Star Born, Andre Norton [e ink manga reader .txt] 📗

outlaws had come to find a new home! This was wonderful news, news he must take to Homeport. Only, it was news which must wait. For the sea people had come to a decision of their own.

“What are they going to do now?” Raf asked.

The mermen were not retreating, instead they were slipping from the ledge in regular order, forming somewhat crooked ranks in the water.

Dalgard did not reply at once, making mind touch not only to ask but to impress his kinship on the sea people. They were united in a single-minded purpose, with failure before them⁠—unless⁠—He turned to the stranger.

“They go to war upon Those Others. He who guided us here knows also that the new knowledge they have brought into the city is danger. If an end is not put to it before they can use it, then”⁠—he shrugged⁠—“the mermen must retreat into the depths. And we, who can not follow them⁠—” He made a quick, thrusting gesture as if using a knife on his own throat. “For a time Those Others have been growing fewer in number and weaker. Their children are not many and sometimes there are years when none are born at all. And they have forgotten so much. But now, perhaps they can increase once more, not only in wisdom and strength of arms, but in numbers. The mermen have kept a watch on them, content to let matters rest, sure that time would defeat them. But now, time no longer fights on our side.”

Raf watched the furred people with their short spears, their knives. He recalled that rocky island where the aliens had unleashed the fire. The expeditionary force would not have a chance against that.

“But your weapons would.” The words addressed to him were clear, though they had not been spoken aloud. Raf’s hand went to the pocket where two more of the blast bombs rested. “And this is your battle as much as ours!”

But it wasn’t his fight! Dalgard had gone too far with that suggestion. Raf had no ties on this world, the RS 10 was waiting to take him away. It was strictly against all orders, all his training, for him to become involved in alien warfare. The pilot’s hand went back to his belt. He was not going to allow himself to be pushed onto anything foolish, whether this “colonist” could read his mind or not.

The first ranks of the mermen had already waded past them, heading into the way down which the escaping prisoners had come. To Raf’s eyes none of them paid any attention to the two humans as they went, though they were probably in mental touch with his companion.

“You are already termed one of us in their eyes,” Dalgard was careful to use oral speech this time. “When you came to our rescue in the arena they believed that you were of our kind. Do you think you can return to walk safely through the city? So”⁠—he drew a hissing breath of surprise when the thought which leaped into Raf’s mind was plain to Dalgard also⁠—“you have⁠—there are more of you there! But already Those Others may be moving against them because of what you have done!”

Raf who had been about to join the mermen stopped short. That aspect had not struck him before. What had happened to Soriki and the flitter, to the captain and Lablet, who had been in the heart of the enemy territory when he had challenged the aliens? It would be only logical that the painted people would consider them all dangerous now. He must get out of here, back to the flitter, try to help where unwittingly he had harmed⁠—

Dalgard caught up with him. He had been able to read a little of what had passed through the other’s mind. Though it was difficult to sort order out of the tangled thoughts. The longer he was with the stranger, the more aware he became of the differences between them. Outwardly they might appear of the same species, but inwardly⁠—Dalgard frowned⁠—there was something that he must consider later, when they had a thinking space. But now he could understand the other’s agitation. It was very true that Those Others might turn on the stranger’s fellows in retaliation for his deeds.

Together they joined the mermen. There was no talk, nothing to break the splashing sound of bodies moving against the current. As they pressed on, Raf was sure that this was not the same way they had come. And once more Dalgard answered his unspoken question.

“We seek another door into the city, one long known to these tribesmen.”

Raf would gladly have run, but he could not move faster than his guides, and while their pace seemed deliberate, they did not pause to rest. The whole city, he decided, must be honeycombed with these drains. After traversing a fourth tunnel, they climbed out of the flood onto a dry passage, which wormed along, almost turning on itself at times.

Side passages ran out from this corridor like rootlets from a parent root, and small parties of mermen broke from the regiment to follow certain ones, leaving without orders or farewells. At the fifth of these Dalgard touched Raf’s arm and drew him aside.

“This is our way.” Tensely the scout waited. If the stranger refused, then the one plan the scout had formed during the past half-hour would fail. He still held to the hope that Raf, with what Raf carried, could succeed in the only project which would mean, perhaps not his safety nor the safety of the tribe he now marched among, but the eventual safety of Astra itself, the safety of all the harmless people of the sea, the little creatures of the grass and the sky, of his own land at Homeport. He would have to force Raf into action if need be. He did not use the mind touch; he knew now the unspoken resentment which followed that. If it became necessary⁠—Dalgard’s hands balled into fists⁠—he