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After witnessing the fate of those who had swum ashore from the wreck, he did not like to think what motive might have brought the Hawaikan here. Again Karara's thoughts must have matched his, for she added: "But he did not even draw his knife. What are you going to do with him, Ross?" That problem already occupied the Terran. The wisest move undoubtedly was to kill the native out of hand.
Karara's answer was ambiguous, and she sped along hardly touching the handholds. "But hurry!" They finished their climb and were in another corridor where patches of sunlight came through a pierced wall to dazzle their eyes. This was similar to the way which had run beside the courtyard in Zahur's castle. Ross looked out of the first opening down into a courtyard.
"Five hundred years." "The pylons were gone, too, then," Ross commented. "But why ?" he echoed Karara's question. Ashe had taken up his notebook, but he did not open it. "I think" there was a sharp, grim note in his voice "we had better find out." "Put up a gate?" Ashe broke all the previous rules of their service with his answer: "Yes, a gate." Storm Menace "We have to know."
Was this the beginning of that change which would end in the Hawaika of his own time, empty of intelligent life, shattered into a loose network of islands? "This fog is strange." Karara's words startled Ross to return to the here and now.
What magic have you worked?" "None. Just the truth has been discovered." Ross reached for Karara's hand as she came nimbly up the rope, swung her across the rail to the deck where she stood unmasked, brushing back her hair and looking around with a lively curiosity. "Karara, this is Captain Torgul," Ross introduced the Rover commander who was staring round-eyed at the girl.
Karara's eyes were half closed, her head back; she was manifestly aiming that inquiry at the dolphins, to be translated to Loketh. Symbols burned on the analyzer screen. "The Foanna have their own fortress. It can be entered best by sea. There is a boat ... I can show you, for it is my own secret." "Tell him yes, as soon as we can!" Ross broke out.
This sense of age, of a dead and heavy past, was so stifling that all three Terrans breathed in gasps. Karara's breaths became sobs. Yet she matched her pace to Ashe and Ross, kept going. Ross himself had little idea of their surroundings, but one small portion of his brain asked answerless questions. The foremost being: Why did the past crush in on him here?
"Too few ... we are too few...." she who was the mid one of the trio said. "We can not open the Great Door." "How many do you need?" Karara's voice was no longer parched, frightened. She might have traveled through fear to a new serenity. Why did he think that, Ross wondered fleetingly. Was it because he, too, had had the same release?
They stood in lines, unmoving, without speech among themselves, men who might have been frozen into immobility and arranged so for some game in which they were the voiceless, will-less pieces. And their immobility was a thing to arouse fear. Were they dead and still standing? "Come!" Karara's voice had sunk to a whisper and her hand pulled at the men. "What ?" began Ross. Ashe shook his head.
If the salkars could be made to crack the guard of the Baldies, could they also be used against the Foanna gate? Maybe.... But take one fight at a time. "They come!" Karara's fingers gripped Ross's shoulder. Her hand was hard, bar rigid. He could see nothing, hear nothing. That warning must have come from the dolphins.
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