He might have said yes, but that didn't mean, Ross discovered, that he was to be off at once to early Britain. Ashe's "tomorrow" proved to be days later. The was that of a Beaker trader, and Ross's was again and again by experts, making sure that the last detail was and that no of a tribesman, no mistake on Ross's part would him.
The Beaker people were an excellent choice for infiltration. They were not a closely clan, of and to any from the norm, as more race-conscious might be. For they by trade, to Ross's own time the mark of their far-flung "empire" in the in in of a or so from the Rhineland to Spain, and from the Balkans to Britain.
They did not only upon the of the road for their safety, for the Beakermen were master bowmen. A people, they pushed into new to posts, among with different customs—the Downs farmers, herders, shore-side fisherfolk.
With Ashe, Ross passed a last inspection. Their had not long to braiding, but they did have to it from their with headbands. The kilt-tunics of material, from the past, were to the skin and fitting. But the of their link-and-plate belts, the to their wrists, and the themselves approached art. Ashe's was the of a master trader, and he in a necklace of wolf's teeth with beads. Ross's more position in the was not only by his red-brown cloak, but by the that his personal jewelry only of a copper and a pin with a head.
He had no idea how the time was to be made, how one might step from the regions of the Western Hemisphere to the of Britain off the Eastern. And it was a as he discovered.
The itself was a simple, though disturbing, process. One walked a and for an on a plate while the light there about in a solid core, one off from and wall. Ross for as the air was out of his lungs. He a moment of with the of being in nothingness. Then he again and looked through the of light to where Ashe waited.
Quick and easy as the through time had been, the to Britain was something else. There be only one transfer point if the was to be preserved. But men from that point must be moved and to their stations. Ross, the the of objects from one time to another, how that travel be effected. After all, they not months, or years, across and seas.
The answer was ingenious. Three days after they had through the of time at the outpost, Ross and Ashe on the of a whale. It was a which would anyone who did not test its with a harpoon, and with large to trouble such a were yet well in the future.
Ashe a into the water, and Ross into that craft, it against the of the until his partner joined him. The day, and drizzling, the they for a half-seen line across the water. With a of more than cold, Ross his and helped Ashe send their toward that half-hidden of land.
There was no dawn; the sky somewhat, but the continued. Green among the winter-denuded trees from the beach, but the them gave an of wilderness. Ross from his that the whole of Britain was as yet only settled. The of hunter-fishers to villages had been joined by other who and had an religion. Small village-forts had been from hill to hill by trackways. There were "factories," which out in such and that a was in full operation, not yet having been by the metal by the Beaker merchants. Bronze was still so and that only the man of a village to own one of the long daggers. Even the in Ross's were of flint.
They the well up onto the and ran it into a in the bank, and about for its concealment. Then Ashe the country, a landmark.
"Inland from here...." Ashe used the language of the Beakermen, and Ross that from now on he must not only live as a trader, but also think as one. All other memories must be under the false one he had learned; he must be in the present of and the for profit. The two men were on their way to Outpost Gog, where Ashe's partner, the Sanford, was playing his role so well.
The rain in their boots, of their cloaks, their to their thick of hair. Yet Ashe on across the land with the of one a marked trail. His self-confidence was the mile when they came out upon one of the link trackways, its surface to use.
Here Ashe eastward, up the to a ground-covering trot. The peace of the road held—at least by day. By night only the most and would the in the dark.
All the that had been into him at the to make some to Ross as he his guide, wet from the brush, the trees, and the earth; together in his mind what he had been and what he now saw for himself, until it a tight pattern.
The they were upward, and a in the wind to them a odor, out all normal scents. Ashe so that Ross almost into him. But he was by the older man's attitude.
Something had been burned! Ross in a of the and then that he had not. It was wood—burned wood—and something else. Since this was not possibly normal, he was prepared for the way Ashe melted into in the brush.
They their way, sometimes on their bellies, through the wet of grass, taking full of all cover. They at the top of the hill while Ashe the of an to make them a window.
The black left by the fire, which had come from a above, had spread on the opposite of the valley. Charred still like teeth in a to mark what must have once been one of the of a post. But all they now was a from which came that stench.
"Our post?" Ross asked in a whisper.
Ashe nodded. He was studying the with an which, Ross knew, would every detail upon his mind. That the place had been was clear from the first. But why and by was a problem to the two in the brush.
It took them almost an hour to the valley—an hour of hiding, about, searching. They had a complete circle of the post and Ashe in the of a copse, of from his hands and up at the posts.
"They weren't rushed. Or if they were, the their afterward—" Ross ventured.
The older man his head. "Tribesmen would not have a if they had won. No, this was no regular attack. There have been no of a party or leaving."
"Then what?" Ross.
"Lightning for one thing—and we'd it was that. Or—" Ashe's were very cold and bleak, as cold and as the about them.
"Or—?" Ross to him.
"Or we have with the Reds in the way!"
Ross's hand to the at his belt. Little help a would be in an like this! They were only two in a thin of men out through centuries of time with orders to out that which did not fit properly into the pattern of the past: to the enemy in history or he had gone to earth. Had the Reds been searching, too, and was this their victory?
The time had their when they at last into what had been the of Outpost Gog. Ross, as he was in such matters, not mistake the of the explosion. There was a on the of the hill, and Ashe from it, the about them—scorched wood, stone.
"The Reds?"
"It must have been. This was done by explosives."
It was clear why Outpost Gog not report the disaster. The attack had their one link with the post on this time level; the had gone up with the blast.
"Eleven—" Ashe's on the of his wide belt. "We have about ten days to it out," he added, "and it we may be able to use them to than just you learn how it to walk about some four thousand years you were born. We have to out—if we can—what here and why!"
Ross at the mess. "Dig?" he asked.
"Some is indicated."
So they dug. Finally, black with and with the of death they had upon, they on the spot they find.
"They must have at night," Ashe said slowly. "Only at that time would they here. Men don't trust a night with ghosts, and our to local as usual. All of the post people be with one bomb at night."
All two of them had been true Beaker traders, and children. No Beaker post was large, and this one was small. The had out some twenty people, eighteen of them victims.
"How long ago?" Ross wanted to know.
"Maybe two days. And this attack came without any warning, or Sandy would have sent a message. He had no at all; his last reports were all routine, which means that if they were on to him—and they must have been, by the results—he was not aware of it."
"What do we do now?"
Ashe looked at him. "We wash—no—" he himself—"we don't! We go to Nodren's village. We are frightened, grief-stricken. We have our under circumstances. We ask questions of one to I am as an of this post."
So, with dirt, they walked along the toward the village with a they did not have to counterfeit.
The dog or them first. It was a rough-coated beast, its with a ferocity. But it was smaller than a wolf, and it its snarls. Ashe his from the of his and it ready.
"Ho, one comes to speak with Nodren—Nodren of the Hill!"
Only the dog and snarled. Ashe his across his face, the of a and man, the and into an mask.
"Who speaks to Nodren—?" There was a different to the of some words, but Ross was able to understand.
"One who has with him and with him. The one who gave into his hand the gift of the ever-sharp knife. It is Assha of the traders——"
"Go from us, man of luck. You who are by the spirits." The last was a cry.
Ashe where he was, into the which the tribesman.
"Who speaks for Nodren yet not with the voice of Nodren?" he demanded. "This is Assha who asks. We have blood together and the white and the wild in their fury. Nodren lets not others speak for him, for Nodren is a man and a chief!"
"And you are cursed!" A through the air, a rain and on Ashe's boots. "Go and take your with you!"
"Is it from the hand of Nodren or Nodren's men that came upon those of my blood? Have passed the place of the and the town of Nodren? Is that why you in the so that I, Assha, cannot look upon the of one who speaks and stones?"
"No us, trader. We do not the of the hills. No fire comes from the sky at night to eat us up with a noise of many thunders. Lurgha speaks in such thunders; Lurgha's hand with such fire. You have the Wrath of Lurgha upon you, trader! Keep away from us Lurgha's upon us also."
Lurgha was the local god, Ross recalled. The of and fire out of the sky at night—the bomb! Perhaps the very method of attack on the post would Ashe's attempt to learn anything from these neighbors. The of the people would lead them to the site of the post and Ashe himself as and taboo.
"If the Wrath of Lurgha had at Assha, would Assha still live to walk upon this road?" Ashe the ground with the of his bowstave. "Yet Assha walks, as you see him; Assha talks, as you him. It is to answer him with the nonsense of little children——"
"Spirits so walk and talk to unlucky men," the man in hiding. "It may be the of Assha who so now—"
Ashe a leap. There was a of action the screen and he reappeared, into the light of the rainy day a captive, he without onto the earth of the road.
The man was bearded, his thick of black in a by a loop. He a skin tunic, now in disarray, which was in place with a woven, belt.
"Ho, so it is Lal of the Quick Tongue who speaks so of and the Wrath of Lurgha!" Ashe his captive. "Now, Lal, since you speak for Nodren—which I will him—you will continue to tell me of this Wrath of Lurgha from the night and what has to Sanfra, who was my brother, and those others of my kin. I am Assha, and you know of the of Assha and how it ate up Twist-tooth, the outlaw, when he came in with his men. The Wrath of Lurgha is hot, but so too is the of Assha." Ashe his in such a way that Lal and looked away. When the spoke, all his authority and had gone.
"Assha that I am as his dog. Let him not turn upon me his swift-cutting big knife, the from his bow. It was the Wrath of Lurgha which the place on the hill, the of his meeting the earth, and then the fire which he upon those he would slay——"
"And this you saw with your own eyes, Lal?"
The an negative. "Assha that Lal is no who can and look upon the of Lurgha's might and keep his in his head. Nodren himself saw this wonder——"
"And if Lurgha came in the night, when all men keep to their homes and the world to the spirits, how did Nodren see his coming?"
Lal to the ground, his to the and the they promised, then to Ashe's planted boots.
"I am not a chief, Assha. How I know in what way or for what Nodren saw the of Lurgha——?"
"Fool!" A second voice, that of a woman, the word from the which the roadway. "Speak to Assha with a tongue. If he is a spirit, he will know that you do not tell him the truth. And if he has been by Lurgha...." She her with a of breath.
So urged, Lal sullenly, "It is said that there came a message for one to the Wrath of Lurgha in its upon the so that Nodren and the men of Nodren would know that the were cursed, and should be put to the should they come here again——"
"This message—how was it brought? Did the voice of Lurgha in Nodren's ear alone, or came it by the of some man?"
"Ahee!" Lal on the ground, his hands over his ears.
"Lal is a and his own as it him on a sunny day!" Out of the a woman, of some in her own group. Walking with a proud stride, her met Ashe's. A about her on a thong, and another the of her cloth tunic. Her was in a with pins.
"I Cassca, who is the First Sower." There was a note in Ashe's voice. "But why should Cassca from Assha?"
"There has been death on your hill, Assha—" she sniffed—"you of it now—Lurgha's death. Those who come from that hill may well be some who no longer walk in their bodies." Cassca her on Ashe's she nodded. "No are you, Assha, for all know that a is solid to the eye, but not to the touch. So it would that you were not up by Lurgha, after all."
"This of a message from Lurgha—" he prompted.
"It came out of the empty air in the not only of Nodren, but also of Hangor, Effar, and myself, Cassca. For we at that time near the Old Place...." She a with the of her right hand. "It will soon be the time of sowing, and though Lurgha sun and rain to the grain, yet it is in the Great Mother that the lies. Upon her only may go into the Inner Circle." She again. "But as we met to make the there came music out of the air such as we have heard, voices like in a tongue." Her an expression. "Afterward a voice said that Lurgha was with the hill of the men-from-afar and that in the night he would send his Wrath against them, and that Nodren must this thing so that he see what Lurgha did to those he would punish. So it was done by Nodren. And there was a in the air——"
"What of a sound?" Ashe asked quietly.
"Nodren said it was a and there was the dark of Lurgha's bird him and the stars. Then came the of the hill with and lightning, and Nodren fled, for the Wrath of Lurgha is a thing. Now do the people come to the Great Mother's Place with many that she may them and that Wrath."
"Assha thanks Cassca, who is the of the Great Mother. May the and the be good this year!" Ashe said finally, Lal, who still on the road.
"You go from this place, Assha?" she asked. "For though I under the protecting hand of the Mother and so do not fear, yet there are others who will their against you for the of Lurgha."
"We go, and again thanks be to you, Cassca."
He the way they had come, and Ross in him as the woman them out of sight.
