“Take your followers from this place,” another cried. “Truly you are but living
dead, risen from the dismantling tombs.”
“I shall carry no fear of His wrath within me,
Nor shall I tremble at His coming,
Nor harbor terrors of the beasts of darkness,
For my feet have trod the path of righteousness.
I have not strayed …” Groork’s voice recited from across the square.
“Mount up!” One of the outlaws reined to a halt with Thirg’s steed held stamping
and snorting alongside his own.
Thirg shook himself from his trance and mounted hurriedly. “But what of Groork?”
he called to Dornvald, who was turning to join the rest of the band as they
grouped in the square.
“He hears only his voices and speaks only to the sky-dragon,” Dornvald shouted
back. “We must leave.”
Then a body of villagers brandishing staffs and blades advanced round the corner
ahead, following a huge, grim-faced robeing who was carrying a club of
lead-weighted pipe. “You shall not escape, Accursed Ones!” the leader shouted.
“The angel calls for a sacrifice in atonement. Let it take you who brought it
here, not us!”
“Ride!” Dornvald drew his sword and urged his mount into a gallop, and the
others closed in solidly behind with weapons already unsheathed. Thirg had
blurred impressions of bodies reeling back in confusion on both sides as the
ground raced by below, of shouting coining from all around him for a moment and
then falling away behind . .”. and then the road out of the village was opening
up ahead with the last houses slipping out of view. The riders remained at full
gallop while they passed through the outlying fields and slowed their pace only
when they had emerged into the wild scrubland beyond.
When they looked back, they saw that the flying beast had moved from its station
and was following them—nearer the ground than before, and off to one side. Then
it moved forward rapidly to circle ahead of them, still keeping its distance and
directing a cone of pale, violet light at the riders as if to study them from
all angles. The column slowed to a cautious pace, and the dragon stayed ahead of
them for a while. Finally it moved fully round to come behind them once again,
then climbed higher once more and disappeared from sight moving back in the
direction of the village. Time passed, and it failed to reappear. Gradually the
fear that had gripped Thirg and his companions began to abate.
“What have you to say now about myths of sky-creatures, Seeker-of-Answers?”
Dornvald asked Thirg when the latter looked as if he had recovered sufficiently
to be capable of speech. “Have you an answer to offer for this?”
“I have none,” Thirg replied numbly. He thought back to Groork’s recent
insistence that voices from the sky warned of the imminence of great events. Had
he been mistaken about Groork’s voices all along? Thirg said little more as the
bright lightened. Slowly the hills flanking the mouth of the last valley
flattened out and receded away on either side, and the scene ahead opened out
into vast wastes of dunes, scattered boulders, and undulating desert as far as
the eye could see.
15
BEHIND A SHALLOW RISE AT THE FOOT OF SOME ROCK OUTCROPS near the fringe of one
of Titan’s deserts, the surface lander stood in an oasis of light cast by its
perimeter arc lamps. Smaller lights flashing and moving on the slopes below and
to either side of the rise marked the positions of the landing party’s U.S.
Special Forces and British marine contingents deploying into concealed positions
to cover the approaches.
Inside the lander, Zambendorf and Abaquaan, carrying helmets under their arms
and moving slowly in their ungainly extravehicular suits, picked their way
forward among the similarly attired figures sitting and standing in the cramped
confines of the aft mess cabin, and stopped at the doorway that led into the
midships control room. Amid the clutter of crew stations and communications
consoles ahead, Charles Giraud, Leaherney’s deputy, was talking to an image of
Leaherney, who was following the proceedings from the Orion, while other screens
showed the surroundings outside. One display presented the view from a