Now they could see the Fire Snake bathed in the light of her own signal ray. She lay low in the water, her waist deck almost awash. And out in the dark somewhere must be the raider creeping in for the kill.
Cho’s commands passed along from officers to men. Ray could make out figures on the doomed vessel,: shadows flitting across her slanting deck. Her small. boats were being slung into the water. Then all but one pushed off, heading for Cho’s ship. Cho pointed to the one remaining.
“That waits for the Lady Ayna-she must destroy, her ship.”
Over the deck, now awash, darted a slight figure, to; leap to the waiting boat. With mighty strokes the rowers sent the small skiff surging from the side of the sinking vessel. There was a moment of silence while, by the aid: of the light still on the deserted deck, they could see the boats racing toward them. Then a column of purple flame flowered upwards, filling sky and lapping sea with angry brilliance. With a roar it and the Fire Snake disappeared.
The first survivors were already climbing over the rail of Cho’s ship, and the commander went to welcome them. At his coming the strangers cried about some slogan and raised their arms in salute. Then came an officer. He reached back to aid one who followed, and the Sunborn Lady Ayna stepped upon deck. She was slight, no great beauty, but she carried herself as might an Empress of Ray’s imagination. Her dark hair was bare of helmet. A band of pearls about her forehead, the ends twisted in her braids, proclaimed her rank. She wore a knee-length tunic and over it armor for breast and back.
“Hail, Lord Cho!” she said clearly. Her voice was low, but it carried well. “Since the Fire Snake sails no more, I crave your favor for these, my men.”
Again, to his astonishment, the speech was clear for Ray, though he was sure she was not mind-beaming it to him.
Cho raised fingers to forehead in return. “The Lady Ayna, Sunborn of Uighur, need only make known her wishes. This ship, its men, are at her command.”
The girl laughed and lost some of her defensive dignity. “Let us then be gone, Lord Cho, lest even worse befall. One of the Red Ones noses in, lured by our signals.”
Cho nodded and gave an order. The Lady Ayna beckoned forward her officers. “This is Hek, this Romaha.”
In turn, Cho introduced his men. Last of all the Murian’s hand fell on Ray’s shoulder, and he drew the American closer. “My sword brother-Ray-”
The Lady Ayna smiled. “Happy am I to greet you, my lords, though I could wish mightily that we met at a more fortunate time and for a better reason. Atlantis comes to war openly it seems-”
“The recall would bring that to mind, yes. Will you grace our cabin?”
With the sure step of one at home on shipboard, she went down into the great cabin, where Cho led her to the high chair and called for wine.
“Can it be true-that they dared to take the White Bird in an open attack?” She sipped at the goblet Cho had offered.
“That is the reason given for the recall. If so, they must at last bring upon themselves the full wrath of the Re Mu.”
She frowned, turning the goblet around in her, fingers.” The dwellers in the Shadow will discover that, though the mother has long been patient, there comes. an end to forbearance. They will not soon forget—thos’ who survive it-the punishment to follow. Is it true, Lord Cho, that you were prisoner of the Red Ones? Such a message reached us.”
In answer, the Murian held out his hands. Still to be seen about his wrists were the marks of bonds. “Ten days did a pirate have me, then I was sold to the Atlanteans-”
She gasped. “So it is true! They dared to lay hands upon one of the Sunborn, using him as if he were an outlaw, a man of no house! How did you then win free?”:
“With the aid of the Flame, working upon their dark minds-
“
Her eyes shone. “Yes! That they have no answer for, . much as they have tried to find one. The Ba-Al: himself is powerless against it. So you escaped-”
“Also by the aid of my brother.” Again he touched: Ray’s shoulder. “For I was near drained with weariness, and at the end I could not hold the power. But he had me free in spite of that.”
“After you had first freed me,” Ray corrected.
At his words the Lady Ayna started to give him her full attention. “Who are you who speaks no tongue of any land of ours? From what ship came you, Lord Ray?”
“From no ship-” _
“Then whence? I know of no colony in the Barren Lands-”
“Throw -h time, from the far future, I think. I know it; sounds impossible, but it must be true. There is no’ other explanation. I was in my own time, then suddenly I was in a forest, and then I was captured bye Atlantean hunters. They took me to their ship-where -Cho already was.”
She continued to eye him narrowly, as if she could read his mind, weigh and assess his every thought. “This is truth. I have heard the Naacals speak of such journeys in the temple schools. But none who have ventured forth to test it have yet returned to us. And you are not like unto us-So you have come a long way, and you have ill-chosen your time, or chance has ill chosen it for you.”
Ray wondered at her calm acceptance of what he
. considered still a most improbable explanation. What sort of reception would a Murian suffering the same
A fate have received in his own world? He flinched away from imagining it. Maybe he was lucky.
The Lady Ayna arose. “My thanks for your aid this night, Lord Cho. Now I must report to the motherland.
j: Have you a cabin for my body rest?”
Cho parted the wall curtains and showed her a waiting bunk. She entered and stood for a moment, one hand ready to draw the drapery behind her. “Good
_-fortune to us all, from this hour forward.” Then she allowed the tapestry to fall into place.
An lour later Ray crouched shoulder to shoulder with Cho at the bow of the Wind Ruler. Their heavy
a cloaks were damp with spray. The moon was hidden by gathering clouds. But they knew, though they could not see it, that somewhere in the dark a raider was attempting to cut across their course.
“Dare we carry that attack to them, tooth and claw, they would slink away like the cowardly carrion eaters of the plains. But to fight, while we are alone in a sea
;- they now claim, would be deadly folly. For all we know, they but scout for a pack, a fleet that would be down on us as the condors of Mayax gather to a puma’s kill.”
“What if they attack?”
The Murian laughed shortly. “Let them but try that.”
All the crew had stood to arms when they had sought the Fire Snake. Even though the Wind Ruler was now back on its former course, the shield wall stood, the machines were in the open, and men kept their battle stations. Now, at another order, there was a faint ringing, and on the sides of the rowers’ benches screens arose level with the planking of the upper decks. Next to Ray was a long tube projecting from a box, and three
sailors stood to duty there. An officer, one of the Lady Ayna’s, came to report.
“Yes, all is in readiness,” the Murian said. “The men of the Fire Snake did not join us empty-handed but brought their own flame throwers. They mount these beside ours. We need only send up the battle flare. Then the raider will blunt its teeth upon death!”
Cho went from bow to stern, Ray behind him. As he progressed, the Murian inspected the preparations, but when he reached the afterdeck, he paced back and forth, twisting the border of his cloak until the fabric split in a long tear. Ray tried to see through the dark.
“If they would only come in,” he muttered. Long ago, or so now it seemed, and very far away in space (he could think of this world better as divided from his own in space), he had been trained for war. Not this kind, but battle did not greatly differ. And even as he spoke those words, he knew the answer-waiting was an age-old weapon used by many men in many places during the centuries.
“That is just what they will not do,” Cho continued. “Well do they know the value of forcing waiting upon their enemies-waiting until the first sharp vigilance relaxes ever so little. Then comes the attack. We must keep an untiring watch. If I ever cross the five walls those sons of Ba-Al use as their shields and meet them face to face with their backs to those same walls and no hole for them to bolt through-then shall all waiting be done and every moment of this night paid for. But those clouds across the moon-Sun forbid we have mist and fog in the morning!”