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"Knife brother" to Dalgard's sensitive mind that form of address from Sssuri was used for a special purpose: to underline the close bond between them "listen to the words of Sssim who is a Hider-to-Watch on the island where they rest their ships during the voyage from one land to another." He drew Dalgard down beside him to face a young merman who was staring round-eyed at the colony scout.
And he could bring it to life by merely putting out his hand and picking up any one of those fascinating objects which lay only inches away. For the pull of curiosity was warring inside him against the stern warnings of his Elders. Once when Dalgard had been very small he had raided his father's trip bag after the next to the last exploring journey the elder Nordis had made.
For the first time Raf noticed that his human companion now held one of the knives of the merpeople, and he drew his stun gun. But he could not forget the flame-throwers which might at that very moment be trained upon the other side of that door by the aliens. They might be walking into a trap. He half expected one of those disconcerting thought answers from Dalgard.
Dalgard had no idea as yet how he could win back across the waste of water to his own people. While the mermen with whom he had stormed the city were friendly, they were not of the tribes he knew, and their own connection with the eastern continent was through messages passed between islands and the depths.
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 wish for them to do so. He was still very glad that it had been dark when he had climbed to the top of that cliff, that he had not been able to see what his imagination told him lay there. "Do they stay?" That was Sssuri. "Not so.
They were passing under one of the infrequent violet lights when Dalgard got something else a mental thrust so quick and sharp it was as if a sword had cut through the daze of fatigue to reach his brain. Yet that had not come from Sssuri, for it was totally alien, wavering on a band so near the extreme edge of his consciousness that it pricked, receded, and pricked again as a needle might.
And behind them, drawn knives in their ready hands, were half again as many merwomen, forming a protecting wall before a crouching group of cubs. Sssuri spoke to Dalgard. "Spread out your hands empty so that they may see them clearly!" The scout obeyed. In the limited light his ten fingers were fans, and it was then that he understood the reason for such a move.
And in that moment Dalgard had been forced to give up his plan for an unseen spy ring, which would depend upon the assistance of the animals. His information must come via his own eyes and ears. So he kept on, posting the last of the mermen in his mental relay well away from the city, but swimming upstream himself. Now that he was here, he could see no traces of the invaders.
And within a matter of minutes they found it, the mud still moist as Dalgard proved with an exploring fingertip. At the same time Sssuri twirled his spear significantly. Before them the lane ran on between two walls without any breaks. Dalgard uncased his bow and strung it. From his quiver he chose one of the powerful arrows, the points of which were kept capped until use.
They dipped their paddles deep and cut across the river current toward the cliffs to the north. Two days of steady coastwise traveling brought them to a great bay. And Dalgard gasped as the full sight of the port confronting them burst into view. Tiers of ledges had been cut and blasted in the native rock, extending from the sea back into the land in a series of giant steps.
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