“We viewed them through those glasses which bring the far close,” Gammage continued. “They brought many things from their ship and put together a flying thing. By that time it was night, and they went again into the ship and closed it, as if they believed they might be in danger. Four, of them only, though there may be more inside we did not see.
“With the morning, in spite of the storm, out came forth and entered the flying thing. He raised it into the air and flew back and forth, in and out, among the buildings. He did not try to land, but hovered above. As if the Demon sought something. But we cannot guess what he sought, nor the manner of his seeking. With Demons—who can know?”
“He found us on the bridge,” Furtig returned. “But he did not attack, only stayed above us for a space and then flew away.”
“Returning,” Liliha said, “to the ship. It could be that when he hung above you he marked who—or what —you were.”
Gammage chewed reflectively on a claw tip. “What you found, with the aid of Ku-La, is a treasure of knowledge. But whether we shall be given time to use it is another matter. If these Demons plan to reclaim the lairs I am not sure we can defeat their purpose.”
“You can withdraw—to the caves—as our fore-fathers did when the Demons hunted them before,” Furtig suggested.
“That is the last resort. The lairs are very large and, as you proved, clan son, there are ways we smaller people can travel in secret. The Demons cannot force their greater bodies into such passages.”
“Perhaps we shall be both Demon-hunted and Ratton-attacked in the end.” Furtig saw the gloomiest of futures.
“There are also the Barkers—“ Gammage chewed again on his claw.
For the moment Furtig was content enough to sit and let his fur dry in the warmth of the chamber, sniff at the odor of his good drink, and now and then sip it. But he longed for sleep; even if the Demons were to tramp these corridors soon, a warrior had to sleep.
He fought his eyes’ closing by drinking the last of the liquid. Gammage spoke again:
“The Barkers are not ones to take kindly to the trapping of their scout. Unlike our people, they are happiest in the pack rubbing shoulders to the next. And they will move as a pack to avenge their kind.”
What the Ancestor said was no more than all knew. You killed or took a Barker prisoner, and you had to face his fellows in force. It was one of the things that made the Barkers so feared.
“They hunt by scent.” Still the Ancestor recited common knowledge. “Therefore they will trail in here, and find the trap of the Rattons. The Rattons will take to inner ways, and in doing so, they may escape the Barkers. But—if the Barkers invade they can well pick up our scent—
“Ku-La, when he is healed, will go to his people and invite them to join us. As he has told me, those know about the Demons, and the lairs—of how we must labor to save what we have learned. If we take to the wilds, it will need many backs and hands to help carry what we must. Therefore, as Ku-La goes to his tribe, so must you and Foskatt go to the caves. There you must tell them of the coming evil and that they must send their warriors—or bring hither all the People—“
“Do you think they will listen to me, Ancestor? I am not an Elder, I am one who failed in the Trials, and went forth from the caves. Will they heed my words? You know our clans and that they are slow to believe in new things.”
“You speak as a youngling, clan son. From here you will carry certain things to impress the Elders.
And you do not go alone—“
“Yes, Foskatt, too.” But privately Furtig thought Foskatt, for all his longer time in the lairs, would have little more weight than he had himself.
Gammage had been a long time away from the caves, he had forgotten the hold of custom on those living there.
“Besides Foskatt,” Gammage said, “Liliha goes, also, by her own choice. And she, as well as you, shall take weapons such as those of the caves have no knowledge of. These are gifts, and you shall promise more if your people come to us.
“This,” he continued, “will be easily done—“
Furtig did not agree with that statement in the least, but he had no chance to protest, as the Ancestor swept on—
“The Barker must be found. If he still lives, he must be freed and returned to his People. That will give us for the first time a small chance of holding a truce talk with them. Otherwise they will storm into the lairs, perhaps causing a disaster at the time when we must unite against Demons, not war among ourselves. Now we have a common cause with even Barkers.”
So they were back to Gammage’s wish, that all the peoples, even those hereditary enemies, make a common cause against the greater menace. Listening to him, sometimes one could almost believe that would work. But perhaps he would even suggest sending a truce flag to the Rations—!
Apparently Gammage was not prepared to go that far. He was nodding a little, his tail tip beating back and forth.
“To the Barkers we shall suggest a truce. The Rat-tons—no—we cannot deal with them in any way! They are as accursed as the Demons and always have been. We must warn whom we can to stand together. Liliha, see to the clan son. I think he sleeps now, even though his eyes are open!”
Furtig heard that as a distant murmur. There was a touch on his arm. Somehow he blundered to his feet and wavered off, that light touch steering him this way and that, until he had come to his own bed place and stretched out there.
Demon—Ratton—Barker—sleep won out over all.
“Animals!” But even as Ayana spoke she knew that was not true. Yes, those bodies were furred. And they had tails. But neither could it be denied that they wore belts around their waists, and attached to the belt of one was a laser! The thing was armed with a weapon much like the most potent in the ship’s locker.
She studied the scene on the record reader into which . The light was admittedly poor, but the longer she looked the more details she could see. Animal, no, but neither was it like her norm for “man.”
However, it had a haunting familiarity. And it carried a lumpy burden—the rear one of the two, that is—on its back. Animals were used so. What of the gorks on Elhorn—ungainly, half-feathered, half-scaled, of avion descent but lacking their ancestors’ wings. For an instant or two she remembered gorks with a homesick nostalgia.
No, the bundle did not mean that the creatures on the bridge were servants of men—not as the gorks served. Not when one of them also wore a laser. Still —she was teased by a wisp of memory.
“Animal—you are sure?” Jacel roused her from that search.
“No, it is armed and wearing the belt—how can we be sure?”
“It is matched with this life-reading.” Massa consulted the dial. “And there are similar life-readings here, here, and here.” The computer had produced a sketch map earlier and Massa’s pointer tapped that.
“Now here, and here are two other readings of a different type, one differing from the other—three kinds in all.” She made checks now on the map surface with yellow for the first, red for the second, blue for the last.
Yellow marked the building toward which the two on the bridge headed, red lay behind them.
“Those blue—they are near the outer rim.” Tan surveyed the results with satisfaction. He had brought back enough to keep the computer busy. Catching those two in the open had been the luck—Tan’s luck.
“The creature to the fore,”—Ayana moved closer, “it has been hurt.” Her medic-trained eyes were not deceived by the effects of rain and wet fur. Was she watching part of a drama such as one had on a story tape—perhaps the rescue of a wounded comrade from the enemy?
“Fighting?” Tan sounded excited. “Two species at war?”
She looked up from the screen, startled by that note in his voice. His eyes were shining. It took a certain temperament to produce a scout. Tan had tested high in all the attributes the commanders believed necessary. But there had followed rigid training. And the Tan who had survived that training, winning over all others to gain his place with this crew, was not exactly the same Tan to whom she had been drawn.
Ayana knew that her own place in the ship depend-ed not only on her ability to do her own job, but also on the fact that she was a complement to Tan, sup-plying what he lacked. It was the same with Jacel and Massa. They had to complement one another or they would not have been put together to form a crew, necessarily living closely during the voyage; their personalities were so related as to assure the least possible friction.