The brown man sat still a minute. His eyes were steady on us, save when they moved to Per and back.

  “As the señor wishes,” he began. Throughout, his tone was level, but the accent could not help singing.

  “When they bore my captain away I stood in thought, until Igor Yuschenkoff said, ‘Well, who is to take the flitters?’

  “ ‘None,’ I said.

  “ ‘But we have orders,’ he said.

  “ ‘The captain was hurt and shaken. We should not have roused him,’ I answered, and asked of the men who stood near, ‘Is this not so?’

  “They agreed, after small argument. I leaned over the edge of the pit and asked Kochihir if he would beat the drums for us. ‘No,’ he said, ‘whatever you do.’

  “ ‘I shall do nothing, yet,’ I said. ‘We will bring you food presently.’ And that was done. For the rest of the short day I wandered about among the snows that lay in patches on the grass. Ay, this was a stark land, where it swooped down into the valley and then rose again at the end of sight in saw-toothed purple ranges. I thought of home and of one Dolores whom I had known, a long time ago. The men did no work; they huddled over their weapons, saying little, and toward evening the breath began to freeze on their parka hoods.

  “One by one I spoke to them and chose them for those tasks I had in mind. They were all good men of their hands, but few had been hunters save in sport. I myself could not trail the Cainites far, because they had crossed a broad reach of naked rock on their way downward and once in the forest had covered their tracks. But Hamud ibn Rashid and Jacques Ngolo had been woodsmen in their day. We prepared what we needed. Then I entered the ship and looked on my captain—how still he lay!

  “I ate lightly and slept briefly. Darkness had fallen when I returned to the pit. The four men we had on guard stood like deeper shadows against the stars which crowd that sky. ‘Go now,’ I said, and took out my own blaster. Their footfalls crunched away.

  “The shapes that clotted the blackness of the pit stirred and mumbled. A voice hissed upward, ‘Ohé, you are back. To torment me?’ Those Cainites have eyes that see in the night like owls. I had thought, before, that they snickered within themselves when they watched us blunder about after sunset.

  “ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I am only taking my turn to guard you.’

  “ ‘You alone?’ he scoffed.

  “ ‘And this.’ I slapped the blaster against my thigh.

  “He fell silent. The cold gnawed deeper into me. I do not think the Cainites felt it much. As the stars wheeled slowly overhead, I began to despair of my plan. Whispers went among the captives, but otherwise I stood in a world where sound was frozen dead.

  “ ‘When the thing happened, it went with devil’s haste. The Lugals had been shifting about a while, as if restless. Suddenly they were upon me. One had stood on another’s shoulders and leaped. To death, as they thought—but my shot missed, a quick flare and an amazed gasp from him that he was still alive. Had I not missed, several would have died to bring me down.

  “As it was, two fell upon me. I went under, breaking hands loose from my throat with a judo release but held writhing by their mass. Hard fists beat me on head and belly. A palm over my mouth muffled my yells. Meanwhile the prisoners helped themselves out and fled.

  “Finally I worked a leg free and gave one of them my knee. He rolled off with pain rattling in his throat. I twisted about on top of the other and struck him below the skull with the blade of my hand. When he went limp, I sprang up and shouted.

  “Siren and floodlights came to life. The men swarmed from ship and tents. ‘Back!’ I cried. ‘Not into the dark!’ Many Lugals had not yet escaped, and those retreated snarling to the far side of the pit as our troop arrived. With their bodies they covered the wounded Yildivan from the guns. But we only fired, futilely, after those who were gone from sight.

  “Guards posted themselves around the cellar. I scrabbled over the earth, seeking my blaster. It was gone. Someone had snatched it up: if not Kochihir, then a Lugal who would soon give it to him. Jacques Ngolo came to me and saw. ‘This is bad,’ he said.

  “ ‘An evil turn of luck,’ I admitted, ‘but we must proceed anyhow.’ I rose and stripped off my parka. Below were the helmet and spacesuit torso which had protected me in the fight. I threw them down, for they would only hinder me now, and put the parka back on. Hamud ibn Rashid joined us. He had my pack and gear and another blaster for me. I took them, and we three started our pursuit.

  “By the mercy of God, we had never found occasion to demonstrate night-seeing goggles here. They made the world clear, though with a sheen over it like dreams. Ngolo’s infrared tracker was our compass, the needle trembling toward the mass of Cainites that loped ahead of us. We saw them for a while, too, as they crossed the bare hillside, in and out among tumbled boulders; but we kept ourselves low lest they see us against the sky. The grass was rough in my face when I went all-fours, and the earth sucked heat out through boots and gloves. Somewhere a hunter beast screamed.

  “We were panting by the time we reached the edge of trees. Yet in under their shadows we must go, before the Cainites fled farther than the compass would reach. Already it flickered, with so many dark trunks and so much brake to screen off radiation. But thus far the enemy had not stopped to hide his trail. I moved through the underbrush more carefully than he—legs brought forward to part the stems that my hands then guided to either side of my body—reading the book of trampled bush and snapped branch.

  “After an hour we were well down in the valley. Tall trees gloomed everywhere about; the sky was hidden, and I must tune up the photomultiplier unit in my goggles. Now the book began to close. The Cainites were moving at a natural pace, confident of their escape, and even without special effort they left little spoor. And since they were now less frantic and more alert, we must follow so far behind that infrared detection was of no further use.

  “At last we came to a meadow, whose beaten grass showed that they had paused here a while. And that was seen which I feared. The party had broken into three or four, each bound a different way. ‘Which do we choose?’ Ngolo asked.

  “ ‘Three of us can follow three of them,’ I said.

  “ ‘Bismillah!’ Hamud grunted. ‘Blaster or no, I would not care to face such a band alone. ‘But what must be, must be.’

  “We took so much time to ponder what clues the forest gave that the east was gray before we parted. Plainly, the Lugals had gone toward their masters’ homes, while Kochihir’s own slaves had accompanied him. And Kochihir was the one we desired. I could only guess that the largest party was his, because most likely the first break had been made under his orders by his own Lugals, whose capabilities he knew. That path I chose for myself. Hamud and Ngolo wanted it too, but I used my rank to seize the honor, that folk on Nuevo México might never say a Gómez lacked courage.

  “So great a distance was now between that there was no reason not to use our radios to talk with each other and with the men in camp. That was often consoling, in the long time which was upon me. For it was slow, slow, tracing those woods-wily hunters through their own land. I do not believe I could have done it, had they been only Yildivans and such Lugals as are regularly used in the chase. But plain to see, the attack had been strengthened by calling other Lugals from fields and mines and household tasks, and those were less adept.

  “Late in the morning, Ngolo called. ‘My gang just reached a cave and a set of lean-tos,’ he said. ‘I sit in a tree and watch them met by some female and half-grown Yildivans. They shuffle off to their own shed. This is where they belong, I suppose, and they are not going farther. Shall I return to the meadow and pick up another trail?

  “ ‘No,’ I said, ‘it would be too cold by now. Backtrack to a spot out of view and have a flitter fetch you.’

  “Some hours later, the heart leaped in my breast. For I came upon a tree charred by unmistakable blaster shots. Kochihir had been practicing.

  “I called Hamud and asked where he was. ‘On the bank of a river,’ he said, ‘casting about the place where they crossed. That was a bitter stream to wade!’

  “ ‘Go no farther,’ I said. ‘My path is the right one. Have yourself taken back to camp.’

  “ ‘What?’ he asked. ‘Shall we not join you now?’

  “ ‘No,’ I said. ‘It is uncertain how near I am to the end. Perhaps so near that a flitter would be seen by them as it came down and alarm them. Stand by.’ I confess it was a lonely order to give.

  “A few times I stopped to eat and rest. But stimulants kept me going in a way that would have surprised my quarry who despised me. By evening his trail was again so fresh that I slacked my pace and went on with a snake’s caution. Down here, after sunset, the air was not so cold as on the heights; yet every leaf glistened hoar in what starlight pierced through.

  “Not much into the night, my own infrared detector began to register a source, stronger than living bodies could account for. I whispered the news into my radio and then ordered no more communication until further notice, lest we be overheard. Onward I slipped. The forest rustled and creaked about me, somewhere far off a heavy animal broke brush in panic flight, wings whirred overhead, yet Santa Maria, how silent and alone it was!

  “Until I came to the edge of a small clearing.

  “A fire burned there, throwing unrestful shadows on the wall of a big, windowless log cabin which nestled under the trees beyond. Two Yildivans leaned on their spears. And light glimmered from the smoke hole in the roof.

  “Most softly, I drew my stun gun. The bolt snicked twice, and they fell in heaps. At once I sped across the open ground, crouched in the shadow under that rough wall, and waited.

  “But no one had heard. I glided to the doorway. Only a leather curtain blocked my view. I twitched it aside barely enough that I might peer within.

  “The view was dimmed by smoke, but I could see that there was just one long room. It did not seem plain, so beautiful were the furs hung and draped everywhere about. A score or so of Yildivans, mostly grown males, squatted in a circle around the fire, which burned in a pit and picked their fierce flat countenances out of the dark. Also there were several Lugals hunched in a corner. I recognized old Cherkez among them, and was glad he had outlived the battle. The Lugals in Kochihir’s party must have been sent to barracks. He himself was telling his father Shivaru of his escape.

  “As yet the time was unripe for happiness, but I vowed to light many candles for the saints. Because this was as I had hoped: Kochihir had not gone to his own home, but sought an agreed rendezvous. Zerkowsky, Cheng, and Bullis were here. They sat in another corner at the far end of the room, coughing from the smoke, skins drawn around them to ward off the cold.

  “Kochihir finished his account and looked at his father for approval. Shivaru’s tail switched back and forth. ‘Strange that they were so careless about you,’ he said.

  “ ‘They are like blind cubs,’ Kochihir scoffed.

  “ ‘I am not so sure,’ the old Yildivan murmured. ‘Great are their powers. And…we know what they did in the past.’ Then suddenly he grew stiff, and his whisper struck out like a knife. ‘Or did they do it? Tell me again, Kochihir, how the master ordered one thing and the rest did another.’

  “ ‘No, now, that means nothing,’ said a different Yildivan, scarred and grizzled. ‘What we must devise is a use for these captives. You have thought they might trade our Lugals and Gumush, whom Kochihir says they still hold, for three of their own. But I say, Why should they? Let us instead place the bodies where the Erziran can find them, in such condition that they will be warned away.’

  “ ‘Just so,’ said Bokzahan, whom I now spied in the gloom. ‘Tulitur and I proved they are weak and foolish.’

  “ ‘First we should try to bargain,’ said Shivaru. ‘If that fails…’ His fangs gleamed in the firelight.

  “ ‘Make an example of one, then, before we talk,’ Kochihir said angrily. ‘They threatened the same for me.’

  “A rumble went among them, as from a beast’s cage in the zoo. I thought with terror of what might be done. For my captain has told you how no Yildivan is in authority over any other. Whatever his wishes, Shivaru could not stop them from doing what they would.

  “I must decide my own course immediately. Blaster bolts could not destroy them all fast enough to keep them from hurling the weapons that lay to hand upon me—not unless I set the beam so wide that our men must also be killed. The stun gun was better, yet it would not overpower them either before I went down under axes and clubs. By standing to one side I could pen them within, for they had only the single door. But Bullis, Cheng, and Zerkowsky would remain hostages.

  “What I did was doubtless stupid, for I am not my captain. I sneaked back to the edge of the woods and called the men in camp. ‘Come as fast as may be,’ I said, and left the radio going for them to home on. Then I circled about and found a tree overhanging the cabin. Up I went, and down again from a branch to the sod roof, and so to the smoke hole. Goggles protected my eyes, but nostrils withered in the fumes that poured forth. I filled my lungs with clean air and leaned forward to see.

  “Best would have been if they had gone to bed. Then I could have stunned them one by one as they slept, without risk. But they continued to sit about and quarrel over what to do with their captives. How hard those poor men tried to be brave, as that dreadful snarling broke around them, as slit eyes turned their way and hands went stroking across knives!

  “The time felt long, but I had not completed the Rosary in my mind when thunder awoke. Our flitters came down the sky like hawks. The Yildivans roared. Two or three of them dashed out the door to see what was afoot. I dropped them with my stunner, but not before one had screamed, ‘The Erziran are here!’

  “My face went back to the smoke hole. It was turmoil below. Kochihir screeched and pulled out his blaster. I fired but missed. Too many bodies in between, señores. There is no other excuse for me.

  “I took the gun in my teeth, seized the edge of the smoke hole, and swung myself as best I could before letting go. Thus I struck the dirt floor barely outside the firepit, rolled over and bounced erect. Cherkez leaped for my throat. I sent him reeling with a kick to the belly, took my gun, and fired around me.

  “Kochihir could not be seen in the mob which struggled from wall to wall. I fought my way toward the prisoners. Shivaru’s ax whistled down. By the grace of God, I dodged it, twisted about and stunned him point-blank. I squirmed between two others. A third got on my back. I snapped my head against his mouth and felt flesh give way. He let go. With my gun arm and my free hand I tossed a Lugal aside and saw Kochihir. He had reached the men. They shrank from him, too stupefied to fight. Hate was on his face, in his whole body, as he took unpracticed aim.

  “He saw me at his sight’s edge and spun. The blaster crashed, blinding in that murk. But I had dropped to one knee as I pulled trigger. The beam scorched my parka hood. He toppled. I pounced, got the blaster, and whirled to stand before our people.

  “Bokzahan raised his ax and threw it. I blasted it in mid air and then killed him. Otherwise I used the stunner. And in a minute or two more, the matter was finished. A grenade brought down the front wall of the cabin. The Cainites fell before a barrage of knockout beams. We left them to awaken and returned to camp.”

  Again silence grew upon us. Manuel asked if he might smoke, politely declined Van Rijn’s cigars, and took a vicious-looking brown cigarette from his own case. That was a lovely, grotesque thing, wrought in silver on some planet I could not identify.

  “Whoof !” Van Rijn gusted. “But this is not the whole story, from what you have written. They came to see you before you left.”

  Per nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said. A measure of strength had rearisen in him. “We’d about finished our preparations when Shivaru himself arrived, with ten other Yildivans and their Lugals. They walked slowly into the compound, ruffs erect and tails held stiff, looking neither to right nor left. I guess they wouldn’t have been surprised to be shot down. I ordered such of the boys as were covering them to holster guns and went out on my carrier to say hello with due formality.

  “Shivaru responded just as gravely. Then he got almost tongue-tied. He couldn’t really apologize. Ulash doesn’t have the phrases for it. He beckoned to Cherkez. ‘You were good to release our people whom you held,’ he said.” Per chuckled. “Huh! What else were we supposed to do, keep feeding them? Cherkez gave him a leather bag. ‘I bring a gift,’ he told me, and pulled out Tulitur’s head. ‘We shall return as much of the goods he got from you as we can find,’ he promised, ‘and if you will give us time, we shall bring double payment for everything else.’

  “I’m afraid that after so much blood had gone over the dam, I didn’t find the present as gruesome as I ought. I only sputtered that we didn’t require such tokens.

  “ ‘But we do,’ he said, ‘to cleanse our honor.’

  “I invited them to eat, but they declined. Shivaru made haste to explain that they didn’t feel right about accepting our hospitality until their debt was paid off. I told them we were pulling out. Though that was obvious from the state of the camp, they still looked rather dismayed. So I told them we, or others like us, would be back, but first it was necessary to get our injured people home.

  “Another mistake of mine. Because being reminded of what they’d done to us upset them so badly that they only mumbled when I tried to find out why they’d done it. I decided best not press that issue—the situation being delicate yet—and they left with relief branded on them.

  “We should have stuck around a while, maybe, because we’ve got to know what the trouble was before committing more men and equipment to Cain. Else it’s all too likely to flare up afresh. But between our being shorthanded, and having a couple of chaps who needed first-class medical treatment, I didn’t think we could linger. All the way home we wondered and argued. What had gone wrong? And what, later, had gone right? We still don’t know.”