10
Vye crawled weakly from the area of a rock outcrop. The sun, reflectedfrom the cliff side, was a lash of fire across his emaciated body. Hisswollen tongue moved a pebble back and forth in his dry mouth. Hestared dimly down the slope to that beckoning platter of water openunder the sun, rimmed with the deadly woodland.
What had happened? They had gone to sleep that first night under theledge of the dried waterfall. And all of the next day was only a hazeto him now. They must have moved on, though he could remember nothing,save Hume's odd behavior--dull-eyed silence while stumbling on as abrainless servio-robot, incoherent speech wherein all the words camefast, running together unintelligibly. And for himself--patches ofblackout.
At some time they had come to the cave and Hume had collapsed, notrousing in answer to any of Vye's struggles to awaken him. How longthey had been there Vye could not tell now. He had the fear of beingleft alone in this place. With water perhaps Hume could be returned toconsciousness, but that was all gone.
Vye believed he could scent the lake, that every breeze up slopebrought its compelling enticement. Just in case Hume might awake to astate of semi-consciousness and wander off, Vye tethered him withblanket bonds.
Vye fingered Hume's knife, which had been painstakingly lashed to atrimmed shaft of wood. Since he had emerged from that clouding of mindwhich still gripped the Hunter, he had done what he could to preparefor another attack from any roving beast. And he also had Hume's raytube--its single charge to be used only in dire need.
Water! His cracked lips moved, ejected the pebble. Their four emptywater bulbs were in the front of his blanket tunic, pressing againsthis ribs. It was now--or die, because soon he would be too weak tomake the attempt at all. He darted for the first stand of bushdownhill.
As the brooding silence of the valley continued, he reached the edgeof the wood unhindered, intent on his mission with a concentrationwhich shut out everything save his need and the manner of satisfyingit.
He squatted in the bush, eyeing the length of woodland ahead. Then hetried the only action he had been able to think out. That beast Humehad killed had been too heavy to swing up in trees. But Vye's ownweight now did not prohibit that form of travel.
With spear and ray tube firmly attached to him, Vye climbed into thefirst tree. A slim chance--but his only defense against a possibleambush. A wild outward swing brought him, heart-thudding, to the nextset of limbs. Then he had a piece of luck, a looped vine tied togethera whole group of branches from one treetop to the next.
Hand grips, balance, sometimes a walk along a branch--he threadedtowards the lake. Then he came to a gap. With hands laced intotendrils, Vye hunched to look down on a beaten ribbon of gray earth--atrail well used by the evidence of its pounded surface.
That area had to be crossed on foot, but his passage through the brushbelow would leave traces. Only--there was no other way. Vye checkedthe lashings of his weapons again before leaping. Almost in the sameinstant his sandals hit the packed earth he was running. His palmsskinned raw on rough bark as he somehow scrambled aloft once more.
No more vines, but broad limbs shooting well out. He dropped from oneto another-stopped for breath--listened.
The dark gloom of the wood was broken by sunlight. He was at the finalring of trees. To get to the water he must descend again. A dead trunkextended over the water. If he could run out on that and lower thebulb, it could work.
Eerie silence. No flying things, no tree dwelling reptiles or animals,no disturbance of any water creature on the unruffled surface of thelake. Yet the sensation of life, inimical life, lurking in the depthsof the wood, under the water, bore in upon him.
Vye made the light leap to the bole of the dead tree, balanced out onit over the water, moving slowly as the trunk settled a little underhis weight. He hunkered down, brought out the first bulb tied fast toa blanket string.
The water of the river had been brown, opaque. But here the liquid wasnot so cloudy. He could see snags of dead branches below its surface.
And something else!
Down in those turgid depths he made out a straight ridge running witha trueness of line which could not be nature's unassisted product.That ridge joined another in a squared corner. He leaned over,strained his eyes to follow through the murk the farther extent ofthose two ridges. Looked along both pointed protuberances aimed at thesurfaces of the lake, like fangs in an open jaw. Down there wassomething--something artificially fashioned which might be the answerto all their questions. But to venture into the lake himself--he couldnot do it! If he could bring the Out-Hunter to his senses the othermight find the solution to this puzzle.
Vye filled his bulbs, working speedily, but still studying what hecould see of the strange erection under the lake. He thought it wascuriously free of silt, and its color, as far as he could distinguish,allowing for the dark hue of the water, was light gray--perhaps evenwhite. He lowered his last bulb.
Down in the bleached forest of dead branches, well to one side of themysterious walls, there was movement, a slow rolling of a shadow sohidden by a stirring of bottom mud that Vye could not make out itstrue form. But it was rising to the bulb.
Vye hated to lose a single precious drop. Once he might have the luckto make this journey unmolested, a second time the odds could be toohigh.
A flash--the slowly rising shadow was transformed into a whizzingspear of attack. Vye snapped the bulb out of the water just as anightmarish, armored head arose on a whiplash of coiled, scaled neck,and a blunt nose thudded against the tree trunk with a hollow boom.Vye clung to his perch as the thing flopped back into deeper waterfrom a froth of beaten foam, leaving a patch of odorous scum and slimeto bracelet the waterlogged wood.
He ran for the shelter of the trees to get away. This time there wasno rear, no thump of feet in warning. Out of the ground itself, or soit seemed to Vye's startled terror, reared one of the tusked beasts.To reach his tree and its dubious safety he had to wind past thatchimera. And the creature waited with a semblance of ease for him tocome to it.
Vye brought around his spear. The length of the haft might afford hima fighting chance if he could send the point home in some vulnerablespot. Yet he knew that the beasts were hard to kill.
The mouth opened in a wide grin of menace. Vye noted a telltaletightening of shoulder muscles. It was going to rush for him now withthose clawed forepaws out to rip.
To wait was to court disaster. Vye shouted, his battle cry piercingthe silence of the lake and wood. He sprang, aiming the spear point atthe beast's protuberant belly, and then swerved to the side as theknife bit home, raking his weapon to open a gaping wound.
The spear was jerked from Vye's hold as both those taloned paws closedon it. Then the creature pulled it free, snapped the haft in two. Vyefired a short blast from the ray tube before it could turn on him, sawfur-fuzz afire, as he ran for the tree.
Beneath its branches he looked back. The beast was pawing at theburning fur on its head, and he had perhaps a second or two. He jumpedand his fingers caught on the low hanging branch, then he made asuperhuman effort, was up out of the path of the thing which rushedblindly for the tree, shrieking in frenzied complaint.
The huge body crashed against the trunk with force which nearly shookVye from his hold. As the giant forepaws belabored the wood, strove tolift the body from the ground, Vye worked his way out on anotherbranch. In the end it was the shaking of that limb under him whichaided his swing to the next tree. And from there he traveledrecklessly, intent only on getting out of the woods as fast as hecould.
By the noise the beast was still assaulting the tree, and Vye marveledat its vitality, for the belly wound would long ago have killed anycreature he knew. Whether it could trace his flight aloft, or whetherits howls would bring more of its kind, he could not guess, but everysecond he could gain was all important now.
At the gap over the trail he hesitated. That path ran in the directionof the open, and to go on foot meant the possibility of greater speed.Vye slipped
from the bough, hit the ground, and ran. His raggedlungsful of air came in great gasps and he doubted if he could takethe exertion of more tree travel now. He raced down the path.
Those mewling cries were louder, he was sure of it. Now he heard thethump of the beast's blundering pursuit behind him. But its bulk andhurts slowed it. In the open he could find cover behind a rock, usethe ray again.
The trees began to thin. Vye summoned power for a last burst of speed,came out of the shadow of the wood as might a dart expelled from aneedler. Before him, up slope, was the closed door of the valley. Andmoving in from the left was another of the blue beasts.
He could not retreat to the trees. But the newcomer was moving withthe same ponderous self-confidence its fellow had shown earlier. Vyedodged right, headed for the rocks by the gap. As he pulled himselfinto that temporary fortification, the wounded beast dragged out ofthe woods below. He thought it was blind, yet some instinct drove itafter him.
Shaking from fatigue, Vye steadied his forearm on the top of the rock,brought up the ray tube. Less than two yards away now was thedeceptively open mouth of the gap. If he threw himself at that, wouldthe elasticity of the unseen curtain hurl him back into the claws ofthe enemy?
He fired his blast at the head of the unwounded beast. It screeched,threw out its arms, and one of those paws struck against its woundedfellow. With a cry, that one flung itself at its companion in thehunt, and they tangled in a body-to-body battle terrible in its utterferocity. Vye edged along the cliff determined to reach the cave andHume. And the two blue things seemed intent on finishing each otheroff.
The one from the wood was done, the fangs of the other ripping out itsthroat. Tearing viciously the victor made sure of its kill, then itsseared head came up, swung about to face Vye. He guessed it was awareof his movements whether it could see or not.
But he was not prepared for the speed of its attacking lunge.Heretofore the creatures had given the impression of brute strengthrather than agility. And he had been almost fatally deceived. Hejumped backwards, knowing he must elude that attack, for he could notsurvive hand-to-hand combat with the alien thing.
There was a moment of dazed disorientation, a weird sensation offalling through unstable space in which there had never been and neverwould be firm footing again. He was rolling across rock--outside thecurtain of the gap.
He sat up, the feeling of being adrift in unmeasurable nothingnessmaking him sick, to watch mistily as the blue beast came to a halt.Whimpering it turned, but before it reached the level of the woods, itsagged to its knees, fell face forward and was still, a destructivemachine no longer controlled by life.
Vye tried to understand what had happened. He had somehow brokenthrough that barrier which made the valley a prison. For a moment allthat mattered was his freedom. Then he looked apprehensively behindhim along the road to the open, more than half expecting to see agathering of the globes, or of the less impressive lowland beasts thatacted as herders. But there was nothing.
Freedom! He dragged himself to his feet. Free to go! He slipped Hume'sray tube back into his belt. Hume was still in the valley!
Vye rubbed his shaking hands across his face. Through the barrier andfree--but Hume was back there, without a weapon, defenseless againstany questing beast able to nose him out. Sickly, without water andprotection, he was a dead man even while he still breathed.
Keeping one hand against the wall of the gap in support, Vye startedto walk, not out of the gap towards the distant lowlands, but backinto the valley, forcing himself to that by his will alone andscreaming inside against such suicidal folly. He put out his handtentatively when he reached the two points of rock where that curtainhad hung. There was no obstruction--the barrier was down! He must getback to Hume.
Still keeping his wall hold, Vye lurched through the gate, was oncemore in the valley. He stood swaying, listening. But once again therewas silence, not even the wind moved through trees or bushes. Placingone foot carefully before the other he went on towards Hume's cave.The haze which had clouded his thinking processes since that firstmorning's awakening in this bowl was gone now. Except for the physicalweakness that weighted his body, he felt once more entirely alive andalert.
Wriggling in the cave's entrance was the Hunter. He had freed thebonds Vye had put on his legs, but his hands were still tied. Hisface, grimy, sweat-covered, was turned up to the sunlight, and hiseyes were again bright with reason.
Vye found the strength to run the last few feet between them. He wasfumbling with those ties about Hume's wrists as he blurted out thenews. The barrier was out--they could go.
Then he was bringing one of those precious bulbs, raising it to Hume'seager mouth, squeezing a portion of its contents between the man'scracked and bleeding lips.
Somehow they made that trip back to the valley gate. When they sawtheir goal, Hume broke from Vye's hold, tottered forward with a crynot far removed from a sob. He rebounded to slip full length to theground and lie there. Sobbing dryly, his gaunt face, eyes closed,turned up to the sky. The trap had snapped shut once again.
"Why--why?" Vye found he was repeating the same words over and over,his gaze blank, unfocussed, yet turned to the woods of the lake.
"Tell me what happened again."
Vye's head came around. Hume had pulled himself up so that hisshoulders rested against the rock wall. His plasta-hand was out-flung,slipping up and down what seemed empty air, but which was the barrieragainst freedom. And now his eyes seemed entirely sane.
Slowly, hesitating between words, Vye went over the full account ofhis visit to the lake, his retreat before the beasts, his fortunatestumble through the gap.
"But you came back."
Vye flushed. He was not going to try to explain that. Instead he said:
"If it went away once, it can again."
Hume did not press the subject of his return. Rather he fastened uponthe end of that action with the wounded beast, made Vye go through itverbally a third time.
"There is just this," he said when the other was done. "When you fellyou were not thinking of the barrier at all--and your wits wereworking again. You had come out of the daze we both had."
Vye tried to remember, decided that the Hunter was correct. He hadbeen trying to elude the charge of the beast, only, fear and thatdesperate desire had occupied his mind at that moment. But what didthat signify?
To test just what he did not know, he crawled now to Hume's side, putup his own hand to the space where the plasta-flesh palm slid back andforth on nothingness. But he almost fell on his face, forward into thegap. Where he had been expecting the resistance of the unseen curtainthere had been nothing at all! He turned to Hume with the expressionof a man who had been stunned by an unexpected blow.