the medic's own memories. He shut his eyes against this enforced
intrusion upon another's past, but not before he saw Tau's face,
strained, fined to the well-shaped bones beneath the thin flesh, holding
still a twisted smile as he met each memory, accepted the pain it held
for him, and set it aside unshaken.
"This, too, has no power any longer, man who walks in the dark."
Dane opened his eyes. Those crowding wraiths were fading, losing
substance. Lumbrilo crouched, his lips drawn back from his teeth, his
hatred plain to read.
"I am not clay to be molded by your hands, Lumbrilo. And now I say that
the time has come to call an end--"
Tau raised his hands slowly once again, holding them away from his body,
palms pointing earthward. And beneath them, on either side of the
spaceman, two black shadows gathered on the surface of the ground.
"You have fettered yourself with your own bounds. As you have been the
hunter, so shall you now be the hunted."
Those shadows were growing as plants might issue from the packed soil of
the camping ground. When his hands were shoulder high, Tau held them
steady. Now on either side of his tautly held body crouched one of the
black-and-white lions with which Lumbrilo had identified his own brand
of magic throughout the year.
Lumbrilo's "lion" had been larger than life, more intelligent, more
dangerous, subtly different from the normal animal it counterfeited. So
now were these. And both of them raised their heads to gaze intently
into the medic's face.
"Hunt well, brothers in fur," he said slowly, almost caressingly. "Him
whom you hunt shall grant you sport in the going."
"Stop it!" A man leaped from the shadows behind the witch doctor.
Firelight made plain his off-world dress, and he swung up a blaster,
aiming at the nearest of the waiting beasts. That flash struck true, but
it neither killed nor even singed the fine fur of the animal's pelt.
As the blaster's aim was swung from beast to man, Dane fired first. His
ray brought a scream from the other, who dropped his weapon from a badly
seared hand to reel back, cursing.
Tau waved his hands gently. The great animal heads turned obediently,
until the red eyes were set on Lumbrilo. Facing them, the witch doctor
straightened, spat out his hate at the medic:
"I do not run to be hunted, devil man!"
"I think you do, Lumbrilo. For you must taste fear now as you have made
other men drink of it, so that it fills your blood and races through
your body, clouds your mind to make of you less than a man. You have
hunted out those who doubted your power, who stood in your chosen path,
whom you wanted removed from the earth of Khatka. Do you doubt that they
wait in the last dark for you now, ready to greet you, witch doctor?
What they have known, you shall also know. This night you have shown me
all that lies in my past that is weak, that was evil, that I may regret
or find sorrow for. So shall you also remember through the few hours
left you. Aye, you _shall_ run, Lumbrilo!"
As he spoke, Tau approached the other, the two black-and-white hunters
pacing beside him. Now he stooped and caught up a pinch of soil and spat
upon it three times. Then he threw the tiny clod of earth at the witch
doctor. It struck Lumbrilo just above the heart and the man reeled under
what might have been a murderous blow.
The Khatkan broke then, completely. With a wailing cry he whirled and
ran, crashing into the brush as one who runs blindly and without hope.
Behind him the two beasts leaped noiselessly together and all three were
gone.
Tau swayed, put his hand to his head. Dane kicked away the drum, arose
from his cramped position stiffly to go to him. But the medic was not
yet done. He returned to stand over the prostrate native hunters and he
clapped his hands sharply.
"You are men, and you shall act as men henceforth. That which was, is no
longer. Stand free, for the dark power follows him who misused it, and
fear no longer eats from your basins, drinks from your cups, or lies
beside you on the sleep mats."
"Tau!" Jellico's shout reached them over the cries of the rousing
Khatkans. But Dane was there first, catching the medic before he slumped
to the ground; but he was dragged with that dead weight until he sat
with the medic's head on his shoulder, the other's body resting heavily
against him. For one horror-filled moment Dane feared that he did indeed
hold a dead man, that one of the outlaw Hunters must have struck a last
blow for his discredited leader. Then Tau sighed and began to breathe
deeply. Dane glanced up, amazed, at the captain.
"He's asleep!"
Jellico knelt and his hand went to test heart beat, then to touch the
medic's worn and dirty face. "Best thing for him," he said briskly.
"He's had it."
It took some time to get the facts of their triumph sorted out. Two of
the off-worlder poachers were dead. The other and the spaceman were
prisoners, while Nymani rounded up in addition the man Dane had burned
to save Tau. When the younger spaceman returned from making the medic
comfortable in the shelter, he found Asaki and Jellico holding an
impromptu court of inquiry.
The dazed native Hunters had been expertly looped together by Nymani
and, a little apart from them, the off-worlders were under examination.
"An I-C man, eh?" Jellico, smoothing a mud-spattered chin with a grimed
hand, regarded the latest arrival measuringly. "Trying to run in and
break a Combine charter, were you? You'd better spill the facts; your
own head office will disown you, you ought to know that. They never back
any failures in these undercover deals."
"I want medical attention," snapped the other, cradling his seared hand
to his chest. "Or do you plan to turn me over to these savages?"
"Seeing as how you tried to blast our medic," replied the captain with a
grin which was close to shark-like, "he may not feel much like patching
up those fingers of yours. Stick 'em in where they have no business, and
they're apt to get burned. At any rate he's not going to look at 'em
until he's had a chance to rest. I'll give you first aid. And while I'm
working we'll talk. I-C going into the poaching trade now? That news is
going to please Combine; they have no use for you boys anyway."
His answer was lurid and uninformative. But the uniform tunic the other
wore could not be so easily explained away. Dane, worn out, stretched
his aching length on a pile of mats and lost all interest in the
argument.
* * * * *
Two days later they stood once more on the same terrace where Lumbrilo
had wrought his magic and met his first defeat. This time no lightning
played along the mountain ridges and the blaze of the sun was so bright
and clear that one could hardly believe in the fantastic happenings of
that swamp clearing where men had fought with weapons not made by hands.
The three from the _Queen_ moved away from the parapet to meet the Chief
Ranger as he came down the stairs.
"A messenger has just arrived. The hunter was hunted indeed, and his
going was witnessed by many--though they did not see those which hunted
him. Lumbrilo is dead; he came to his end by the Great River."
Jellico started. "But that is almost fifty miles from the swamp, on this
side of the mountain!"
"He was hunted and he fled--as you promised," Asaki said to Tau. "You
made strong magic, off-world man."
The medic shook his head slowly. "I but turned his own methods against
him. Because he believed in his power, that same power, reflected back,
broke him. Had I been facing one who did not believe...." He shrugged.
"Our first meeting set the pattern. From that moment he feared a little
that I could match him, and his uncertainty pierced a hole in his
armor."
"Why on earth did you want 'Terra Bound?'" burst out Dane, still seeking
an explanation for that one small mystery among the others.
Tau chuckled. "In the first place, that blasted tune has haunted us all
for so long that I knew its rhythm was probably the one you could keep
to without hardly knowing that you were beating it out. And, in the
second place, its alien pattern was a part of our particular background,
to counteract Lumbrilo's native Khatkan music, which was certainly a big
factor in _his_ stage setting. He must have believed that we would not
find out about the drugged water and so would be prepared for any
fantasy he cared to produce. When they saw us coming out over the swamp
they counted us easy takings. His practice had always been with
Khatkans, and he judged us by their reactions to stimuli he knew well
how to use. So he failed...."
Asaki smiled. "Which was good for Khatka but ill for Lumbrilo and those
using him to make mischief here. The poacher and the outlaw Hunters will
meet with our justice, which I do not believe they will relish. But the
other two, the spaceman and the company agent, are to be sent to Xecho
to face Combine authorities. It is my thought that those will not accept
kindly the meddling of another company in their territory."
Jellico grunted. "Kindness and Combine are widely separated in such
matters. But we can now take passage on the same ship as your
prisoners--"
"But, my friend, you have not yet seen the preserve. I assure you that
_this_ time there shall be no trouble. We have several days yet before
you must return to your ship--"
The captain of the _Queen_ held up his hand. "Nothing would give me
greater pleasure than to inspect the Zoboru preserve, sir--next year. As
it is, my holiday is over and the _Queen_ is waiting for us on Xecho.
Also, permit me to send you some tapes dealing with the newest types of
flitters--guaranteed against flight failures."
"Yes, guaranteed," Tau added guilelessly, "not to break down, lose
course, or otherwise disrupt a pleasant excursion."
The Chief Ranger threw back his head and his deep-chested laughter was
echoed from the heights above them. "Very well, Captain. Your mail run
will bring you back to Xecho at intervals. Meanwhile I shall study your
sales tapes concerning the non-expendable flitters. But you _shall_
visit Zoboru--and pleasantly, very pleasantly, I assure you, Medic Tau!"
"I wonder," Tau muttered and Dane heard. "Just now the quiet of deep
space is a far, far more entrancing proposition!"
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Transcriber's Notes |
| |
| |
| One copyright symbol was replaced with "(c)". |
| The repetition "too too" and the writing of the word |
| "steppingstones" without hyphen is as in the original. |
| |
| The following typos have been corrected. |
| |
| Typo Correction |
| |
| breath breathe |
| an on |
| Yes. sir! Yes, sir! |
| Terran Terra |
| visiting; visiting. |
| Terran Terra |
| qraz graz |
| telaported teleported |
| Sinbad Sindbad |
| supersition superstition |
| remarkble remarkable |
| was were |
| waves weaves |
| missive missile |
| throbbling throbbing |
| "_Haugh!_ "_Haugh!_" |
| succesful successful |
| reading readying |
| Nohingness Nothingness |
| blatt blast |
| pleace please |
| Bu But |
| |
| |
| "Andrew North" was one of the pseudonyms used by |
| "Andre Norton". |
| |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+