Then it came with a jolt – the throbbing whistle – and he could not tell if it broke from ahead or behind them. Nik only knew that the hunt was up, that he and Vandy were the prey.
“Hacon.” That was a gasped whisper.
There was no need to keep the truth from the boy.
“The Disians,” Nik said. But had that call been behind or ahead? They could only keep on going. “Watch – for – any –lights.” he told Vandy between panting breaths. “Especially any that move.”
But the way before them remained safely dark. Nik tried to remember how long that dark sector had been. Surely soon they would sight the shrine of the next lighted portion near where the break in the wall gave on the outside.
“Hacon!”
Just as the whistle had been one alert, so this was another, this stroke of fear as sharp as physical pain. Nik paused to look back. No glimmer yet, but he was certain the thing had left its station and was on the prowl behind them.
“Keep going!” he ordered between set teeth. “Keep going!” They must make it back to Leeds.
Vandy, Nik thought, was crying silently now, but he was going on, and they had not yet been trapped in the net of the thing’s compelling will. Each glance behind told him the enemy had not yet appeared, not in person, but only in that black blanket of fear, which was one of its weapons.
The whistling began again, not in a single sharp throb but as a low, continuous bleat that filled the ears and became one with the blood of the listener. But, Nik, realized, it did not become one with the fear projected by the thing. In fact, it warred with it so that the worst of that other depression lifted. Hunters who were natural enemies – who had not joined forces? Dared he hope that they might clash and so give their prey a fighting chance?
“Hacon, that noise – what’s happening now?”
“That’s the Disians’ call. And I don’t think the other thing is pleased.”
“Will they fight?”
“I don’t know.”
“There’s a light – now!”
Vandy was right. There was a light ahead. But a second later Nik was filled with a vast relief. It was the end of the dark sector – not an attack signal. Once in the lighted passage, it was not too far back to Leeds.
“Just the passage light!” Relief made that almost a shout. “Keep going, Vandy, keep going!”
The whistling was louder, becoming a din, and under that lurked the fear. It was as if all the life that sulked in these burrows had been stirred into action. Could they, even if they reached Leeds, hold out against such a concentrated attack? But one thing at a time. Leeds knew more of Dis. He might have some answer to such danger. And there was the Patrol. Nik pinned his last hopes on the Patrol.
Vandy was weaving from side to side. Only Nik’s grip kept him on his feet, but still lie moved to that beacon of light. The pain had returned under Nik’s ribs. It was sharp with every breath he drew. They must keep going – they must!
As suddenly as it had burst on their ears, the whistling stopped. Then the silence was worse than the din because Nik was sure it was prelude to action. And yet he did not know whether danger lay ahead or behind. He paused once again to look back and saw-Lure lights! More than one, not only waving in the middle of the passage, but also from above and the sides, as if the Disian hounds clung to the walls and roof.
Nik and Vandy burst out of the dark and stumbled on. The boy looked back and gave a choked cry. Nik needed no alert against the nightmare boiling up there – the hounds coming at a scuttle.
“Vandy – give me the blaster!”
Nik jerked the weapon away from him. The charge might be almost gone, but perhaps enough remained to take care of the first attack wave. Only he must not use it until he was sure that no other party waited ahead to box them in.
Jointed clawed legs, round armored bodies – five – six more coming through the dark. No sign of their Disian masters, if that was the relationship between the two so dissimilar species. They were slacking where the full light began. Nik thrust Vandy on with a powerful shove. The boy broke into a tottering run.
Nik was thankful that the creatures were not yet pressing the attack he feared. Then he wondered at that forebearance. Their rate of advance did not press the fugitives – why? He and Vandy were past the break in the wall. Just let them reach Leeds, and they would be able to hold off this pack with the second blaster the captain had.
Scuttle – click – but no more whistling.
“Keep going, Vandy!” Nik ordered. Then he saw their luck was beginning to fail; the creatures were drawing closer.
A throbbing whistle –
“Run, Vandy!” Nik got that out and swung around to face the pack. He pressed the firing button on the blaster.
A full beam answered! For an instant, he thought Vandy had been wrong about the weapon as that fan of fire crisped the first wave of crawlers. Then a warning flicker rippled down the ray.
But the first burst had had its effect. The second group hesitated at the cindered bodies of their fellows. Nik backed away. Did he have charge enough left for a second shot? He must save that. And afterwards – the rayer?
Every stride he took was that much gained. Now the first of the pursuers had scrambled over the dead and were tentatively following. Just let them collect in a body once more, and perhaps he could kill enough to discourage the rest thoroughly. Such a thin hope – but about the only one Nik had left.
Chapter XVIII
THE BLAST had taught the Disian creatures a measure of caution. Their advance slowed, and Nik hastened his own pace. He was sure Vandy was well ahead. And every moment he won, every stride he took, was a small victory.
But that breathing space was only temporary. Nik was warned by a new massing of the pursuers. And then he noted something that quickly revised his estimate of their intelligence. They were passing from one to another, over rounded shell backs, fragments of rock. Whether these were to be used as shields or weapons, Nik did not know, but he quickened his retreat.
A stone as big as his fist came at him, and he ducked. But his reactions were slow, and the missile grazed his head just above the goggle strap, so that he swayed back against the wall on his left. A blow on his shoulder before he had shaken free of the daze of that first hit numbed his left arm. He had not dropped the blaster, and for the second time he fired.
The beam was short, snapping out in a matter of seconds, but it curled up a row of the stone throwers and gave Nik time to lurch out of range. He had to make it – he had to!
At least he was coming out of the fog of pain that filled his head, and he had bought some more time. Time he could use –
“Hacon!”
The call sounded far away, but it pulled Nik together, and sent him scrambling ahead.
“Coming, Vandy.” Had he answered that aloud?
An opening – the chamber where he had left Leeds! With a lung-emptying effort, Nik flung himself forward through that-and crashed into utter darkness.
“- easy – easy – easy.”
One word ringing in his aching head. What was easy? A faint stir of curiosity moved somewhere in the depths of Nik’s darkened mind.
“- do as exactly as I say – say – say.” Echoes growing farther and farther away.
Do as who says – why? Again Nik was pushed into thought in spite of a desire not to be at all.
“- when they come, you will say this – this – this.”
Always the echo ringing in his ears as had the Disian whistles. Disian whistles! Memory awoke and prodded fiercely. Nik opened his eyes. There was a glimmer about him, a ghostly pallid counterfeit of true light. He was lying on his back, and his shoulder ached with a sullen, angry persistence.
“You understand it all now?” These were words with the crack of authority, a demand for obedience.
“Yes.”
Vandy! There was no mistaking Vandy’s voice. Vandy and Leeds! Then they had reached the captain. But Leeds had to know about the hunters. They would be coming; they would erupt here! How long had he, Nik, been out? Another stone must have brought him down just as he came out of the passage –