Part 3 (1/2)

”He's really sick,” he told Mathild in a low voice. ”He needs water, and another dressing for that cut. And we've got to get both for him somehow. If we ever get to the jungle on the other side of the Range, we'll need a navigator even worse than we need a needlesmith.”

”But how? I could dress the cut if I had the materials, Honath. But there's no water up here. It's a desert; we'll never get across it.”

”We've got to try. I can get him water, I think. There was a big cycladella on the slope we came up, just before we pa.s.sed that obsidian spur that hurt Alaskon. Gourds that size usually have a fair amount of water inside them and I can use a piece of the spur to rip it open--”

A small hand came out of the darkness and took him tightly by the elbow.

”Honath, you can't go back down there. Suppose the demon that--that took Charl is still following us? They hunt at night--and this country is all so strange....”

”I can find my way. I'll follow the sound of the stream of blue lava or whatever it is. You pull some fresh leaves for Alaskon and try to make him comfortable. Better loosen those vines around the dressing a little.

I'll be back.”

He touched her hand and pried it loose gently. Then, without stopping to think about it any further, he slipped off the ledge and edged toward the sound of the stream, travelling crabwise on all fours.

But he was swiftly lost. The night was thick and completely impenetrable, and he found that the noise of the stream seemed to come from all sides, providing him no guide at all. Furthermore, his memory of the ridge which led up to the cave appeared to be faulty, for he could feel it turning sharply to the right beneath him, though he remembered distinctly that it had been straight past the first side-branch, and then had gone to the left. Or had he pa.s.sed the first side-branch in the dark without seeing it? He probed the darkness cautiously with one hand.

At the same instant, a brisk, staccato gust of wind came whirling up out of the night across the ridge. Instinctively, Honath s.h.i.+fted his weight to take up the flexing of the ground beneath him.

He realized his error instantly and tried to arrest the complex set of motions, but a habit-pattern so deeply ingrained could not be frustrated completely. Overwhelmed with vertigo, Honath grappled at the empty air with hands, feet and tail and went toppling.

An instant later, with a familiar noise and an equally familiar cold shock that seemed to reach throughout his body, he was sitting in the midst of--

Water. Icy water. Water that rushed by him improbably with a menacing, monkeylike chattering, but water all the same.

It was all he could do to repress a hoot of hysteria. He hunkered down into the stream and soaked himself. Things nibbled delicately at his calves as he bathed, but he had no reason to fear fish, small species of which often showed up in the tanks of the bromelaids. After lowering his muzzle to the rus.h.i.+ng, invisible surface and drinking his fill, he dunked himself completely and then clambered out onto the banks, carefully neglecting to shake himself.

Getting back to the ledge was much less difficult. ”Mathild?” he called in a hoa.r.s.e whisper. ”Mathild, we've got water.”

”Come in here quick then. Alaskon's worse. I'm afraid, Honath.”

Dripping, Honath felt his way into the cave. ”I don't have any container. I just got myself wet--you'll have to sit him up and let him lick my fur.”

”I'm not sure he can.”

But Alaskon could, feebly, but sufficiently. Even the coldness of the water--a totally new experience for a man who had never drunk anything but the soup-warm contents of the bromelaids--seemed to help him. He lay back at last, and said in a weak but otherwise normal voice: ”So the stream was water after all.”

”Yes,” Honath said. ”And there are fish in it, too.”

”Don't talk,” Mathild said. ”Rest, Alaskon.”

”I'm resting. Honath, if we stick to the course of the stream.... Where was I? Oh. We can follow the stream through the Range, now that we know it's water. How did you find that out?”

”I lost my balance and fell into it.”

Alaskon chuckled. ”h.e.l.l's not so bad, is it?” he said. Then he sighed, and rushes creaked under him.

”Mathild! What's the matter? Is he--did he die?”

”No ... no. He's breathing. He's still sicker than he realizes, that's all.... Honath--if they'd known, up above, how much courage you have--”