Sitting up, Dane wide-eyed into the dark. A of coals, by rocks, was the center of their camp. He up to that why he moved. His hands were shaking, his skin with no produced. Yet, now that he was of the night, the Terran not the from which he had just awakened, though he was left with a which he not define. What out there in that dark? Walked the side? Listened, and waited?
Dane started to his as a did move into the light of the fire. Tau there, him with intensity.
"Bad dream?"
The man to that with a nod, against his will.
"Well, you aren't the only one. Remember any of it?"
With an effort, Dane looked away from the dark. It was as if the which had him awake, now embodied, right there.
"No." He sleep-smarting eyes.
"Neither did I," Tau remarked. "But of 'em must have been jet-powered."
"I one to have after yesterday." Dane the logical explanation, yet at the same time something him every word of it. He had before; none of them had left this aftertaste. And he wanted no return of sleep tonight. Reaching to the of he the fire as Tau settled him.
"There is something else...." the began, and then silent. Dane did not press him. The man was too a to and the fire into that darkness, to catch in its blast that thing he there, its time.
Despite his Dane did again morning, unrefreshed, and, to his dismay, with no of his odd for the country about them.
Asaki did not that they the into the of Mygra. Instead the Chief Ranger was to press on in the opposite direction, a way over the range to the where he a to with the outlaws. So they an climb which took them away from the of the lowlands, into the of the above.
The sun was bright, too bright, and there were left. Yet Dane, stopping to drink from his canteen, not that of upon him, of being tracked. Rock apes? Cunning as those were, it was against their nature to in silence, to be able to through a long-term project. Lion, perhaps?
He noted that Nymani and Asaki took at today, and that each was alert. Yet, enough, none of them mentioned the they must all share.
They had a climb, no to their water supply. All being in travel, they a of liquid go a long way. When the party midday, were still full.
"Haugh!"
They up, hands on weapons. A ape, its here, capered, coughed, spat. Asaki from the and the thing screeched, at its where the dark blood out, and for them. Nymani cut the and they waited for the attack of the thing's tribe, which should have the on the part of their scout. But there was nothing—neither movement.
What did them all momentarily. That to move again, itself together, toward them. Dane that it was that the live with such wounds. Yet the advanced, its on its so that the were up to the full of the sun, while it to the man it not see.
"Demon!" Nymani his needler, against the rocks.
As the thing advanced, their the happened. Those closed, the on the almost neck, the once more with life, and from the snout.
Jellico up the Nymani had dropped. With a Dane envied, the captain shot. And for the second time the collapsed, to ribbons.
Nymani screamed, and Dane to his own of protest. The thing put on life for the second time, crawled, got somehow to its feet, itself, and came on. Asaki, his greenish-pale, out as if each step he took was by torture. He had his needler. Now he up a as large as his own head, it high with arms on which the out like ropes. He the stone, and Dane as well as saw the go home. The for the third time.
When one of those to move again, Nymani broke. He ran, his in the air, as the thing up, the of its about. If his would have him, Dane might have the Khatkan. As it was, he his and it at that thing. Tau up the barrel.
The medic's was livid; there was the same in his eyes. But he moved out to that monster.
A spot of on the ground, in hue, took on substance. Crouched low the ape, its for a spring, green on its prey, was a black leopard.
The and movements of its steadied, and it through the air, the ape. A pitting, rolled across the slope—and was gone!
Asaki's hands as he them his face. Jellico a second in the mechanically. But Tau was so that Dane to take the of the other's weight as he collapsed. Only for a moment did the so, then he to erect.
"Magic?" Jellico's voice, as as ever, the silence.
"Mass hallucination," Tau him. "Very strong."
"How!" Asaki and again. "How was it done?"
The his head. "Not by the methods, that is certain. And it on us—on me—when we weren't conditioned. I don't that!"
Dane it yet. He Jellico to where the of had rolled, saw him ground on which no of the remained. They must accept Tau's explanation; it was the only one.
Asaki's were with a so that Dane how much a was the of Khatka.
"Lumbrilo!" The Chief Ranger of that name a curse. Then with a visible he his and came to Tau, over the almost menacingly.
"How?" he for the second time.
"I don't know."
"He will try again?"
"Not the same perhaps—"
But Asaki had already the situation, was looking ahead.
"We shall not know," he breathed, "what is real, what is not."
"There is also this," Tau warned. "The can kill the just as as the real!"
"That I know also. It has too many times lately. If we only out how! Here are no drums, no singing—none of the to a man's mind that he to his demons. So without Lumbrilo, without his tools, how he make us see what is not?"
"That we must and speedily, sir. Or else we shall be among the and the real."
"You also have the power. You can save us!" Asaki protested.
Tau his arm across his face. Very little of the normal color had returned to his thin, features. He still against Dane's supporting arm.
"A man can do only so much, sir. To Lumbrilo on his own ground is and I can not so very often."
"But will he not also be exhausted?"
"I wonder...." Tau the Khatkan to the ground where and had to be. "This magic is a thing, sir. It and upon a man's own and fears. Lumbrilo, having ours, need not at all, but let us ourselves that which will attack us."
"Drugs?" Jellico.
Tau gave a start to take him out of Dane's hold. His hand to the packet of which was his own care, his with wonder and then alert.
"Captain, we those of yours. Thorson, your salve.... But, no, I didn't use anything—"
"You forget, Craig, we all had after that with the apes."
Tau sat on the ground. With he his medical supplies, out some containers. Then he opened each, its closely by eye, by smell, and two by taste. When he was done he his head.
"If these have been in any way with, I would need laboratory analysis to it. And I don't that Lumbrilo of his work so cleverly. Or has he been off-planet? Had much to do with off-worlders?" he asked the Chief Ranger.
"By the nature of his position he is to space voyage, to have any close relationship with any off-worlder. I do not think, medic, he would choose your for his mischief. There would only be to him then in producing the he wants. Though there is often call for in travel, he not be you would use any of your on this to the preserve."
"And Lumbrilo was certain. He something such as this," Jellico them.
"So it would be something which we would all use, which we had to upon...."
"The water!" Dane had been his own to drink. But as that possible in his mind, he of the liquid inside. There was no odor he detect. But he Tau on the pills at their camp.
"That's it!" Tau into his kit, out the of white with its lumps. Pouring a little into the of his hand he it, touched it with the of his tongue. "Purifier and something else," he reported. "It be one of a dozen drugs, or some native from here which we've classified."
"True. There are we have here." Asaki at the green of jungle. "So our water is poisoned?"
"Do you always it?" Tau asked the Chief Ranger. "Surely the centuries since your on Khatka you must have to native water. You couldn't have otherwise. We must use the purifier, but must you?"
"There is water and water." Asaki his own canteen, his as the from its was heard. "From on the other of the we drink—yes. But over here, this close to the Mygra swamps, we have not done so. We may have to it."
"Do you think we are poisoned?" Jellico directly to the of their private fears.
"None of us have been too heavily," Tau thoughtfully. "And I don't Lumbrilo had killing in mind. How long the will last I have no way of telling."
"If we saw one ape," Dane wondered, "why didn't we see others? And why here and now?"
"That!" Tau pointed ahead on the Asaki had for their ascent. For a long moment Dane see nothing of any there and then he it—a of rock. It did not point directly this time, in it so that its their trail. Yet in the was very to that from which the had them the day before.
Asaki in his own and his hand hard against the stock of the needler.
"We saw that and so again we saw an also! Had we been by or jumped by a lion in such a place, then again we would have been by or lion here!"
Captain Jellico gave a of only by the most humor. "Clever enough. He it to us to select our own and then repeat the performance in the next proper setting. I wonder how many like that one there are in these mountains? And how long will a continue to out from each one we do find?"
"Who knows? But as long as we drink this water we're going to continue to have trouble; I safe in promising that," Tau replied. He put the of into a pocket of his medical kit. "It may be a problem of how long we can go without water."
"Perhaps," Asaki said softly. "Only not all the water on Khatka comes in streams."
"Fruit?" Tau asked.
"No, trees. Lumbrilo is not a hunter, he be when and where his magic would go to work. Unless the was sabotaged, he was for us to use our in the preserve. That is lion country and there are long springs. This is us and there is a there I think we can safely tap. But I must Nymani and prove to him that this is of a sort, but not inspired."
He was gone, down-slope in the direction his had taken, and Dane spoke to Captain Jellico.
"What's this about water in trees, sir?"
"There is a of tree here, not too common, with a trunk. It stores water the rainy season to live on in the months. Since we are in the period rains, we it—if we one of the trees. How about that, Tau? Dare we drink that without a purifier?"
"Probably a choice of two evils, sir. But we have had our shots. Personally, I'd than take a on a mind-twisting drug. You can go without water just so long...."
"I'd like to have a little talk with Lumbrilo," Jellico, the in his voice very deceptive.
"I'm going to have a little talk with Lumbrilo, if and when we see him again!" promised Tau.
"What are our chances, sir?" Dane asked. He the cap on his canteen, his mouth twice as since he he not drink.
"Well, we've before." Tau sealed the medical kit. "I'd like to see one of those trees sundown. And I don't want to another pointed today!"
"Why the leopard?" asked Jellico reflectively. "Another case of using to fire? But Lumbrilo wasn't among those present to be impressed."
Tau his hand across his forehead. "I don't know, sir. Maybe I have the without a projection, but I don't think so. With these it is to one against another for the of those involved. And I can't tell you why I a leopard—it just into mind as about the and most animal I at that moment."
"You'd work out a good list of such fighters." Jellico's again. "I can supply a if you need them. Not that I don't your we won't see any more rocks. Here comes Asaki with his boy."
The Chief Ranger was half-leading, half-supporting his hunter, and Nymani only half-conscious. Tau got to his and to meet them. It would appear that their search for the water tree would be delayed.
