Chapter 17

Less than two hours later, the canoe entered the mouth of a small river and once again they were paddling upstream. Since the current was not that strong, they were able to make good progress in a general southwest direction. Vincent didn't care too much if they were deviating from the true south since it was much more important now for them to get as much distance as possible between them and the spot where they had spent the previous night, where Kowa's remains were. He figured that those looking for Kowa would discover his remains when they heard no more from him and then they would certainly start looking for Vincent and the women.

They kept on paddling upstream all day, stopping only for a short time to eat and stretch their legs. Only when it was too dark to see where they were going, did they stop. It was much too dangerous to continue so they had no choice on the matter. The blinking spot of light on the map told Vincent that they had covered about forty miles since leaving camp that morning.

They were much too exhausted to set up any kind of camp on the bank of the small river. Instead the three of them slept in the canoe, which had been tied to a tree that had branches stretching well over the water. Besides, with the canoe still in the water it was much safer since they could not build a fire to scare away predators.

During the next three days they went upstream on the river which was getting narrower and narrower. Thus far they had been lucky since they hadn't yet encountered any rapids. Then this all changed and the river became no more than a deep creek and often they had to walk beside the canoe since the water was not deep enough.

But by then, judging by the map that Vincent had taken from Kowa, they had covered another ninety miles and Vincent felt much safer now. Whoever was after them had much less chance of finding them for the moment at least.

At no time since arriving in this world, had Vincent seen any sort of planes or flying machines of any kind. But all the time they were getting away, he was half expecting to see something like that appear in the sky. Still, at the end of the fourth day after they escaped from Kowa, he hadn't seen anything in the sky except birds.

This more than anything else convinced him that Valdo probably no longer had all the technological gadgets that he must have once had. Vincent felt sure that, if Valdo had any flying devices, he would not hesitate to use them for the search.

By now, Valdo probably was aware that Vincent had killed Kowa and that the trio were trying to escape. Furthermore, he was probably aware also that Vincent came from an outside world and the only way he could have arrived here would have been by means of the Simultravel system. So Valdo was certainly very eager to capture Vincent and make him reveal the location of the arch he had used to get to this world.

Yes, it must have been very frustrating for Valdo, thought Vincent. He still had many of the machines and gadgets of his civilization - but not all of course - and yet being the only one left from his race, only he could really understand these devices and use them properly.

Of course, it was always possible for him to train some of the natives of this world in the art of using these machines. But nothing short of a decade of operating and understanding the gadgets and machines would change the natives' way of thinking about them. They would still consider their power as magic even it they could learn to operate them. This would be a great handicap since it would be only natural for them to fear what they were supposed to control.

You can't force technology in a hurry onto uneducated and superstitious people. Before devil and monster-fearing people can accept and use new devices, it is imperative that they understand perfectly how they work.

When Kowa used the transmitter, Vincent could tell that he was still afraid of it, even if he knew how to make it work. He had been taught how to operate it and to not fear it too much, but he still didn't understand how it worked.

On the fifth day, they had to abandon the canoe since the shallow water of the small river would not permit it and its occupants to float without hitting stones on the bottom. They hid the canoe in the dense foliage next to a big rock that served as a repair point. Vincent figured that if they should pass this way again they would be able to find it. They proceeded on foot parallel to the river for a while, then they turned directly south.

Their progress was much slower now, but at least they were moving south. After checking his map, he estimated that they had another two thousand miles to go before they reached the equator of the planet. After that they would still have to travel all the way to the south pole to find Valdo's domain. It was much too great a distance for Vincent's liking and he knew that their chances of reaching that far were very small indeed.

Looking back in time, starting from when he had arrived on the surface of this planet, Vincent estimated that he had covered a distance of about fifteen hundred miles. He recalled that on many occasions he could have lost his life. Upon examining his map and taking this distance into consideration, he could pinpoint on the map fairly accurately the location of the Simultravel arch that had permitted him to arrive here. This was a piece of information that Valdo would love to have, and of course Vincent already knew that Valdo was ready to go to great lengths to get it.

Vincent felt a sense of relief when he calculated that with the aid of the map he could get back to the arch. But he had given his word to Brumelle - even if she was only a complex computer - and he was not ready to abandon his promise of searching for Valdo. Even if Vincent went back to his own world with both women, Valdo was bound to eventually find the location of the arch he had used, or even another one - Vincent felt certain that there were others. Even if it took him another hundred years it was inconsequential to Valdo since he had all the time he wanted ahead of him.

But when at last Valdo discovered the location of the arch, it would then be possible for him to reach Earth. This would probably mean the end of civilization there, at least if Brumelle's story was true.

No, he had to find Valdo and kill him before he could destroy the Earth or other worlds. Both Nika and Verla showed much admiration and love for him and he knew that both of them would not hesitate a second to give their life to save his.

He was also amazed to see how one woman accepted the other. Never was there a trace of jealousy between them. Almost each night - except when they were all too tired - he made love to both of them, and this he did in the presence of the other. It was a common thing here to have more than one mate. People on this world didn't consider making love as the shameful act it was in his world.

Sometimes it was the female that had more than one husband. When one of her men was gone hunting - sometimes it was a matter of weeks - she had her other mate to protect her at home. When a man was very skilful at hunting, or if he had some prestige such as being chief or shaman, he would have more than one wife, and that was his privilege.

After all, why should it be otherwise? It made a lot of sense since women got pregnant only when they were ready and willing. By taking regularly the anti- pregnancy brew they could go as long as they wished without getting pregnant. Besides, in all the villages that Vincent had visited so far, it was always thus. Before a woman was allowed to have a child she had to have the approval of the committee of the village.

This explained why there were no problems of overpopulation in this place. People lived a very long time and they died only when there was an accident or a war. Another thing that fascinated Vincent was the fact that every human he had met so far, whether male or female, was handsome and beautiful. The Rad virus not only kept the body in top shape but it also eliminated imperfections on the face and everywhere on the body so that every single human was perfection itself in appearance and performance.

Even the cruel tribes that they had met on their way had been handsome. Vincent figured that this fact more than anything else explained the absence of sexual jealousy between partners that were married to the same mate.

Besides, if you were attracted to a certain person and if that person was not interested in you, it wasn't that bad since you were young looking and handsome. All you had to do was to look somewhere else and focus your interest on a different person. More important still, you had all the time in the world to do this.

If on the other hand your mate was having an affair with a neighbour, there was no use worrying about it too much since that mate would come back to you sooner or later. After all, time had very little meaning here - and besides the chances were that you were also having an affair with someone else.

Marriage was only a temporary association here and it didn't have the same binding power as it did in Vincent's world. 'Until death do us part' was not part of the marriage ceremonies here.

Verla once explained to him that in her village, probably all the women, herself included, had had an adventure with almost each and every man at one time or another. But the worst insult - and it had to be done willingly - was for a woman to be impregnated by a man other than her mate.

Since the village authorities strictly controlled the birth rate - it was part of their culture to do so - it was thus considered a capital offence to give birth to a child when it was not your turn, or worse still for a man to impregnate another man's woman. The penalty in such a case was death to both offenders and it seemed that it was like that in most villages.

The temperature was cold during the night and judging by the color changes of some of the leaves on the trees, Vincent guessed that they were approaching the cold season. Since there were seasons it therefore meant that the planet they were on was inclined on its axis of rotation, just as Earth was, thus creating cycles of warmer and colder temperature during a one-year period.

The magnitude of these ranges of temperature depended much on the degrees of inclination of the planet. As to how cold it would get, Vincent had no idea. Judging by the short fur on most of the animal species he had seen so far, he figured that it would be similar to winters in South Carolina. Of course the further south they went until they reached the equator, the less cold it would get.

They tried to hunt for furs and food while slowly moving south. The forest was dense with a mixture of large pines, elms, oaks and a few other varieties of trees that he didn't recognize. It was slow walking in such a forest but they did manage to cover close to two hundred miles in a week. Then the topography changed and whereas the land had been relatively flat before, it now consisted of low hills with rolling valleys in between.

It reminded Vincent of his native Vermont, except that the animal life was now extremely rare and when they did see the odd deer or dog-like wolf, it would run away from them as if the forest was on fire. Even the few rabbits they saw escaped well before they could even try to catch them. Vincent supposed that given time he could probably catch something by means of a trap but that would mean camping in the same spot for a day or two and he didn't want to stop since he had a bad feeling about the region they were now in.

They had gone for two days without eating meat. All of their smoked meat supply was now gone and they had to eat whatever they could find such as berries and nuts that were relatively abundant everywhere.