Wolf gave a low whine and his ears went flat.
‘You’re annoying him,’ Zek said, ‘and you’re annoying me, too. Also, you’ve missed my point. Big macho man! I say: “I’m a telepath”, and you say: “Prove it”. The next thing, you’re asking me to prove I’m a woman!’
Jazz nodded, pulled a sour face. ‘You rate yourself pretty damned high, don’t you? God knows what sort of men you’re used to, but I -‘
‘All right!’ she snapped. ‘Watch . . .’
She looked at Wolf, the merest glance, then turned and tossed her head, walked on toward the sun. She went maybe a hundred yards, and Jazz and the wolf stood still watching her. Then she stopped and looked back. ‘Now I’m not going to say anything,’ she called out. ‘So see what you think of what happens next.’
Jazz frowned, thought: What the – ? But in the next moment Wolf showed him what the. The huge creature loped closer, took the sleeve of Jazz’s one-piece in his great jaws – but gently – began to tug Jazz in Zek’s direction. Jazz stumbled to keep up, and the faster he went the faster Wolf ran, until both of them were flying full tilt toward the girl where she waited. Only then did the wolf let go, when both of them drew level with her.
‘Well?’ she said, as Jazz came to a panting, stumbling halt.
He sucked the hole in his jaw where two teeth had once been, put up a hand and scratched his nose. ‘Well,’ he started, ‘I -‘
‘You’re thinking I’m an animal trainer,’ she cut in. ‘But if you say it out loud, that’s it. We go our separate ways. I’ve survived so far without you and I can keep right on doing it.’ Wolf went and stood beside her.
‘Two to one,’ Jazz grinned, however ruefully. ‘And since I’ve always believed in the democratic process . . . OK, there’s no option but to believe you. You’re a telepath.’ They carried on walking, but slightly more apart now. ‘So why didn’t you know it was me coming up the pass? How come you challenged me as Vyotsky?’
‘You saw the castle back there, the keep?’
‘Yes.’
‘That’s why.’
Jazz glanced back. The cliff-hugging castle must be miles back by now. ‘But it was empty, deserted.’
‘Maybe, and maybe not. The Wamphyri want me -badly. They’re not stupid, anything but. They know I came in through the sphere, the Gate, and they’ve surely guessed that sooner or later I’d try to get out again that way. At least, I credit them with that much intelligence. It would have been easy for them during the last sundown – during any one of many sundowns – to put a creature in there. There’ll be plenty of rooms and corners in there that the sun never touches.’
Jazz shook his head, held up a restraining hand. ‘Even if I understood all you just said, which I don’t, still I wouldn’t know what it has to do with me,’ he said.
‘In this world,’ she answered, ‘you’re careful how you use ESP. The Wamphyri have it – in many diverse forms – and so to a lesser degree do most of the animals. Only the true men are without it.’
‘You mean, if the Wamphyri left something in that castle back there – a creature? – it would have heard your thoughts?’ Again Jazz was close to incredulous.
‘It might have heard my directed thoughts, yes,’ she nodded.
‘But that’s -‘ he stilled his tongue before it could offend her.
‘Wolf can hear them,’ she said, simply.
‘And me?’ Jazz gave a snort. ‘Does that make me an idiot or something, because I can’t hear them?’
‘No,’ she shook her head. ‘Not an idiot, just a true man. You’re not an esper. Listen, when I came up this way I heard your thoughts, distant and strange and a little confused. But I didn’t dare concentrate on you and check out your identity in case that allowed something else to pick out and identify me! Now that we’re in the light of the sun, the pressure’s off; but the closer I got to Starside the more careful I had to be. And because I couldn’t be sure you weren’t Vyotsky, so I challenged you. You said he’d probably have killed me. Maybe he would and maybe not. But then he’d have had to kill Wolf, too, which wouldn’t be so easy. And if he had killed me, then he really would be on his own. It was a chance I had to take . . .’