Her mind went inward, self-seeking, dead to the outside. She saw the paredreof Ashanomebriefly; and then Rakhi performed the same inwardness and that vision went. She knew her limbs had lost their strength. She knew Gerlach’s coarse broad hands taking her, a loss of breath as she was slung across his shoulder. For a moment she was in complete withdrawal; then the pain of his jolting last step to the pavement jarred her free again.
Kill him!Rakhi’s voice in her mind was a shuddering echo and re-echo, down vast corridors of distance. Chimele’s strong nails bit into his/her shoulder, reminding them of calm. Other minds began to gather: Raxomeqh’s cold brilliance, Achiqh, Najadh, Tahjekh, like tiny points of light in a vast darkness. But Chaikhe concentrated deliberately on the horror of Gerlach, his oiliness, the grotesqueries of his waddling gait and panting wheezes for breath, learning what m’metaneicalled hate, a disunity beyond e-takkhe,a desire beyond vaikka-nasul,a lust beyond reason.
Dhisais, dhisais,Rakhi reminded her, Chimele’s incomprehensible orders twisted through his hearing and his mind. Be Chaikhe yet for a little time more. Restraint!
She had never been so treated in her life. Not even in the fierceness of katasakkehad she been compelled to be touched against her will. Did m’metaneisuffer such self-lessening in being kameth, in taking part in katasukke?The thought appalled her.
Stop it,Rakhi shuddered. Au, Chaikhe, this is obscene.
Male, he, it, this—dhisais, dhisais, akita, I—kill him. My honor, mine, male, mate, male,e-takkhe, I—
Rakhi’s fists slammed into the desk top, pain, pain, shattered plastics, bleeding, his wrists lacerated. The physical shock shuddered through Chaikhe’s body. She felt the wounds on her own wrists, the flow of the warm blood over her hands, tension ebbing.
We,he kept repeating into her mind, we, together, we.
For the last few moments, Ashakh had not moved. Aiela stared at him tensely, wondering how much longer the iduve could manage to stand. He rested still with his back against the corner, his arms folded tightly across his chest, eyes closed; and whether the bleeding had started again the cellar was too dark to show. From time to time his eyes would still open and glimmer roseate fire in the light of Toshi’s wrist-globe. The little amaut never varied the angle of the gun she trained upon the both of them. Aiela began to fear that it would come soon, that Ashakh’s growing weakness would end the stalemate and render them both helpless.
Dive for an exit,Daniel advised him. The second Ashakh falls, they’ll see only him. Dive for any way out you can take. Isande, Isande, you reason with him.
Peace,Aiela pleaded. He had another thing in mind, an attack before necessity came upon them. Toshi had one hand bandaged, thanks, no doubt, to Kleph’s hirelings outside the headquarters; and if Kleph, who huddled near Ashakh, had the will to fight, Kleph could handle Toshi—the only one of them now who had the strength for that. Aiela began instead to size up the two humans, wondering what chance he would have against the two of them.
Precious little,Daniel estimated. You’ve no instinct for it. Get yourself out of there. Get to Chaikhe. If you can’t send any more, Isande and I are cut apart, as good as dead too. We have nothing left without you.
Isande had no words: what she sent was yet more unfairly effective, and it took the heart from him. He hesitated.
Ashakh’s eyes opened slightly. “You still have the option,” he told Toshi, “to cast down your weapons and rescue yourselves.”
Toshi gave a nervous bubbling of laughter, to which the humans did not respond, not understanding.
“He said get out of here,” said Aiela, and the men looked at Ashakh as if they thought of laughing and then changed their minds. Iduve humor was something outsiders would not recognize, nor appreciate when they saw it in action. Ashakh was indulging in a bit of vaikka,he realized in chill fear, absolutely straight-faced and far from bluffing; likely as his own death was at the moment, arastietheforbade any unseemly behavior.
One human fled. Toshi did not let herself be distracted.
The cellar went to eye-wrenching light and dark and rumbled in collapse. Aiela and Kleph clenched themselves into a unified ball, seeking protection from the cascading cement and brick, and for a moment Aiela gave himself up to die, uncertain how much weight of concrete there was above. A large piece of it crashed into his head, bruising his protecting fingers, and at that he thought of Ashakh and scrambled the few feet to try to protect him.
In the next breath it was over, and Aiela found daylight flooding in through a gap where the door had been, and the side of the room where Toshi and the human had been was a solid mound of rubble.
A dusty and bloodied Ashakh dragged himself to his feet and leaned unsteadily on the edge of the basement steps. “ Niseth,” he proclaimed. “The effect considerably exceeded calculations.”
And upon that he nearly fainted, and would have fallen, but Kleph and Aiela held him on his feet and helped him up to daylight, where the air was free of dust.
“What was it, great lord?” Kleph bubbled nervously. “What happened?”
“Aiela,” said Ashakh, catching his breath, “Aiela, go down, see if you can locate our weapons.”
Aiela hurried, searching amid the grisly rubble, pulling brick aside and fearing further collapse. He knew by now what Ashakh had done, delicately mind-touching the weapon he had so casually dropped, and negating a considerable portion of the cellar.
His own gun lay accessible. When he found Ashakh’s, it looked unscathed too, and he brought it up into the daylight and put it into the iduve’s hand.
“Damaged,” Ashakh judged regretfully. His indigo face had acquired a certain grayish cast, and his hand seemed to have difficulty returning the weapon to his belt.
“Chaikhe,” he said, and could tell them little more than that. He shook off Kleph’s hand with a violence that left the little amaut nursing a sore wrist, and stumbled forward, unreasoning, heedless of their protests. There was nothing before them but open ground, the wide expanse of the port, Chaikhe’s ship with its ramp down and the base ship beyond: closest was Tejef’s ship, hatch opened, and a smallish figure toiling toward its ramp.
“Come back,” Kleph cried after Ashakh. “O great lord, come back, come back, let this small person help you.”
But Aiela hesitated only a moment: mad as the iduve was, that ramp was indeed down and access was possible. There would not be another chance, not with the sun inching its way toward zenith. He ran to catch up, and Kleph, with a squeal of dismay, suddenly began to run too, seizing the iduve’s other arm as Aiela sought to keep him from wasting his strength in haste.
Ashakh struck at Aiela, half-hearted, his violet eyes dilated and wild; but when he realized that Aiela meant only to keep him on his feet, he cooperated and leaned on him.
And after a few meismore, it was clear that Ashakh could summon no more strength: arastietheinsisted, but the iduve’s slender body was failing him. His knees buckled, and only Kleph’s strength saved him from a headlong collapse.
“We must get off this field,” cried Kleph in panic. “O lord nas kame, let us take him to the other ship and beg them to let us in.”
Ashakh pushed away from the amaut. His effort carried him a few steps to a fall from which he could not rise.
“Let us go,” cried Kleph.
Self-preservation insisted go. The base ship would lift off before Ashanomestruck. Daniel and Isande insisted so; but before them was Ashakh’s objective, and an open hatch that was the best chance and the last one.