The Free Rovers
Twilight a world where one not the true meeting of land and water, sea and sky. Surely the about them was more than just the normal of night.
Ross in the middle of the as it along the of a reef. To his mind the the three of them and their of was too frail, too high. But Karara in the bow, Loketh at the to be content, and Ross not, for pride's sake, question their competency. He himself with the knowledge that no agent was able to every skill, and Karara's people had the Pacific in out-rigger more than their present vessel, by and stars.
Smothering his of and the slow anger that in him, the Terran himself with study of a sort. They had had the longer part of the day in the Loketh would agree to out of and south. Ross, using the analyzer, had, with Loketh's aid, set about learning what he of the native tongue.
Now of a of words, he was able to Loketh's speech so that through the was not necessary for directions. Also, he had a more of the present on Hawaika.
Enough to know that they might be on a venture. The of the Foanna was ground, not only for Loketh's people but also for the Foanna's Hawaikan who were and in an ring of fortification-cum-village. Those were, Ross gathered, a of and warriors, to that and not recruited from the native population at large. As such, they were by the "magic" of their masters.
"If the Foanna are so powerful," Ross had demanded, "why do you go with us against them?" To so on the native him uneasy.
The Hawaikan looked to Karara. One of his hands raised; his sketched a toward the girl.
"With the Sea Maid and her magic I do not fear." He paused adding, "Always has it been said of me—and to me—that I am a one, fit only to do women's tasks. No word shall my in the great of Zahur. I who am Zahur's true son can not my in any lord's train. But now you offer me one of the great to-be-remembered quests. If I go, so may I prove that I am a man, if I go limpingly. There is nothing the Foanna can do to me which is than what the Shadow has already done. Choosing to you I may up to Zahur in his own hall, him that the blood of his House has not been from my I walk crookedly!"
There was such fire, not only in the of Loketh's words, but in his eyes, his face, the of his lips, that Ross him. The Terran no longer had any that the was to the unknown terrors of the Foanna keep, not just to Ross he himself to by the of his people, but he saw in this a to what he had had, a place in his culture.
Shut off from the normal life of his people, he had early to the sea. His leg had not proved a in the water, and he with that he was the best in the castle. Not that the men of his father's had taken to the sea, which they looked upon as a way of upon the true sea rovers.
The on which the ships had been was a of sorts—first by the of nature when wind and up the ships there. Then, Ross was when Loketh on a later of that trap.
"So Zahur returned from this meeting and set up a great magic among the rock, according to the he was taught. Now ships are there so the have been many and Zahur an lord with many men to take under him."
"This magic," asked Ross, "of what manner is it and where did Zahur obtain it?"
"It is so—" Loketh sketched two lines in the air, "not as a sword. And the color of water under a sky, being as tall as a man. There was much to set them in place, that was done by a man of Glicmas."
"A man of Glicmas?"
"Glicmas is now the high lord of the Iccio. He is blood to Zahur, yet Zahur must take to send to Glicmas a fourth of all his sea-gleanings for a year in payment for this magic."
"And Glicmas, where did he it? From the Foanna?"
Loketh an of that. "No, the Foanna have spoken out against their use, making the Old Ones and the people. It is said that Glicmas saw a great wonder in the sky and it to a high place of his own country. A in and a voice from the rent, calling that the lord of the country come and to it. When Glicmas did so he was told that the magic would be his. Then the closed again and he many upon the ground. As he them they make him to the Foanna in power. Some he to those who are his blood kin, and together they will be great until they close their not only upon the sea rovers, but upon the Foanna also. This they have come to believe."
"But you do not?" Karara asked then.
"I do not know, Sea Maid. The time is when they shall have their to prove how is their magic. Already the Rovers in as they did before. And it that they, too, have a new magic, for their ships through the water, no longer on wind-filling sails, or upon arms of men at long paddles. There is a us. But that you must know, being who and what you are, Sea Maid."
"And what do you think I am? What do you think Ross is?"
"If the Foanna on land and old knowledge and power our in their two hands," he replied, "then it is possible that the same have in the sea. It is my that you are of the Shades, but not the Shadow. And this is also of your kind—but in different degree, into action your and wishes. Thus, if you go up against the Foanna, you shall be well matched, to kind."
Nice to be so of that, Ross thought. He did not Loketh's on that subject.
"The Shades ... the Shadow ..." Karara persisted. "What are these, Loketh?"
An odd the Hawaikan's face. "Are those not to you, Sea Maid? Indeed, then you are of a different from the men of land. The Shades are those of power who may come to the of men should it be their to the future. And the Shadow ... the Shadow is That Which Ends All—man, hope, good. To Which there is no appeal, and Which a and for that which has life and full substance."
"So Zahur has this new magic. Is it the gift of Shades or Shadow?" Ross them to the which had in him a small signal.
"Zahur mightily." Loketh's answer was ambiguous.
"And so the Shadow not provide such magic?" The Terran pushed.
But the Hawaikan had a to answer, Karara added another question:
"But you that it did?"
"I do not know. Only the magic has Zahur a part of Glicmas, and Glicmas is now a part of that which spoke from the mountain. It is not well to accept gifts which tie one man to another unless there is from the a saying of how that may run."
"I think you are wise in that, Loketh," Karara said.
But the had in Ross. Alien powers, out of a heart, passed from one lord to another. And on the other hand the Rovers' magic in turn, their ships wings. The two in an odd way. Back on Terra there had been those and jumps in knowledge on the part of the enemy, jumps which had set in action the whole Time Travel service of which he had a part. And these jumps had not been the result of normal research; they had come from the of on his world in the past.
Could of the same knowledge have been here to communities? He asked Loketh about the possibility of space-borne explorers. But to the Hawaikan that was a totally conception. The stars, for Loketh, were the and of the Shades, and he the of space travel as natural to those all-powerful specters, but not for beings like himself. There was no hint that Hawaika had been openly visited by a ship. Though that did not such landings. The was, Ross thought, populated. Whole of the of the larger were wilderness, and this world must be in the same of only as his own earth had been in the Bronze Age when on the had out into wilderness, great forests, and by man their coming.
Now as he in the and to keep his mind off the in his middle and the of the one of sea-creature over a which up the his person and the water, Ross still over what might be true. Had the for their own purposes to here, or to what must be a very of power? Why? To on a which would the native population to the point of or depopulation? So they win a world for their own purposes without or on their part? Such cold-blooded in very well with the of the Baldies as he had them on Terra.
And he not set that memory of this very as he had it through the peep, the in ruins, tall from the land into the sea. Was this the of that which would end in the Hawaika of his own time, empty of life, into a network of islands?
"This is strange." Karara's Ross to return to the here and now.
The he had been only of when they had put out from the where Loketh his boat, was a fog, up in soft and with speed.
"The Foanna!" Loketh's answer was sharp, a of danger. "Their magic—they their place so! There is trouble, trouble on the move!"
"Do we land then?" Ross did not the present out of the to any of nature on the part of the all-powerful Foanna. Too many times the of "medicine men" had been so by coincidence. But he did the of trying to ahead in this murk.
"Taua and Tino-rau can us," Karara him. "Throw out the rope, Ross. What is above water will not them."
He moved cautiously, to his to the of the boat. The line was to hand and he the end overboard, to the as one of the it up.
They were being now, though the with their efforts. The above the surface of the water did not the its surface, and Ross relief. He his to speak to Loketh.
"How near are we?"
The had to the point that, close as the native was, the lines of his blurred. His answer distorted, too, almost as if the had not only his but his personality.
"Maybe very soon now. We must see the sea gate we are sure."
"And if we aren't able to see that?" Ross.
"The sea gate is above and the water. Those who the Sea Maid, who are able to speak to thought, will it if we can not."
But they were to that goal. Karara gave warning: "There are ships about."
Ross that the had told her. He in turn: "What kind?"
"Larger, much larger than this."
Then Loketh in: "A Rover Raider—three of them!"
Ross frowned. He was the here. The other two, with their ability to with the dolphins, were the sighted, he the blind. And he his in a of which must have his as he ordered, "Head inshore—now!"
Once on land, in the fog, he that they had the in any hide-and-seek which might with this enemy force. But he was and vulnerable, a Ross did not accept easily.
"No," Loketh returned as sharply. "There is no place to land along the cliff."
"We are two of the ships," Karara reported.
"Your paddles—" Ross his voice to a whisper, "hold them—don't use them. Let the take us on. In the fog, if we make no sound, we may by the ships."
"Right!" Karara agreed, and he an from Loketh.
They were moving very slowly. Strong as the were, they not all their on the too fast. Ross furiously. Perhaps the sea be their way of if the need arose. He had no idea why ships were moving under the of into the of the Foanna citadel. But the Terran's knowledge of him to that this visit was not by the Foanna, was it a one. And, as who should be of as thick as this, the Rovers themselves must have a reason, or some safeguard which them here now.
But the three out of their boat, trust to their ability and that of the dolphins, and the Foanna sea gate so? Could they use the Rover attack as a for their own of the hold? Ross that the in their were to look better.
He his idea and to prepare their gear. The was still for the the three not see. But they out of the white which told them how they were in by the raiders; creaks, whispers, noises, Ross not identify, across the waves.
Before the and this they had Loketh to the use of the gill-pack, him in the of the with one of the through the gate among the supplies. Now all three were with the water aid, and they be gone in the sea the closed.
"The supply net—" Ross Karara. A moment or two later there was a small against the at his left hand. He the of and the into the water, that one of the would take of it.
However, he was not prepared for what next. Under him the one way and then the other in as if the were trying to them into the sea. Ross Karara call out, her voice thin and frightened:
"Taua! Tino-rau! They have gone mad! They will not listen!"
The in a path. Loketh at Ross, to him, to keep the on an keel.
"The Foanna—!" Just as Loketh out, Karara over the of the boat, by design or Ross did not know.
And then the about, against with a dark out of the fog. Above, Ross cries, that they had against one of the raiders. He to his balance, but he had been to the of the against Loketh and they together, unable to move a second or two.
Out of the air over their a of which of them. The was adhesive, slimy. Ross let out a as the lines about his arms and body, him.
Those tightened, a net. Now he was being up out of the skiff, a captive. His legs, still free of the cords, against the of the larger ship. Then he in, over the well of the deck, on that surface with force, unable to anything that he had been taken by a very device.
Loketh him. But Karara was not in, and Ross to that small of hope. Had she it to by into the water the Rovers them? He see men about him, and in the fog. Then he was rolled across the deck, over the of a and an of terror as he into the below.
How long was he unconscious? It not have been very long, Ross decided, as he opened his on dark, the small of the ship. He very still, trying to remember, to his he to his arms. They were tight to his by which no longer slimy, but were as they dried. There was an odor from them which him. But there was no of those in of his struggles, which more as his returned. And at last he panting, there was no easy way of from here.
