Breed to Come (19 page)

"We go to our people. But watch for the flyer—stay under cover."

Again Broken Nose grunted. This was an order tohis own followers, for they turned and trotted into thebushes, only the old boar and his interpreter lingering. The latter signed:

“We stay to watch."

Furtig was glad of their choice. Those eyes in thehuge tusked head, swung low before him, seemedsmall. But he knew their keen vision. There was nomore deadly foe to be faced than this clan when itsanger was roused and it prepared for battle. Therecould be no strangers leaving the lairs along here thatthe Tuskers would not mark. And, Furtig thought,even armed though they might be with strange weapons, if the Demons-came on foot, they had bettercome warily. For all their bulk and seeming clumsiness, the Tuskers were able to lurk undetected in hiding. They had vanquished Barkers many times in reddefeat, using the wind itself to mask their scent.

Ayana gazed at the plate before her. The meat's richjuices formed a natural gravy. The others were eatingeagerly, with the greed of those who have been on ERations for a long time. The meat had tested harmless,resembling the best one could find on Elhorn. Whythen did it nauseate her to look at it?

She lifted apiece to her lips, found she could not bite into it.Why?

"A whole herd," Tan said between mouthfuls. "Weshall have food in plenty close to hand."

Ayana continued to look at the meat. It was wellcooked, and, while it had been cooking, the savor hadmade her mouth water. She had hardly been able towait, any more than the others, until it was ready.She had been as eager as they to taste the first realfood they had seen since they lifted.

"Luck, pure luck," Tan continued, "running intothese on my first cast into the open country. They have not been hunted for a long time. Easy enough topick up a couple."

Ayana stood up. She had been fighting the thoughtvaliantly with all her strength of will. But it brokenow through her defense, and she could not controlher words.

"How do we know that—this is an animal?"

She was a fool, of course. But there were thosefurred things on the bridge. Without the trappings,the weapon, they might be called animals. Yet shewas sure they were not. These things they had cookedhad not had the same appearance, that was true. Butthey knew too little, far too little of this world. Shecould not stomach meat that might be—be the fleshof intelligent beings. There, she had faced the thoughtwhich had struggled darkly in her mind. With a littlecry she clapped her hands over her mouth, pushedpast Jacel, and hurried, not only from the cabin butdown through the ship until she reached the ramphatch.

But that was closed; they were sealed in. And itseemed to her that she must have fresh air, that thefumes of the cooked meat, which she had thought soappetizing earlier, were now a sickening vapor.

Ayana battered at the hatch fastening, the doorrolled open, and she could fill her lungs with the air ofnight. Then hands fell in a harsh, punishing grip onher shoulders, jerking her back into the ship's shell.

"What are you trying to do? Set yourself up as aperfect target for anything out there?" Tan was angry. She had heard that note in his voice only a fewtimes in her life.

He pushed her to one side forcibly, turned to resealthe hatch. Ayana rubbed her arm, blinking fiercely.Tan was not going to see betraying tears in her eyes.

When he had, the seal tight, he swung around, hiseyes hot and hard, watching her.

"Now—what did you mean by that scene?" he demanded as if there had never been, or could be, anygood feeling between them.

And his hostility awakened her own spirit.

"Just what I said. We know too little of the situation here. You thought of those beings on the recordertape as animals. But they are not, and deep in yourmind, you know that. Now—you bring others back—for food!" Her revulsion returned. She had to coverher mouth for a moment. "We do not know what theyare!"

"You need a mind-clear treatment!" His anger waschilling, no longer hot and impulsive but worse.

Hewas entering one of those remote moods when he frozeanyone who tried to communicate. "You saw what Ibrought back. It was all animal. Perhaps"—he came alittle closer, stood looking down at her with that coldmenace—"perhaps you do need a mind-clear. You didnot test out as entirely level-stable—"

"How do you know that?" Ayana demanded.

Tan laughed, but there was no lightness of spirit inthat sound.

"I had my ways of learning what I needed to know.It is always well to be aware of the weaknesses ofone's fellows. Yes, I know your L report, my dearAyana. And do you believe that I cannot put thatknowledge to the best use?"

He caught her shoulders again and shook her, as ifto impress her with his strength of both body andwill. It was as if that ruthless handling shook fromher mind a shield she had clung to for years. Tan was—Tan was— She stared at him, beaten for themoment, not by his will, but by her own realization of what Tan really was.

"We will have no more stupid imaginings." He didnot wait for her to answer; perhaps he believed shewas fully cowed. "Eat or not—if you wish to starvethat is your decision. But you will keep your mouth shut on such ideas!"

Jacel, Massa, were not fools, nor, Ayana believed,could they be dominated by Tan. If what she had saidmade them consider— But for the present, until shehad time to think, she must let him believe that hehad won. Though he appeared to have no suspicionthat he had not. There was confidence in the way hepulled her around, shoved her at the ladder, with theunspoken but implied order to go aloft.

The worst was that Ayana must continue to sharetheir small cabin. The horror that grew in her waseven greater than the desolation she had known moments earlier. Tan would enforce such a relationship,she knew. There was only one escape. She was themedic—and the cramped medic-lab cabin was hersalone. She could shelter there until she had time tothink things out.

She climbed, her thoughts racing. If Tan believedhe had broken any resistance in her— One level more—the medic cabin. She had hardly believed she couldescape him so easily. But she made a quick dash,thumb-locked the door behind her. She fully expectedhim to bat out his rage against its surface. But therewas only utter and complete silence.

Ayana backed away until she came up against thepatient's bunk. She faced the door, taut, listening.When there came no assault, she relaxed on the edgeof the bunk.

The palms of her hands were sweating, she feltweak, sick. The confrontation of the past few moments had frightened her as she had never beenfrightened before in her life. Tan knew her L report.He could turn that to his own advantage. Everyweakness, every way of reaching her had been chartedon that! He could use such knowledge to influence theothers to distrust her. Her outburst at the table had given him a base on which to build false claims. Shehad played directly into his hands— She was-—

Ayana began to fight back. He had thrown her sofar off base that he had gained the advantage for a while. It was time she forgot what had happened andbegan to consider the immediate present. She hadbeen warned; perhaps Tan had made his first mistakein revealing that he thought he could dominate her.

Think, use her brain; she had a good one, L reportor not. Ayana had a good and useful mind.

Now wasthe time to put it to work, not allow herself to becomeenmeshed by emotion, let alone fear, the most weakening of all.

She must not depend on either Jacel or Massa, butstand-alone. For if Tan could prove to be an entirelydifferent person from the one she thought she knew,loved, then whom could she trust?

Herself—and herskills. Ayana began to look about the cabin and whatit contained. Herself and her skills—perhaps she wouldfind that enough

Though she did not rise, her head was up, hershoulders no longer hunched as if she expected at anymoment to feel the sting of a lash laid across them.She was Ayana and she fought to remain that—herself, not something owned by Tan!

Bright as the moon had been in the clearing, it was noguide to paths under the growth cover. But Furtigslipped along easily, treading the way in memory aswell as if he walked one of the well-paved ways of theDemons. These were hunting lands where those of thecaves often came.

The night had voices, birds whose hunting also depended upon the cover of the dark hours, insects,smaller life, which stilled instantly as th.e scent of thetravelers reached them.

Furtig breathed deeply, planted each foot -withpleasure in the fact that it met soil and not the hardsurface of a corridor. He was of the caves after all.And with every whisper of sound, the rich scents thewind brought him, he rejoiced.

Liliha, for all her In-born life, did not lag, but withgliding grace matched the pace the two warriors set.Perhaps she looked from right to left and back againmore often than they, for to her this was all new.

Butshe appeared to find more interest than cause foralarm in what lay about.

They halted at a spring Furtig remembered well,drank their fill, ate of the supplies they had carriedwith them from the lairs. But always they listened,not for the usual night sounds, but for the beat of theDemon flyer within weapon reach overhead.

"If there are only four of them," Furtig said, "thenthey can be defeated. Even if they are scouts—if theydid not return, their clan would take warning."

"It depends," Foskatt pointed out, "on why theyscout. If it is merely to seek new ground, and they donot return, yes, perhaps that would be the end fortheir kin."

"We cannot," Liliha said with the assurance of theIn-born, to whom the study of Demons was a way oflife, "judge anything that the Demons do by what wewould do in their place. They do not think as we."

"If they think straightly at all," Foskatt growled."Remember the old tales—in the final days after theDemons had loosed their own doom, they were sotwisted in their ways that they hunted and preyed upon each other, dealing death to their kin as well asto our kind in turn. And it would seem that they have begun such ways once more. At least they have takenthe Tusker younglings without cause—for one purpose—"

"Again you are not sure," Liliha countered. "Itmay be they have taken the younglings to study them, to see what manner of people are now in possession of the world they ruled so evilly in the old days."

"I do not think so," Furtig said. He was unable toprove that Foskatt was right in his reading of the Demons' motives. But somehow he was as sure of it as ifhe had indeed witnessed the outcome of the stealingof Broken Nose's young.

"Why did they not capture Ku-La and me in thesame fashion?" he continued. Ever since he had heardof that seizure from the air which the flyer had practiced, this had puzzled him. It would have been veryeasy to capture the two of them from that openbridge. Of course, had the Demon tried it, Furtig had held the lightning weapon. Was that why they hadescaped? Had the Demon seen and recognized from aloft the lightning thrower? If so—then Gammage'splan to arm as many of the People as they could had great merit.

It was as if Liliha now read his thoughts. "Youwere a warrior, armed—not a helpless and frightenedyoungling. It may be that the Demon wanted no trouble with captives so he chose the least dangerous thatcould be found. How much farther are these caves ofyours?" she ended briskly.

"If we do not have to turn from the straight trail,we shall be there shortly after sunrise."

They kept on under trees, using brush as a canopywhere trees thinned or failed. They crossed any openspace with a rush, always listening for ominoussounds from the air. Dawn found them working theirway into the higher lands of the caves. Furtig heardthe yowl of the first Sentry, alerting the next. That cry would pass from one to the other until it reachedthe ears of the Elders. He did not know if he had beenrecognized for himself, or merely as one of the People.

But the fact that the three came openly was intheir favor. Sentries and guards would loosely encirclethem as they went but would not try to stop them.However, as the three breasted the next-to-the-lastslope before they reached the cliff of the caves, theywere fronted by one who rose out of the dried grass toawait them. Her gray fur was silken, shining in thesun. And though she was small, she held herselfproudly erect.

"Eu-La!" The sight of her brought back the warmmemory of how she had sent him forth on this venturearmed not only with the fighting claws she had found,but also with her belief in him.

"Cave brother," she said gravely, as gravely as onewho had mothered younglings, so dignified was she.But her eyes slid from him to Liliha and her lips parted on a hiss.

"You bring a strange Chooser—!" She spat thewords as if they were an ill saying.

"Not so!" He should have known. Just as a warriorwould flatten ears and twitch tail at the sight of anon-kinsman, so would female meet strange female."This is Liliha, an In-born of the lairs. She has not chosen, nor will she, save among her own kin—that islair law."

Eu-La was openly suspicious, but she looked againto Liliha, studying her carefully.

"She is not like the cave Choosers. That is true."

"And it is also true, as your kinsman has said," Liliha uttered in the throaty, purring voice of friendship, "that I have not come to choose among you, butto speak of other things, things of danger, to yourElder Chooser."

She moved closer, and, as if Eu-La were suddenlyconvinced, they each extended a pink tongue, touchedit to the cheek of the other, in the touch-of -friend.

"Open is the cave of Eu-La to Liliha of the lairs,"Eu-La said. Then she looked to Foskatt, who had fallen a little behind. "But this is also a stranger."

"Not quite so, cave kin. I was once of the caves before I went seeking Gammage. I am Foskatt, but perhaps you have not heard my name, for I went forthseasons ago."

"Foskatt," Eu-La repeated. "Ah, you are of thecave of Kay-Lin. The Elder Chooser there has spokenyour name."

He was startled. "And who is that Elder Chooser?"

"She is Fa-Ling."

"Fa-Ling! Who was litter sister of my mother!Then indeed I still have close kin in the caves!"

"But you, Furtig, have you learned all Gammage'ssecrets that you return?" There was a teasing purr inEu-La's voice.