But Sanlan's own time ran out just then as Barry triggered the weapon
in his left hand. He died instantly.
Lart whirled. Barry fired the other tube. Lart screamed and doubled
over in agony.
"Xintel!" Barry called.
She came up with a rush.
Lart was still alive, and he screamed as they emerged onto the roof.
Answering yells came from below.
"Let's go!" Barry barked as attackers began to swarm out of the house.
They swam desperately, side by side. The members of the mob trailed
after them, but although they split the water with bloodthirsty yells
they were reluctant in their efforts to close with the fugitives.
Xintel had taught them respect during the battle inside the house, and
Barry was a dread demon.
Barry broke his stroke to point. A large crowd had gathered around the
mouth of the tunnel.
"Women there too," Xintel panted.
As they drew nearer he could see she was right. Women and unarmed men
predominated in the group around the portal. They made no hostile
moves, but nevertheless Barry drew his knife.
And then, off to one side, he saw the unmistakable figure of the priest.
Komso watched their headlong flight with a thin smirk of satisfaction,
and as they drew near he pointed one arm at them in a ritualistic
gesture and began a resonant chant. A deadly hush fell over the
watchers.
"Accursed be ye!" Komso intoned. "Manifestations of evil who presume
to flaunt those the Gods have appointed to rule, be ye accursed by the
Gods Of The Deeps!
"Gods Of The Deeps, heed thy servant! Send thou thy creatures that they
may feed, that they may rend the flesh and grind the bones and destroy
utterly those whom I have cursed in thy mighty names!"
* * * * *
Barry felt a crawling prickle of fear along his spine at the confidence
of Komso's manner. Xintel's face twisted in terror as she remembered
how that self-same curse had brought death to her father. The Earthman
felt an almost overwhelming urge to swerve aside, to swing in a
suicidal dive upon the priest and his Chosen guards. But remembrance of
his duties to the colony and to Xintel overcame blind fury.
It seemed too good to be true when he and Xintel plunged into the dark
passageway without interference. The armed mob followed, shouting to
the noncombatants to move aside--but they were in the clear. They
emerged from the tunnel mouth into the open, deadly, faintly luminous
sea of the Outside.
"Hold!" They heard Komso's shouted command behind them. "Follow and you
too shall be accursed!"
He did not have to repeat his order, for the Venusians were never too
eager to venture into the Outside. Instead they massed at the portal to
witness the fate of the demon and his traitorous mistress.
Suddenly the girl gasped in horror, clutching Barry's arm and pointing
upward and outward. Against the background of dim luminosity, far in
the distance, two bright pinpoints showed. Then three. Four. And then
more than he could count.
"Torvaks!" she gasped.
Barry stared aghast. As though summoned by Komso's words the terrible
undersea monsters were gathering from all directions.
Xintel's forehead wrinkled in desperate concentration.
"The Cleft!" she said suddenly.
Barry followed blindly as she dove toward the rocky, irregular bottom.
Each time he risked a glance over his shoulder the monsters were
nearer. And there were more of them. His muscles ached, but those
trails of ominous light acted as a powerful stimulant.
The girl led him along the bottom, paying no attention to landmarks but
relying solely on an intuitive sense of direction which all Venusians
possessed. Soon Tana was lost to sight.
How long the nightmare chase lasted Barry was never to know. Seconds
grew to ages and minutes to throbbing eternities. He concentrated
on swimming, swimming, swimming for his very life, and hardly heard
Xintel's words of encouragement.
"Just--a--little--further!"
Then stabbing, biting, burning pain seared his throat. Almost
intolerable. But Xintel was guiding him straight down into a narrow
fissure in the bottom. Her legs stopped their flutter-kick and she
allowed momentum to carry her bottomward. Barry too ceased his
exertions in a state of near collapse.
"Perhaps--they--won't follow!" Xintel panted.
Both looked upward. The monstrous shapes--they could see the gross,
hideous bodies now--seemed unwilling to follow their prey into the
crevice. They wheeled above in relentless circles.
One creature, like a gigantic moray with finned pectoral legs, made an
abortive lunge but turned upward again a few feet above them.
Another torvak's neck shot out, its armored head striking the
eel-creature a tremendous blow. Another monster swooped, fangs ripping,
and for a few minutes the water grew murky with spilled blood and
roiled ooze as the three huge beasts battled. The fight ended, and
once more the saurians took up a restless, watchful patrol above the
cowering pair.
Barry's breathing eased but the burning in his throat remained.
Something in the water was irritating the tender membranes of his
lungs, nose and eyes. He glanced at Xintel and saw that she too was in
pain. But it was this very irritant that was preserving their lives.
The monsters did not like its smell or taste.
"Maybe they'll go away," he said, not believing his own words but
trying to reassure the girl.
The cleft in the ocean floor was long and narrow, deeper than it
was wide, and at the bottom it tapered to a hair-thin crevice in
the bedrock. The steeply slanting walls were deeply covered with a
yellow-blue greasy jelly mixed with mud and silt. Barry recognized it
from Xintel's descriptions as the Cleft Of Hardening where soft wooden
implements were made usable. The crack in the bottom must extend deep
into the heart of the planet.
"Xintel," he asked. "Are there any weapons buried here now?"
"There always are," she answered, but her voice was filled with despair.
"Where?"
She did not know. When the inhabitants of Tana buried objects to be
hardened they were extremely careful to smooth the jelly over them.
Otherwise prowling norus would dig them up.
Pawing into the sticky, corrosive jelly with hands and arms they
began a blind search. Within minutes the girl gave a cry as she
uncovered a spear. She wiped away the clinging stuff, then wept with
disappointment. It had been buried only a short time and still had the
soft consistency of balsa. Angrily she threw it down.
Barry recovered it. As a weapon it was worthless, but it was firm
enough to use as a prod. Methodically he moved along the bottom,
thrusting deeply every few inches.
"Got something!" he called, and Xintel swam to his side.
* * * * *
There were two spears and two long knives, all thoroughly hardened.
Within a few more sleeps someone from Tana would have made the
dangerous trip to pick them up.
Barry glanced at the shadows overhead. It felt good to have a weapon
in his hand again, even though logic told him a spear could never
penetrate the armored hides of those nightmare creatures. They could do
absolutely nothing but wait and hope.
He found a projecting rock that was relatively free from slime and
settled down. He wanted to think.
A sudden commotion overhead made him leap up. Two bodies came hurtling
over the edge of the cleft some two hundred yards away, with trails
of light glistening behind them. A torvak lashed out, missed, and its
frustrated bellow made the water vibrate as the newcomers settled
toward the bottom.
"Norus!" Xintel hissed in Barry's ear.
"They're not armed," Barry observed.