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their encampment and shielded from view. What sounded loud here might well be
rather soft on the other island when masked by the sounds of wind and surf.
Whatever it was they were doing, the sun would come up at six twenty-two by
Raven's watch, and it was getting after four. He himself was miserable and
certain that at any time he was going to make some kind of noise or do
something that would bring those nasties down there after him in large
numbers.
Just before dawn they started back out, but not everybody came. He couldn't be
sure about all the males, but it was clear that none of the females left the
heiau. The big chief did, with his retinue of guards, looking mean and huge as
ever, and so did most of the exterior guards, although some remained near the
entrance to the heiau. The others brought up the rear of the chief's big
party, extinguishing the fire pots as they went. Clearly the girls were going
to stay, and so were at least four of the warriors with the bows and spears.
He hadn't figured on that. They were supposed to be helpless in daylight,
blind and heat sensitive. This didn't figure and would make his getaway
difficult. He could take them out with the pistol, of course, but that was no
way to say hello and ask for favors.
Sooner or later, though, a move would have to be made or they might have to
wait another ten days or more, with that damned Chi breathing down their necks
and time feeling very, very limited. Idly he wondered if a mindprinter helmet
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would even go on those thick heads, let alone work right. It better these
weren't the kind of people you just wanted to drop in on with a cheery smile
and upturned palms.
The sun, in fact, was fairly high before he felt relatively safe. Not that his
toad-faced guards had left;
instead they had brought water in large flasks, then poured them on areas
behind their watch stations well within the full shade of the trees, and then
he watched as they got down on their bellies and dug into the mud until only
their blowhole nostrils were exposed. It was an amazing, and chilling,
performance. Raven could only hope that those resting spots were preprepared;
he would hate to think that they could do this most anywhere there was mud.
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Cautiously he increased power on his flight belt, floated up a bit, then out.
For a brief moment he felt totally exposed and helpless, but he quickly
turned,climbed, and floated out toward the open sea. If they saw or heard him,
they hadn't had either the time or the vision in daylight to strike him before
he was away and that was good enough for him. All across the strait though he
kept seeing rust-color monster heads poking up from the waves, staring at him
with those mean monster eyes, and he hoped it was just a trick of wind and
wave and his tired mind.
He was all in when he arrived, although they knew by his lateness combined
with the fact that he hadn't pushed the emergency signal that he'd found
something of value. He just mumbled to them to see the recordings, made it
into the tent, and collapsed.
He dreamed of monsters, of lizardlike faces all around him, staring, poking,
prodding. At last he dreamed they were chasing him down that road, and, for
some reason, he was crawling just as they were, but faster. He made the edge
of the sea, yet for some reason it was not choppy but smooth as glass, and
reflecting back from the water's surface was the face of one of the demon
monsters his face.
And, suddenly, he was aware of someone else, someone standing next to him on
two human legs. He looked up and saw Arnold Nagy staring back down at him in
pity. "Are you willing to pay the price?"
Nagy asked him, and the question echoed through his mind.
He awoke, sweating profusely although not from the heat. The nightmares had
been very vivid, very real, and very, very terrifying, yet until now he had
been unable to wake up. He made his way shakily outside the tent, seeing that
it was nearly dark, and found some food cakes and beer. It was better than
nothing.
Dura Panoshka heard him and emerged from the communications tent and came over
to him. "How are you feeling?" she asked him. "You were having... dreams."
Raven nodded. "Nightmares. You seen the pictures?"
She nodded. "We also sent copies of the entire data pack to
Thunder.
Takya agrees that they are ugly to look at, but she suspects they are fast
swimmers. Down below, particularly if they have gills as well, their form and
particularly their body elasticity would make them formidable indeed. They
look almost like carved coral, yet they bend like snakes."
"Yeah, well, I ain't much for the beauty of 'em one way or another. You sort'a
got the impression watching them that them mean expressions weren't just
locked on 'em because of their bone structure.
The eyes, the way they moved they're a mean bunch of monsters, Dura, by any
human measure. Inside, not outside. And you can bet your ship that if they got
the ring it isn't in none of those convenient land temples of theirs. It's
down deep in the dark and wet."
"I know. They were able to analyze the speech, anyway. It's a variation of one
of the Polynesian dialects, all right. The reason it sounds so strange, other
than the fact that it's being spoken with different sound equipment than the
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usual human larynx, is that it covers a far wider spectrum than you can hear.
It's very complex, though, and they can't make much of it out even though they
recognized enough to identify its origins. It appears that they don't have a
lot of sounds, but they have an almost infinite number of intonations. Many
languages use tones usually three or five, so if the same 'word' sound is said
in a low tone, or ascending, or descending, it means something different. In
their case, the number of tones is at least in the hundreds."
He whistled. "So we're not gonna have an easy conversation with them. We have
to face it, Dura. We
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got to put the snatch on a couple of them things, haul 'em up to
Thunder, take a mindprint readout, analyze their language and culture, and
find out what we're really dealingwith. I wish I knew just what would put 'em
out quick and quiet enough, but we're just gonna have to trust to luck on
that. But if there aren't any Centers, if there's no emperor or high priest or
big lizard, then any damned chief could have it.
Any of 'em. And they don't carry weapons around on land unless they figure to
get jumped. That chief had a lot of guards. In the water I might see it you
got to figure them totem faces are modeled on some pretty nasty animals. But
there's no big land critters here. We know that. The only reason for takin'
guards and bows and spears on land and posting guards is to protect against
other people. These guys might have regular wars with each other. If they do
findin' even somebody who knows somebody who once heard that somebody had a
ring someplace is gonna be pretty damn near a career. And there's only one way
you can make a hunt like that."
She nodded. "I know. The odds are very good that some of us will have to
become these creatures."
The first part, at least, was easier than they thought by far.
Thunder suggested that while the guards might be merely sleeping and trained
to be at the ready, Raven was probably right in his supposition that they were
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