14
The Foanna
"Ross!" Ashe's hands gripped his shoulders as if never intending to freehim again. "Then you did come through--"
Ross understood. Gordon Ashe must have feared that he was the only oneswept through the time door by that freak chance.
"And Karara and the dolphins!"
"Here--now?" In this black bowl of the citadel bay Ashe was only ashadow with voice and hands.
"No, out with the Rover cruisers. Ashe, do you know the Baldies are onHawaika? They've organized this whole thing--the attack here--troubleall over. Right now they have one of their subs out there. That's whatcut those cutters to pieces. Five days ago five of them wiped out awhole Rover fairing, just five of them!"
"Gordoon." Unlike the hissing speech of the Hawaikans, this new voicemade a singing, lilting call of Ashe's name. "This is your swordsman intruth?" Another shadow drew near them, and Ross saw the flutter of cloakedge.
"This is my friend." There was a tone of correction in Ashe's reply."Ross, this is the Guardian of the sea gate."
"And you come," the Foanna continued, "with those who gather to feast atthe Shadow's table. But your Rovers will find little loot to theirliking--"
"No." Ross hesitated. How did one address the Foanna? He had claimedequality with Torgul. But that approach was not the proper one here;instinct told him that. He fell back on the complete truth utteredsimply. "We took three of the Baldy killers. From them we learned theymove to wipe out the Foanna first. For you," he addressed himself to thecloaked shape, "they believe to be a threat. We heard that they urgedthe Wreckers to this attack and so--"
"And so the Rovers come, but not to loot? Then they are something newamong their kind." The Foanna's reply was as chill as the sea bay'swater.
"Loot does not summon men who want a blood price for their dead kin!"Ross retorted.
"No, and the Rovers are believers in the balance of hurt against hurt,"the Foanna conceded. "Do they also believe in the balance of aid againstaid? Now that is a thought upon which depends much. Gordoon, it wouldseem that we may not take to our ships. So let us return to council."
Ashe's hand was on Ross's arm guiding him through the murk. Though thefog which had choked the bay had vanished, thick darkness remained andRoss noted that even the fires and flares were dimmed and fewer. Thenthey were in a passage where a very faint light clung to the walls.
Robed Foanna, three of them, moved ahead with that particular glidingprogress. Then Ashe and Ross, and bringing up the rear, a dozen of themailed guards. The passageway became a ramp. Ross glanced at Ashe. Likethe Foanna, the Terran Agent wore a cloak of gray, but his did not shiftcolor from time to time as did those of the Hawaikan enigmas. And nowGordon shoved back its folds, revealing supple body armor.
Questions gathered in Ross. He wanted to know--needed desperately toknow--Ashe's standing with the Foanna. What had happened to raise Gordonfrom the status of captive in Zahur's hold to familiar companionshipwith the most dreaded race on this planet?
The ramp's head faced blank wall with a sharp-angled turn to the rightof a narrower passage. One of the Foanna made a slight sign to theguards, who turned with drilled precision to march off along thepassage. Now the other Foanna held out their wands.
What a moment earlier had been unbroken surface showed an opening. Thechange had been so instantaneous that Ross had not seen any movement atall.
Beyond that door they passed from one world to another. Ross's senses,already acutely alert to his surroundings, could not supply him with anyreason by sight, sound, or smell for his firm conviction that this holdwas alien as neither the Wrecker castle nor the Rover ships had been.Surely the Foanna were not the same race, perhaps not even the samespecies as the other native Hawaikans.
Those robes which he had seen both silver gray and dark blue, now faded,pearled, thinned, until each of the three still gliding before him wereopalescent columns without definite form.
Ashe's grasp fell on Ross's arm once more, and his whisper reached theyounger man thinly. "They are mistresses of illusion. Be prepared not tobelieve all that you see."
Mistresses--Ross caught that first. Women, or at least female then.Illusion, yes, already he was convinced that here his eyes could playtricks on him. He could hardly determine what was robe, what was wall,or if more than shades of shades swept before him.
Another blank wall, then an opening, and flowing through it to touch himsuch a wave of alienness that Ross felt he was buffeted by a storm wind.Yet as he hesitated before it, reluctant in spite of Ashe's hold to goahead, he also knew that this did not carry with it the cold hostilityhe had known while facing the Baldies. Alien--yes. Inimical to hiskind--no.
"You are right, younger brother."
Spoken those words--or forming in his mind?
Ross was in a place which was sheer wonder. Under his feet darkblue--the blue of a Terran sky at dusk--caught up in it twinkling pointsof light as if he strode, not equal with stars, but above them!Walls--were there any walls here? Or shifting, swaying blue curtains onwhich silvery lines ran to form symbols and words which some bemusedpart of his brain almost understood, but not quite.
Constant motion, no quiet, until he came to a place where those swayingcurtains were stilled, where he no longer strode above the sky but onsoft surface, a mat of gray living sod where his steps released a spicyfragrance. And there he really saw the Foanna for the first time.
Where had their cloaks gone? Had they tossed them away during that walkor drift across this amazing room, or had the substance which had formedthose coverings flowed away by itself? As Ross looked at the three inwonder he knew that he was seeing them as not even their servants andguards ever viewed them. And yet was he seeing them as they really wereor as they wished him to see them?
"As we are, younger brother, as we are!" Again an answer which Ross wasnot sure was thought or speech.
In form they were humanoid, and they were undoubtedly women. Themuffling cloaks gone, they wore sleeveless garments of silver which weregirded at the waist with belts of blue gems. Only in their hair andtheir eyes did they betray alien blood. For the hair which flowed andwove about them, cascading down shoulders, rippling about their arms,was silver, too, and it swirled, moved as if it had a separate life ofits own. While their eyes.... Ross looked into those golden eyes and waslost for seconds until panic awoke in him, forcing him after sharpstruggle to look away.
Laughter? No, he had not heard laughter. But a sense of amusement tingedwith respect came to him.
"You are very right, Gordoon. This one is also of your kind. He is notwitches' meat." Ross caught the distaste, the kind of hauntingunhappiness which colored those words, remnants of an old hurt.
"These are the Foanna," Ashe's voice broke more of the spell. "The LadyYnlan, The Lady Yngram, the Lady Ynvalda."
The Foanna--these three only?
She whom Ashe had named Ynlan, whose eyes had entrapped and almost heldwhat was Ross Murdock, made a small gesture with her ivory hand. And inthat gesture as well as in the words witches' meat the Terran read theunhappiness which was as much a part of this room as the rest of itsmystery.
"The Foanna are now but three. They have been only three for many wearyyears, oh man from another world and time. And soon, if these enemieshave their way, they will not be three--but none!"
"But--" Ross was still startled. He knew from Loketh that the Wreckershad deemed the Foanna few in number, an old and dying race. But thatthere were only three women left was hard to believe.
The response to his unspoken wonder came clear and determined. "We maybe but three; however, our power remains. And sometimes power distilledby time becomes the stronger. Now it would seem that time is no longerour servant but perhaps among our enemies. So tell us this tale of yoursas to why the Rovers would make one with the Foanna--tell us all,younger brother!"
Ross reported what he had seen, what Tino-rau and Taua had learned fromthe prisoners taken at Kyn Add. And when he had finished, the
threeFoanna stood very still, their hands clasped one to the other. Thoughthey were only an arm's distance from him, Ross had the feeling they hadwithdrawn from his time and world.
So complete was their withdrawal that he dared to ask Ashe one of themany questions which had been boiling inside him.
"Who are they?" But Ross knew he really meant: What are they?
Gordon Ashe shook his head. "I don't really know--the last of a very oldrace which possesses powers and knowledge different from any we havebelieved in for centuries. We have heard of witches. In the modern daywe discount the legends about them. The Foanna bring those legendsalive. And I promise you this--if they turn those powers loose"--hepaused--"it will be such a war as this world, perhaps any world hasnever seen!"
"That is so." The Foanna had returned from the place to which they hadwithdrawn. "And this is also the truth or one face of the truth. TheRovers are right in their belief that we have kept some measure ofbalance between one form of change and another on this world. If we wereas many as we once were, then against us these invaders could not moveat all. But we are three only and also--do we have the right to evokedisaster which will strike not only the enemy but perhaps recoil uponthe innocent? There has been enough death here already. And those whoare our servants shall no longer be asked to face battle to keep anempty shell inviolate. We would see with our own eyes these invaders,probe what they would do. There is ever change in life, and if a patterngrows too set, then the race caught in it may wither and die. Maybe ourpattern has been too long in its old design. We shall make no decisionuntil we see in whose hands the future may rest."
Against such finality of argument there was no appeal. These could notbe influenced by words.
"Gordoon, there is much to be done. Do you take with you this youngerbrother and see to his needs. When all is in readiness we shall come."
One minute Ross had been standing on the carpet of living moss.Then ... he was in a more normal room with four walls, a floor, aceiling, and light which came from rods set in the corners. He gasped.
"Stunned me, too, the first time they put me through it," he heard Ashesay. "Here, get some of this inside you, it'll steady your head."
There was a cup in his hand, a beautifully carved, rose-red containershaped in the form of a flower. Somehow Ross brought it to his lips withshaking hands, gulped down a good third of its contents. The liquid wasa mixture of tart and sweet, cooling his mouth and throat, but warmingas it went down, and that glow spread through him.
"What--how did they do that?" he demanded.
Ashe shrugged. "How do they do the hundred and one things I have seenhappen here? We've been teleported. How it's done I don't know any morethan I did the first time it happened. Simply a part of Foanna 'magic'as far as spectators are concerned." He sat down on a stool, his longlegs stretched out before him. "Other worlds, other ways--even if theyare confounded queer ones. As far as I know, there's no reason for theirpower to work, but it does. Now, have you seen the time gate? Is it inworking order?"
Ross put down the now empty cup and sat down opposite Ashe. As conciselyas he could, he outlined the situation with a quick resume of all thathad happened to him, Karara, and the dolphins since they had been suckedthrough the gate. Ashe asked no questions, but his expression was thatof the Agent Ross had known, evaluating and listing all the younger manhad to report. When the other was through he said only two words:
"No return."
So much had happened in so short a time that Ross's initial shock at thedestruction of the gate had faded, been well overlaid by all the demandsmade upon his resources, skill, and strength. Even now, the fact Ashevoiced seemed of little consequence balanced against the struggle inprogress.
"Ashe--" Ross rubbed his hands up and down his arms, brushing awaygrains of sand, "remember those pylons with the empty seacoast behindthem? Does that mean the Baldies are going to win?"
"I don't know. No one has ever tried to change the course of history.Maybe it is impossible even if we dared to try." Ashe was on his feetagain, pacing back and forth.
"Try what, Gordoon?"
Ross jerked around, Ashe halted. One of the Foanna stood there, her hairplaying about her shoulders as if some breeze felt only by her stirredthose long strands.
"Dare to try and change the course of the future," Ashe explained,accepting her materialization with the calm of one who had witnessed itbefore.
"Ah, yes, your traveling in time. And now you think that perhaps thispoor world of ours has a choice as to which overlords it will welcome? Ido not know either, Gordoon, whether the future may be altered nor if itbe wise to try. But also ... well, perhaps we should see our enemybefore we are set in any path. Now, it is time that we go. Youngerbrother, how did you plan to leave this place when you accomplished yourmission?"
"By the sea gate. I have extra swimming equipment cached under thejetty."
"And the Rover ships await you at sea?"
"Yes."
"Then we shall take your way, since the cutters are sunk."
"There is only one extra gill-pack--and that Baldy sub is out there,too!"
"So? Then we shall try another road, though it will sap our powertemporarily." Her head inclined slightly to the left as if she listened."Good! Our people are now in the passage which will take them to safety.What those outside will find here when they break in will be of littleaid to their plans. Secrets of the Foanna remain secrets past others'prying. Though they shall try, oh, how they shall try to solve them!There is knowledge that only certain types of minds can hold and use,and to others it remains for all time unlearnable. Now--"
Her hand reached out, flattened against Ross's forehead.
"Think of your Rover ship, younger brother, see it in your mind! And seewell and clearly for me."
Torgul's cruiser was there; he could picture with details he had notthought he knew or remembered. The deck in the dark of the night withonly a shaded light at the mast. The deck ...
Ross gave a choked cry. He did not see this in his mind; he saw it withhis eyes! His hand swung out in an involuntary gesture of repudiationand struck painfully against wood. He was on the cruiser!
A startled exclamation from behind him--then a shout. Ashe was here andbeyond him three cloaked figures, the Foanna. They had their own roadindeed and had taken it.
"You ... Rosss--" Vistur fronted them, his face a mixture ofbewilderment and awe. "The Foanna--" said in a half whisper, echoed bycrewmen gathering around, but not too close.
"Gordon!" Karara elbowed her way between two of the Hawaikans and ranacross the deck. She caught the Agent's both hands as if to assureherself that he was alive and there before her. Then she turned to thethree Foanna.
There was an odd expression on the Polynesian girl's face, first ofmeasurement with some fear, and then of dawning wonder. From beneath thecloak of the middle Foanna came the rod of office with its sparkingknob. Karara dropped Ashe's hands, took a tentative step forward andthen another. The knob was directly before her, breast high. She broughtup both hands, cupping them about the knob, but not touching itdirectly. The sparks it emitted could have been flashing against herflesh, but Karara displayed no awareness of that. Instead, she liftedboth hands farther, palm up and cupped, as if she carried some invisiblebounty, then flattened them, loosing what she held.
There was a sigh from the crewmen; Karara's gesture had been confident,as if she knew just what she was doing and why. And Ross heard Ashe drawa deep breath also as the Terran girl turned, allying herself with theFoanna.
"These Great Ones stand in peace," she said. "It is their will that noharm comes to this ship and those who sail in her."
"What do the Great Ones want of us?" Torgul advanced but not too near.
"To speak concerning those who are your prisoners."
"So be it." The Captain bowed. "The Great Ones' will is our will; let itbe as they wish."