by Speer, Flora
“He’ll live,” Herne said, tossing the skin melder onto the instrument table and turning off the sonic instruments. “He will be unconscious for a while, probably until his fluid levels return to normal. He is badly dehydrated and in a state of shock. That broken leg will take a long time to heal completely. At least seven days, I’d say.”
“I will sit with him,” Alla volunteered.
“You will not,” Suria told her. “You need to eat, and to think about something beside Reid and this man for a while, or you will be Herne’s next patient. I will stay with him until you are rested.”
“Now that you have disposed of the man and the nursing schedule between you, I may as well get some rest myself,” Herne said, and walked out of the room.
“You go, too,” Suria ordered Alla fondly. “I promise I will call you if he wakens and is able to talk.”
“He might know what happened to Reid,” Alla said. “But if he doesn’t—”
“If he doesn’t, we will still find Reid. I know Tarik. If there is a chance Reid is still alive, he won’t stop searching, not after the discoveries of the last few days.”
But when Alla wakened after a long nap, the computer model showed that there had been another volcanic eruption, with more clouds of ash and steam billowing out of the mountains.
“We can’t search that area again until the air clears,” Tarik said, his dark face taut with strain. “The shuttlecraft engines would be destroyed if large amounts of ash were sucked into them. I am sorry, Alla.”
“I understand.” Her only hope now was that when the rescued man regained consciousness, he would be able to give them information that would help in the search for Reid.
She was alone with him the following evening when he began to stir, opening his eyes to see her bending over him. The sea-blue color of those eyes was dulled by pain, and Alla thought very likely by emotional shock, too, if he had been aware of what was happening to his home before the columns crashed down on him.
“The earth no longer trembles,” he said in a hoarse, weak voice.
“You are in a safe place,” Alla assured him. “We are well away from the volcanoes.”
“Not at Ruthlen?” The voice became firmer as he spoke, as though he had tapped a reserve of strength far inside himself.
“If by Ruthlen you mean the place where we found you, no. We are half the continent away from there.” She could sense him thinking about that and gradually understanding that he had been rescued by people from outside his home. A few moments later, he spoke again.
“My bracelets are gone,” he said, rubbing at first one wrist and then the other.
“Our physician had to remove them,” Alla explained. She picked them up from the shelf where she had laid them the day before and handed them to him. “I am sorry they were damaged, but I think they could be fixed without much difficulty.”
“How appropriate that they should be cut off.” He took the bracelets, turning them over in both hands. “A just punishment.”
“One of our colonists is very good at metal repair,” Alla offered. “I will ask him.”
“Don’t bother. I am no longer worthy to wear them, and what they once represented is gone.” He dropped them back into Alla’s hands.
“Did you find others alive?” he asked.
“We found no one,” Alla said, wondering for whom he was concerned. She added quietly, “We did find a body near you. A woman in a blue dress.”
“Sidra.” He gave a deep, painful sigh. Then came a response that made Alla wonder all the more about this man. “Sidra is gone. I am free.”
“I need to ask you a few questions.” Alla decided it was time to steer the conversation to the subject that most interested her.
“Your speech is different from mine,” he said. “You speak as Reid did.”
“You know Reid?” Alla bent forward, her hands clenched tightly together to keep her from grabbing at him in her excitement. “Please, he is my cousin, and we have been searching everywhere for him. If you know where he is, tell me so we can find him.”
“So you are Alla.” The blue eyes were sharper now, searching her face. Alla stared back at him, caught by his marvelous beauty, and by the possibility of finding Reid. She thought he was going to say something, but at just that moment Tarik appeared.
“Here is our commander,” Alla said, and watched the man look Tarik over with remarkable thoroughness.
“You are Jurisdiction,” the man said to Tarik.
“I am, but if you are a telepath, you have nothing to fear from us,” Tarik responded.
“I do not fear,” the man said. He looked from Tarik to Alla, then seemed to make a decision. “I am Osiyar, former High Priest and Co-Ruler of Ruthlen. What do you wish to know?”
“Where is Reid?” Alla asked before Tarik could speak.
“He is dead,” Osiyar replied, and saw her face crumple. “You cared for him. I regret the need to cause you pain, but you requested the truth.”
“Tell us everything,” Tarik ordered, “from the time you first met Reid until the last moment you can remember.”
Osiyar began to talk. Herne came into the room in the middle of the story to check on his patient, and then to remain, listening as intently as Alla and Tarik. In answer to Tarik’s questions, Osiyar explained that the blanking shield around Ruthlen would have kept the scanning computer aboard the Kalina from recording evidence of the true conformation of the land beyond the forest, and of the people living there. He spoke briefly about Sidra and her intrigues. Finally, he told them how Reid had arrived in Ruthlen and what had happened to him and to Janina.
“Bedding a virgin priestess,” Herne grumbled at this point. “The man ought to have better sense. No wonder your High Priestess punished him.”
“So Reid isn’t dead.” Alla wasn’t interested in Janina, only in her cousin. She knew she was grasping at a meager hope, but she could not help it. “Reid is familiar with boats. He might have managed to safely beach the one he and the girl were in. He could be trying to reach us over land.”
“That’s not very likely,” Herne put in. “I was in the forest, too, Alla, and I know as well as you how impassable it is. Not to mention the wide desert and the prairie lands if they got out of the forest, or the mountains if they started walking from farther up the coast. No, I think it is more likely they never reached land. The two of them are drowned, or dead of thirst and starvation by now.”
“There is something else you should know, Alla,” Osiyar said when Herne paused for breath. “I told you Tamat and I joined our minds to hasten the volcanic eruption she knew was imminent. I remained linked with her to the end. In the last instants before her death, she thought of Janina with relief. The image in her mind was of Janina on a larger, well-supplied boat. I had no time to think more of it because the earth was shaking and the temple columns fell on me. But now I wonder if Tamat sent another boat after them.”
“You mean, she sent someone to help them?” Alla asked eagerly.
“No,” Tarik said with a certainty that impressed Alla. “He means Tamat sent them a boat with her mind.”
“She could have done it,” Osiyar agreed.
“Which reminds me, Tarik,” Herne interrupted. “How are we to protect ourselves against this telepath? Who knows what he has already learned about us, or what use he will make of the information?”
“I am too weak to use the Gift,” Osiyar said. “Even if I were not, I still would not use it without permission. That is the law.”
“We don’t know that we can trust what you say,” Herne objected.
“No more than I can trust you and Tarik when you tell me you will not turn me over to Jurisdiction authorities.” Osiyar smiled, making Alla catch her breath at the perfect beauty of his face. “I believe, Herne, that we are forced to trust one another in this situation in which we find ourselves.”
“Can you use your Gift, as you call it, to contact Reid or the girl?” Tarik asked.
“When I am stronger, perhaps,” Osiyar said. “Janina’s portion of the Gift is locked so deep within her mind that I do not think it can ever be reached except by use of a harmful herbal potion, so there is little chance that my presently weakened skills could touch her mind firmly enough for me to understand where she is or what has happened to her. She cannot send her thoughts outward, you see. Reid is another matter. Tamat believed he had some latent power which he himself did not suspect.”
“That can’t be true!” Alla declared, much shaken by this assertion. “If Reid had any telepathic ability, I would know it, and I tell you, he hasn’t.”
“You know nothing about such things,” Osiyar retorted sharply. “Do not dispute Tamat’s knowledge or her ability to search another person’s mind to learn what lies within it. Her belief in Reid’s unrecognized ability was one reason she decided to allow him to mate with the village women.
“As for contacting either Reid or Janina to try to discover where they are, you must all understand that such a use of the Gift would be exhausting for the most healthy telepath. If I were to try before I recover fully, I would surely fail, and if I die attempting what you want, I would be of no further use to you.”
Alla watched him, intrigued by the coolness with which he spoke of his own demise and wondering if he did not care whether he lived or died. It was possible, considering that everyone he had known, as well as his home, was lost to him forever.
“Had you friends in the village as well as the temple?” she asked with sympathy. She considered his response no real answer to why he was so cool.
“There was no one I cared about. I love no one,” he said, then looked at Tarik. “May I remain with you until I am well? I swear I will harm no one, whether by mind or by physical force.”
“You are welcome to stay as long as you wish,” Tarik told him, adding, “There is a Cetan among us, but he is a friend. I should also tell you that the remnants of the Chon live here at the lake.”
Osiyar went perfectly still, staring so hard at Tarik that for a moment Alla wondered if he had already broken his promise not to use his Gift. Then she saw him relax.
“A Cetan. If you say he is friendly, I will believe you. As for the Chon, Reid told Tamat that they still live,” Osiyar said. “Before he came to Ruthlen, we had believed them all killed by the Cetans. Herne, how soon may I get up? I must meet them.”
“Two or three days at the most,” Herne said. “You will need a crutch for your broken leg until it has completely healed, but you should be able to move about fairly easily.”
“If the Chon will accept me,” Osiyar told Tarik, “we may be able to use them to search for your friend long before I am strong enough to try.”
“Then get well,” Alla said. “I know Reid is alive. I am absolutely certain of it. Osiyar, I beg you, recover quickly and use all your powers to help us find my cousin.”
Chapter 15
For Janina, the greatest terror lay in the period between the setting of the moons and the rising of the sun. During that dark time she expected the sea monster to attack at any moment. When the sun finally rose, she could hardly believe she and Reid had lived to see daylight come. As soon as it was light enough to see clearly, she scanned the water astern of the boat, and then all around it. She saw nothing but wind-driven waves. The monster had disappeared. That made her even more apprehensive. On the sea, the monsters ruled, and they would never let their prey elude them. Janina thought the creature was tormenting them, biding its time, letting them think they could out-sail it.
There was no way they could escape by land, either. Any attempt to beach the boat would be prevented by the enormous grey-brown cliffs, weathered and barren, that soared straight out of the water to a height so far above them that Janina felt like a tiny speck against their chilling grandeur.
“They are at least two thousand feet high,” Reid told her when she asked him about the cliffs. “Look at the ice in the crevices and along the shore. That’s a sign that we are nearing the cape.”
They entered an area of floating ice, and Reid sent her forward with the long fish spear, telling her to try to push the huge chunks aside. Each time she leaned over the bow, Janina expected the sea monster to snatch her from the boat. She gritted her teeth to stop them from chattering and without objection followed Reid’s instructions. If they were going to die at any moment as she believed, then she would spend those last moments pretending to a bravery she did not feel, so Reid would never know of her cowardice.
She drew a long breath of relief when they sailed into open water again, with only an occasional tall iceberg to be seen far out in the deepest water. By now it was much colder, and the cliffs edging the coast were completely covered in ice and snow. It seemed to Janina that the icily beautiful world was entirely composed of the cold blue of sea and sky and the glittering white of the land.
They reached the cape late in the day. The high cliffs ended in a tumble of ice-rimmed rocks and crashing waves, swirling whirlpools and unexpected changes in current. Reid took a wide course around this dangerous, northernmost end of the continent, sailing so far out into the sea that Janina’s teeth began to chatter again, this time with fear and cold combined. Then he swung the boat southward, tacking into the wind, fighting his way across the sweep of the current they had been riding, which continued its northward direction beyond the end of the cape.
The land looked no more hospitable on this side of the cape, and now, with the wind blowing against them, they were not making the rapid progress Janina would have liked. But they would soon be in a different part of the sea, and still the monsters had not claimed them. She allowed herself to begin to hope they might be spared. When Reid sent her below to rest, she had no trouble falling asleep.
When she awakened, it was morning again and they were uncomfortably far out at sea, tacking toward land. She could only make out the part of the shore that lay at sea level. The higher land was covered with heavy fog and clouds.
“It will rain soon,” Reid said. “I have a feeling there is going to be a bad storm. I would like to find a protected inlet or a river. I don’t want us to be blown back to the cape and dashed onto those rocks.”
His face was pale and lined with fatigue, but Janina knew that she was not a skillful enough sailor to have taken the tiller to round the cape the day before while he rested, nor to sail the boat now under the present conditions. Still, she could see they had to stop somewhere soon so that Reid could sleep.
At least she could serve as lookout. She watched the shoreline, searching for a place where they might land. She saw nothing but the same grey-brown rock everywhere she looked. She turned back to tell Reid - and stopped with her breath caught in her throat. She could not move or speak, she could only stare transfixed in horror at the thing she had feared for most of her life, ever since it had killed her parents. It had come for her at last. Her heart quaking within her, she saw the sea monster rise out of the water just off the stern of their boat.
It was huge. The half of it she could see was as wide as three men standing side by side and twice as tall as a man. It was even more hideous than she remembered, covered with dark gold scales, its green eyes bulging at either side of its snakelike head. Below its sloping shoulders and long slender neck, appendages similar to fins were extended to hold it steady in the water. At each side of its great, gaping mouth, twin tentacles writhed, searching the air for the food it would scrape into that moist orange maw. The tentacles were reaching toward Reid, who had not yet seen the danger behind his back.
Janina was unable to give voice to the scream that would have warned Reid of the presence of the creature or told him it was moving closer to him. She remembered in anguish how quickly her parents had died, before any warning could be given. She knew it would be the same for Reid if she did not act at once.
Her realization of the monster’s presence and of what it was about to do took only an instant. An instant more and the terrified paralysis that h
ad held her in its grip disappeared. Never taking her eyes off the monster, she reached for the fish spear she had left in the cockpit the day before, picked it up and ran the few steps to Reid’s side.
He must have thought she had lost her mind and was trying to stab him with the fish spear. He ducked, moving the tiller sharply and sending the boat wheeling in a half-circle. The sudden maneuver saved him. When the monster lunged, he was out of reach of the tentacles. But he was safe only for a moment or two, until the creature tried again.
Janina went sliding across the deck, the fish spear still in her hand. Reid caught her arm, pulling her to safety when she would have tumbled overboard.
“Damnation!” By now he had seen the monster, too. “Get down and hold on!”
He swung the tiller again. The boat heeled over. With a crack of wind the sails filled suddenly, pushing the starboard side of the boat even lower into the water. Janina screamed as the sea poured into the cockpit.
It was the monster that righted the boat. It crashed across the port railing, lunging at Reid a second time, and its weight stabilized them.
Miraculously, Janina still held the fish spear. Though terrified, she was determined to protect Reid. Not thinking at all about her own safety, she jabbed at the monster with the spear, stabbing it just below one eye. In a pool of foaming black blood, the monster slid back into the sea, where it lay wallowing on the surface beside the boat. Standing in the cockpit, ankle-deep in sea water, weeping and shuddering, Janina clutched the fish spear with white-knuckled fingers.
Reid was still at the tiller. The sails were empty now and flogging wildly as the small boat faced directly into the wind. With their forward motion slowing to a stop, they began to roll and pitch on the rough sea.
“We’re in irons,” Reid muttered. “We’re going nowhere. Janina—”
Before he could finish the order he intended to give, she pointed in horrified silence. There, in the sea behind Reid, was a second sea monster.
