TWO

Alric led them down a narrow trail that no one had even noticed. The Japanese could walk upright, but Alric had to lean his head forward. The glowing mold grew sparsely here; they went slowly, carefully, more by touch than by sight.

Tetsuko tugged at Toshiro's kimono. "Father?"

"Mm?"

"Am I useless? I try to be good."

He picked her up so no one else could hear what was said. "Of course you aren't useless. But it's not polite to brag about one's family. So I couldn't tell Alric-san what I really think. Would you like to hear what I really think?" He felt her hair brush his cheek as she nodded. "I think you are beautiful and perfect and that the gods must have favored me very much to send you to me. I thank them for you every day. All right?"

"All right." She sounded much happier.

He set her down. "And I'd better keep my hands free in case I need to defend us."

The passage widened a little, and the air became less stale. They were moving above a great natural room, in which there were a few miserable huts. The stench could be smelled way up on the trail. Things that looked like huge moving masses of that fungus moved about among the huts.

"Behold some of the worshippers of Zankoku," Alric said. "Those were once human. You see what happens when people eat the fungus."

Nobody said anything. There was nothing to say. They passed the village in silence.

"Is everyone all right?" Alric asked.

They were.

"Can everyone hear me?"

They could.

"Then I will tell you what I think. I am certain that I know why two of you are here. I believe Zankoku wants to swallow your souls. I am frankly surprised to see the ladies and children. Zankoku would have no reason to want their souls, they aren't powerful warriors. His spell may simply have picked up everyone within a certain distance of the target."

"Might he let them go, then?" Toshiro said.

"I don't think he'd go to much trouble to stop them from leaving. He'll probably ignore them unless they become a nuisance to him. Their main concern would be his servants. The servants of Zankoku eat human flesh when they can. Watch your footing here, it gets steep and slippery. Hiroko-san, allow me to carry you, for your child's safety."

"Go ahead," Toshiro said, so Hiroko wouldn't feel obligated to choose between safety and modesty. He heard a child skidding back and down. "Climb on my back, Tetsu-chan."

"You too, Kozu-chan," Mad Jack put in, "and mind your head."

Alric continued, "Zankoku is one of the Old Ones. They come from somewhere far beyond our solar system."

"Our what?" Hiroko said.

"There are other worlds, with other people living on them," Toshiro said.

"So desu ka?" Hiroko said, intrigued.

"It surprised me too," he said. "I never even told anyone because the idea was so unbelievable."

"My lord may be sure that I will revise my ideas of what's unbelievable!--I'm sorry, Alric-san, I did not mean to interrupt you, please go ahead."

"Be very careful now, to your left is a long drop," Alric said.

"I hear water," Kozuke said.

Toshiro cocked his head, and, after a moment, his adult hearing, less keen than the child's, also picked up the sound of a rushing river far below. He heard something else, too, more distant than the river, a kind of slopping, gurgling sound that he instinctively disliked.

Alric continued, "The Old Ones have been interested in this planet-- this world--off and on for thousands of years. Nobody's sure why. At one time they seemed to be most interested in land, but Zankoku, at least, has shifted his focus to absorbing the souls of great warriors."

Toshiro said, "When I was trapped in the future I met one of Aku's minions. His name was Demongo. He was holding the souls of warriors captive."

The water rushed. Toshiro's foot skidded on the slippery floor, and his pulse was starting to quicken; this was a steep climb indeed. Kiku was breathing heavily.

"Demongo!" Alric said with a short laugh. "There was the biggest braggart in all of Asia. I'm quite sure Samurai Jack made mincemeat of him."

Toshiro had never heard of "mincemeat," but the meaning seemed clear enough from context. "I was fortunate enough to be able to free his captives."

Alric still sounded amused. "Fortune had nothing to do with it, I can tell you that, and I wasn't even there. Demongo used to brag to me about how the warriors were all brawn and no brains. 'Keep the pressure on,' he'd say. 'Keep saying, "You can't win, you can't win," and before you know it, they'll give up!' And I'd smile and nod politely and think, 'You fool, you ought to make a contingency plan for the day when someone reasons it out!' I'm not at all surprised to learn that Samurai Jack was the one who finally reasoned it out.--What did Aku do with him?"

"I don't know," Toshiro said.

Kiku was beginning to gasp.

"Take a rest," Alric said, and the party halted, though Toshiro would have preferred carrying both Kiku and Tetsuko to stopping. He wanted to get away from that strange slopping, dragging sound that made his spine crawl. Alric didn't seem bothered, though. He went on, "I'm glad you mentioned Demongo, Jack-san. If you're to have any hope of escape you must put out of your mind the idea that Zankoku is anything akin to Demongo. Demongo was holding those warriors' souls captive, but their souls still existed. They were still themselves. Zankoku doesn't want to subdue your soul. He wants to absorb it into his own foul essence, the way your body absorbs the food you eat. I've seen him do it. After he's done, the body wanders round here until it starves or falls over a precipice or into the water. And I've noticed--to everyone whose soul he eats, he first poses the question: 'Are you Samurai Jack?' I suppose you can consider that a form of flattery."

"Have you seen anyone try saying Yes?" Hiroko asked.

"They have. And he doesn't need to ask the question in the first place; he can see souls. I think he does it for the sadistic pleasure of watching the victim try to decide which answer might save him. What is significant is that he always asks 'Are you Samurai Jack?' rather than 'Are you Kuro-Jack?' or 'Are you Titan?' or Mantan or Tigron or any of the other great warriors one might name. He wants you badly, Jack-san, and so I fear what he might accomplish if he gets you."

"I'm rested, let's get on," Kiku said, sounding as nervous as Toshiro felt.

"I'm afraid there's no easy path," Alric said, beginning to walk again, "but I will take you along the least dangerous path. Now bear to your left, and we'll come to a safe pool."

Nothing was so clear and cold and sweet as an underground spring. They all drank, and Kiku filled Alric's water bottle. Several passages branched off from the spring. Filtered outside light was visible in one passage, and it was into that one that their guide led them.

"I will ask a favor," he said, "while there is still time to talk. Samurai Jack-san, if we win you through to the outside, before you leave, please strike me down with your magic sword. It will free me from the domain of the Old Ones."

"If I live, I will not fail you," Toshiro promised.

The path sloped up, more gently now, and the glowing mold began to decrease. The river rushed far below. The outside light, filtered through cracks above them, was growing stronger. Now Toshiro could see well enough that he could even read the designs on the Mad Jack family's sweatshirts. He was partly amused, and partly embarrassed, to see that Kozuke's red sweatshirt featured a picture of himself, with the legend GREAT WARRIOR SAMURAI JACK. Mad Jack's dark green sweatshirt said NAGASAKI KENJUTSU TOURNAMENT 2246. Kiku's pink sweatshirt had no legend, only cherry blossoms; it must be springtime here in the future.

The path turned left, which bothered him; they were going towards the slopping, dragging noise. Something else bothered him too. Now that he could see better, he was noticing that the cave walls appeared to form angles with the floor and ceiling that, as best he could judge, were mathematically impossible. It took an effort of will to drag his attention away from trying to puzzle out those angles, to keep his mind on defense, and he could not shake the idea that some enemy had designed those impossible angles precisely for that reason.

"The walls look funny," Tetsuko said. "What's wrong with them?"

"I don't know, Tetsu-chan, but we'll leave soon." He hoped. "And then we won't come back."

"I hear dogs," Kozuke said. "Or wolves."

Toshiro listened. "Are you sure?"

"I hear them too," Tetsuko said. "They're barking and howling."

Toshiro listened harder, and finally he too heard them, very faintly, and the noise seemed to be coming from those impossible angles formed by the meeting of two walls of solid stone, where no animal could possibly get in. The incongruity tugged at his mind. He fought down an urge to walk over to one of those crazy angles and see what he could see.

"You hear the Hounds of Tindalos," Alric said. "Pray they do not heed you."

"They'd best pray I don't heed them," Mad Jack said. "Hounds, are they? Whose hounds?"

"I won't endanger you by speaking further of them here." Alric paused. "Samurai Jack-san! We must soon pass beyond time, and will pass beyond good and evil, to where there is only the pure and the foul. Draw out your sword. You, too, Kuro-Jack-san."

They complied. The swords shone. Unlike in the Pit, where Toshiro's sword had glowed white, Mad Jack's red, here they were both bright white.

"See the beautiful curve," Alric said. "Keep it in your minds, all of you. The foul may try to deceive you, but it can never feign beauty, and rarely does it express itself through curves."

"I don't understand," Kiku said.

"Good. Abdul al-Hazred understood, and it sent him mad. All you need do is remember, the pure and the foul."

The Hounds were growing louder. The angles were growing more bizarre, and pressing in around them, until one's head began to spin trying to make sense of the walls, the floor, the cave roof. The Hounds yelped and barked.

"Invoke the pure, under whatever name you know it, for now we'll need all the help we can get," Alric said. "Saint Michael the Archangel! Defend us in battle."

"Hachiman, god of war," Hiroko said, looking around nervously, "bring my family to safety."

"Guan Yin, guide us," Kiku said.

"Great ancestors, help us," Toshiro said. "We have not come here willingly; we intend no evil. Help us leave this foul place, and if it is the will of the gods, help us render it harmless."

Everybody looked expectantly at Mad Jack.

He looked irritated. "What would you have me say? What do I know of gods? I was created by Aku!"

"Then invoke our ancestors," Toshiro said.

"I don't have ancestors, you fool! Don't need them, either."

"You do have ancestors! Are you not my brother? Did we not fight Aku together? My blood flows in you, my ancestors are yours and yours are mine!"

Their eyes locked. The Hounds bayed.

"Kuro-Jack-san," Alric said, "if you wish no help from the pure, then I advise you to take my gun and kill yourself now; it'll be much easier on you."

"You have ancestors," Toshiro repeated, wondering irritably why Mad Jack always had these attacks of petulance at the worst possible times.

"Great ancestors--" Mad Jack began, and paused thoughtfully. "I won't ask any favors of you for myself because I've never done anything for you, but if you exist somewhere, I will ask you to get my wife and my son safely home."

"Honesty is pure," Alric said. "Your chances are much better now. Move on, and prepare for problems, because they're most likely to arise when we pass out of Time. Are you ready?"

Toshiro wasn't sure how to answer a question like that, and nobody else said anything either.

"Let's go, I'll help you all I can." With that, Alric walked straight towards one of the most impossible angles, and just before he vanished into it, he said, "Follow!"