There were no trees here. We moved across an open space which gave footing only to brush that did not grow high. Where one of the waves had topped the wall, I saw that I walked on a coating of soil overlying pavement, some of which had the same fused look as the surface of the wall.
If I walked some road or courtyard, there was no other wall. The clouds were very thick and dark now, and the first pattering rain began. The wall was no protection, nor was there any other shelter in this sparsely grown land. I ran on, my tiring body having to be forced to that pace, both my pack and Eet weighing cruelly on me.
Then the wall beside which I jogged made a sharp turn left and ended in a three-sided enclosure. It had no roof, but those three sides were the best protection I had seen. We could stretch the shelter from the wreck over us to afford some cover. Also, I was not going to blunder on in the dark. So I darted into that enclosure, squatting down in the corner I judged easiest to defend. There we huddled, the covering draped over my head and shoulders, Eet in my lap, as the night and the storm closed down upon us.
But we were not quite in the dark. As I changed position I saw the faintest of glows from the pouch which held the stone, and when I pried open the top a fraction, there was a thin ray of light. Just as it had come alive before, so it was registering energy now. Was this ruin its goal? If so, had the LB led us directly to the home planet from which the derelict had lifted eons ago? Such a supposition could not be ruled out as fantastic. The LB could have been set on a homing device and the drifting ship might have met its fate soon after take-off. Unwittingly we might have made a full circle, returning the ring to the world on which it was fashioned. But the age of the stones at my back certainly argued that those who had dwelt here were long gone, that I had stumbled on traces of one of the Forerunner races, about whom we know so little and even the Zacathans can only speculate.
To spend a stormy night amid alien ruins of incalculable age was not my idea of a well-chosen pastime. My search for gems had taken me into many strange places, but then I had only been second to Vondar, leaning on his knowledge and experience. And earlier I had looked to my father, not only for physical protection, but for that teaching which would aid in survival.
As I crouched there with the rain drumming on the thin sheet which was my only roof, I was only partially aware of the night, the alien walls, the need for alertness. One part of my mind sought back down the years, to my father’s first showing of the ring with the zero stone- for that was what he had once termed it, a challenge to his knowledge and curiosity.
It had been found on a suited body floating in space. Had that body been one of the crew of the derelict? And my father had died at the hands of someone who had then searched his office, the zero stone the prize the murderer sought.
Then Vondar Ustle and I had been entrapped at the inn on Tanth. And I could accept that that had not happened by a chance pointing of the selective arrow. It had been planned. Perhaps they had believed that, being off-worlders, we would resist the priests just as we had, and both be slain, as Vondar was. They could not have foreseen that I would break away and reach the sanctuary.
For the first time I resented my bargain with Ostrend. And the trader in me regretted the gems I had paid for a passage which had already been arranged by another. So- I was to have been transported to Wayside and turned over there to those paying for my rescue. For what purpose? Because I was my father’s son, or his reputed son, and so might have possession of, or knowledge of, that very thing which now glowed faintly against my chest?
Again by chance I had escaped- the fever- a contagion picked up on Tanth, or on that unnamed world where the people had so mysteriously disappeared? That sickness which had so oddly struck just at the proper time- Oddly struck!
“Just so,” Eet answered with his favorite words of agreement. “Just so. You alone of the crew sickening so- why did it take you so long to wonder about that?”
“But why? I know Valcyr picked my cabin to give birth- that must have been chance-“
“Was it?”
“But you could not have-“ What if he could? As helpless as Eet’s body had looked when I found Valcyr with him on the bunk, did that necessarily mean that his mind-?
“You are beginning to think,” Eet replied approvingly. “There was a natural affinity operating between us even then. The crew of the ship were a close-knit clan. It was necessary for me to find one detached from that organization, one who could furnish me with what I needed most at that time, protection and transportation away from danger while I was in a weak state. Had I encountered them at a later period I would not have been so endangered. But I needed a partner-“
“So you made me ill!”
“A slight alteration of certain body fluids. No danger, though it appeared so.” There was a complacency in his answer which for a moment made me want to hurl Eet out into the dark and whatever danger might lurk there.
“But you will not,” he answered my not completely formulated thought. “It was not only a matter of expediency which made me choose to reveal myself to you. I spoke of natural affinities. There is a tie between us based on far more than temporary needs. As I have said, this body I now wear is not, perhaps, what I might have chosen for this particular phase of my existence. I have modified it as much as I can for now. Perhaps there will be other possible alterations in the future, given time and means. But I do have senses which aid you. Just as your bulk and strength do me. I believe you have already discovered some of the advantages of such a partnership.
“We are still far from any situation you may term safe. And our alliance is very necessary to both of us. Afterward we can choose whether to extend it.”
That made sense – though I disliked admitting that this small furred body I could crush in my two hands contained a personality forceful enough to bring me easily to terms. I had had few close contacts with anyone in the past. My relationship with Hywel Jern had been that of pupil to teacher, junior officer to commander. And while Vondar Ustle was a man of easier temperament, far more outgoing than my father, the relationship had remained practically the same for me when I entered his service. Beyond that I had had no deep ties with any man or creature. But now I had been summarily adopted by Eet, and it appeared that my will did not enter into the agreement any more than it had with Hywel or Vondar – for it had been of their desire in both cases. But – my anger arose- I was not going to stand in the same relationship to Eet!
“They come!” Eet’s warning shocked me out of my thoughts.
We had been so long without any contact with the natives that I had believed they had given up. If they moved in now, we might find our shelter a trap.
“How many and where?” Eet was right; in such a situation I must depend upon his senses.
“Three-“ Eet took his time to answer. “And they are very hesitant. I think that this place represents danger to them. On the other hand – they are hungry.”
For a second or so, that had no meaning for me. Then I stiffened. “You mean-?”
“We – or rather you – represent meat. Contact with such primitive minds is difficult. But I read hunger, kept in check mainly by fear. They have memory of danger here.”
“But – by the signs we have seen, there is plenty of game here.” I remembered the fresh tracks, the evidences of life we had seen in profusion, and how easy it had been for the fisherman to scoop out his prey.
“Just so. A puzzle as to why our trail would draw them past easier hunting.” Eet did seem puzzled. “The reason, I cannot probe. Their minds are too alien, too primitive to read with any clarity. But they are aroused now past the limit of prudence. And they are most dangerous in the dark.”