SECRET OF THE TURTLE MEN, CHAPTER 23
"The Secret Behind the Sixth Door"
By Tommyhawk1@AOL.COM
The Angel who had escorted them to the Temple was waiting for them at the foyer where they had left him. "What would you see now?" he asked them simply. His arrogance of earlier was gone; it was like the gravity of the situation had sunk into him and chastened his proud spirit.
"I think we're ready to talk to the Tribunal." Pavel said.
"Come with me." was his only response.
Pavel was surprised that they weren't led to the Hall where they had waited before, but instead to one of the tall buildings and there he found Angels fluttering down to surround them, grasp them by their bodies and lift them into the air. Jethro gave a loud grunt, "Hey!" but having seen it often enough before, Pavel wasn't overly surprised. They were conveyed up to the very heights, Jethro swearing a blue streak as they rose, and soon they were at the very crest.
And so atop a high building, with the wind whipping at them hard with a coolness to it enough to bite his flesh, Pavel and his friends met with the five Angels of the Tribunal, at last, as equals.
They were offered hard thin-ledged rocks with higher central ridges to sit upon, but the Tribunal had the same and seemed to prefer it, clutching the central ridges and squatting there. Sitting for the humans was more a case of resting their buttocks on the wider ledges, treating the ridges as a not-very-comfortable backrest, and using their feet to hold them in place, but it was somewhat better than standing.
"We are ready to answer your questions, those you have now that you have seen the Temple of the Future." the central Angel said, directly to them.
Pavel hardly knew where to begin. "We have learned that you need the Djinni larvae to make your children, and the further help of humans to make the, uh, soak pits which goes first to the Temple of the Future, and then to the Djinni for their larvae. Then when the larvae are ready, you require direct help further of humans to prime the larvae for your own children.
"We have learned, too, that the soaks pits create the fluid that the Turtle Men use to have their children.
"And we have finally learned that this method is fatally flawed, that the Turtle Men will eventually die out for lack of children. The same as my own valley and Connobar."
"This is all true." the chief Angel said. "And when your people die, so will my own. We, too, have the wind of doom upon our wings and must beat against it."
"And the Ifriti, too, who won't have humans to guard their clutches, though they don't need our direct help otherwise to have their young. And the Djinni don't seem to need humans at all, except that they keep us for your use."
"You are mistaken." the chief Angel said. "The Djinni are as dependent upon humans in their way as we are."
"What?" Pavel asked.
"The soak pits are used by the Djinni Queens to feed to their young." the chief Angel said. "But they must eat it as well. We trade them the waters of the soak pits invigorated by the Temple of the Future, and they ingest it. With this, and some other products we raise and also provide to them, they continue to live and grow."
"I see." Pavel said.
"So that's why you don't use the few regular, uh, true-humans you have in the Temple of Children to help the Turtle Men with their children?" Jethro asked. "You stick them in the soak pits instead."
"That is correct." the Angels said. "We had kept our supply of humans who are unaltered by this planet constantly refreshed by recruiting from your valley, young clone-human, and from those of your vessels which found their way to this valley. This worked well until the war you had with Connobar of a year ago. At that time, both your source of children died, and so did the source of new shiploads of humans. And since that time, we have debated and pondered without end for a way in which we could restore the balance of this world, lost now with the death of the Tree of Children."
"So it comes back to the Tree of Children once more." Pavel said. Which had been destroyed by the Slan, allies of the Connobarans, in a final vicious attack upon the Temple and its humans seeking refuge there. So much had been lost to this world in that one bomb-blast which had consumed the Tree. The entire world would die for the loss of this one, singular plant.
Unless...Pavel looked at Jassem, and by looking at him, at the Arab men of the plains. "There is only one source of true-humans left, then." he said.
"That is true." the chief Angel said. "And our way to them is blocked, by the Ifriti and the Djinni, who take the few humans they can for their own reasons. We have had to bargain ceaselessly for the right to send a few raiding parties to the western mountains, and have not yet dared to enter the plains itself."
"You said to me before that the Djinni were planning to raid the plains and seize all its people."
The chief Angel smiled. "A wishful thought, and one lie of many we told you on that day. We have urged the Djinni to help us bring the population of the western plains here, but they have so far refused."
"It is not a matter of simply dropping from the sky and taking my people." Jassem pointed out grimly. "We have developed weapons to use against the Djinni."
"Very effective weapons." the chief Angel agreed. "Combined with a very well-founded fear of Djinni that would cause you to attack us by all means possible at first sight. We have been stopped; your people are safe."
"So what did you intend to do?" Pavel asked.
"That is still undecided. It has not been such a long time since the death of your Tree of Children." the chief Angel said almost defensively. "Any undertaking will mean a massive realignment of our treaties, and should not be done quickly. We had hoped to form a bond with your valley that would let us eventually bring all your people here to live."
"Leaving Connobar all alone to shut up and die quietly, I suppose." Jethro said.
Pavel looked around, at the Angels, and the small human group. A microcosm of the human cultures of Desire were here, in the persons of himself, Jethro, Jassem, and Pelen.
"The one thing we have not done yet is join forces to fight this common problem." Pavel said. "And that is what I want to offer."
"You do not speak for your people, nor do your friends." the chief Angel said.
"I speak for the Arabs." Pavel said. "At least those of Medina Jadeed."
"And how long would you continue to speak if you attempted to sell your people to us?" the chief Angel rebutted.
"I think he is right." Jassem said. "You don't speak for all of my people, only the city of Medina Jadeed. It is our most powerful city, but it is not all of us."
"Thanks for reminding me." Pavel said with some ire. He had been undercut in this game of authority. "My father is the leader of my valley. If you will not speak with me, then bring him here and speak to him."
"We do speak to him, through you." the Angel said. "You have seen all, and understand all. We had hoped that you would offer a solution. But when you first began talking, I knew that you had none. So this talk is useless."
"Talk is never useless." Jassem said once more. "It is the only means whereby understanding can be achieved."
"Well, I can say for certain that Connobar won't agree to a wholesale move of the Facilitators away from their home valley." Jethro said. "We'll fight."
"And we wouldn't want to leave." Pavel agreed. "And there aren't very many of us, after all."
"Nor would my people wish to leave their lands." Jassem said.
"I'm...I'm not even sure we will want to stay." Pelen put in. "I mean, now that we know you...you use us this way, and that you leave us to have children in the three ways...to have children who will one day have children who will in turn have none. I used to trust you. Now...I just want to leave here and never come back."
"We cannot permit that." the chief Angel said. "None of the Turtle Men are to leave this valley henceforth. We passed that decree some months ago, soon after the destruction of the Tree of Children. Until the lineage of Angels is safe, no humans can be spared from their duties to us."
Pavel gasped, as he realized that it had been some time since he had seen a Turtle Man in Facilitata Valley. Just a few shortly after the War, and then none at all for a long time. The Angels had called them all in!
"And what of your duties to us?" Pelen said, in tearful anger. He was accusing his childhood gods, Pavel felt a certain pride that he was able to confront them at all. "What about us?"
"Your people receive all the help we can spare." the chief Angel said gently. "And none of you would be alive today had we not interceded. The original Turtle Men came to this valley by ship, and you today are their descendants, born by our help and through our technology. If we take from you a great deal, we give a great deal in return. But I cannot expect a young man to know all of this. Ask your Tribunal, he will tell you the price we pay for the aid we receive."
"He is right." Pavel said to Pelen. "Not about keeping you here, but right that we need each other. Either we will all survive together, or we shall certainly die separately."
"That is the essential reason we have agreed to a public declaration of the truth at this time." the chief Angel agreed. "Our duties call us now, so if you will forgive us, we shall end this audience. We will meet you again, if you request it."
And the five Angels flapped off in the direction of the Tribunal Hall. Pavel got the uncomfortable feeling that the Angels didn't want to answer any more questions right now. Ending the conference while in a position of power. Or at least while he and his friends were in the right frame of mind.
The Angel that picked Pelen up also carried Pelen away from the rest of them. Pavel was given no chance to say any sort of farewell or promises of reunion. He heard Pelen's cry, and a word ripped by the wind, that might have been "love." And Pelen was gone; the Angels were carrying him away, in the direction of his home village. Pavel started to protest, but thought better of it. Given the Angels' promises, this was no permanent separation; he knew where Pelen lived and could simply visit him again in the near future. Time enough later for that, he had other, and more pressing, problems he had to face.
As for Pavel, Jassem and Jethro, the Angels bearing them dropped them gently back onto the busy streets, and Pavel scarcely noticed how the Turtle Men pointed and stared at their little group. He was too busy noticing the things he hadn't before, the slight deviations from norm they all bore. Why hadn't he ever noticed that about the Turtle Men before? But they had been rare in his home valley; he had been blinded by the odd culture they had into ignoring these signals.
So now what? he asked himself. The way things now stood, everything on this world would die before too much longer. The Arabs treated the Waters of Life as sacred and central to their religion, they wouldn't barter it like drinking water in the marketplace! Even if they did, having a hole in your mid-section was a pretty high price to pay for children. He shuddered to think of the crippling act of pregnancy, for a man was far more helpless in such a state than a woman, who had been born to it. A pregnant man was bedridden for the final two months according to Jassem, and riddled with pain as well. A high price.
Not that Pelen's people wouldn't be willing to pay it, if the actions he had seen in the Temple of the Future were any guide. But how would they be allowed to share in the Waters of Life? Would the entire world have to convert to Islam just to survive? Would there be war? If so, it would be easy enough to seal up the hall of doors, and thus cut the link across the mountains. And what of Connobar, a vigorous and likeable people despite the recent war. Their young couples had to travel to his valley to have children, an arduous trek on this technology-poor planet. The hall of doors opened to their valley not his, they had to be placated. The price people would pay for children....
"Price!" He shouted so loudly that Jassem, beside him, jumped. "That's it!"
"What's it?" Jethro asked. "You scared the shit out of me, yelling like that."
"There's one people on this planet we aren't taking into account, and we need to!"
"Who? Which ones?"
"Efram's people."
"The bandits?" Jassem said, eyes wide. "What would you barter from them?"
"A way to have children." Pavel said. "Let's go find that gateway back to the hall of doors, and then find someone to talk to!" One of those doors had been marked "H" for "home."
Contacting Efram was easy enough, for Pavel and his friends had not been gone for so very long, the line of the army going back through the hall was still trickling through, many of the Connobarans choosing to gawk a time before returning to Connobar, which had little experience with flying men over their valley. Efram was alone at the gate, supervising things in all apparent control. Excellent, he would speak more freely away from his comrades, Pavel felt.
"Well, Sultan Al-Fajr." Efram said jovially. "Did you enjoy your little tour of the Angel City?"
"Very informative." Pavel said. "But now I've come looking for you."
"For me? Why?" Efram said.
Pavel explained their problem, and Efram smiled. "I was wondering when you would think of us. We can provide you with the way to have children."
"For the right price, of course." Pavel smiled. "Let's talk about it."
"The price shall be...nothing." Efram said.
"Nothing?" Pavel was surprised.
"Watch it, Pavel." Jethro warned. "Free things can be expensive."
Efram laughed. "I really do like you. But the truth is that you don't have to buy what you already have."
"I don't understand." Pavel said.
"But you would, soon enough." Efram gestured. "There are six doors there. Where do they lead?"
Pavel paused, but Jethro supplied the answer. "They go from here to Connobar, Medina Jadeed, the Djinni Valley, the Slan Valley, and a place filled with water."
"That's five." Efram pointed out.
Jethro looked puzzled. "No, it isn't. Angels, Connobar, Arabs, Djinni, Slan and water, that's six."
"No, that's five."
"Can't you count?" Jethro looked exasperated. "One, two, three, four, five, six!"
Efram laughed. "Depends on how you count. But before you bring your fingers out again, let me mention that the door to the Slan valley comes up at the bottom of a wide, rapidly running river." Efram said. "You go into it and you get swept away. Current's too strong to get back in through the door. Ergo, anyone who goes in that door doesn't return."
"It's the door of water?" Pavel said.
Jassem saw it. "None of these doors lead to the bandit's valley. So it must be the door we saw which was marked with the letter "H"!" He exclaimed.
"It's not an 'H.'" Efram pointed out. "But there's plenty there, all right. I'll save you all some time asking me about it, by pointing out that you should just go take a look at it, because I will charge you for information about the place."
Pavel stopped as he was about to enter. "Why didn't you make me pay for the information about the valley?" He asked Efram. "You've been quick enough to make money off of my ignorance before."
Efram smiled. "True. Which is why I felt it was time to let you win one for a change. You gouge a buyer too frequently, he stops patronizing you. Call it a goodwill gesture. I promise to charge you all I can next time. And there will be a next time. You'll see."
That sounded ominous. But there was no cure for it, Pavel gathered his two remaining friends with his eyes and they walked into the hall of doors once more.
This valley was hotter by far than Pavel's home valley. The jungle--steamed. A heavy mist hung over things, white for a change, and Pavel found himself struggling to get through the myriad hanging vines. They seemed to cling to him tightly.
Clinging to him...tightly! No! He was being entangled! The vines were moving now like an animal rather than a plant. The vines whipped around his legs and arms!
"Eeyow!" Jethro bellowed, and Pavel turned just long enough to see him lifted bodily into the air by the legs, head hanging downwards. Beyond him, Jassem was totally ensnared; Jethro had been trying to get him free when he'd been trapped himself.
But Pavel, in observing all this, had paused, and now the vines had his ankles thoroughly, and bigger vines snaked around his abdomen. Unlike poor Jethro, who was being wrapped up head downwards, the vines lifted Pavel up head upwards (mostly, he was angled backwards somewhat uncomfortably).
Now he could see their captor. A disguised plant like a gigantic land anemone, a myriad of green tentacles with frond-like coverings. Pavel could see its usual prey, a large Desire-variety "cow" was suspended alongside his friends, and being milked forcibly of its milk. A tentacle with a trumpet-shaped, flaring, hollow end had slipped up between its legs and was now locked onto the "cow's" single, large penis-shaped teat between its legs (the first humans on Desire had thought it a bull!), and the cow was holding still, eyes wide with terror, but in no other apparent distress.
"What shall we do?" Jassem asked. He was caught midway between two of them, and only his head showed from the many tentacles that had doubly trapped him.
"We fight them!" Jethro said emphatically. "If I can just get to my fucking knife! Argh!" The tentacles had left Jethro's left hand and arm mostly free, but not free enough to let him snaffle the knife from its place on his right thigh. He couldn't reach it by about four inches, no matter how he strained, the tentacle let him move just so far and then stopped him cold and reeled him back in.
"Wait." Pavel advised them. "We'll see what it does next."
"On this planet?" Jethro almost sneered. "That's a given! I mean, look at what it's used to feeding on."
"And here comes the trumpets!" Pavel said, almost giggling not in humor, but in sheer frustration at his helplessness. There comes a time when laughter is your only weapon, and the mind reaches for it as the sole defense. "Come to blow your blues right out of you!" He roared at his preposterous joke.
"You think it's so damned funny, you try this upside down like me!" Jethro complained
"I'm sorry." Pavel said, still chuckling. "But look! It's releasing that cow now. It only wants us to feed it. We give it a blow and it'll probably set us free."
"Yeah, but after it gets how much?" Jethro pointed out.
Pavel would have said more, but the trumpet was zeroing in on his groin with an uncanny accuracy. The loose clothing he wore didn't bother it in the least, it found and slipped under the girdle of red, and from there to the opening at the top of his pants that gave way under the gentle prodding, and soon Pavel's pants were wide open. Jassem was in a similar situation with the same sort of pants, which had put up even less of a struggle, since he wore no sash against it.
Jethro had less luck than he, the trumpet had decided to bump against his crotch until it wore away his more-firmly-fastened clothing.
The cow, Pavel saw, was gently lowered to the ground and allowed to go on its offended but unharmed way. "It'll let us go!" He called to his comrades. "All we have to...ooh!" The trumpet's flaring snout had found his cock.
He was suddenly given a jet of mist from the tentacles around him, all the little fake leaves had a hollow tip which suddenly suffused him with the mist. Pavel, with what was left of his mind, remembered Uncle David's discussions about the plant-life of Desire. "All of it has been designed by the alien in the Cavern of Dreams to work on humans." he had pontificated. "No simple Darwinian theory of survival and selection could work like this. This entire planet was designed specifically to operate on our libidos. I think this area was meant for humans, we predominate here so heavily. And elsewhere will be places where the Slan are more numerous, the Angels, or whatever. Their parts of the planet may operate by totally different rules."
So Pavel was unsurprised by the jet of mist, it was almost expected that this plant would want some of his sperm, and what better way than to give him a strong dose of mist and then work his pud hard!
Ripples from the inner part of the "trumpet" played over his cock, and Pavel groaned. "Ah, yes!" he sighed. Yes, it was to be expected.
Jethro, who had been wailing in pain as the trumpet bumped his balls once too often, had surrendered and undone his trousers with his free hand; he just could reach his fly. He yanked out his cock and snarled, "Okay, you damned plant, here's my dong! You'd better suck it good enough to make up for that ball-busting you've been doing, or I'll come back and burn your whole damned jungle down!"
The trumpet fastened on Jethro's cock and the tentacles seemed to take mercy on him, three of them wormed around behind him and then around and lifted him up, and now he was horizontal. Only the trumpet was arced above him, looking like a vacuum cleaner hose had been attached to Jethro's cock.
"Not half bad, is it?" Pavel called out to Jethro, only some five feet away now. The tentacles seemed to be wearying of their weight, and now was drawing itself in closer to the central core. Pavel now saw the "trumpets" all came from that central core, a darker blue than the camouflaged "vines" it had dangled around them. The vines writhed and gave his body a gentle, floating sway to it. Jethro seemed to be wafted along on a bed of vines and a blanket of vines over him, Jassem was still further away from them, still caught in the tug-of-war. The two plants didn't seem inclined to yank at him, Jassem was being serviced by one of the plants and the other seemed content to help in holding him firmly in place. But they were being separated, Pavel and Jethro from Jassem, as the plant carried them closer to the central core. A very wide central core, the hole in the center was some eight feet in diameter.
Pavel felt his climax growing within him as the plant's trumpet rippled and massaged his prong. So many timorous strokes it made, like a thousand mice feet running over his cock.
Now Jethro was closed enough to touch, and Pavel found their bodies were being released. Now they were less held than trapped in a cup formed of the many tentacles, high above the ground. Only the trumpets continued to hold tightly to them.
Pavel was freed now and he rolled over to lie atop Jethro, who didn't fight him away, but instead they embraced as old friends embraced, Pavel felt the familiar, large, firm, fair body of Jethro and he held it to himself, looked down into the fair-skinned, blue-eyed face framed with blond hair and gray high neck of his badly soiled uniform now rendered semi-shapeless under the duress of the past days. Pavel didn't care, this uniform was only a covering for the well-known body which had run naked around his farm for many weeks, both a pleasure and a threat, for when those strong arms, such as held him now, caught you, you were mounted and plunge-fucked for at least an hour before the strong body would tire again for a short period and you could stagger free, thoroughly fucked and satiated.
Pavel couldn't be fucked by Jethro with these plants in the way, but he could and did pull those powerful legs up to wrap obligingly around his waist in a mimicry of a fuck, and Jethro gasped, his face softened by rising desire and flushed with his need, and Pavel kissed that flaming cheek with his lips that burned in their own right, and this brought a mutual surcease of the craving for touch brought by the relentlessly rippling tentacles of this plant.
"Ah, hah!" Pavel gasped when his cock gave a specially powerful thrill. "Oh, Jethro, I'm about to come!" He groaned.
"Think they'll set us free?" Jethro panted, clutched him tighter, began to hunch against him, a useless effort but so very comforting in its familiarity.
"I think so!" Pavel gasped. "It may want more than one dose from us, but...oh!"
"Those cows give a couple of pints." Jethro pointed out. "At least, the ones in Connobar do."
"Think you have it in you?" Pavel joked.
"With you, I think I can manage it if I have to." Jethro agreed. His face reddened further. "Oh, here it comes! Oh, oh, ahh, uh, uh, uhn, uhn, uhn...."
"Come on, give it to me!" Pavel urged him. "Oh, jeez!" His own cock was giving a concentrated flood of sensation now.
"...uhn, huhn, huhn, uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-HUH, HNNNKKKHHH!" Jethro's body tensed in his climax, and his arms pulled Pavel to him tightly.
Pavel was almost mauled by Jethro in his near-mindless spasms of joy, his hands held Pavel so tightly, it was like Jethro was trying to climb completely inside of him, while his face, eyes squinched tightly shut, tossed and writhed, while his breaths made a fireworks of intermixed sounds, ah-nh-uk-ngh-huh-gah, uhnkkghhh! Gh! Guh-nhkh-guh!"
And all light receded from Pavel's eyes as his own orgasm struck, as his brain lit up from within and he felt suddenly secure within the strong arms of this Connobaran soldier, he gave himself totally to the experience, living within his brain alone, which was a multi-colored, multi-sensory, multi-phasic symphony of lights and feelings and states of mind. He felt his body trying to get away from Jethro, and Jethro held him tight in place, and then Pavel relaxed back against Jethro, lying on him down, heavily, weakly, ripped open and wrung dry of every ounce of his self, and a huge sense of unreality pervaded his mind, and he looked around to see himself inside of a huge glass made of green interwoven stalks and above him, a circle of blue which was the sky, green and blue was their entire world, and the green held most of it in thrall.
Catching his breath in this reverie, Pavel said, "We'd better see if we can move about now." The trumpets were all that still held to them.
Pavel tried to tug the trumpet free from his cock. It had stuck itself to him, some sort of heavy sap that bonded to his body firmly.
"Maybe we'd better give them a harder tug?" Jethro had found himself similarly shackled. "Or just cut them from us." He had his knife in his hand.
"You going to cut it off?" Pavel asked.
"Thinking about it." Jethro said.
Pavel watched. "Why are you waiting?" he asked.
"Because I don't know what that plant is going to think about me cutting it off." Jethro said, looking baffled. "And what it'll do with the one part of my anatomy it's got a hold of if it doesn't like it. I got to think it through. I was hoping it'd let us go after a while."
"I don't think it plans to let go of us just yet." Pavel said. "Maybe we could try climbing out." He looked up. The circle of sky was now shrinking visibly. The fronds of the vine were swirling around each other to tighten and top off the central area.
"Wonder if it'll close completely up?" Jethro asked.
"It will, my sultan." Aram said. "At nightfall."
Pavel started, turned and looked. Enough light came between the shafts that he could see well enough. Aram was there, haggard. With a trumpet vine attached to his groin. He had climbed up from the central core of the plant.
"Aram!" He said, startled. "So this is where you went. But how?"
"We have some time before it will work us once again." Aram said. "Time enough to tell you the tale."
But for all that it took Aram a half hour, in the leisurely Arab style of storytelling, it was simple enough. When the various flying species of Desire had attacked their group, Aram had seen a small outcropping. He jumped off the sukhusan and ran for it, intending to fight from there. But the six had been all there were, and with two each on his three friends, they had left him behind.
He had gathered the sukhusans up and intended to head back to Medina Jadeed and try to form a rescue party--Jassem had been right about that--but had noticed a light from the cavern. He had followed it to a hall of glowing doors and they had let him out--here.
"At first I had thought I was merely through the mountain and on its other side." Aram said. "So I wandered about this valley, learning its many wonders...."
"You didn't come out near here?" Pavel asked.
"Nay, from the other side." Aram said. "But I saw these plants, five of them, with their tops like minarets, and I thought perhaps I had found a palace of some unknown sultan. So I came here, and was trapped. I have been here for many days, I have lost track of the time, I fear."
"You have your knife." Jethro pointed out. "Why didn't you cut yourself free?" A way for Jethro to learn the answer without risking his own manhood, Pavel thought to himself.
"I cannot leave here yet." Aram said.
"Why not?" Pavel asked. Aram was swift with the blade. He could have fended off these many vines and sliced them to ribbons with his scimitar. Why hadn't he?
"Come with me." Aram said. "I will show you my reason."
Down into the plant's central core. Pavel thought of the siren plant, and wondered if Aram was similarly enthralled, ready to say whatever it took to get one of them to take his place here, so he could go free. That cow had been released after they had been thoroughly captured....
It was like climbing down a chimney on a mountain, a careful grip, using your body to press against the sides as you scaled your way down, the tension of your muscles holding you firm.
They made it to the bottom. Even here, some light made it through the heavy-walled plant, though it was dusk, Pavel could see Aram's reason for staying very clearly.
Inside a clear bulb of what looked like amber along one side, which had oozed from the base of the trumpet which held Aram's cock in bondage, within this large globe some two feet in diameter, a life grew. Not completely formed, it was clearly a human child.
"But...but how?" Jethro asked. Neither of them had the utter bafflement of an Earth-human in this situation, for Jethro and his people hatched from egg-shaped plant-fruits. Pavel himself had been born inside the pod of a tree-shaped plant whose leaves closed around the human volunteer (you had to deliberately choose to be captured, or lie upon the leaves for a sizeable time as the first human experiencing the Tree of Children had). So both of them were more intrigued than surprised.
"I know not, save that in my captivity have I been given food and water. It is as if the plant understands it must feed me to be fed. It captures small animals and brings them in here for me to kill, and there is a store of milk I can tap there, and a similar store of water over here. I have all I need, save my freedom, and I wait for that while I see if this child shall be mine or not.
Pavel looked at this unborn child. "I'd say he's over half-developed." he said. "Another week or so and you can take him out of that."
"You didn't have any help here with that?" Jethro asked.
"Nay, none but myself." Aram said. He seemed abashed. "It is as if this plant talks to me, soothes me, tells me it means me no harm. I...I feel safe here. As soon as the child began to form, I knew what it was, as if I had been told."
"Think it'll do that for us?" Jethro asked.
Pavel looked around for the source of his trumpet. A small bead of amber had bulged from it. "It probably would, if we stay here. I don't want to stay."
"Not such a bad place." Jethro opined.
Pavel looked at him, astonished. "What was that?" Was Jethro falling under its spell?
"I'd be afraid to cut this plant, knowing it has a child inside of it." Jethro clarified. "We may be stuck here until it finishes. And by then, it may start in on ours."
An odd call came from nearby outside.
"That's Jassem!" Jethro said.
"That's the call the Arabs use for the Ifriti." Pavel clarified. He had heard it often at the palace of Medina Jadeed, a call to summon the flying beings down to do human bidding, or to pay for services rendered.
"The Ifriti?" Aram said. "They are here?"
"I don't know." Pavel said.
And then the vines above their head seemed to burst themselves open of their own accord. They jumped back, retreated from their globular dome.
And Ifriti were there. They had been nearby, and Jassem had seen them, still trapped between the plants, and the Ifriti had come to free him and then the ones trapped inside.
The trumpet did nothing when Jethro's blade, summoned into action at last, sliced away at it. It released the sticky hold it had on him, leaving him gooey about the crotch but otherwise unharmed.
Aram would not be moved. But the child seemed to be unharmed. Leaving him with promises to send food and other care via the Ifriti, Pavel, Jethro and Jassem left this new valley they now owned.
Efram was right. This valley, which lay behind the sixth door, held the answer to their problem of having children. These "minaret trees" created clones as effectively as the Tree of Children ever had. And there were several of them in this tiny valley.
The problems of the children of Facilitata had been solved at last.
END OF CHAPTER 23
TO BE CONCLUDED NEXT CHAPTER