Star Born

by Andre Norton

  11

  ESPIONAGE

  Intent upon joining Sssuri, Dalgard left the lock, forgetting hisearlier unwillingness, stepping from the small chamber down to the seabottom, or endeavoring to, although instinctively he had begun to swimand so forged ahead at a different rate of speed.

  Waving fronds of giant water plants, such as were found only in thecoastal shallows, grew forest fashion but did not hide rocks whichstretched up in a sharp rise not too far ahead. The scout could notsee the merman, but as he held onto one of those fronds he caught theother's summons:

  "Here--by the rocks--!"

  Pushing his way through the drifting foliage, Dalgard swam ahead tothe foot of the rocky escarpment. And there he saw what had so excitedhis companion.

  Sssuri had just driven away an encircling collection of sand-dwellingscavengers, and what he was on his knees studying intently was analmost clean-picked skeleton of one of his own race. But there wassomething odd--Dalgard brushed aside a tendril of weed which cut hisline of vision and so was able to see clearly.

  White and clean most of those bones were, but the skull was blackened,and similar charring existed down one arm and shoulder. That mermanhad not died from any mishap in the sea!

  "It is so," Sssuri replied to his thought. "_They_ have come once moreto give the flaming death--"

  Dalgard, startled, looked up that slope which must lead to the islandtop above the waves.

  "Long dead?" he asked tentatively, already guessing what the other'sanswer would be.

  "The pickers move fast," Sssuri indicated the sand dwellers. "Perhapsyesterday, perhaps the day before--but no longer than that."

  "And _they_ are up there now?"

  "Who can tell? However, _they_ do not know the sea, nor the islands--"

  It was plain that the merman intended to climb to investigate whatmight be happening above. Dalgard had no choice but to follow. And itwas true that the merpeople had no peers or equals when it came tofinding their ways about the sea and the coasts. He was confident thatSssuri could get to the island top and discover just what he wished tolearn without a single sentry above, if they had stationed sentries,being the wiser. Whether he himself could operate as efficiently wasanother matter.

  In the end they half climbed, half swam upward, detouring swiftly onceto avoid the darting attack of a rock hornet, harmless as soon as theymoved out of the reach of its questing stinger, for it was anchoredfor its short life to the rough hollow in which it had been hatched.

  Dalgard's head broke water as he rolled through the surf onto a scrapof beach in the lee of a row of tooth-pointed outcrops. It was lateevening by the light, and he clawed the mask off his face to drawthankful lungfuls of the good outer air. Sssuri, his fur sleeked tightto his body, waded ashore, shook himself free of excess water, andturned immediately to study the wall of the cliff which guarded theinterior of the island.

  This was one of a chain of such isles, Dalgard noted, now that he hadhad time to look about him. And with their many-creviced walls theywere just the type of habitations which appealed most strongly to themerpeople. Here could be found the dry inner caves with underwaterentrances, which they favored for their group homes. And in the seawere kelp beds for harvesting.

  The cliffs did not present too much of a climbing problem. Dalgarddivested himself of the diving equipment, tucking it into a hollowwhich he walled up with stones that he thought the waves would notscour out in a hurry. He might need it again. Then, hitching his belttighter, pressing what water he could out of his clothing, andsettling his bow and quiver to the best advantage at his back, hecrossed to where Sssuri was already marking claw holds.

  "We may be seen--" Dalgard craned his neck, trying to make out detailsof what might be waiting above.

  The merman shook his head with a quick jerk of negation. "_They_ aregone. Behind them remains only death--much death--" And the bleaknessof his thoughts reached the scout.

  Dalgard had known Sssuri since he was a toddler and the other a cubcoming to see the wonders of dry land for the first time. Never,during all their years of close association since, had he felt in theother a desolation so great. And to that emotional blast he could makeno answer.

  In the twilight, with the last red banners across the sky at theirback, they made the climb. And it was as if the merman had closed offhis mind to his companion. Flesh fingers touched scaled ones as theymoved from one hold to the next, but Sssuri might have been half aworld away for all the communication between them. Never had Dalgardbeen so shut out and with that his sensitivity to the night, to theworld about him, was doubly acute.

  He realized--and it worried him--that perhaps he had come to dependtoo much on Sssuri's superior faculty of communication. It was timethat he tried to use his own weaker powers to the utmost extent. So,while he climbed, Dalgard sent questing thoughts into the gloom. Helocated a nest of duck-dogs, those shy waterline fishers living incliff holes. They were harmless and just settling down for the night.But of higher types of animals from which something might belearned--hoppers, runners--there were no traces. For all he was ableto pick up, they might be climbing into blank nothingness.

  And that in itself was ominous. Normally he should have been able tomind touch more than duck-dogs. The merpeople lived in peace with mostof the higher fauna of their world, and a colony of hoppers, even acovey of moth birds, would settle in close by a mer tribe to garner inthe remnants of feasts and for protection from the flying dragons andthe other dangers they must face.

  "_They_ hunt all life," the first break in Sssuri's self-absorptioncame. "Where _they_ walk the little, harmless peoples face only death.And so it has been here." He had pulled himself over the rim of thecliff, and through the dark Dalgard could hear him panting with thesame effort which made his own lungs labor.

  Just as the stench of the snake-devil's lair had betrayed its site,here disaster and death had an odor of its own. Dalgard retched beforehe could control throat and stomach muscles. But Sssuri was unmoved,as if he had expected this.

  Then, to Dalgard's surprise the merman set up the first real call hehad ever heard issue from that furred throat, a plaintive whistlewhich had a crooning, summoning note in it, akin to the mind touch inan odd fashion, yet audible. They sat in silence for a long moment,the human's ears as keen for any sound out of the night as those ofhis companion. Why did Sssuri not use the customary noiseless greetingof his race? When he beamed that inquiry, he met once again thatstrange, solid wall of non-acceptance which had enclosed the merman asthey climbed. As if now there was danger to be feared from followingthe normal ways.

  Again Sssuri whistled, and in that cry Dalgard heard a closeresemblance to the flute tone of the night moth birds. Up the scalethe notes ran with mournful persistence. When the answer came, thescout at first thought that the imitation had lured a moth bird, forthe reply seemed to ripple right above their heads.

  Sssuri stood up, and his hand dropped on Dalgard's shoulder, applyingpressure which was both a warning and a summons, bringing the scout tohis feet with as little noise as possible. The horrible smell caughtat his throat, and he was glad when the merman did not head inlandtoward the source of that odor, but started off along the edge of thecliff, one hand in Dalgard's to draw him along.

  Twice more Sssuri paused to whistle, and each time he was answered bya signing note or two which seemed to reassure him.

  Against the lighter expanse which was the sea, Dalgard saw the loom ofa peak which projected above file general level of the island. Thoughhe knew that the merpeople did not build aboveground, being adept inturning natural caves and crevices into the kind of living quartersthey found most satisfactory, the barrenness of this particular rocktop was forbidding.

  Led by Sssuri, he threaded a tangled patch among outcrops,once-squeezing through a gap which scraped the flesh on his arms as hewriggled. Then the sky was blotted out, the last winking stardisappeared, and he realized that he must have entered a cave ofsorts, or was at least under an overhang.

>   The merman did not pause but padded on, tugging Dalgard along, thescout's boots scraping on the rough footing. The colonist wasconscious now that they were on an incline, heading down into theheart of the island. They came to a stretch where Sssuri set his handson holds, patiently shoved his feet into hollowed places, finding forhim the ladder steps he could not see, which took him through asweating, fearful journey of yards to another level, another sloping,downward way.

  Here at long last was a fraction of light, not the violet glimmerwhich had illuminated the underground ways of those Others, but aghostly radiance which he recognized as the lamps of themermen--living creatures from the sea depths imprisoned in laboriouslyfashioned globes of crystal and kept in the caves for the light theyyielded.

  But still no mind touch! Never had Dalgard penetrated into the cavecities of the sea folk before without inquiries and open welcomelapping about him. Were they entering a place of massacre where noliving merman remained? Yet there was that whistling which had ledSssuri to this place....

  And at that moment a shrill keening note arose from the depths to ringin Dalgard's ears, startling him so that he almost lost his footing.Once again Sssuri made answer vocally--but no mind touch.

  Then they rounded a curve, and the scout was able to see into theheart of the amphibian territory. This was a natural cave, as were allthe merman's dwellings, but its walls had been smoothed and hung withthe garlands of shells which they wove in their leisure into strangepictures. Silver-gray sand, smooth and dust-fine, covered the floor tothe depth of a foot or more. And opening off the main chamber weresmall nooks, each marking the private storage place and holding ofsome family clan. It was a large place, and with a quick estimateDalgard thought that it had been fashioned to harbor close to ahundred inhabitants, at least the nooks suggested that many. Butgathered at the foot of the ledge they were descending, spears poised,were perhaps ten males, some hardly past cubhood, others showing thesnowy shine of fur which was the badge of age. And behind them, drawnknives in their ready hands, were half again as many merwomen, forminga protecting wall before a crouching group of cubs.

  Sssuri spoke to Dalgard. "Spread out your hands--empty--so that theymay see them clearly!"

  The scout obeyed. In the limited light his ten fingers were fans, andit was then that he understood the reason for such a move. If thesemermen had not seen a colonist before, he might resemble Those Othersin their eyes. But only his species on all Astra had five fingers,five toes, and that physical evidence might insure his safety now.

  "Why do you bring a destroyer among us? Or do you offer him for ourpunishment, so that we can lay upon him the doom that his kind haveearned?"

  The question came with arrow force, and Dalgard held out his hands,hoping they would see the difference before one of those spears frombelow tore through his flesh.

  "Look upon the hands of this--my knife brother--look upon his face. Heis not of the race of those you hate, but rather one from the south.Have you of the northern reaches not heard of Those-Who-Help,Those-Who-Came-From-the-Stars?"

  "We have heard." But there was no relaxing of tension, not a spearpoint wavered.

  "Look upon his hands," Sssuri insisted. "Come into his mind, for hespeaks with us so. And do _they_ do that?"

  Dalgard tried to throw open his mind, awaiting the trial. It camequickly, traces of inimical, alien thought, which changed as theytouched his mind, reading there only all the friendliness he and hisheld for the sea people.

  "He is not of _them_." The admission was grudging. As if they did notwant to believe that. "Why comes one from the south to thisplace--now?"

  There was an inflection to that "now" which was disturbing.

  "After the manner of his people he seeks new things so that he mayreturn and report to his Elders. Then he will receive the spear ofmanhood and be ready for the choosing of mates," Sssuri translated thereason for Dalgard's quest into the terms of his own people. "He hasbeen my knife brother since we were cubs together, and so I journeywith him. But here in the north we have found evil--"

  His flow of thought was submerged by a band of hate so red that itsimpact upon the mind was almost a blow. Dalgard shook his head. He hadknown that the merpeople, aroused, were deadly fighters, fearless andcrafty, and with a staying power beyond that of any human. But theirrage was something he had not met before.

  "_They_ come once again--_they_ burn with the fire--_They_ are amongour islands--"

  A cub whimpered and a merwoman stooped to pat it to silence.

  "Here they have killed with the fire--"

  They did not elaborate upon that statement, and Dalgard had no wishfor them to do so. He was still very glad that it had been dark whenhe had climbed to the top of that cliff, that he had not been able tosee what his imagination told him lay there.

  "Do _they_ stay?" That was Sssuri.

  "Not so. In their sky traveler they go to the land where lies the darkcity. There they make much evil against the day when this shall betheir land once more."

  "But these lie if they think that." Another strong thought brokeacross the current of communication. "_We_ are not now penned fortheir pleasure. We may flee into the sea once more, and there live asdid our fathers' fathers, and they dare not follow us there--"

  "Who knows?" It was Sssuri who raised that objection. "With theirancient knowledge once more theirs, even the depths of the sea may notbe ours much longer. Do they not know how to ride upon the air?"

  The knot of mer-warriors stirred. Several spears thudded butt downinto the sand. And Sssuri accepted that as an invitation to descend,summoning Dalgard after him with a beckoning finger.

  Later they sat in a circle in the cushioning gray powder, the two fromthe south eating dried fish and sea kelp, while Sssuri related,between mouthfuls, their recent adventures.

  "Three times have _they_ flown across these islands on their way tothat city," the Elder of the pitifully decimated merman tribe told theexplorers.

  "But this time," broke in one of his companions, "they had with them anew ship--"

  "A new ship?" Sssuri pounced upon that scrap of information.

  "Yes. The ships of the air in which _they_ travel are fashionedso"--with his knife point he drew a circle in the sand--"but this onewas smaller and more in the likeness of a spear with a heavypoint--thus"--he made a second sketch beside the first, and Dalgardand Sssuri leaned over to study it.

  "That is unlike any of their ships that I have heard of," Sssuriagreed. "Even in the old tales of the Days Before the Burning there isnothing spoken of like that."

  "It is true. Therefore we wait now for the coming of our scouts, whowere set in hiding upon _their_ sea rock of resting, that they maytell us more concerning this new ship. They should be here within thistime of sleeping. Now, go you to rest, which you plainly have need of,and we shall call you when they come."

  Dalgard was willing enough to stretch out in the sand in the shadowsof the far end of the cave. Beyond him three cubs slumbered together,their arms about each other, and a feeling of peace was there such ashe had not known since he left the stronghold of Homeport.

  The weird glow of the imprisoned sea monsters gave light to the mainpart of the cave, and it might still have been night when the scoutwas shaken awake once more. A group of the merpeople were sittingtogether, and their thoughts interrupted each other as theirexcitement arose. Their spies must have returned.

  Dalgard crossed to join that group, but it seemed to him that hiswelcome was not unqualified, and that some of the openness of theearly hours of the night was lacking. He might have been once moreunder suspicion.

  "Knife brother"--to Dalgard's sensitive mind that form of address fromSssuri was used for a special purpose: to underline the close bondbetween them--"listen to the words of Sssim who is a Hider-to-Watch onthe island where _they_ rest their ships during the voyage from oneland to another." He drew Dalgard down beside him to face a youngmerman who was staring round-eyed at the colony scout.

  "He is like--
yet unlike"--his first wisp of thought meant nothing tothe scout. "The strangers wear many coverings on their bodies as do_they_, and they had also coverings upon their heads. They werebigger. Also from their minds I learned that they are not of thisworld--"

  "Not of this world!" Dalgard burst out in his own speech.

  "There!" The spy was triumphant. "So did they talk to one another, notwith the mind but by making mouth noises, different mouth noises fromthose that _they_ make. Yes, they are like--but unlike this one."

  "And these strangers flew the ship we have not seen before?"

  "It is so. But they did not know the way and were guided by the globe.And at least one among them was distrustful of _those_ and wished tobe free to return to his own place. He walked by the rocks near myhiding place, and I read his thoughts. No, they were with _them_, butthey are not _them_!"

  "And now they have gone on to the city?" Sssuri probed.

  "It was the way their ship flew."

  "Like me," Dalgard repeated, and then the truth which might lie behindthat exploded within his brain. "Terrans!" he breathed the word. Menof Pax perhaps who had come to hunt down the outlaws who hadsuccessfully eluded their rule on earth? But how had the colonistsbeen traced? And why? Or were they other fugitives like themselves? Somuch, so very much of what the colonists should know of their pasthad been erased during the time of the Great Sickness twenty yearsafter their landing. Then three fourths of the original immigrants haddied. Only the children of the second generation and a handful ofweakened Elders had remained. Knowledge was lost and some distorted byfailing memories, old skills were gone. But if the new Terrans were inthat city.... He had to know--to know and be able to warn his people.For the darkness of Pax was a memory they had _not_ lost!

  "I must see them," he said.

  "That is true. And only you can tell us what manner of folk thesestrangers be," the merman chief agreed. "Therefore you shall go ashorewith my warriors and look upon them--to tell us the truth. Also wemust learn what _they_ do here."

  It was decided that using waterways known to the merpeople, one whichDalgard could also take wearing the diving equipment, a scouting partywould head shoreward the next day, with the river itself providing theentrance into the heart of the forbidden territory.