"The androids were not to fight you--"
"Yet they did."
Thor checked, peered closer. The purple hue of the ruby was fading. The
gem was tenantless. Aava was gone.
Thor stood up and kicked the plank into place. He filled his lungs with
crisp air. He knew what he must do. He had to learn all he could about
Aava. If Gordon and the others could not help him--
There was always the Discoverer!
Thor dropped over the longboat side and went striding off into the
grasslands.
* * * * *
It was night when he found the campfire, Karola came running, hearing
his shout, her yellow hair streaming behind her. Thor caught her, held
her close. He thought of Stalyl, and there was remorse and tenderness
in his kiss.
She felt his mood. Head tilted, she looked at him and whispered, "What
is it? Where did you get that axe? And your eyes--there is a little
sorrow in them. Why, Thor?"
"I will tell you, darling. But I must tell the others, too. I want
Gordon's advice."
Gordon wrung his hand and then held out some cooked meat on the point
of a sword. Thor was famished. He sat with legs crossed before him
and ate and ate. Karola sat close to him, watching him with her large
violet eyes. Once in a while she touched the great war-axe, running the
pink tips of her fingers along the fresh scratches on the steel.
Thor dug his greasy fingers into the sand, powdering them; then he
rubbed them dry.
"I talked to Aava," he said slowly. "He came into the gatestone that I
carried. He tempted me. I--almost yielded."
The others stared at him. Thor fastened his eyes on the heart of the
fire, where the twigs and dried grasses glowed bright red. It was
easier, looking there, to tell his tale, than to look into the eyes of
his friends.
* * * * *
He concluded, "I do not have the gatestone now. I left it there, in the
ship. Otherwise, we would have Aava with us, with every move we make.
And Aava is what we are fighting. The odds are bad enough, without
taking your enemy into your confidence."
Thor raised his eyes. He looked at Karola. He said, "I am sorry. Say
that it's all right."
To his surprise, she laughed. Her violet eyes poked fun at him. She
whispered, "No woman can compete with a dream. Stalyl was only that.
At the same time, a dream cannot compete with a living woman. I am a
living woman." She leaned over and kissed him gently, then sat back.
Peter Gordon said slowly, "What can we do now? It's a rotten situation.
The others expect us. If we can't find a way to return them to the
settlement--" He broke off, shaking his head.
Thor slid his hand up and down the stained ivory haft of the axe.
He said, "The androids came into this dimension with the use of a
gatestone. If we could find it, we could use that one. All the robots
were killed, but I saw no gatestone."
"Perhaps the Black Priest used one to transmit them into this world.
Then there wouldn't be any gatestone at all," said Gordon.
Thor opened his eyes, and blinked. He got to his feet, lifting his axe.
"There's a chance. Aava will send someone to get the gatestone I hid in
the ship. Then, if he should return to the gatestone--or we can get us
one from an android--there might be a chance."
Peter Gordon drew his bow toward him and strung it. "Let's go," he said
gruffly.
They went in the dark of the night, when the moons were below the
horizon. Thor led, trotting swiftly with the long Indian stride an
old Cherokee had taught him. Karola and Slag ran side by side. Peter
Gordon, bow in hand and fingers touching the string of it, loped far
behind, eyes continually moving.
Hour after hour they ran. Over rolling grassland, with only an
occasional clump of rock formation to break the barren monotony of the
dark landscape, they went at a deceptive pace.
Thor almost went by the ship. It was easy to lose trail here, where no
trees ever grew. But the moons were sweeping up, and in their light a
shield-boss winked to the left. It was enough. Thor swung about and
when he grew nearer, he could discern the high rock and the curved hull
of the longboat looming black against the sky.
He went up the rudder, without waiting for the others.
A sword flashed.
Thor went back on his heels, his shoulders hitting empty air. The axe
in his right hand came up, almost of its own volition. Steel met steel,
and sparks flared.
Malgrim loomed burly and huge, his beard bristling. The Black Priest
chuckled, "What Aava did not do, I will do!" As he spoke, he was
bringing his blade around in a mighty, whistling swing.
Thor was rammed against the low shield-wall that dug into the backs of
his knees. There was no room to move, no space for footwork. Malgrim's
flat blade caught him alongside the head. Thor went over the low
shield-wall into roaring blackness.
How long he lay there, helpless, he did not know. But it was the scream
tearing from Karola's throat that brought him staggering up against the
musty old hull.
There was no time to find the rudder. He seized a trailing, rotted line
he had not seen before and swarmed up it onto the deck.
Malgrim had Karola, afar off on the prow. She must have been the next
one to reach the boat, had leaped lithely aboard--and now the Black
Priest had her. His blade was high and starting to descend.
Thor groaned. No time! Karola screamed and clutched at Malgrim's
gatestone, chained around his neck. Malgrim, sword still poised aloft,
roared and beat at her tiny hand.
Then Thor saw the axe. With a sob he snatched it up. Once before, he
had thrown a weapon at that monster. Now he hefted lovingly a thing so
like the double-bitted axe of the North woods. Remembering, he swung
the axe full circle--and threw.
Once again, the sword steadied for its downward slash. And then the
axe thudded home in the base of Malgrim's skull--the spike between its
blades biting deep. There was the sharp _tiing_ of breaking metal. A
stricken look burst in the Black Priest's eyeballs as he lurched and
staggered. He fell forward, left hand reaching for the gatestone that
hung on his chest.
He was blurring even as Thor reached him.
Thor thrust his hand into the coldness and the utter darkness and
caught the ruby. He wrenched. There was a queer sliding motion of the
Priest's body, and the ruby came free. But the Black Priest was gone.
* * * * *
Karola swayed against Thor. They stood tightly together for a moment.
"Jolly nice going," said a voice.
Peter Gordon swung a leg over the shield-wall and came toward him. "We
watched from the grass. You can play that axe like a Norse raider. Got
his gatestone, eh?"
Thor handed it to him. "This means we split up. You go your way, to the
settlements. I go a different route."
"Man, you don't know the way!"
"I'll find it."
Thor went and lifted a rotted plank. The red gatestone still lay in the
crotch of the beams, winking at him. He took and put it in his pocket.
"Now, if Aava hunts us, one of us will still get through the barriers."
Thor put an arm around Karola's waist and held her against him. He
said, "This is a Viking longboat. It is from a past day in the history
of my planet."
Peter Gordon murmured, "What queer things this space of Aava has
snatched from the universe. I wouldn't be surprised to learn, when all
our chips are in, that a great many disappearances on Earth are due to
this place.
"Remember the _Cyclops_ that went off the face of the ocean in 1920?
And do you recall the _Copenhagen_? And, back in 1755, a quay with a
lot of people on it just puffed out of existence, disappearing all at
once, in Lisbon, Portugal. There have been other disappearances from
the Earth. None perhaps as sensational as those I mentioned.
"There's something wrong with this world we're in. It doesn't hew to a
lot of natural laws we know."