by Dale Olausen
For some time the girl stumbled along clumsily as she tried to hurry alongside the animal. On a couple of occasions, she was treated to the distinctly weird experience of watching herself struggle. That happened when the greencat turned to stare at her. She made a determined effort to adjust to the disorientation. The adjustment was necessary; she had to be able to keep up the pace that her companion was setting. Her life depended on it.
The route that they followed was not the one that Sarah's captors had taken on the way to the cavern. That route had been level; this one climbed slowly but steadily upwards. The girl did not doubt but that the animal had good reasons for choosing at every crossroads the option which led up; nevertheless, she was acutely aware that the continuous climbing was making harsh demands on her already depleted physical resources. But she knew that she had no choice; she must endure.
She sensed that the mindlink which enabled her to share the greencat's eyesight also gave her some small access to other areas of the animal's thought processes. As they travelled along she realized that the creature had other ways of seeing, too, ways that were certainly not dependent on its physical eyes. There were instances when she caught glimpses of portions of the tunnel in advance of actually passing through them. At other times she had visions of areas that they had already passed. And once or twice an image of the cavern flitted through her mind - the sleeping humanoids still lay scattered around the fires which by now had died down to softly glowing red coals. The girl and the cat hurried onwards.
Much later the greencat finally allowed Sarah the rest break that it had promised her. He directed her to a spot along the tunnel wall where a small pipe-end allowed a trickle of water to dribble into a crack in the floor.
Gratefully the girl sunk beside the spout and, through the animal's eyes watched herself drink the clear, cold water until her throat felt numb and her body trembled with the chill. Exhausted, she fished a chunk of the food which she had stuffed into her pockets and wolfed it down rapidly. Then she just sat for a while, eyes closed but seeing the tunnel nevertheless.
The greencat was pacing restlessly.
"They wake," it mindspoke and once again Sarah was treated to a fleeting glimpse of the big cave. The white-furred creatures were stirring. "Now comes the moment of the sacrifice. They will find out that you have escaped and will set their trackers to find you. We must hurry on."
Without any protest Sarah hauled her weary bones off the tunnel floor. Hurry on they must.
Up, up along the ever-ascending route they travelled. The backs of Sarah's calves ached from the climbing, and as they moved on, the pain spread upwards to her thighs, and her lower back. The alien food that she had eaten did not revive her the way a solid meal from the Beth's dispenser would have; the exhaustion remained with her. Stubbornly she kept on moving in spite of the tiredness and the agony. The cat that accompanied her kept her acutely aware of the need for speed. Whenever her steps lagged, and that was often, she sensed a sharp prodding in her mind. "Hurry, hurry, hurry," the greencat insisted. "We must hurry."
The creature allowed her another quick stop at another waterspout. It paced while she drank and quickly swallowed some food. This time she did not wait to be prodded back into motion; with an immense effort of her will she dragged herself up while still chewing her last mouthful, and began to set one foot in front of the other.
"We will reach the outside world during daylight." The greencat's mindspoken words jarred her out of the stupor in which she had been walking. "The white ones are creatures of the dark," the cat explained. "Bright light is a horror to them; it attacks their skin. Firelight is as much light as they can tolerate. Once out of the tunnels we'll be safe. The sun is our ally."
Yes, but could they make it? Had Sarah the stamina left to make the escape? How much farther did she have to travel in the tunnels before reaching safety?
The greencat allowed her one more, hurried meal break. "This will have to be the last one," it told her as she ate and it paced. "The white ones are gaining on us much too quickly. You will have to try to move faster."
Sarah let out a short, hollow laugh between bites. How could she speed up when already her body had been taxed almost beyond endurance?
The cat turned to gaze upon her and she realized that she had broadcast the thought for it to pick up. She sensed its shock - and her own - as she looked through its eyes upon what she had become. What a scruffy, dirty little ragamuffin she now was! So thin that the filthy protecto-suit hung loose around her bony form! The emaciated face was nearly hidden behind a matted mess of oily hair. The thin shoulders hunched wearily, almost knocking into the drawn-up knees as she sat slumped on the floor.
"You are desperate for rest and nourishment, little one," the animal mindspoke sadly, "but neither is to be had right now. All I can do is to try to inject some more energy into your physical system, although doing that too often without giving the body a chance to recover naturally, is not recommended. I have done it twice already; I should not be doing it again. But we have no choice. We will have to risk it."
Even as the last words sunk into Sarah's mind she felt the promised energy seep into her body. This time it flowed into her organs slowly and as it revived her she sensed a brittleness in that revival - the greencat was right, the process was not altogether safe. The new strength did not feel her own although she knew that for a time she would be able to use it. Once it was gone - well, it was not wise to dwell on that. They must be off again.
"Sunlight is not all that far away anymore," the cat mindspoke encouragingly as they set off, faster than they had travelled before. Fervently Sarah hoped that it was so.
On and on they hurried! And further onwards! Still there was no sign of the promised light at the end of the tunnel. Had the greencat's words been mere wishful thinking, Sarah began to wonder as the brittle strength that animal had injected into her body began to fail. She was slowing down again, stumbling, and even the greencat's eyesight was failing her, leaving her to grope along in the pitch dark.
Suddenly one of her legs gave way under her and she crashed helplessly onto the floor.
"I can't go on any more," she whispered, not caring if the cat could catch the thought.
It did.
"You must!" The mental command it directed at her was so fierce that it cut across her exhausted mind like a whip. "Pick yourself up! We're almost there! And the white ones are nearly upon us!"
It was the cat's will that drew the girl back onto her shaking legs. It was the animal's commands that moved the feet, sending the girl in the right direction. One foot in front of the other! Now the other one in front of it! Do it again and hurry, hurry! Sarah's reality shrunk to encompass nothing but the mind commands and the need that accompanied them, the need to keep her body moving.
Light! Light at last! She could see a bright light shining ahead of them in the direction in which they were struggling! The cat had been right after all! They were almost there! She was seeing the light with her own bleary eyes and not through the eyes of the greencat!
Thankfully she lurched forwards, towards the white, blinding light!
"No, little one, no!"
The greencat threw itself in front of her. She fell on top of the animal, then rolled onto the tunnel floor.
"A new danger!" The animal mindspoke insistently at her. "We cannot go through there after all! There's another exit behind us. We can reach it if we rush!"
An image of a crossroads that they had passed only moments ago floated across her confused mental landscape. Unable to do anything except try to obey the fierce mental commands that the cat was directing at her she struggled to rise as required. The animal grabbed hold of her protecto-suit with its teeth and tugged at it to emphasize its commands.
But now she could see the human forms that were running towards them, carrying the artificial, bright, white lights.
For a second she hesitated. Would they not be members of the Beth's crew, out looking for her?
>
"Come, girl, come. Come to us!"
The words were inside her head, drowning out the greencat's orders! No! These certainly were not the Explorers, human though they might be!
"Come on, girl! Come on, now! Come to us!"
The command was so strong, so searing that it seemed to burn at her exhausted mind. How could she resist?
Abruptly there was another mindforce at her side! It was as fierce as the other one but opposed it!
"No! You must go with the animal," it hissed at her. "Do so. Now!"
This was intolerable.
"Get out of my head," Sarah mindscreamed with all the energy that she could muster. "Just leave me alone both of you. Just let me be!"
But neither force heeded her demand in the least. Instead, they both hung on to her mind a little tighter, it seemed to her, each determined to win her over. If she was to remain herself she must shake both of them off before they sucked the soul out of her. Mentally, she pushed, shoved and shook them, trying to pry them loose. It was no use. She drew the edges of her mind closer together, as if curling herself into a tiny ball.
Then, without warning, she took off like a shot, down the dark corridor, knowing that she was leaving her physical form behind. But it did no good! Her tormentors followed right behind! Daylight! She had left the mountain, through what exit she did not know. Around her she sensed warm sunlight and breezy mountain air. Behind her and still hanging onto her were the two mental fires that she was trying to escape.
"Leave me alone!" she screamed at them. "Just leave me alone!"
The fire on her left grew a little bit stronger and burned a little more hotly into her, as if to mock her. Not to be outdone, the one on the right matched the strength and the heat. They were both tearing at her, each trying to wrest her for its own.
In their matched desire to overpower and take her would they tear her into two? Or burn her into a crisp with their strong heat?
*****
Sarah's body slumped like a rag doll onto the hard tunnel floor. The greencat stood beside it, head held up, judging the situation. From one direction, the humans with their bright lights were hurrying towards them; in the other, the white ones were closing in on them fast.
Knowing that there was no time to lose the animal sunk its teeth into the collar of Sarah's suit and, dragging the unconscious girl with it, began to lope back towards the heart of the mountain. Travelling thus, it could go faster than it had been able to while Sarah had been conscious. The weight of her thin, spent body did not hinder much the progress of the powerful animal.
Shortly it reached a crossroads which was hidden from the view of both groups of pursuers. Immediately it turned into one of the branch tunnels, aware that it, and Sarah, had just barely escaped. The white ones were just rounding the last corner, and already the other pursuers' bright lights were glowing from behind another bend.
"Perhaps they will take care of one another." There was smugness in the thought.
The cat hurried on, carrying its burden and uninterested in seeing the confrontation which no doubt would shortly happen behind it. The narrow tunnel which it had chosen opened out into a pebble-strewn natural cave, the opening of which was blocked by a dense growth of thick vines.
Gently the animal let go of Sarah's protecto-suit, letting the limp body fall on the rough floor. It then padded over to the vine curtain, examining it carefully, if quickly, from one edge to the other. Returning to pick up Sarah again, it, without a moment's further hesitation, chose a spot on the curtain and pushed aside loose vines with its powerful shoulders.
Moments later the greencat emerged from a small, cliffside grove of trees, and dragged Sarah's form onto a meadow. It allowed the inert body to drop from its grasp onto the brownish-green turf and used a large paw to straighten it into a more or less normal sleeping position. Then, seeming to acknowledge its own exhaustion for the first time since - when? - it lay down beside the girl to sleep.
A small, silent, saucer-shaped vessel appeared from somewhere up above. For a moment it hovered quietly over the two motionless forms. Then it circled soundlessly down, swooping directly over the two. A trapdoor opened up underneath it, and a net fell out, landing nicely right on the two bodies. The greencat had a chance only to twitch before the net tightened and scooped them up, pulling them up towards the craft.
Had they been caught after all?
Chapter Fifteen
The Organization Wanderer landed on the western side of the mountain, on a badly eroded ledge. The chosen spot was a small opening among trees that had grown tall on the slope, but the Camin’s sensitive equipment had zeroed in on the intruder already in space, and did not lose it in the woods. The Camin, having settled further up on the mountain side, remained quiescent so as to not announce its presence to the foe, while the Explorers flew around freely in their easily manoeuvrable flyers, keeping sensor eyes on the Hounds.
“They must know we’re here,” Ginette said to Dav, inside the flyer which they shared with Rieve and Jaff. “Any ship’s instruments can trace flyers. But they don’t seem to be paying any attention to us.”
“They probably figure that we don’t count,” Dav replied. “Explorers don’t usually fight, even for treasure.”
He leaned into the viso-screen and turned up the magnification to maximum.
“Mind you, enough of them just came out of that ship – ten by my count. And some of them look pretty heavily armed. It’s a good thing that the Camin’s weapons locker was well stocked. This could get hot.”
The Explorer’s were relaying their visuals up to the Camin, keeping Coryn and Steph as well informed as they themselves were. Coryn paid little attention to the Hounds’ weapons - they were deadly enough, but a known quantity. Rather, he was intrigued by the box that one of them carried, slung from a strap on his shoulder.
“That’s got to be their amarto-tracing gadget,” he said to Steph
“Yeah. It looks pretty primitive, though.”
It did, especially considering that somewhere within it lay the brain-wave patterns of an amarto-sensitive girl who had probably died painfully, while gifting The Organization with the ability to search for and use the Witches’ Stones. It appeared to be not much more than a box with earphones attached to it, and a circular loop of some sort on top. The operator twisted and turned the loop, sometimes adjusting a dial which sat next to it; then he would point his mates to move in a particular direction. Off they all would hike. Every few minutes the Hound with the box would take another reading, whereupon everyone changed their heading as required. It was slow work, but steady. They seemed to be moving through the trees towards another nearby ledge.
The Explorers took their flyers to the vicinity of this ledge, and parked them in the woods below it. They quickly organized themselves into two foot patrols, approaching the target area from a couple of different directions. They remained quiet and orderly – in spite of the Explorers’ tendency to high spirits, planeting crews knew how to keep a low profile when necessary. The Organization troops paid them no heed, whatsoever. Instead, they were making a considerable racket during their own approach, as if totally unconcerned about anyone, or anything, around them.
Dav tapped Rieve on the shoulder, and addressed him in a low voice.
“You’re the best climber among us. Got your binoculars with you? Scramble up the talus slope a ways, and take a look to see what’s up there, on that wooded part of the ledge. They seem to be heading for it. Maybe there’s a tunnel entrance there, or something.”
Rieve nodded, then began to work his way up the slope, keeping hidden from the hounds behind scree. After some minutes of climbing, he came to a suitable observation spot, and stopped to take out his binoculars. The Organization Hounds, in the meantime, had reached the wood, and had begun to hack at the vines covering the face of the rock. With a start, the realization that there was an entrance into the mountain behind the vines came to him! It looked like the vines had been deliberately
grown there to obscure it! Even as he stared, The Organization troops began to pour inside, in great haste!
He reported this to Dav and the others via communicator, while scanning the rest of the nearby area. He had another shock! About half a kilometer from the vine-covered spot was another one which looked very much the same! And two figures were emerging from among the vine growth—an animal dragging what looked like a dead human body onto a patch of sunlit ground! Rieve’s heart skipped a beat as he recognized the Explorer uniform the person was wearing, even as the creature lay its prize on what passed for grass on this world! He had to be looking at Sarah!
“Dav! We’ve got to do something!” he rasped into the communicator. “I just saw some animal drag Sarah out into a clearing on the ledge, less than a half a kilometer from where the Hounds rushed into a tunnel! They must have scented her, and the Stones, possibly – and she looks to be in a bad way, maybe dead!”
Coryn and Steph, listening in on the open channel in the Camin, blanched at one another. The thought of the girl whom The Organization had captured chilled the Agent’s blood. That couldn’t be allowed to happen again!
“We have got to pull her out of there, before the Hounds reach her!” he said to the Explorers. “No way those dogs get her, if she’s still alive!”
“Go after her in the Camin,” Dav said immediately. “It’s her best chance! We’ll create a distraction - pour fire on their ship!”
“What about the ambush?” asked Steph.
“Not gonna happen. Damn it, Steph!” Coryn didn’t care that the Explorers could hear him curse the pilot. “The Hounds can’t have her, you’ve got to be able to see that! They absolutely cannot, for her sake, and ours, and for the sake of the universe as we know it! Forget the ambush – we have to get the girl clean off the planet! The Explorers are pros, Steph—they can take care of themselves, and possibly the Hounds, too!”
