to succor and retrieve goods and men, these scattered like detritus in the water.

Suddenly, without warning, violently, like a massive, discharged, living quarrel, threatening the sky and clouds, the immense body of the Brigand Island hurtled upward, vertically, twisting, from the water.

In that terrible moment I saw what few men had seen, even those accustomed to camp upon and inhabit living islands, the monster beneath the placid surface, hundreds of tentacle-like filaments, tiny eyes, and a sharp, hooklike beak.

It could well be that, in that brief moment, it was the first time the eyes of the Brigand Island had risen above the surface.

Then it returned to the water, falling, like a mountain, and the residue of this great splash descended like rain on the Dorna and Tesephone, and the closest of the five corsair ships.

"The eyes!" said Sakim. "I would not care to be seen by such eyes."

"We are not moving," I said. "We are large. We are a fortress in the sea. Conjoined with the Dorna, we might be taken to be a natural object. We might not be registered as something deserving attention, if at all."

"It is rising to the surface," said Sakim, "but on its back, under the swimmers."

"It cannot breathe so," said Clitus.

"The head of the island seldom submerges," said Sakim. "But when it does, as in scouting fish, mating, or territorial conflict, the breathing hole closes. The head can remain under water for better than an Ahn, and the body, as well, should the beast so choose."

There was a startling crackle of sound and flashes coming from the water, and the screams of men.

"Thus," said Sakim, "the beast shocks and paralyzes prey, commonly fish."

I took the matter to be the result of an organically generated electrical charge.

"You may not care to look," said Sakim.

The victims, stung, or shocked, or numbed, could not speak or move, but the horror in their eyes could be easily read as the tentacle-like filaments conveyed them to the hook-like beak.

"The corsair ship is back-oaring," said Thurnock. "They are no longer concerned with their fellows."

Most of these, shields, weapons, and helmets discarded, were still in the water. Several, half visible, had doubtless drowned. Some thrashed about, in terror, to flee the tentacle-like filaments. The wisest remained as still as possible, the tentacle-like filaments, like snakes, feeling about in the water.

"The captain of that ship," said Sakim, "is a fool."

"Perhaps only ignorant," I said.

We had all by now had evidence of the capacity of the Brigand Island, and perhaps other such islands, to detect motion in the water. Had we not been followed unerringly, even in the night?

"He abandons his fellows," said Clitus.

"He should rest his oars," said Sakim.

"It is unwise to wake the sleeping larl," said Thurnock.

"Or the fierce bosk," said Sakim, looking at me.

"I wonder if a mountain can hate," said Clitus.

"If so," said Thurnock, "I would not care to be the object of its wrath."

"Do you think," asked Clitus, "that it now understands what was done to it, that it now associates its pain and misery with a visible, independent, identifiable source, something that can be dealt with, another form of life, an enemy, men?"

"I do not know," I said.

"I think so," said Sakim. "Moreover, I think it, in some way, feels it was misled or betrayed."

"How is that?" asked Clitus.

"It was trained to expect, as a result of certain behaviors, rewards, at least occasionally," said Sakim. "Then, following the behavior, there was not only no reward, but dreadful, disgusting, keen disappointment."

"The ringing of the bell signifies food to the animal," I said, "and it welcomes the sound of the bell and salivates. Then, after a time, the ringing of the bell is followed not by food, but by unexpected disappointment and pain. The animal is confused. It goes insane."

"What animal?" asked Sakim.

"It is not important," I said.

"What is this about ringing bells?" said Sakim.

"Nothing, my friend," I said, "nothing."

"Look!" said Clitus. "The island rolls over and submerges!"

"The observation ship turns about, it flees," said Sakim.

"It wishes to join its fleet," said Thurnock.

"I do not think the fleet will be pleased about that," I said.

Some Ihn passed, perhaps nearly an Ehn.

"Aiii!" screamed Clitus.

I gripped the rail of the Tesephone.

Once more, the enormous living weight of the Brigand Island exploded up from the sea and then, from some sixty to eighty yards above the surface, plunging downward, it fell athwart the retreating corsair ship, snapping it in two.

"What is going on now?" asked Clitus.

Sakim disengaged a glass of the Builders from his belt and trained it on the divided sinking corsair ship.

"Where once was a fine ship," said Sakim, "there is now debris."

"What of the beast?"

"I think it is calm," said Sakim. "It is going away. It moves slowly, peacefully, toward the horizon."

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Pages 360 - 363

Following the sinking of the forward ship, or observation ship, by the maddened living island, which we commonly spoke of as the "Brigand Island," the corsair fleet was reduced to four vessels, two of which were now drawing close, one to attempt drawing alongside the port side of the Dorna, and the other intending to draw alongside the starboard side of the Tesephone.

Avengers of Gor     Book 36     Page 364