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A metal bracelet about the tearing arm of a snake-devil! Dalgard looked at the other two sleepers. One was lying on its belly with its forearms gathered under it so that he could not see if it, also, were so equipped. But the other yes, it was banded! Sssuri stood at the grille, one hand on its stone divisions. His surprise equaled Dalgard's.
It was not fully adult, yet the band was plain to see on the foreleg now stretched to its full length as the sun bored down to supply the heavy heat the snake-devils relished next to food. "Then " Dalgard did not like to think of what might be the answer to that "then." Sssuri shrugged. "It is plain that these are not wild roamers. They are here for a purpose.
He left it to Sssuri, who had the traditions of his people to guide him, to make the decision. The merman looked at the dome; it was evident from his attitude that he had no wish to examine it more closely. "They had machines which fought for them, and sometimes those machines still fight. This river is the natural entrance for an enemy. Therefore it would have been well defended."
Never had Dalgard penetrated into the cave cities of the sea folk before without inquiries and open welcome lapping about him. Were they entering a place of massacre where no living merman remained? Yet there was that whistling which had led Sssuri to this place....
And at that moment a shrill keening note arose from the depths to ring in 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 the heart of the amphibian territory.
The ships of the air in which they travel are fashioned so" with his knife point he drew a circle in the sand "but this one was smaller and more in the likeness of a spear with a heavy point thus" he made a second sketch beside the first, and Dalgard and Sssuri leaned over to study it. "That is unlike any of their ships that I have heard of," Sssuri agreed.
And what use would a bow or a foot or two of sharpened metal be against things which could kill from a distance or turn rock itself into a flowing, molten river? He was impatient to move on, to reach this city of forgotten knowledge which Sssuri was sure lay before them. Perhaps the colonists could draw upon what was stored there as well as Those Others could.
Instead Dalgard began to realize that just the opposite was true. At last he could stand it no longer and broke out with what he feared, hoping that Sssuri would deny that fear. "We are going downhill!" To his disappointment the merman agreed. "It has been so for the last thousand of our paces. It is my belief that this leads not to the sun but out under the sea." Dalgard missed a step.
Then he remembered not only remembered but was corrected by Sssuri. "Think not of taking their weapons into your hands." Sssuri did not look up as he gave that warning. "Long ago your fathers' fathers knew that the knowledge of Those Others was not for their taking."
Sssuri gestured impatiently with one outflung hand. "Do the hoppers wander far from their own nest mounds? Somewhere there " he pointed to the left and north, "there is trouble, bad trouble. Tonight we shall speak with the runners and discover what it may be." Dalgard glanced about the camp with regret. But he made no protest as he reached for his bow and stripped off its protective casing.
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