“Captain?” That did not come out as a word. It was a rusty, croaking sound. Nik tried to turn his head, and a jab of pain followed, so intense as to make him sick. He retched dryly before he called again, “Captain?”
Movement through the gloom. Nik dared not move his head, but now he could see the shadow looming over him.
“Captain?” he asked for the third time.
“Right.” But Leeds did not stoop. He remained a pillar hardly visible to Nik.
The dark! Nik made a vast effort and brought his hand up to his head. Before his fingers reached his eyes, he knew the answer. His goggles were gone. And he also guessed who wore them now. Just as that black and alien cloud of fear had closed on him back when he fronted the shining thing, so now he was uneasy. There was something wrong here -what?
“So, you’re awake?” The cool voice rang in Nik’s ears. In this half light, he could not read the expression on Leeds’ face, but that tone – As if the captain were not standing there but had retreated to a far distance.
“The Disians – they are coming.” Nik gave his warning first. Again he tried to move, to see the opening through which they might rage. But the pain in his head and the answering agony in his shoulder kept him quiet.
“They haven’t arrived yet.” Again a certain cool disassociation with such concerns. “Vandy!” Leeds’ head turned. “Get going!”
Going where, Nik wondered.
“Sorry.” That was the captain. “You might have worked out – otherwise. Only I have to cut all losses now.”
Words that did not mean anything, or did they? Nik’s wariness was acute. He made an effort, which left him sick and trembling, but he raised himself up on the elbow of his sound arm. Leeds stepped back.
“Where – are – you – going?” Nik got that out.
“To meet destiny – otherwise the Patrol.”
“Back?”
“Back.”
“Don’t think I can – yet.”
“You won’t be asked to try.”
It took a long second for that to sink past the pain. Then Nik put a new fear into words.
“You mean – I stay here?”
Leeds was still retreating. “You stay. As you just said, you can’t make it, and there’s trouble corning. Hacon the hero is the proper rear guard, isn’t he? Right in character to the end.”
Nik still could not believe it. He pushed up to a sitting position and watched the dusky space about him twist sickeningly. One determination held through that whirling punishment. He would not beg.
Click of boots on rock – Leeds was going! He had Vandy back, he would make his deal with the Patrol – and he was leaving Nik as a rear guard or rather as an offering to whatever Disian pursuit existed. Yes, Nik was the price the captain was willing to pay for his own clear escape!
And when that sorted itself out in Nik’s mind, he felt such rising anger as he had never known, before in his short life. All the frustration and hatred stored up during the years in the Dipple were fuel for that rage. There had been nothing then he could do to fight back. But here and now he could do something, if it were only to draw after Leeds the very trouble he feared. Nik might not be able to walk, but he could crawl.
He hunched together, gathering strength. Goggles were gone again. Once he left this chamber, he would be plunged into the dark. His right hand moved along his belt – the rayer was gone. Well, he could not have expected Leeds to overlook that, could he? Nothing but his bare hands and the determination not to be counted out armed him now.
Nik made himself wait, hoping that he presented to Leeds, should the captain glance back, the picture of dejected submission to fate. It was still hard to think clearly. Only rage gave him the strength to make a move.
He could no longer hear the irregular tapping marking the captain’s limping progress. And there had been no sound from Vandy at all. Nik raised his head. As far as he could see, he was alone. He could not get to his feet, but there were still his hands and knees – Nik had to fight with every scrap of will within him to enter the dark beyond. No sound of footfalls ahead. But he was listening, too, for what might be behind.
The way might have been shorter for a man able to walk it, but to Nik, creeping along, it seemed endless. He could put so little weight on his left arm that even his crawl was one-sided and slow.
Leeds and Vandy must have already reached the root room. Nik strove to hurry, but the greater effort brought back his giddiness. At least there was no whistling and none of that invisible menace cast by the other thing.
Nik tried to piece together what had happened in the immediate past. He had been running from the hounds and had just reached the lighted chamber when – had one of the stones struck him or could Leeds have deliberately knocked him out?
Since their meeting at the island hill, Leeds had needed Nik – first to get the supplies, then to help him regain control of Vandy. Yes, Leeds had needed Nik. But now – did he need him any longer? Nik had been the one who had actually removed Vandy from the HS villa back on Korwar. Now Leeds could say that he had nothing to do with the kidnapping. He could return Vandy and make a much better bargain without Nik than he could if he tried to cover him with the same immunity. Leeds’ present action was good sense if the captain wanted to make the best deal. Nik’s sustaining anger grew with his realization of his own stupidity. Leeds had used him from the start – with bait he knew that Nik could not resist, a new face. And that, too, had all been part of the deception. There had been no new techniques used on him, no way to keep the operation intact for long. He was a temporary tool, to be used and discarded. Leeds had probably never even bought him into the Guild!
Nik crawled on. He wanted Leeds’ throat between his two hands-that was the burning desire filling every part of him. But Leeds had Vandy, all ready to bargain with the Patrol. If only that bargain could be queered! To fail now would be worse for Leeds than any other hurt Nik could deal him.
What had been the bargain as Leeds had outlined it? To get a ship and free passage off Dis, then to release Vandy in a suit to be picked up by the Patrol. Nik licked his lips. Vandy released in a suit? Now he did not believe that either. Vandy could either be such a threat that his death must ensue, or he could be used again in some game for Leeds’ advantage.
What had been Leeds’ parting shot? Hacon the hero – Well, there was no future for Nik Kolherne, even if he were able to reach his own kind again and not be pulled down by some nightmare of these burrows. But he might accomplish something against Leeds – he had to! And perhaps he could make sure that the trickery that started in that Korwarian garden would finish here – that Vandy would not continue to be bait or loot or whatever Leeds wanted him to be. The sickly light of the root chamber was ahead, and Nik remembered the drop from the crevice to the floor below. Would Leeds be lingering there or would he already have herded his captive on into the dark ways? Nik clung to the thin, very weak hope that the two were still in the root chamber. His chances of doing something in the passages beyond that point were close to the vanishing point. He wriggled forward to look into the room.
The light was greater because he had come out of the dark. Nik surveyed the scene with a deliberation he forced on himself. Leeds and Vandy were both here. The captain sat in much the same position as Nik had seen him – was it hours or days before? – examining the ties that held the splint on his wounded leg. His movements were slow, and he winced once. Nik was certain his injury was a drag.
Vandy was within arm’s distance of his captor. He wore goggles, but his arms were tied behind him. Nik longed for one of the stones the hounds had thrown, though whether he could have used it to any purpose, he did not know. If he came into sight through the crevice, Leeds could pick him off before he reached the floor of the chamber.