(Khornya? Khornya! You’re here! Oh, Khornya, come quickly. I can’t find Thariinye and there is something awful out here in the bushes. Please, Khornya. I’m scared.)
(Maati! It’s all right. I’m here. Where are you?)
(Looost!) The thought was a long ‘wail.
(I’ll come and get you. Just keep sending and I’ll find you and bring you back. Can you see the beach from where you are? Can you see the Condor7)
(No, I’m in the woods and it’s dark and Thariinye was right ^re standing guard while I slept. Now he’s gone and the noises ^e terrible, Khornya.)
(Can he read you? Have you tried?)
(No. I think he must be unconscious. Knocked out, maybe )
Acorna was galloping through the grass now and into the trees, following Maati’s thoughts as if they were spoken words tracking them to their origin.
The footing was treacherous in the dark but she leaped over bushes and roots. She had to pause frequently, however, to listen again for Maati’s thought.
(Keep sending, Maati. I can’t follow you unless I can read you.)
(I’m sooo tired, Khornya. And I’m almost afraid to think too loud for fear whatever it is that’s thrashing around out there will hear me like you do.)
(I understand, dear, but if I’m to find you, you have to keep sending. If whatever it is hasn’t bothered you yet, it probably can’t read us.)
Acorna was halfway up a steep hill when she slipped and fell in a trail of slime. As she picked herself up again, she saw that she had fallen on the broken branches of what must have been brush. The raw ends of the branches were sharply severed at just above ground level for a long swath as wide as Acorna was tall. Where the foliage had been, a trail of foul-smelling slime covered the ground.
From the smell, she knew this -was a Khieevi trail, the creature eating, digesting, and excreting as it went. No wonder they could trash entire planets in such a short time!
Had the wind not been from the sea, and blowing the smell of the slime away from her, she easily would have picked it up earlier. Now she had a spoor to follow and she lost no time scrambling after it.
(Maati, I think it is a Khieevi who has Thariinye. Stay right where you are and do not make a sound unless you know it is me. Have you moved since he disappeared?)
(No, I was too scared of the things out in the bushes.)
(Okay, then, that is good. Just stay put. Somewhere right near you there is a trail of broken brush and smelly Khieevi slime.)
(Eeewww, is that what it is? I thought maybe this planet just smelled really bad in some places.)
(No, that’s Khieevi spoor. They excrete as fast as they eat, apparently. You sound stronger. I’ll be with you in a bit.)
Acorna scrambled further up the hill and down it, following the trail until, though she hadn’t heard from Maati in some time, she suddenly caught a very loud thought. (Ouch! You stepped on me!)
Looking down, at first she saw nothing but more pale blue brush but then she saw, white and lustrous among the leaves, a face. She stared.
(Maati?) she asked uncertainly.
“Yes, it’s me, Khornya,” Maati whispered, and rose to her feet and threw her white arms around Acorna’s neck so that Acorna’s nose was buried in the girl’s silvery mane. (But you look-) “Oh, yeah!”
(Think it, youngling. We don’t know how near danger is.) (I m starclad now. Like the new me?)
(Why should I not? I liked the old you. You are beautiful! So let’s keep you alive, shall we? I need you to follow the slime trail back down the hill and through the woods-your nose will help you if you get off track. When you get to the beach, you’ll see the Condor. You need to get Aari and Captain Becker’s attention and have them come to help Thariinye and me—)
(And leave you alone? Thariinye won’t be any help. I can’t read him at all. Something’s happened to him. If that’s a Khieevi, you need me.)