Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 4, 2025
"You lie in our hand. Let us clasp the fingers tightly and you shall be naught." Out of somewhere the words Karara had chanted in the Foanna temple came to Ross not in her Polynesian tongue but in the English she had repeated. And softening his voice to his best approximation of the Foanna singsong Ross sang: "Ye forty thousand gods, Ye gods of sea, of sky of stars," he improvised.
Once on land, even in the fog, he felt that they had the advantage in any hide-and-seek which might ensue with this superior enemy force. But afloat he was helpless and vulnerable, a state Ross did not accept easily. "No," Loketh returned as sharply. "There is no place to land along the cliff." "We are between two of the ships," Karara reported.
You have a magic which is not our magic, since the Stone of Phutka did not reveal it on you. Are you from the Shades?" His fingers moved in the same sign Loketh had once made before Karara. Ross gave his chosen explanation. "I am from the sea, Captain. As for the Foanna, they are no friend to me, since they hold captive in their keep one who is my brother-kin." Torgul stared him up and down.
Ashe had included the analyzer with the equipment by the gate. If Ross could find that ... why, then the major problem could be behind them. Swiftly he explained to Karara, and with a vigorous nod of assent she called to Taua, ordering the rest of the salvage material from the gate be brought to them. "Loketh." Ross pointed to the youth. "Ross." That was himself. "Karara." He indicated the girl.
Ross found himself reading the reply symbols aloud. "If you dare, then I will lead." Witches' Meat He might be recklessly endangering all of them, Ross knew. But if Ashe was immured somewhere in that rock pile over their heads, then the risk of trusting Loketh would be worth it. However, because Ross was chancing his own neck did not mean that Karara need be drawn into immediate peril too.
Just as he had made his own plan for reaching the spacer, so had Ashe, Karara, and the dolphins worked on a similar attempt. The river running deep in those mountain gorges had provided a road for the dolphins and they found beneath its surface an entrance past the force barrier.
As such, they were armored by the "magic" of their masters. "If the Foanna are so powerful," Ross had demanded, "why do you go with us against them?" To depend so heavily on the native made him uneasy. The Hawaikan looked to Karara. One of his hands raised; his fingers sketched a sign toward the girl. "With the Sea Maid and her magic I do not fear."
Loketh dropped beside him. But Karara was not brought in, and Ross held to that small bit of hope. Had she made it to freedom by dropping into the water before the Rovers netted them? He could see men gathering about him, masked and distorted in the fog. Then he was rolled across the deck, boosted over the edge of a hatch and knew an instant of terror as he fell into the depth below.
This was a gesture of ceremony, but he wanted a steady head and a quick tongue for any coming argument. Torgul, Afrukta, Ongal the three commanders of the Rover cruisers; Jazia, who represented the mysterious Power of Phutka; Vistur and some other subordinate officers; Karara; himself, with Loketh hovering behind: a council of war. But summoned against whom?
Ashe had always been a field man; and the settlement work had been stultifying, a laborious chore for him. When Karara had gone Ross dropped down on the bunk against the side wall. "What did happen here, do you think?"
Word Of The Day
Others Looking