IV

At noon, Telis took time to search the sled's storage locker. Turning

the controls over to the girl, he crawled across the bare deck into the

rear cockpit. Most sleds that were used for over-desert flying carried

emergency rations and weapons for the use of anyone unfortunate

enough to need them. In the matter of weapons, he was doomed to

disappointment, for this particular sled carried none. But there was

a small packet of concentrates, and a flask of precious water. Telis

gathered the packet in his arms and turned to start back toward the

forward cockpit.

He stopped short. From his vantage point behind her, Telis could see

that the girl had taken a small cube from her pouch and was holding

it to her ear. For several seconds she sat quite still, as though

listening, then she turned the cube, held it to her lips for a moment,

and returned it to the pouch at her belt.

He scrambled back to his place beside her, demanding, "That cube. What

was it?"

"Cube?"

"In there." Telis touched the pouch that hung at her side.

"You must have been mistaken. There is no cube," she said, "Perhaps you

saw me checking my compass...." She reached into the pouch and drew out

a small magnetic compass in a square metal case. "You see?"

Telis frowned. It was possible that he had been mistaken ... but he was

inwardly almost certain that the compass he held in his hand was not

the cube he had seen the girl using. For a moment he toyed with the

idea of searching her, but reconsidered. The sled would not touch the

ground again until it landed in the capital near the Grand Canal. There

was no possible way that the girl could harm him or interfere with his

plans now. And perhaps the cube was a happy-gas inhaler....

He looked searchingly into the girl's face. She looked as though she

could use some stimulant. The blue about her mouth and the tight,

pinched look in her face seemed to have worsened since leaving Dorliss.

She actually looked ill. She gave him a wan smile, and he decided to

question her no more for the present.

Opening the packet of concentrates, he offered her one and passed the

pack to Gorla. Then he passed the water flask around, cautioning them

to drink sparingly.

As the hours passed and the sun began to slide down toward the western

hills, Telis began to worry about their navigation. Not knowing the

exact location of the Temple City, he could only guess at the proper

course for the capital; and the low altitude made navigating very

difficult. Telis decided to climb higher and see if he could not catch

a glimpse of the Grand Canal or some other familiar landmark. He nosed

the sled upward slightly and edged the throttle forward, sending the

sled upward toward the cobalt sky.

The girl was looking down over the side at the desert rushing by.

Though there was nothing to be seen but rust-red sand, something about

the desolate waste seemed to please her.

Telis touched her arm to attract her attention. "We've been together

almost all day and I don't even know your name," he said. "I am Telis

of Lars...."

The girl smiled back at him. "My name is Leslie Karr," she returned.

Leslie. Telis turned the name on his tongue. It had a foreign flavor.

As exotic and lovely as the girl herself. And two names. Leslie and

Karr. Telis found the last hard to pronounce. Now, he wondered, why two

names? She must be a person of consequence in her home land.

Telis thought of the cube. Perhaps a signalling device. A thought

struck him. The Temple? No, it was not likely. A nagging doubt

remained. He recalled uneasily how simple the escape had been. Too

simple. Was this girl an agent of the Temple? Or had his first

suspicion--that she was a Tellurian--been right?

"Telis," Gorla broke the silence, "can you tell me where we are?"

Telis shook his head.

"Why are we climbing?" Leslie asked. She looked afraid. "Please--I--I

asked you to--"

Telis cut her off almost sharply. "I know what you asked me. But we

must get high enough to have a look around us. To be lost out here

would mean the end for all of us; an unpleasant end, too. It will only

be for a short time."

Leslie dropped into an uneasy silence. Higher and higher the air-sled

climbed until at last Telis levelled the aircraft off and began a

systematic search of the horizon to the east. There was no sign of the

greenery that edged the great water-way.

"Telis!" Gorla's shout cut across the roaring of the wind. "Leslie!

Look at her!"

* * * * *

Telis whirled to look at the girl. The strange malady from which she

suffered had chosen this moment to strike her down. For a moment Telis

was shocked. Never had he seen a happy-gas addict react in this way!

The thin line of blue that surrounded her mouth was deeper, staining

her lips and spreading to tinge her whole face with azure. Her eyes

were closed and her breath came in huge rasping gasps. Gorla was

cradling her in his arms, chafing her wrists and trying to force water

through her slack lips. He looked up at Telis, shouting frantically!

"Down! Down, Telis! We have to get her down low!"

For a moment Telis did not understand, then he realized what was meant

and shoved the sled over into a steep dive. The girl was suffering from

oxygen-starvation. She seemed to suffer from it chronically, and if the

sled did not reach denser air soon she would die! That was the reason

she had feared altitude and had begged that the sled be kept low.

And Gorla knew!

Suddenly the whole improbable picture of the escape flashed before

Telis' eyes, and a sick feeling swept over him.

In a panic Gorla whipped out a transmitter and began to shout into it.

Fearing the girl's death, his instructions were forgotten and he began

broadcasting for help. Telis stared for a moment, not understanding.

The radio devices used by the Temple were unknown to him, but he knew

with an instinctive certainty that Gorla was making contact with the

Temple Guard back in Dorliss. The rumors he had heard of the Temple's

methods of quick communication seemed to ring in his ears and fury

took him by the throat. Why hadn't Gorla used the radio before? Was it

because the whole escape was a monstrous hoax, engineered by the Temple

for the purpose of somehow shattering the Maldia and what it stood for?

The answer was a blazing, irrevocable yes!

And to what extent was Leslie Karr involved? In his fury, Telis could

not think clearly enough to guess. He had the helpless feeling of great

wheels containing smaller wheels and all spinning and whirring for some

darkly unknown purpose....

He snatched the transmitter from Gorla's hand and slammed it over the

side. Sick anger filled him. The Temple must at this very moment know

their exact location from that tell-tale signal that Gorla had sent in

his panic for Leslie! What a fool he had been with his escape and his

cleverness! How they must be laughing at him back in Dorliss!

"May the Goddess damn you!" he gritted at Gorla.

"You fool!" the Priest retorted, his round face livid. "You've killed

her with your stupid plottings and your...."

"She will live," snapped Telis. He knew how to deal with anoxia. Long

campaigns in the air forces of the Laurr had taught him. But the rest

of it ... the debt to be settled with Gorla ... that was something else!

His fury made him careless, and as the sled touched the sand, it almost

overturned, skidding and careening over the red sand until at last

it came to rest at a crazy angle on the slope of a low dune. The jet

coughed and died, its nozzle jammed with sand.

Quickly, Telis lifted the insensate girl in his arms and laid her

on the sand at full length. For just a moment he wondered at her

weight ... she seemed almost twice as heavy as she should be for her

size....

Then the urgency of the moment was upon him, and he knelt at her side,

placed his lips on hers and began forcing air into her lungs with his

own. Presently she stirred and Telis knew with a feeling of great

relief that she would recover.

He wrapped her in Gorla's cloak, for the sun was sinking low and the

night chill was already in the air.

Then he turned to face the Priest, memory rekindling his fury. He

caught the man by his cassock and pulled him close. "Now, Gorla, you'll

tell me the whole story--all of it!" His voice was icy with suppressed

anger.

But Gorla's eyes were not on him. Instead they seemed centered on

something above and behind him. The Priest's features contorted with a

sudden fear, and he twisted around, pulling Telis with him.

"Look out!"

* * * * *

The warning came too late. The sudden twist had saved Telis' life, but

the flashing missile caught him in the shoulder. A searing pain blazed

through Telis, and he spun around, staggered by the impact of the

thrown short-sword that had pierced his shoulder.

Through a dancing haze of agony, Telis could see a ragged line of naked

men and women on the crest of the dune. Each carried a short-sword and

a long-sword, and the bodies were filthy and covered with rank hair.

Guski!

A lank women lifted her arm and pitched her short-sword. It struck in

the sand near Leslie Karr's prostrate body. Telis threw himself on

the girl, protecting her body with his own. With pain lancing through

him from the blade that still impaled him, he freed one of his swords

and his stun-gun, throwing them to Gorla. Their personal quarrel was

forgotten in the heat of the attack.

Blood was flowing out of him. Gritting his teeth to keep from crying

out, Telis twisted the imbedded sword free. With a sobbing moan he

dropped it to the sand. He fought back the blackness that threatened to

engulf him. Gorla must not fight alone!

The Priest had sought the shelter of the air-sled and was shooting

handily at the attackers on the crest. Already he had accounted for

three men and a woman, and several of their companions, not knowing

or caring that the stun-gun did not kill, had withdrawn from the fray

to butcher the fallen ones into long strips of bloody meat which they

stuffed hungrily into their mouths.

Telis felt Leslie stir, and he struggled to his feet and helped her to

the sled.

With surprising quickness she adapted herself to the necessities of

battle. She took a peculiar looking pistol from her pouch and levelled

it at the attackers.

A sharp report burst from the weapon in the girl's hand and, on the

crest of the dune, a Guski woman shrieked and pitched to the sand.

Twelve times this process was repeated, and Telis began to have hopes

that the battle would be won before he, himself, collapsed from loss of

blood.

It was a vain hope. After the twelfth explosion, the weapon fell

silent, and the strange performance was over.

There was a tense lull during which the Guski butchered their dead, and

Gorla tried fruitlessly to start the dead motor of the sled. Then the

Guski began to close in, and Gorla and Telis both were forced to leave

the sled and advance to meet them. Leslie stayed near the aircraft,

digging frantically at the jammed jet.

To Telis, his sword seemed suddenly very, very heavy. He touched Gorla

on the shoulder. "At least ... we'll die ... friends ... together," he

muttered.

Gorla's face contorted with grief. "Friends ... always, Telis. I never

felt any other way," he said simply.

There was no time for more. The Guski were upon them--a savage,

shrieking horde of vile-smelling beasts, hungering for the taste of

human meat.

[Illustration: _Then the cannibal-people were upon them--a savage,

shrieking horde._]

Time seemed to stand still. Telis thrust and slashed, cut and parried

endlessly. Pain was his only reality. Faces appeared before him, and

vanished into gouts of red as his blade found marks. Steadily his

strength failed and finally he dropped to his knees, still lashing out

feebly with his weapon.

Suddenly the cacophony of battle was overwhelmed by the jerky, uneven

barking of an ailing jet. Leslie had cleared the nozzle! Startled and

fearful of the jet flame, the Guski shrank back momentarily. In that

moment, Gorla half-dragged, half-carried Telis to the sled. Telis could

feel the movement of the sled as it coursed lamely across the sand,

trying to gain flying speed. He heard Leslie gasp:

"It's no use, Gorla. It can't lift the three of us with the jet

half-clogged."

Gorla's voice came sharp and clear. "Then I stay. Take him on. That's

the important thing. He must be made to see...."

Telis realized with agonizing helplessness that since the sled could

not lift three persons Gorla was remaining behind. To face the Guski!

He tried to cry out his protest, but he was too weak to do more than

moan.

"Can you find the way?" Gorla asked the girl.

"I have maps. There's the transmitter, too. I can come in on D-F fixes.

But what about you?"

"Never mind me ... remember, the fate of my world goes with you ... and

with Telis. Explain that to him ... after he knows...."

Telis heard the motor speed up again, and he felt the bumping of the

runners on the sand. But he was unconscious before the sled lifted into

the air....

V

For what seemed a long time, Telis floated in throbbing darkness. Pain

spun in little wind-devils of fire across the surface of his mind and

it was not physical pain alone. Two thoughts tortured him constantly.

He had failed the Maldia and he had deserted his friend, leaving him to

die at the hands of the cannibal tribesmen.

Aeons swept by in that timeless, vitalizing darkness, and at last Telis

opened his eyes.

For a moment he thought that he was back in the Central Temple of

Dorliss, but as his eyes focused more clearly, he saw that he was in a

small, neatly bare room. The walls were white, and one of them seemed

to curve gently overhead until it met the first plane of the ceiling.

A cool hand was stroking his forehead, and Telis turned to meet the

eyes of Leslie Karr. She sat at his bedside watchfully, and somehow he

knew that she had been there for a long time.

Her clothing was different than he remembered. Her harness was gone.

Now, her supple figure was clad in a straight tunic of dark metallic

cloth that hung from her shoulders to the middle of her thighs, caught

at her small waist by a linked belt. Her dark hair was swept back from

her face, exposing her small, elfin ears. There was a look of health

and vitality about her that was amazing when Telis recalled her

condition in the air-sled.

"Wh ... what magic is this?" he asked.