Dalgard drew the waterproof covering back over his brow, making a
cheerful job of it, preparatory to their pushing out to sea once more.
But he was as intent upon what Sssuri had to tell as he was on his
occupation of the moment.
"But that is not even a hopper rumor," he was protesting, breaking
into his companion's flow of thought.
"No. But, remember, to the runners yesterday is very far away. One
night is like another; they do not reckon time as we do, nor lay up
memories for future guidance. They left their native hunting grounds
and are drifting south. And only a very great peril would lead the
runners into such a break. It is against all their instincts!"
"So, long ago--which may be months, weeks, or just days--there came
death out of the sea, and those who lived past its coming fled--"
Dalgard repeated the scanty information Sssuri had won for them the
night before by patient hour-long coaxing. "What kind of death?"
Sssuri's great eyes, somber and a little tired, met his. "To us there
is only one kind of death to be greatly feared."
"But there are the snake-devils--" protested the colony scout.
"To be hunted down by snake-devils is death, yes. But it is a quick
death, a death which can come to any living thing that is not swift or
wary enough. For to the snake-devils all things that live and move are
merely meat to fill the aching pit in their swollen bellies. But there
were in the old days other deaths, far worse than what one meets under
a snake-devil's claws and fangs. And those are the deaths we fear." He
was running the smooth haft of his spear back and forth through his
fingers as if testing the balance of the weapon because the time was
not far away when he must rely upon it.
"Those Others!" Dalgard shaped the words with his lips as well as in
his mind.
"Just so." Sssuri did not nod, but his thought was in complete
agreement.
"Yet they have not come before--not since the ship of my fathers
landed here," Dalgard protested, not against Sssuri's judgment but
against the whole idea.
The merman got to his feet, sweeping his arm to indicate not only the
cove where they now sheltered but the continent behind it.
"Once they held all this. Then they warred and killed, until but a
handful lay in cover to lick their wounds and wait. It has been many
threes of seasons since they left that cover. But now they come
again--to loot their place of secrets--Perhaps in the time past they
have forgotten much so that now they must renew their knowledge."
Dalgard stowed the bow in the bottom of the outrigger. "I think we had
better go and see," he commented, "so that we may report true tidings
to our Elders--something more than rumors learned from night runners."
"That is so."
They paddled out to sea and turned the prow of the light craft north.
The character of the land did not change. Cliffs still walled the
coast, in some places rising sheer from the water, in others broken by
a footing of coarse beach. Only flying things were to be sighted over
their rocky crowns.
But by midday there was an abrupt alteration in the scene. A wide
river cut through the heights and gave birth to a fan-shaped delta
thickly covered with vegetation. Half hidden by the riot of growing
things was a building of the dome shape Dalgard knew so well. Its
windowless, doorless surface reflected the sunlight with a glassy
sheen, and to casual inspection it was as untouched as it had been on
the day its masters had either died within it or left it for the last
time, perhaps centuries before.
"This is one way into the forbidden city," Sssuri announced. "Once
they stationed guards here."
Dalgard had been about to suggest a closer inspection of the dome but
that remark made him hesitate. If it had been one of the
fortifications rimming in a forbidden ground, there was more than an
even chance that unwary invaders, even this long after, might stumble
into some trap still working automatically.
"Do we go upriver?" He left it to Sssuri, who had the traditions of
his people to guide him, to make the decision.
The merman looked at the dome; it was evident from his attitude that
he had no wish to examine it more closely. "They had machines which
fought for them, and sometimes those machines still fight. This river
is the natural entrance for an enemy. Therefore it would have been
well defended."
Under the sun the green reach of the delta had a most peaceful
appearance. There was a family of duck-dogs fishing from the beach,
scooping their broad bills into the mud to locate water worms. And
moth birds danced in the air currents overhead. Yet Dalgard was ready
to agree with his companion--beware the easy way. They dipped their
paddles deep and cut across the river current toward the cliffs to the
north.
Two days of steady coastwise traveling brought them to a great bay.
And Dalgard gasped as the full sight of the port confronting them
burst into view.
Tiers of ledges had been cut and blasted in the native rock, extending
from the sea back into the land in a series of giant steps. Each of
them was covered with buildings, and here the ancient war had left its
mark. The rock itself had been brought to a bubbling boil and sent in
now-frozen rivers down that stairway in a half-dozen places,
overwhelming all structures in its path, and leaving crystallized
streams to reflect the sun blindingly.
"So this is your secret city!"
But Sssuri shook his round head. "This is but the sea entrance to the
country," he corrected. "Here struck the day of fire, and we need not
fear the machines which doubtless lie in wait elsewhere."
They beached the outrigger and hid it in the shell of one of the
ruined buildings on the lowest level. Dalgard sent out a questing
thought, hoping to contact a hopper or even a duck-dog. But seemingly
the ruins were bare of animal life, as was true in most of the other
towns and cities he had explored in the past. The fauna of Astra was
shy of any holding built by Those Others, no matter how long it may
have been left to the wind, and cleansing rain.
With difficulty and detours to avoid the rivers of once-molten rock,
they made their way slowly from ledge to ledge up that giant's
staircase, not stopping to explore any of the buildings as they
passed. There was a taint of alien age about the city which repelled
Dalgard, and he was eager to get out of it into the clean countryside
once more. Sssuri sped on silent feet, his shoulders hunched, his
distaste for the structures to be read in every line of his supple
body.
When they reached the top, Dalgard turned to gaze down to the restless
sea. What a prospect! Perhaps Those Others had built thus for reasons
of defense, but surely they, too, must have paused now and then to be
proud of such a feat. It was the most impressive site he had yet seen,
and his report of it would be a worthy addition to the Homeport
records.
A road ran straight from the top of the stair, stabbing inland without
taking any notice of the difficulties of the terrain, after the usual
arrogant manner of the alien engineers. But Sssuri did not follow it.
Instead he struck off to the left, avoiding that easy path, choosing
to cross through tangles which had once been gardens or through open
fields.
They were well out of the sight of the city before they flushed their
first hopper, a full-grown adult with oddly pale fur. Instead of
displaying the usual fearless interest in strangers, the animal took
one swift look at them and fled as if a snake-devil had snorted at its
thumping heels. And Dalgard received a sharp impression of terror, as
if the hopper saw in him some frightening menace.
"What--?" Honestly astounded, he looked to Sssuri for enlightenment.
The hoppers could be pests. They stole any small bright object which
aroused their interest. But they could also be persuaded to trade, and
they usually had no fear of either colonist or merman.
Sssuri's furred face might not convey much emotion, but by all the
signs Dalgard _could_ read he knew that the merman was as startled as
he by the strange behavior of the grass dweller.
"He is afraid of those who walk erect as we do," he made answer.
_Those who walk erect_--Dalgard was quick to interpret that.
He knew that Those Others were biped, quasi-human in form, closer in
physical appearance to the colonists than to the mermen. And since
none of Dalgard's people had penetrated this far to the north, nor had
the mermen invaded this taboo territory until Sssuri had agreed to
come, that left only the aliens. Those strange people whom the
colonists feared without knowing why they feared them, whom the mermen
hated with a hatred which had not lessened with the years of freedom.
The faint rumor carried by the migrating runners must be true, for
here was a hopper afraid of bipeds. And it must have been recently
provided with a reason for such fear, since hoppers' memories were
very short and such terror would have faded from its mind in a matter
of weeks.
Sssuri halted in a patch of grass which reached to his waist belt. "It
is best to wait until the hours of dark."
But Dalgard could not agree. "Better for you with your night sight,"
he objected, "but I do not have your eyes in my head."
Sssuri had to admit the justice of that. He could travel under the
moonless sky as sure-footed as under broad sunlight. But to guide a
blundering Dalgard through unknown country was not practical. However,
they could take to cover and that they did as speedily as possible,
using a zigzag tactic which delayed their advance but took them from
one bit of protecting brush or grove of trees to the next, keeping to
the fields well away from the road.
They camped that night without fire in a pocket near a spring. And
while Dalgard was alert to all about them, he knew that Sssuri was
mind questing in a far wider circle, trying to contact a hopper, a
runner, any animal that could answer in part the inquiries they had.
When Dalgard could no longer hold open weary eyes, his last waking
memory was that of his companion sitting statue-still, his spear
across his knees, his head leaning a trifle forward as if what he
listened to was as vocal as the hum of night insects.
When the colony scout roused in the morning, his companion was
stretched full length on the other side of the spring, but his head
came up as Dalgard moved.
"We may go forward without fear," he shaped the assurance. "What has
troubled this land has gone."
"A long time ago?"
Dalgard was not surprised at Sssuri's negative answer. "Within days
_they_ have been here. But they have gone once more. It will be wise
for us to learn what they wanted here."
"Have they come to establish a base here once more?" Dalgard brought
into the open the one threat which had hung over his own clan since
they first learned that a few of Those Others still lived--even if
overseas.
"If that is their plan, they have not yet done it." Sssuri rolled over
on his back and stretched. He had lost that tenseness of a hound in
leash which had marked him the night before. "This was one of their
secret places, holding much of their knowledge. They may return here
on quest for that learning."
All at once Dalgard was conscious of a sense of urgency. Suppose that
what Sssuri suggested was the truth, that Those Others were attempting
to recover the skills which had brought on the devastating war that
had turned this whole eastern continent into a wilderness? Equipped
with even the crumbs of such discoveries, they would be enemies
against which the Terran colonists could not hope to stand. The few
weapons their outlaw ancestors had brought with them on their
desperate flight to the stars were long since useless, and they had
had no way of duplicating them. Since childhood Dalgard had seen no
arms except the bows and the sword-knives carried by all venturing
away from Homeport. And what use would a bow or a foot or two of
sharpened metal be against things which could kill from a distance or
turn rock itself into a flowing, molten river?
He was impatient to move on, to reach this city of forgotten knowledge
which Sssuri was sure lay before them. Perhaps the colonists could
draw upon what was stored there as well as Those Others could.
Then he remembered--not only remembered but was corrected by Sssuri.
"Think not of taking _their_ weapons into your hands." Sssuri did not
look up as he gave that warning. "Long ago your fathers' fathers knew
that the knowledge of Those Others was not for their taking."
A dimly remembered story, a warning impressed upon him during his
first guided trips into the ruins near Homeport flashed into Dalgard's
mind. Yes, he knew that some things had been forbidden to his kind.
For one, it was best not to examine too closely the bands of color
patterns which served Those Others as a means of written record. Tapes
of the aliens' records had been found and stored at Homeport. But not
one of the colonists had ventured to try to break the color code and
learn what lay locked in those bands. Once long ago such an experiment
had led to the brink of disaster, and such delvings were now
considered too dangerous to be allowed.
But there was no harm in visiting this city, and certainly he must
make some report to the Council about what might be taking place here,
especially if Those Others were in residence or visited the site.
Sssuri still kept to the fields, avoiding the highway, until
mid-morning, and then he made an abrupt turn and brought them out on
the soil-drifted surface of the road. The land here was seemingly
deserted. No moth birds performed their air ballets overhead, and they
did not see a single hopper. That is, they did not until the road
dipped before them and they started down into a cupped hollow filled
with buildings. The river, whose delta they had earlier seen, made a
half loop about the city, lacing it in. And here were no signs of the
warfare which had ruined the port.
But in the middle of the road lay a bloody bunch of fur and splintered
bone, insects busy about it. Sssuri used the point of his spear to
straighten out the small corpse, displaying its headlessness. And
before they reached the outer buildings of the city they found four
more hoppers all mangled.
"Not a snake-devil," Dalgard deduced. As far as he knew only the huge
reptiles or their smaller flying-dragon cousins preyed upon animals.
But a snake-devil would have left no remains of anything as small as a
hopper, one mouthful which could not satisfy its gnawing hunger. And a
flying dragon would have picked the bones clean.
"_Them_!" Sssuri's reply was clipped. "They hunt for sport."
Dalgard felt a little sick. To his mind, hoppers were to be treated
with friendship. Only against the snake-devils and the flying dragons
were the colonists ever at war. No wonder that hopper had run from
them back on the plain during yesterday's journey!
The buildings before them were not the rounded domes of the isolated
farms, but a series of upward-pointing shafts. They walked through a
tall gap which must have supported a now-disappeared barrier gate, and
their passing was signaled by a whispering sound as they shuffled
through the loose sand and soil drifted there in a miniature dune.
This city was in a better state of preservation than any Dalgard had
previously visited. But he had no desire to enter any of the gaping
doorways. It was as if the city rejected him and his kind, as if to
the past that brooded here he was no more than a curious hopper or a
fluttering, short-lived moth bird.
"Old--old and with wisdom hidden in it--" he caught the trail of
thought from Sssuri. And he was certain that the merman was no more at
ease here than he himself was.
As the street they followed brought them into an open space surrounded
by more imposing buildings, they made another discovery which blotted
out all thoughts of forbidden knowledge and awakened them to a more
normal and everyday danger.
A fountain, which no longer played but gave birth to a crooked stream
of water, was in the center. And in the muddy verge of the stream,
pressed deep, was the fresh track of a snake-devil. Almost full grown,
Dalgard estimated, measuring the print with his fingers. Sssuri
pivoted slowly, studying the circle of buildings about them.
"An hour--maybe two--" Dalgard gave a hunter's verdict on the age of
the print. He, too, eyed those buildings. To meet a snake-devil in the
open was one thing, to play hide-and-seek with the cunning monster in
a warren such as this was something else again. He hoped that the
reptile had been heading for the open, but he doubted it. This mass of
buildings would provide just the type of shelter which would appeal to
it for a lair. And snake-devils did not den alone!
"Try by the river," Sssuri gave advice. Like Dalgard, he accepted the
necessity of the chase. No intelligent creature ever lost the chance
to kill a snake-devil when fortune offered it. And he and the scout
had hunted together on such trails before. Now they slipped into
familiar roles from long practice.
They took a route which should lead them to the river, and within a
matter of yards, came across evidence proving that the merman had
guessed correctly; a second claw print was pressed deep in a patch of
drifted soil.
Here the buildings were of a new type, windowless, perhaps
storehouses. But what pleased Dalgard most was the fact that most of
them showed tightly closed doors. There was no chance for their prey
to lurk in wait.
"We should smell it." Sssuri picked that worry out of the scout's mind
and had a ready answer for it.
Sure--they should smell the lair; nothing could cloak the horrible
odor of a snake-devil's home. Dalgard sniffed vigorously as he padded
along. Though odd smells clung to the strange buildings none of them
were actively obnoxious--yet.
"River--"
There was the river at the end of the way they had been following, a
way which ended in a wharf built out over the oily flow of water.
Blank walls were on either side. If the snake-devil had come this way,
he had found no hiding place.
"Across the river--"
Dalgard gave a resigned grunt. For some reason he disliked the thought
of swimming that stream, of having his skin laved by the turgid water
with its brown sheen.
"There is no need to swim."
Dalgard's gaze followed Sssuri's pointing finger. But what he saw
bobbing up and down, pulled a little downstream by the current, did
not particularly reassure him. It was manifestly a boat, but the form
was as alien as the city around them.
4