"The night comes," Tsoay spoke slowly in English. "Do these you in the dark?"
She her to free her from a of braid, in her with Travis.
"They do not need or such as those four-footed of yours. They have a machine to track—"
"Then what purpose is this of yours?" Travis his at the place.
"They do not use the machine, and one can hope. But at night they can on its beam. We are not into the to them. Bahatur lame, and so I was slowed...."
"And what in these that those you not them?" Travis continued.
"I do not know, save if one can climb inside, one is safe from pursuit."
"I ask it again: Who are you?" The Apache forward, his in the fast-fading light now only away from hers. She did not from his close but met him to eye. This was a woman of proud independence, a chief's daughter, Travis decided.
"I am of the People of the Blue Wolf. We were across the star to make this world safe for ... for ... the...." She hesitated, and now there was a of on her face. "There is a reason—a dream. No, there is the and there is reality. I am Kaydessa of the Golden Horde, but sometimes I other things—like this speech of I am now——"
"The Golden Horde!" Travis now. The embroidery, Sons of the Blue Wolf, all into a special pattern. But what a pattern! Scythian art, the ornament that the of Genghis Khan so proudly. Tatars, Mongols—the who had from the of the to the of history, not only in Asia but across the of middle Europe. The men of the Emperor Khans who had the yak-tailed of Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, Tamerlane—!
"The Golden Horde," Travis once again. "That in the history of another world, Wolf Daughter."
She at him, a queer, on her dust-grimed face.
"I know." Her voice was so he the words. "My people live in two times, and many do not that."
Tsoay had them to listen. Now he put out his hand, Travis' shoulder.
"Redax?"
"Or its like." For Travis was sure of one point. The project, which had been three for space colonization—one of Eskimos, one of Pacific Islanders, and one of his own Apaches—had no or to select Mongols from the wild past of the Hordes. There was only one nation on Terra which have such colonists.
"You are Russian." He her carefully, on the of his words.
But she did not that look. "Russian ... Russian ..." she repeated, as if the very word was strange.
Travis was alarmed. Any Russian planted here well with of a fugitive, and if were protection against such a hunt, he to them, by night traveling. He said this to Tsoay, and the other agreed.
"The is too to go on," the man reported.
Travis for a long second. Since the time they had their from the Spanish, had always been to his people. To an animal which well the was not right. But they not waste time with a beast.
"Leave it here, free," he ordered.
"And the woman?"
"She goes with us. We must learn all we can of these people and what they do here. Listen, Wolf Daughter," again Travis close to make sure she was to him as he spoke with emphasis—"you will travel with us into these high places, and there will be no trouble from you." He his knife and the her eyes.
"It was already in my mind to go to the mountains," she told him evenly. "Untie my hands, warrior, you have surely nothing to from a woman."
His hand a and a knife as long and as his from the of the her garment.
"Not now, Wolf Daughter, since I have your fangs."
He helped her to her and the about her with her knife, which he then to his own belt. Alerting the coyotes, he them ahead; and the three started on, the Mongol girl the two Apaches. The and then to on of grass, moving slowly to his foot.
The two the sky as the hours advanced, their the shadows. Travis safe from any attack at ground level, upon the for warning. But he them all to a pace. And he did not question the girl again until all three of them at a small spring, to water over their and drink from hands.
"Why do you your own people, Wolf Daughter?"
"My name is Kaydessa," she him.
He with at the of her voice. "And you see here Tsoay of the People—the Apaches—while I am Fox." He was her the English of his name.
"Apaches." She to repeat the word with the same he had used. "And what are Apaches?"
"Indians—Amerindians," he explained. "But you have not answered my question, Kaydessa. Why do you from your own people?"
"Not from my people," she said, her determinedly. "From those others. It is like this—Oh, how can I make you rightly?" She spread her wet hands out her in the moonlight, the on her to her arms. "There are my people of the Golden Horde, though once we were different and we can of that previous life. Then there are also the men who live in the sky ship and use the machine so that we think only the they would have us think. Now why," she looked at Travis intently—"do I wish to tell you all this? It is strange. You say you are Indian—American—are we then enemies? There is a part memory which says that we are ... were...."
"Let us say," he her, "that the Apaches and the Horde are not here and now, no what was before." That was the truth, Travis recognized. By all his people had come out of Asia in the very of peoples. For all her dark-red and eyes, this girl who had been returned to a past just as they had been by Redax, well be a clan-cousin.
"You—" Kaydessa's rested for a moment on his wrist—"you, too, were sent here from across the stars. Is this not so?"
"It is so."
"And there are those here who you now?"
"No. We are free."
"How did you free?" she fiercely.
Travis hesitated. He did not want to tell of the ship, the that his people no against the Russian-controlled colony.
"We to the mountains," he evasively.
"Your machine failed?" Kaydessa laughed. "Ah, they are so great, those men of the machines. But they are smaller and when their cannot them."
"It is so with your camp?" Travis gently. He was not sure of her meaning, but he not ask more questions without his own ignorance.
"In some manner their machine—it can only work upon those a distance. They that in the days of the landing, when out and many of them did not return. After that when were sent out to learn how this land, they along in the with a machine so that there would be no more escapes. But we knew!" Kaydessa's into small fists. "Yes, we that if we the machines, there was for us. And we planned—many of us—planned. Then nine or ten ago those others were very excited. They in their ship, their machines. And something happened. For a while all those dead.
"Jagatai, Kuchar, my Hulagur, Menlik...." She was the names off on her fingers. "They the herd, out...."
"And you?"
"I, too, should have ridden. But there was Aljar, my sister—Kuchar's wife. She was very near her time and to thus, and fast, might kill her and the child. So I did not go. Her son was that night, but the others had the machine at work once more. We might long to go here," she her up to her breast, and then it to her head—"but there was that here which us to the and their will. We only that if we the mountains, we might our people who had already their freedom."
"But you are here. How did you escape?" Tsoay wanted to know.
"They that I would have gone had it not been for Aljar. So they said they would make her out with them unless I played to lead them to my and the others. Then I I must take up the of and with them. But I prayed that the of the upper air look with upon me, and they aid...." Her a look of wonder. "For when we were out on the and well away from the settlement, a the leader of the party, and he the mind and so it was broken. Then I rode. Blue Sky Above how I rode. And those others are not with their as are the people of the Wolf."
"When did this happen?"
"Three ago."
Travis in his mind. Her date for the failure of the machine in the Russian to with the crash landing of the American ship. Had one thing any with the other? It was very possible. The might have some of with the other it to earth on the other of the range.
"Do you know where in these your people hide?"
Kaydessa her head. "Only that I must south, and when I the make a fire on the north slope. But that I cannot do now, for those in the may see it. I know they are on my trail, for twice I have it. Listen, Fox, I ask this of you—I, Kaydessa, who am to the Khan—for you are like us, a and a man, that I believe. It may be that you cannot be by their machine, for you have not rested under their spell, are of our blood. Therefore, if they come close to send the call, the call I must as if I were a upon a rope, then do you my hands and and me here, no how much I to that command. For that which is me not want to go. Will you this by the which demons?"
The of her Travis that she was for against a she in. Whether she was right about his to the Russian was another matter, and one he would not put to the test.
"We do not by your fires, Blue Wolf Maiden, but by the Path of the Lightning." His moved as if to about the his people had once as "medicine." "So do I promise!"
She looked at him for a long moment and then in satisfaction.
They left the and pushed on toward the slopes, their way to the pass. A low out of the dark them to an halt. Naginlta's was sharp; there was ahead, danger.
The moonlight from the a pattern of light and dark on the ahead. Anything from a four-footed to a party of beings might have been in wait there.
A out of shadows. Nalik'ideyu pressed against Travis' legs, making a of her warm body, his attention to a spot at the left a hundred yards on. There was a great of dark there, large to a opponent; that animal and man told Travis that such an was just what was there.
Whatever in the upper was as its to advance, the reported.
"Your left—beyond that pointed rock—in the big shadow—"
"Do you see it?" Tsoay demanded.
"No. But the mba'a do."
The men had their ready, set to the cords. But in this light such were unless the enemy moved into the path of the moon.
"What is it?" Kaydessa asked in a whisper.
"Something for us ahead."
Before he stop her, she set her to her and gave a whistle.
There was movement in the shadow. Travis at that, his by one from Tsoay. There was a cry, up in a throat-scalding which Travis flinch. Not of the sound, but of the hint which it—could it have been a cry?
The thing out into a of moonlight. It was four-limbed, its silvery—and it was large. But the was that it had been on all when it fell, and now it was on its feet, one at the two dancing head-deep in its upper shoulder. Man? No! But something to the three downtrail.
A four-footed in, at the creature's legs, and it again, a with a forepaw; but the was already gone. Together Naginlta and Nalik'ideyu were the creature, just as they had the horn, the time to shoot. Travis, although he again that touch of and he not account for, again.
Between them the Apaches must have sent a dozen into the it to its and Naginlta for its throat. Even then the and flinched, a across its from the of the thing. When it no longer moved, Travis approached to see more closely what they had down. That smell....
Just as the on Kaydessa's jacket had memories from his Terran past, so did this him of something. Where—when—had he it before? Travis it with dark, dark and danger. Then he in a exclamation.
Not on this world, no, but on two others: two worlds of that where he had been an two years ago! The which had in the dark of the world the Terrans' had upon. Yes, the nature they had been able to deduce. Were they the of a once species? Or were they animals, to man, but still animals?
The ape-things had the night of the world. And they had been met again—also in the dark—in the of the city which had been the final of the ship's voyage. So they were a part of the civilization. And Travis' own Topaz was proven correct. This had not been an empty world for the long-gone space people. This had a purpose and a use, or else this would not have been here.
"Devil!" Kaydessa a of disgust.
"You know it?" Tsoay asked Travis. "What is it?"
"That I do not know, but it is a thing left over from the star people's time. And I have it on two other of their worlds."
"A man?" Tsoay the critically. "It no clothes, has no weapons, but it walks erect. It looks like an ape, a very big ape. It is not a good thing, I think."
"If it with a pack—as they do elsewhere—this be a very thing." Travis, how these had in on the other worlds, looked about him apprehensively. Even with the on guard, they not up to such a pack in through the dark. They had up in some place and wait out the of the night.
Naginlta them to a where they set their to the hard of the mountain, to a space they with if the need arose. And the coyotes, them with their on paws, would, Travis knew, them long the enemy close in.
They against the rock, Kaydessa them, at to every of the night, their at a small of gravel, the of a bush. Slowly, they to relax.
"It is well that two sleep while one guards," Travis observed. "By we must push on, out of this country."
So the two Apaches the watch in turn, the Tatar girl at protesting, and then into a which left her heavily.
Travis, on the watch, to about the ape-thing they had killed. The two previous times he had met this it had been in of the old empire. Were there here? He wanted to make sure about that. On the other hand, there was the problem of the Tatar-Mongol settlement by the Reds. There was no in his mind that, were the Reds to the of the Apache camp, they would make every attempt to and kill or the from the American ship. A must be to the as as they make the return trip.
Beside him the girl stirred, her head. Travis at her and then with attention. She was looking ahead, her as as if she were in a trance. Now she from the wall, out of its shelter.
"What—?" Tsoay had again. But Travis was already moving. He pushed on, up to her, to shoulder.
"What is it? Where do you go?" he asked.
She no answer, did not aware of his voice. He at her arm and she to free herself. When he his she did not him as their encounter, but and as if she were being to go ahead.
Compulsion! He her the night before, his help against by the machine. Now he her, her hands her back. She in his hold, trying to win to her feet, paying no attention to him save as a against her that call he not hear.
