With the air and packed under foot, walking should have been easy. Lea that. The to have cut off the part of her brain, a direct to her cords. As she along, only conscious, she all of her that were left unvoiced. Occasionally there was in her complaints. They would their way, the city, die of thirst, freezing, or hunger. Interspersed and with these were from her past that still floated, in the of her subconscious. Some Brion understand, though he not to listen. Fears of credits, not the grade, behind, a woman alone in a world of men, school, being lost, among the that for in the city-states of Earth.
There were other she was of that no to a man of Anvhar. Who were the that to trouble her? Or what was canceri? Daydle and haydle? Who was Manstan, name up, over and over, each time by a little moan?
Brion stopped and her up in arms. With a she settled against the hard of his and was asleep. Even with the additional weight he time now, and he to his fastest, kilometre-consuming to make good use of these best hours.
Somewhere on a of and he the of the car. He no time looking for it. By the and set he had a good of the north. Dis didn't to have a pole[Pg 50] star; however, a slowly around the point of the pole. Keeping this in line with his right him on the he needed.
When his arms to he Lea to the ground; she didn't wake. Stretching for an instant, taking up his again, Brion was by the terrible of the desert. His a against the stars; all else was and silence. How he was from his home, his people, his planet! Even the of the night sky were different. He was used to solitude, but this was a that touched some deep-buried instinct. A that wasn't from the cold touched along his spine, at the on his neck.
It was time to go on. He the off and Lea into the jacket he had been wearing. Slung like a pack on his back, it the walking easier. The gave way to of that to continue to infinity. It was a painful, climb to the top of each one, then an difficult to the black-pooled at the of the next.
With the of the sky in the east he stopped, in his chest, to mark his direction the faded. One line in the pointed north, a second pointed out the they should follow. When they were to his he his mouth out with a single of water and sat on the next to the still of the girl.
Gold of fire across the sky, out the stars. It was magnificent; Brion his in appreciation. There should be some way of it. A would be best. Short to be remembered, yet attention and skill to into it. He had scored high with his in the Twenties. This would be a special one. Taind, his mentor, would have to a copy.
"What are you about?" Lea asked, look[Pg 51]ing up at the of his profile against the sky.
"Poem," he said. "Shhh. Just a minute."
It was too much for Lea, after the and of the night. She to laugh, laughing when he at her. Only when she the of did she make an attempt to off the laughter. The sun the horizon, a over them. Lea gasped.
"Your throat's been cut! You're to death!"
"Not really," he said, his against the blood-clotted that his neck. "Just superficial."
Depression sat on him as he the and death of the previous night. Lea didn't notice his face; she was in the pack he had down. He had to use his to and away the of pain that his mouth. Memory was more painful than the wound. How easily he had killed! Three men. How close to the surface of the man the animal dwelled! In matches he had used those holds, always from the of the full killing power. They were part of a game, part of the Twenties. Yet when his friend had been killed he had a himself. He in and the of life—until the test, when he had killed without hesitation. More was the he no guilt, now. Shock at the change, yes. But no more than that.
"Lift your chin," Lea said, the she had in the medicine kit. He his and the liquid a cool, line across his neck. Antibio pills would do a more good, since the was by now, but he didn't speak his aloud. For the moment Lea had herself in taking of him. He put some of the on her and she squeaked, back. They the pills.
"That sun is already," Lea said, off her[Pg 52] clothing. "Let's a or an air-cooled to into for the day."
"I don't think there are any here. Just sand. We have to walk—"
"I know we have to walk," she interrupted. "There's no need for a lecture about it. You're as as the Bank of Terra. Relax. Count ten and start again." Lea was making empty talk while she to the memory of at the of her brain.
"No time for that. We have to keep going." Brion slowly to his after in the pack. When he along his at the western he saw nothing to mark their course, only the dunes. He helped Lea to her and walking slowly them.
"Just on a second," Lea called after him. "Where do you think you're going?"
"In that direction," he said, pointing. "I there would be some landmarks, but there aren't. We'll have to keep on by reckoning. The sun will keep us well on course. If we aren't there by night the will be a guide."
"All this on an empty stomach? How about breakfast? I'm hungry—and thirsty."
"No food." He the that emptily. It had been only when he it. "The water's low and we'll need it later."
"I need it now," she said shortly. "My mouth tastes like an and I'm as paper."
"Just a single swallow," he said after the hesitation. "This is all we have."
Lea at it with her closed in appreciation. Then he sealed the top and returned it to the pack without taking any himself. They were as they started up the dune.
The was of life; they were the only moving under that sun. Their pointed the way ahead of them, and as the the rose. It had an Lea had before, a physical weight that pushed at her with a hand. Her clothing[Pg 53] was with perspiration, and it into her eyes. The light and it hard to see, and she on the of Brion's arm. He walked on steadily, the and discomfort.
"I wonder if those are edible—or store water?" Brion's voice was a rasp. Lea and at the shape on the of the dune. Plant or animal, it was hard to tell. It was the size of a man's head, and as dried-out leather, with thick spikes. Brion pushed it up with his toe and they had a of a white roundness, like a taproot, going into the dune. Then the thing contracted, itself into the sand. At the same something thin and out through a in the skin, at Brion's and withdrawing. There was a on the hard plastic, with of green liquid.
"Probably poison," he said, his toe into the sand. "This thing is too to with—without a good reason. Let's keep going."
It was when Lea down. She wanted to go on, but her wouldn't obey. The thin of her shoes were no protection against the and her were of pain. Heat down, up from the and her in an of pain. The air she in was metal that and her mouth. Each of her blood to the in her until it her would with the agony. She had to the tunic—in of Brion's that she keep her protected from the sun—and that to her, with sweat. She at it in a to breathe. There was no from the heat.
Though the into her and hands, she couldn't rise. It took all her not to further. Her closed and in circles.
Brion, through eyes, saw her go[Pg 54] down. He her, and her again as he had the night before. The touch of her his arms. Her skin was pink. The was open and one pointed rose and with the of her breathing. Wiping his free of and sand, he touched her skin and the dryness.
Heat-shock, all the symptoms. Dry, skin, the breathing. Her temperature as her stopped the and succumbed.
There was nothing he do here to protect her from the heat. He a of the water into her mouth and she convulsively. Her thin was little protection from the sun. He only take her in his arms and keep on the horizon. An of a of and he walked it.
The ground here, from the direct of the sun, almost by contrast. Lea opened her when he put her down, up at him through a of pain. She wanted to to him for her weakness, but no came from the of her throat. His above her to swim and in the waves, like a tree in a high wind.
Shock her open, her mind for an instant. He was swaying. Suddenly she how much she had come to on the of his strength—and now it was failing. All over his the in ridges, to keep him erect. She saw his mouth open by the of his neck, and the gaping, was more terrible than any sound. Then she herself as his rolled back, only the empty white of the at her. He over, back, down, like a tree, on the sand. Unconscious or dead, she couldn't tell. She at his leg, but couldn't his weight into the shade.
Brion on his in the sun, sweating. Lea saw[Pg 55] this and that he was still alive. Yet what was happening? She for memory in the red of her mind, but nothing from her medical that would this. On every square of his the with activity. From every great of liquid, than normal perspiration. Brion's arms with motion and Lea gaped, as the there and as though with life. His rose and rapidly, deep, his body. Lea only through the of and wonder if she was going she died.
A fit the of his breath, and when it was over his was easier. The still his body, the and that his and in the sand. He and rolled onto his side, her. His were open and normal now as he smiled.
"Didn't to you. It me at the season and everything. It was a of a to my system. I'll you some water now—there's still a left."
"What happened? When you looked like that, when you fell...."
"Take two swallows, no more," he said, the open to her mouth. "Just change, that's all. It to us every year on Anvhar—only not that violently, of course. In the winter our store a of under the skin for insulation, and almost completely. There are a of too. When the weather up the is reversed. The is and the and as the for two months of hard work, and little sleep. I the here off the early."
"You mean—you've to this terrible planet?"
"Just about. Though it a little warm. I'll[Pg 56] need a more water soon, so we can't here. Do you think you can the sun if I you?"
"No, but I won't any here." She was light-headed, aware of what she said. "Keep going, I guess. Keep going."
As soon as she was out of the of the the over her again in a of pain. She at once. Brion her up and forward. After a yards, he to the of the sand. He he was the end of his strength. He more slowly and each a higher than the one before. Giant, sand-scoured pushed through the here and he had to around them. At the of the largest of these was a of vegetation. He passed it by—then stopped as something to his heat-crazed mind. What was it? A difference. Something about these plants that he hadn't noticed in any of the others he had passed the day.
It was almost like to turn and push his in his own footprints; to at the plants. Yet they were important. Some of them had been cut off close to the sand. Not by any natural cause, but cut and by a knife or of some sort. The cut plants were long and dead, but a up in him. This was the that other people were actually alive on this heat-blasted planet. And the plants had been cut for, they might be of to him. Food—perhaps drink. His hands at the as he Lea into the of the rock. She didn't stir.
His knife was sharp, but most of the was gone from his hands. Breath in his throat, he at the stem, it through. Raising up the shrub, he saw a thick liquid from the end. He his hand against his leg, so it wouldn't shake and spill, until his was full of sap.
It was wet, a little as it evaporated.[Pg 57] Surely it was mostly life-giving water. He had a moment's as he it to his lips, and of it touched it with the of his tongue.
At nothing—then a pain. It into his and him. His and he bile. On his knees, the of pain, he he needed.
Despair was than the pain. The plant juice must have some use; there must be a way of it or it. But Brion, a on this planet, would be long he out how to do this.
Weakened by the that still at him, he not to how close to the end he was. Getting the girl on his an task, and for an he was to her there. Yet as he this he her weight and once more on. Each an effort, he his own up the dune. Painfully he his way to the top, and looked at the Disan a away.
They were too by the to at once. For a of time they at each other, unmoving. When they it was the same defense of fear. Brion the girl, the gun up from the in the return of the same motion. The Disan a from his and it to his mouth.
Brion didn't fire. A man had him how to train his sense, and to trust it. In of the that wanted him to the trigger, a different read the of the native Disan. There was there, and hatred. Welling up around these was a not to violence, this time, to instead. Brion and all this in a of a second. He had to act to avoid a happening. A of his the gun to one side.
As soon as it was gone he its loss. He was their on an ability he still was not sure[Pg 58] of. The Disan had the to his mouth when the gun the ground. He the pose, unmoving, thinking. Then he Brion's action and the into his waistband.
"Do you have any water?" Brion asked, the Disan his throat.
"I have water," the man said. He still didn't move. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
"We're from offplanet. We had ... an accident. We want to go to the city. The water."
The Disan looked at the girl and his decision. Over one he one of the green objects that Brion from the solido. He it off and the thing slowly in his hands. It was alive—a green length a long, like a of a thick vine. One end out into a petal-like formation. The Disan took a hook-shaped object from his and it into the orifice. When he the in a quick motion the length of green and around his arm. He something small and dark out and it to the ground, the green shape Brion. "Put your mouth to the end and drink," he said.
Lea needed the water more, but he first, of the water source. A the was with straw-colored water from the fibrous, interior. He it to his mouth and drank. The water was and swampy. Sudden pains around his mouth him the thing away. Tiny white from the pink-tipped now with his blood. Brion the Disan angrily—and stopped when he looked at the other man's face. His mouth was by many small white scars.
"The not like to give up its water, but it always does," the man said.
Brion again, then put the to Lea's mouth. She without consciousness, her for the life-saving liquid. When she was satisfied Brion the from her and again. The Disan hunkered[Pg 59] on his and them expressionlessly. Brion the vaede, then some of the so that Lea was in their shade. He settled to the same position as the native and looked closely at him.
Squatting on his heels, the Disan appeared perfectly under the sun. There was no of on his naked, skin. Long to his shoulders, and at Brion from sockets. The around his was the only he wore. Once more the rested over his shoulder, still unhappily. Around his was the same of leather, and objects that had been in the solido. Two of them now had meaning to Brion: the tube-and-mouthpiece, a of some kind; and the for opening the vaede. He if the other had practical functions. If you them as with a purpose—not decorations—you had to accept their owner as something more than the he resembled.
"My name is Brion. And you—"
"You may not have my name. Why are you here? To kill my people?"
Brion away the memory of last night. Killing was just what he had done. Some in the man's manner, some of Brion to speak the truth.
"I'm here to stop your people from being killed. I in the end of the war."
"Prove it."
"Take me to the Cultural Relationships Foundations in the city and I'll prove it. I can do nothing here in the desert. Except die."
For the time there was on the Disan's face. He and something to himself. There was a of above his now as he an battle. Coming to a decision, he rose, and Brion too.[Pg 60]
"Come with me. I'll take you to Hovedstad. But you will tell me—are you from Nyjord?"
"No."
The Disan and away. Brion Lea's and him. They walked for two hours, the Disan setting a pace, they a of rock. The native pointed to the tower of sand-eroded stone. "Wait near this," he said. "Someone will come for you." He while Brion the girl's still in the shade, and passed over the for the last time. Just he back, hesitating.
"My name is ... Ulv," he said. Then he was gone.
Brion did what he to make Lea comfortable, but it was very little. If she didn't medical attention soon she would be dead. Dehydration and were to her.
Just he clanking, and the of a car's engine from the west.[Pg 61]
