The ex-king leaned against the back wall of the cave, facing the savage stranger. Jiacare winced as he rose to his full height and moved to put himself between the savage and Leelson.
“There’s still the matter of my oath,” said the savage, curling his lip.
“Mitigan of the Asenagi, I will compensate your bruised honor,” snarled the king with equal force. “By your blood and mine, man! We’ve been sucked through a wormhole in space; we don’t know where we are or when we are, and it’s a poor time in my opinion to argue about honor!”
The man addressed as Mitigan did not put aside his bellicose manner, but at least he took his hands away from his weapons. Saluez moaned and put her hand to her head. Leelson went on cursing under his breath, the same words over and over. Lutha looked around for Trompe and then remembered.
“Was Trompe killed?”
“Yes,” gasped Leelson. “He was. For which someone will answer … ”
His voice failed. Lutha blinked. Trompe had been a faithful companion. She wept into her cupped hands, regretting that they had not always seen their duty alike, that she had been impatient with him.
It was then that she heard another voice, sharp though rather plaintive, pitched to be barely audible over the sound of the sea. “Hello?” And again: “Hello?”
Leelson, startled by the voice, slithered down from the opening in an avalanche of gravel. Lutha detached herself from Leely’s tether and crawled up into the space he’d left. Above the ocean the transformed Kachis were furiously feeding, dropping long lumpy tentacles into the sea and pulling up fish after fish, spreading their tentacles into nets to capture seabirds, meantime bobbing, weaving, spinning as they increased the spaces between themselves, all the time gobbling voraciously. They stretched away in a level plane, a flat grid of bodies that met the flat surface of the sea at the horizon. Lutha risked sticking her head out of the hole just far enough to look along the cliff face. She saw nothing but rock and more rock, all of it splotched with salt and bird droppings and streaked with black ropes of what could only be seaweed.
“Hello,” she called. “Where are you? Who are you?”
“I saw somebody’s feet!” cried the voice. “I’m Snark. Did you come to rescue me?”
What a question! Turning toward the sound, Lutha saw light-colored movement, something waving, a scarf or shirt, then a face peering down. The person was above them, almost at the top of the cliff, her head and shoulders protruding from a hole. Some other cavern, Lutha thought as she glanced out at the transformed Kachis, still busily eating.
“What place is this?” she called.
“Perdur Alas,” the other cried.
At the moment the name meant nothing to Lutha, though she was sure she had heard it recently. She rubbed her head fretfully, calling, “Don’t go away.”
She squirmed back inside to tell the others there was a human being nearby and the name of the place. Leelson’s and the ex-king’s exclamations reminded her where she’d heard the name recently. Poracious Luv had said the sensory recording was from Perdur Alas.
Leelson felt his arms, groaning. “No doubt the woman who’s calling to us is the observer whose senses we experienced.”
“Don’t you find that unbelievable?” Lutha asked.
The ex-king said, “Those who encounter chains of events at two disparate points, without observing the connections, think they have observed coincidence when they have, in fact, seen only consequence.”
Lutha’s mouth dropped open, and he grinned.
“I was a figurehead, yes, but I was allowed tutors.”
Leelson started to laugh, cut himself off in mid-amusement, and rolled over so he could feel tenderly along his ribs.
Mitigan stepped over Leelson’s body and looked out the entrance, then he helped Leelson up so he could do the same. The ex-king didn’t bother.
“I’m no good at practical things,” he said. “I’ve had no experience.”
“You can keep watch, then,” Leelson directed him. “Sit in the opening there and tell us if any of those things come back this way.”
The ex-king obediently sat, throwing Lutha a good-natured glance as he pushed by her to get at the opening.