UNWELCOME GUIDE
There was a small of earth and as the came alive, to its tormentors. The resulting was deafening. Shann, by a hand's a of with power to his leg into and flesh, Togi across her nose and his hands in the about Taggi's as he the male from the monster. He orders, and to his Togi did obey, him free to Taggi away. Perhaps neither had the full of the hound.
Though he a across the of one hand, delivered by the over-excited Taggi, in the end Shann was able to animals away from the hole, now so by the thing. Thorvald was actually laughing as he his in action.
"This ought to slow up the beetles! If they their little back, it's to take out some of its on them, and I'd like to see them around it."
Considering that the was from to in a of what to be rocks, Shann Thorvald right. He on his the wolverines, them with hand and voice, trying to them to his orders willingly.
"Ha!" Thorvald his mud-stained hands together with a clap, the the attention of animals.
Shann up, out his hand in the motion which meant to hunt, being to the westward. Taggi gave a last at the hound, to be answered by one of its ear-torturing howls, and then off, Togi behind.
Thorvald Shann's hand, the cut. From the packet at his he out and a of protecting plasta-flesh to and the wound.
"You'll do," he commented. "But we'd out of here full dark."
The small of the was no safe campsite. It not be so long as that on the them and its to the sky. Trailing the wolverines, the men up with the animals from a small and that water. Then they pushed on, not able to that in the about must the Throg to attack on sight.
Only not be off by the will of men. Here in the open there was no to use the torch. As long as they were the the marked a path. But by the of complete they were once more out in a region of rock.
The had killed a of skitterers, and soft as well as the which was not to satisfy their hunger. However, to Shann's relief, they did not too ahead. And as the men stopped at last on a where a of gave them some limited animals in against the humans, adding the of their to the of that place.
From time to time Shann was out of a sleep by the of the hound. Luckily that any louder. If the Throgs had up with their hunter, and they must have done so by now, they either not, or would not free it from the trap. Shann again, by any dreams, to the of clak-claks. But when he the sky he was able to none of the cliff-dwelling Warlockian bats.
"More likely they are paying attention to our friend in the valley," Thorvald said dryly, reading Shann's to the clouds overhead. "Ought to keep them busy."
Clak-claks were meat eaters, only they their weak and easy to attack. The would their kind. And those now through the ought to of their miles.
"There it is!" Thorvald, himself to his by a handhold, westward, his eager.
Shann, no less than a Throg ship, for on their perch. Perhaps if they themselves the of stones, they might be able to attention. Yet Thorvald no move into hiding. And so Shann the line of the other's stare.
Before and them a of and valleys, drops, and saw-toothed rises. But on the of that of the green of a Warlockian sea on to the only horizon. They were now of their goal.
Had they had one of the sky-flitters from the camp, they have walked its beach the hour. Instead, they their way through a Devil-designed country for the next two days. Twice they had narrow from the Throg ship—or ships—which to across the line of the coast, and only a quick to cover, time like animals, saved them from discovery. But at least the did not again on the they left, and they that the and the clak-claks had put that out of service.
On the third day they came to one of those which inland, the coast. There had been no of in the narrow through which they had threaded, so men and were well fed. Though animal than the now of the men.
"Now where?" Shann asked.
Would he now learn the purpose Thorvald on to this coastland? Certainly such country good hiding, but no than the of the interior.
The Survey officer slowly around on the shingle, studying the them as well as the of the where the almost at their tips. Opening his map case, he a patient of against of the he carried. "We'll have to on to the true coast."
Shann against the of a tree, at the of wine-colored being in change. The they had in the upper was succeeded here by a warmth. Spring was a such as this northern knew. Even the fresh wind, in from the sea, had already some of the bite they had two days when its salt-laden had them.
"Then what do we do there?" Shann persisted.
Thorvald over the map, his black-rimmed a one of the fiords, out to a of in a line across the sea.
"We for these."
To Shann that no at all. Those ... why, they would offer less of a safe than the land in which they now stood. Even the survey had those of sea-encircled earth the most from the air.
"Why?" he asked bluntly. So he had orders they had for the most part sense. But he was not to Thorvald as a of rank alone.
"Because there is something out there, something which may make all the now. Warlock isn't an empty world."
Shann free a long of bark, it his fingers. Had Thorvald cracked? He that the officer had with the of the team and had been an of one who had to subscribe to the report that Warlock had no native life and therefore was and waiting for settlement it was an empty world. But to continue to to that without a single proof was a of imbalance.
And Thorvald was him now with impatience. You were to delusions, weren't you? Only, you and a wild idea which might your death? If Thorvald wanted to go island-hopping in of what had existed, Shann need not him. And if the officer to use force, well, Shann was with a stunner, and had, he believed, more over the wolverines. Perhaps if he gave lip agreement to this project.... Only he didn't believe, the light in those on him, that talk Thorvald out of this particular obsession.
"You don't me, do you?" The in that demand.
"Why shouldn't I?" Shann to temporize. "You've had a of experience; you should know about such things. I don't to be any authority."
Thorvald the map and it in the case. Then he at the of his blouse, in an pocket. He his to his treasure.
On his a coin-shaped medallion, bone-white but an odd which would not show. And it was carved. Shann put out a finger, though he had a to touch the object. When he did he a close to the of a mild electric shock. And once he had that contact, he was also to up that and it more closely.
The pattern was very and had been done with great and skill, though the whorls, knobs, tracings, no design he determine. After a moment or two of study, Shann aware that his eyes, those and twirls, were "fixed," that it a to look away from the thing. Feeling some of that same as he had when he the of the Throg hound, he let the into Thorvald's hold, more when he that to his some of will.
"What is it?"
Thorvald the coin to his place.
"You tell me. I can say this much, there is no for anything to this in the Archives."
Shann's widened. He the which had the coin—if it was a coin—back and across the of his blouse. That ... did he still it? Or was his at work again? But an object not in the Survey Archives would some totally new civilization, a new race.
"It is definitely a article," the Survey officer continued. "And it was on the beach of one of those sea islands."
"Throg?" But Shann already the answer to that.
"Throg work—this?" Thorvald was openly scornful. "Throgs have no of such art. You must have their metal plates—those are the beetle-heads' idea of beauty. Have those the to this?"
"Then who it?"
"Either Warlock has—or once had—a native in a well-established of to such a type of art, or there have been other visitors from space here us and the Throgs. And the possibility I don't believe——"
"Why?"
"Because this was of or an substance. We haven't been able to identify it in the labs, but it is material. It was to the weather and yet it is in perfect condition, have been any time the past five years. It has been handled, yes, but not roughly. And we have come across of no other star-cruising or save ourselves and the Throgs. No, I say this was here on Warlock, not too long ago, and by beings of a very high of civilization."
"But they would have cities," Shann. "We've been here for months, all over this continent. We would have them or some of them."
"An old race, maybe," Thorvald mused, "a very old race, in decline, to a in numbers with good to retire into hiding. No, we've no cities, no of a native past or present. But this—" he touched the of his blouse—"was on the of an island. We may have been looking in the place for our natives."
"The sea...." Shann with new at the green water in along the of the fiord.
"Just so, the sea!"
"But have been here for more than a year, one team or another. And nobody saw anything or any traces."
"All four of our were set inland, our along the were mainly out by flitter, for one party—the one which this. And there may be excellent local why any native himself to us. For that matter, they may not be able to on land at all, any more than we live without in the sea."
"Now——?"
"Now we must make a attempt to them if they do near here. A native make all the in the world in any with the Throgs."
"Then you did have more than the to you when you with Fenniston!" Shann cut in.
Thorvald's were on him again. "When did you that, Lantee?"
To his great embarrassment, Shann himself flushing. "I you, the day you left for Headquarters," he admitted, and then added in his own defense, "Probably the did, too."
Thorvald's away. He gave a of laughter. "Yes, I we did to the point that morning. The dreams——" he came to the subject—"Yes, the were—are—important. We had their from the start. Lorry was the First-In Scout who Warlock, and he is a good man. I I can now to tell you that his ship was with a new device which recorded—well, you might call it an "emanation"—a so its not be traced. And it registered Lorry had one of those dreams. Unfortunately, the machine was very new, very much in the stage, and its performance when later in the was so the powers-that-be questioned all its readings. They produced a dozen to account for that tape, and Lorry only the as long as he was on a big to the south.
"Then when two check came in later, perfected and no recordings, it was all off as a mistake in the experiment. A such as Warlock is too big a to away when there was no proof of occupancy. And the settlement boys right along."
Shann his own of the skull-rock set in the of water—this sea? And another small point into place to the of a pattern. "I was asleep on the when I about that skullmountain," he said slowly, if he were making sense.
Thorvald's came up with the of Taggi on a game scent.
"Yes, on the you of a skull-rock. And I of a with a green veil. Both of us were on water—water which had an with the sea. Could water be a conductor? I wonder...." Once again his hand into his blouse. He the of beach and into the water, the on the he now in his other hand.
"What are you doing?" Shann see no purpose in that.
Thorvald did not answer. He had pressed wet hand to now, to palm, the coin them. He a circle, to the still open sea.
"That way." He spoke with a new odd tonelessness.
Shann into the other's face. All the of only a moment had been away. Thorvald was no longer the man he had known, but in some way a husk, a different personality. The Terran answered his with an attack from the old days of in-fighting in the Dumps of Tyr. He his right hand hard in a across the officer's wrists. The coin to the and Thorvald stumbled, a step or two. Before he Shann had on the medallion.
Thorvald whirled, his with a speed for which Shann gave him high marks. But the man's own was already out and ready. And he talked—fast.
"That thing's dangerous! What did you do—what did it do to you?"
His got through to a Thorvald who was himself again.
"What was I doing?" came a demand.
"You were acting like a mind-controlled."
Thorvald at him incredulously, then with a of interest.
"The minute you water on that thing you changed," Shann continued.
Thorvald his stunner. "Yes," he mused, "why did I want to water on it? Something me...." He ran his still hand up the of his jaw, across his as if to some pain there. "What else did I do?"
"Faced to the sea and said 'that way,'" Shann promptly.
"And why did you move in to stop me?"
Shann shrugged. "When I touched that thing I a shock. And I've mind-controlled——" He have his for that. The world of the mind-controlled was very from the life Thorvald and his knew.
"Very interesting," the other. "For one of so years you to have a lot, Lantee—and most of it. But I would agree that you are right about this little plaything; it a with it, being less than it looks." He off one of the of which now up his sleeve. "If you'll just remove your foot, we'll put it out of for now."
He to the well in his of cloth, taking not to touch it again with his while he it away.
"I don't know what we have in this—a key to a door, a to catch the unwary. I can't how or why it works. But we can be sure it's not just some maiden's locket, the of a to in the nearest bar. So it pointed me to the sea, did it? Well, that much I am to allow. Maybe we'll be able to return it to the owner, after we learn who—or what—that owner is."
Shann at the green water, opaque, not to be to the by sight. Anything might there. Suddenly the Throgs normal when against an unknown in the of an world. Another attack on the Throg-held be well to such as Thorvald had in mind. Yet Shann did not voice any as the Survey officer again in the same direction as the had pointed him moments before.
