The Sea Gate of the Foanna
Ross a cup to his but the it contained. This was a of ceremony, but he wanted a and a quick for any argument. Torgul, Afrukta, Ongal—the three of the Rover cruisers; Jazia, who the Power of Phutka; Vistur and some other officers; Karara; himself, with Loketh behind: a of war. But against whom?
The Terran had come too from his own purpose—to Ashe in the Foanna keep. And to his own plans was a he his ability to perform. His attack on the Baldies had him too to the Rovers for them to allow him to them on a of his own.
"These star men"—Ross set the cup, to choose the most telling in his limited Hawaikan vocabulary—"possess and powers you can not of, that you have no defense against. Back at Kyn Add we were lucky. The their and the their flamers. Otherwise we not have taken them, though we were many against their few. Now you talk of them in their own territory—on land and in the where they have their base. That would be to to a salkar."
"So—then we must and wait for them to eat us up?" Ongal. "I say it is to die with one's wet!"
"Do you not also wish to take at least one of the enemy with you when you to that finish?" Ross countered. "These kill you you came in range."
"You had no trouble with that of yours," Afrukta spoke up.
"I have told you—this was from them. I have only one and I do not know how long it will continue to me, or they have a defense against it. Those we took were to any force, for their had failed them. But to against their main would be the act of madmen."
"The opened a way for us—" That was Torgul.
"But we can not move a pack of those to the mountains," Vistur pointed out reasonably.
Ross the Captain. That Torgul was for a plan and that it had to be a one, the Terran guessed. His respect for the Rover had been since their meeting. The cruiser-raiders had always been by the most men of the Rover clans. But Ross was also that a successful must a level-headed of and be a of parts.
The Hawaikan needed a key which would open the Baldy as the had opened the lagoon. And all they had to them was a of from their prisoners.
Oddly the to the captives' minds had been produced by the dolphins. Just as Tino-rau and Taua had a of the Terran and Loketh, so did they read and the of the invaders. For the Baldies, among their own kind, were telepathic, only to give orders to inferiors.
Their by these "inferiors" had delivered the shock, and the mind-probes of the had sent the "supermen" close to the of sanity. To accept an animal as an equal had been shattering.
But the star men's and memories had been at last and the result spread this council. Rovers and Terrans were on the invaders' master plan for taking over a world. Why they to do so the had not been able to discover; they themselves had not been told by their superiors.
It was a plan almost in its simplicity, as if the had no to opposition. Except in one direction—one single direction.
Ross's on the cup. Had Torgul that yet, the that the Foanna be their key? If so, they might be able to their purposes in one action.
"It would that they are of the Foanna," he suggested, to any response from Torgul. But it was Jazia who answered the Terran's question.
"The Foanna have a powerful magic; they can order wind and wave, man and creature—if so be their will. Well might these the Foanna!"
"Yet now they move against them," Ross pointed out, still Torgul.
The Captain's reply was a small, smile.
"Not directly, as you have heard. It is all a part of their plan to set one of us against the other, us many small and so use up our men while they take no risks. They wait the day when we shall be and then they will themselves to all they wish. So today they up trouble the Wreckers and the Foanna, that the Foanna are few. Also they in turn to anger us by raids, us to that either the Wreckers or Foanna have attacked. Thus—" he up his left thumb, a of right thumb and to close upon it, "they to catch the Foanna, Wreckers and Rovers. Because the Foanna are those they the most they move against them now, using us and our into the bargain. A plan which is clever, but the plan of men who do not like to with their own blades."
"They are than the scum, these cowards!" Ongal spat.
Torgul again. "That is what they we will say, kinsman, and so them. By our customs, yes, they are cowards. But what they for our judgments? Did we think of the when we used them to the lagoon? No, they were only to be our tools. So now it is the same with us, that we know what they intend. And we shall not be such tools. If the Foanna are our answer, then—" He paused, into his cup as if he read some there.
"If the Foanna are the answer, then what?" Ross pushed.
"Instead of the Foanna, we must warm, cherish, try to ourselves with them. And do all that while we still have time!"
"Just how do we do these things?" Ongal. "The Foanna you would warn, cherish, as allies, are already our enemies. Were we not on the way to their sea gate only days ago? There is no of peace now. And have the ones not learned from the women-killers that already there is an army of Wreckers about the to which these sons of the Shadow plan to weapons? Do we away three cruisers—all we have left—in a fight? Such is the of one by of wits."
"There is a way—my way," Ross the opening. "In the Foanna is my sword-lord, to service I am vowed. We were on our way to attempt his when your ship us out of the waves. He is learned me in the with peoples, and if the Foanna are as as you say, they will already have that he is not just a they from Lord Zahur."
There it was in the open, his own that Ashe had been able to his with his knowledge and potential. Trained to act as man with other races, there was a that Gordon had saved himself from had been planned for the the Foanna had claimed. If that happened, Ashe be their opening in the Foanna stronghold.
"This also I know: That which the gate—which your minds and sent you from your raid—does not affect me. I may be able to win and my clansman, and in that doing with the Foanna."
The Baldy had not the attack on the Foanna citadel. As the Rover in under the of night the and of and a wild across the sky. Only on the sea of the there was no of involvement. Whatever the gate must still be in force.
Ross with his well to his against the of the deck. His had been over, protested, but at last with the support of Torgul and Jazia, and now he was to make his try. The of the Rovers' and Loketh's knowledge of the sea gate had been added for his benefit, but he that this must upon himself alone. Karara, the dolphins, the Hawaikans, were all too to the barrier.
Torgul moved in the light. "We are close; our power is ebbing. If we advance, we shall be soon."
"It is time then." Ross to the rope ladder, but another was there him. Karara on the rail. He her angrily.
"You can't go."
"I know. But we are still safe here. Just you are free of one defense of the gate, Ross, do not that makes it easy."
He was by her that he be so self-assured.
"I know my business."
Ross pushed past her, the rope ladder, only above water level to on flippers, make sure of the set of his belt, and his gill-mask over his face. There was a him as the belt, flippers, and the water and he at it. These provide Ashe's from the fortress.
The lights on the a wide of across the sea. As Ross toward the wave-washed he to and other which him that the were in the of an all-out assault. Yet those and into the sky had a blur. And Ross, making his way with the water of the diver, now and then to spot up from the surface of the sea the two which marked the sea gate.
He was by a crack, the air above the small bay. Ross to one of the pillars, himself with one hand against it. Those of from the surface were thickening. More out from parent to along above the waves, up and in turn. A of was gate and shore.
Again a overhead. Involuntarily the Terran ducked. Then he his up to the sky, to see any of storm. What there the of the on the water. Yet where the was gray-white, it was a from the point of the citadel. Ross not how he was able to see one of against equal dusk, but he did—or did he only it? He his head, himself to look away from the finger. Only it was a no longer; now it was a at the it was fast out. A to the it back, to press the and its into and earth.
Fog about Ross, through the sea gates. He his on the and dived, on through the with the of the Foanna him.
There was a ahead; that much he from Torgul's description. Those who the Foanna sometimes took sea and they had slim, fast for such travel. Ross cautiously, to there was no to level. Here the was thick, a so he was as to direction. He again and on.
Was his of the fog, or was it also in his head? Did he, after all, have this much to the gate defense? Ross that as he had the on the surface. He had come from the gate, which meant that the must lie—there!
A moments later Ross had proof that his of direction had not failed him, when his against a solid in the water and his touch told him that he had one of the piles. He again and this time he not a roll but the of the Foanna.
It was loud, almost directly above his head, but since the he was not of being sighted. The must be on the jetty. And to Ross's right was a dark which he was one of the cutters. Was a by the being planned?
Then, out of the night, came a beam, well above the level of Ross's where he to the piling. It on the cutter, into the of the with the of clay. The stopped on mid-note, by of and alarm. Ross, pressing against the pile, a from his sonic.
There must be a Baldy in the the gate. Perhaps the now the was to be on the of the keep in turn.
Foanna again, low and clear. Splashes from the water as those on the into the sea objects Ross not define. The Terran's jerked, his a of pain. About his and middle, in the waves, there was cold so that it seared. Fear him to up on one of the under of the pier. He that and his with what he summon.
Moments later he along toward the shore. The energy had another target. Ross paused to watch a second sliced. If the of the Foanna would the invaders, it had not yet to work.
The the along in of Ashe's the Terran down, but he would not it as he his way from one foot- and hand-hold to the next. The gave off an which him uncontrollably. And he that as long as that he not into the sea again.
Light ... along with the cold, there was a on the water—white floating, dipping, the waves. Some of them under the pier, about the pilings. And the with their coming, as if those and upon the mist. The Terran see now he had the land end of the jetty. He his into his belt, on over his the of salkar-hide Torgul had provided.
Save for his belt, his trunks, and the gill-pack, Ross's was and the cold at him. But, the over his shoulder, he to the and listening.
The of the attack which had all the way to the Rover had died away. And there were no more of thunder. Instead, there was now a thick wash of rain.
No more fire as he seaward. And the was lifting, so Ross the settling cutters, their still to the jetty. There was no movement there. Had those on the fled?
Dot ... ... ...
Ross did not the net. But he in the protection of the piling. For a moment which Terran time measure he so, waiting.
Dot ... ... ...
Not the by the enemy installations, it was a call up by his sonic, and one he knew.
Don't rush, he told himself sharply—play it safe. By only two people in this time and place would know that call. And one would have no to use it. But—a trap? This be a trap. Awe of the Foanna powers had touched him a little in of his off-world skepticism. He be now by someone using Ashe's call.
Ross for action after a fashion, the and its into a he a well above water level. The hand he had left with Karara, not it to the sea. But he had his diver's knife and his two hands which, by training, be, and had been, weapons.
With the against the skin of his middle where it would register strongest, knife in hand, Ross moved into the open. The did not supply much light, but he was the call had come from the jetty.
There was movement there—a or two. And the sonic? Ross had to be sure, very sure. The was when he in that direction. Dared he come into the open? Perhaps in the dark he cut Ashe away from his so they swim for it together.
Ross a reply. Dot ... ... ...
The answer was quick, imperative: "Where?"
Surely no one but Ashe have sent that! Ross did not hesitate.
"Be ready—escape."
"No!" Even more imperative. "Friends here...."
Had he rightly? Had Ashe relations with the Foanna? But Ross to the which had been his defense and so long. There was one question he only Ashe answer, something out of the past they had when they had their into time as Beaker of the Bronze Age. Deliberately he that question.
"What did we kill in Britain?"
Tensely he waited. But when the reply came it did not from the under his fingers; instead, a well-remembered voice called out of the night.
"A white wolf." And the were Terran English.
"Ashe!" Ross forward, toward the he only see.
