his boot.
"He grabbed my launcher in the dark. Hit me with a club or
something."
Examining her scalp in the dim light, Auk decided the dark
splotch was a bleeding bruise. "You're shaggy lucky he didn't kill you."
The naked man smirked. "I could of. I wasn't tryin' to."
"I ought to kill you," Auk told him. "I think I will. Go get your
launcher, Jugs."
Behind Auk, Incus said, "He intended to take her by _force_, I dare
say. I warned her on that _very_ point. To force any woman is wrong,
my son. To force yourself upon a _prophetess_--" Striding forward, the
little augur leveled Auk's big needler. "I _too_ am of half a mind to kill
you, for _Scylla's_ sake.
"Patera got both gods," Hammerstone announced proudly. "A
couple of you meatheads, too."
"Wait up, Patera. We got to talk to him." Auk indicated the naked
man by a jab of his gory hanger. "What's your name?"
"Urus. Look, Auk, we used to be a dimber knot. Remember that
sweatin' ken? You went in through the back while I kept the street
for you."
"Yeah. I remember you. You got the pits. That was--" Auk tried
to think, but found only pain.
"Only a couple months ago, 'n I got lucky." Urus edged closer,
hands supplicating. "If I'd of knowed it was you, Auk, this whole lay
would of gone different. We'd of helped you, me 'n my crew. Only I
never had no way to know, see? This cully Gelada, all he said was
her 'n him." He indicated Chenille and Incus by quick gestures. "A
tall piece out of the piece pit 'n a runt cull with her, see, Auk? He
never said nothin' about no sojer. Nothin' about you. Soon's I
twigged the sojer walkin', I was fit to beat hoof, only by then he was
goin' back."
Chenille began, "How come--"
"Because you ain't got anything on, Jugs." Auk sighed. "They take
their clothes before they shove 'em in. I thought everybody knew
that. Sit down. You too, Patera, Hammerstone. Old man, you coming?"
Oreb added his own throaty summons. "Old man!"
There was no reply from the ebbing darkness.
"Sit down," Auk told them again. "We're all tired out--shaggy
Hierax knows I am--and we've probably got a long way to go before
we find dinner or a place to sleep. I got a few questions for Urus
here. Most likely the rest of you got some too."
"_I_ do, certainly."
"All right, you'll get your chance." Auk seated himself gingerly on
the cold floor of the tunnel. "First, I ought to tell you that what he
said's lily, but it don't mean a lot. I know maybe a hundred culls I
can trust a little, only not too much. Before they threw him in the
pits, he used to be one of 'em, and that's all it ever was."
Incus and Hammerstone had sat down together as he spoke;
cautiously, Urus sat, too, after receiving a permissive nod.
Auk leaned back, his eyes shut and his head spinning. "I said
everybody'd get their chance. I only got this one first, then the rest
of you can go ahead. Where's Dace, Urus?"
"Who's that?"
"The old man. We had a old man with us, a fisherman. His name's
Dace. You do for him?"
"I didn't do for anybody." Urus might have been a league away.
Hammerstone's voice: "Why'd they throw you in the pit?" Chenille's:
"That doesn't matter now. What are you doing here, that's
what I want to know. You're supposed to be in a pit, and you
thought I'd been in one. Was it no clothes, like Auk said?" Incus:
"My son, I have been _considering_ this. You could _hardly_ have
foreseen that I, an augur, would be _armed_." "I didn't even know you
was one. That cully Gelada, he said there was this long mort, and a
little cull with her. That's all we knew when we started pullin' lights
down." "It was this _Gelada_ who shot the bone arrow at _me_, I take it."
"Not at you, Patera. At her. She had a launcher, he said, so he shot,
only he missed. He's got this bow pasted up out of bones, only he's
not as good with it as he thinks. Auk, all I want's to get out, see?
You take me up, anyplace, 'n that's it. I'll do anythin' you say."
"I was wondering," Auk murmured.
Incus: "I _fired_ twenty times at least. There were _beastly animals_,
and _men_ as well." Chenille: "You could've killed all of us, you know
that? Just shooting Auk's needler like that in the dark. That was
abram." Hammerstone: "Not me." "If I had _not_, my daughter, I might
very well have died _myself_. Nor was I firing at _random_. I _knew!_
Though I might as well have been _blind_. That was _wonderful_. Truly
_miraculous. Scylla_ must have been at my side. They _rushed_ upon me
to kill me, all of them, but _I_ killed _them_ instead."
Auk opened his eyes to squint into the darkness behind them.
"They killed Dace, maybe. I dunno. In a minute I'm going to see."
Chenille prepared to rise. "You feel awful, don't you? I'll go."
"Not now, Jugs. It's still dark back there. Urus, you said your culls
took down lights. That was to make a dark stretch here so you could
get behind us, right?"
"That's it, Auk. Getada got up on my shoulders to pull four down,
'n Gaur run them on back. They spread out lookin' for dark. You
know about that?"
Auk grunted.
"Only they don't go real fast. So we figured we'd wait flat to the
side till you went by. Her, I mean, 'n this runt augur cully. That's all
we figured there was." "And jump on me from in back!" "What'd you
of done?" (Auk sensed, though he could not see, Urus's outspread
hands.) "You shot a rocket at Gelada. If it hadn't been for the bend,
you coulda done for our whole knot." "Bad man!" (That was Oreb.)
Auk opened his eyes once more. "Three or four, anyhow.
Hammerstone, didn't you say something about a couple animals
Patera shot?"
"Tunnel gods," Hammerstone confirmed. "Like dogs, like I told
you, only not nice like dogs."
"I got to go back," Auk muttered. "I got to see what's happened to
the old man, and I want to have a look at these gods. Urus, you're
one, and I did for one, so that makes two. Hammerstone says Patera
got a couple, that's four. Anybody else do for any?"
Hammerstone: "Me. One. And one Patera'd shot was still flopping
around, so I shot him again."
"Yeah, I think I heard that. So that's five. Urus, don't give me
clatter, I'm telling you. How many'd you have?"
"Six, Auk, 'n the two bufes."
"Counting you?"
"That's right, countin' me, 'n that's the lily word."
"I'm going back there," Auk repeated, "soon as the lights get there
and I feel better. Anybody that wants to come with me, that's all
right. Anybody that wants to go on, that's all right, too. But I'm
going to look at the gods and see about Dace." He closed his eyes again.
"Good man!"
"Yeah, bird, he was." Auk waited for someone to speak, but no
one did. "Urus, they threw you in the pits. Do they really throw
them? I always wondered."
"Only if you get their backs up. If you don't, you can ride down in
the basket."
"That's how they feed you? Put your slum in this basket and let it
down?"
"'N water jars, sometimes. Only mostly we got to catch our own
when it rains."
"Keep talking."
"It ain't as bad as you think. Anyhow mine ain't. Mostly we get
along, see? 'N the new ones comin' in are stronger."