Presently, the sand began boiling. A little pit appeared, and two long tentacles, bilious green with narrow yellow stripes, slid out. They snaked around as if feeling for something. Sloosh gestured that they should back up. After about twenty paces, he stopped. They waited while the-tentacles slid out to a length of fifteen feet.
Then, so suddenly that it caused them to jump back, a long curved barbed pole like a giant scorpion's sting shot out of the sand not ten feet ahead of them.
A minute passed. As swiftly as it had appeared, the sting-pole slid back beneath the sand.
"That's strange," Sloosh buzzed softly. "It shouldn't be there. It's right in the Yawtl's trail."
"What do you mean?" Deyv whispered.
"I can see the impressions of many creatures I've never encountered before. It's evident that they are under the ground. I suspected that they've been set there to catch the unwelcome. But the Yawtl's path curved here and there so much that it was evident he knew where they were. I followed his path so we, too, could avoid those sand-beasts.
"But then I perceived one directly under the trail over which the Yawtl had gone. I also see the impressions of three humans around here. They've moved around freely. And it looks to me as if they've led the sand-beasts to other places."
"Why didn't you tell us this?" Deyv asked fiercely.
"I would have. In time. It wasn't necessary as long as we were on the safe path."
Sloosh looked at the side-by-side tharakorm. "Let's hope that their sleep-times correspond to ours. And that they don't keep a watch then. Otherwise, they've seen us. We will proceed as if they haven't. There is nothing else to do."
He closed his eyes for a while. When he opened them, he said, "The Yawtl's impressions are still strong.
I can't see their end, so I don't know if he's still living."
Deyv understood this. He'd been told that when a creature died, it emitted a large yellow ball. No matter what colors its living impressions made, its decease was marked with yellow. Sometime later, the yellow ball would fade and eventually disappear.
"A good thing, too," Sloosh had said. "If every impression didn't fade out, my vision would be so full of them, I'd never be able to untangle them. The world, to me, would be a nightmare of complexities."
Sloosh emitted a long rising and falling buzz, for him a sigh. "As before, single file. Step softly. And don't stray from the path."
It took a long time. Sloosh zigzagged and even circled and once took them back only a hundred yards from their starting point. When they finally got close to the tremendous boulder, he stopped.
"Now be especially careful. There is a sand-beast on each side. If you panic and move too far to one side to avoid one, the other will get you."
Aejip was directly in front of Vana, and Jum was just ahead of Deyv. Though extremely nervous, the two animals did fust as Deyv ordered. The cat slunk along, looking quickly to each side. The dog's hair was bristling, but his bushy tail was high in the air. Every now and then he growled softly.
Now the sand boiled at either hand, whirlpools formed, and tentacles shot out. They slid like snakes toward the ankles of the trespassers, stopping only a few inches from them. It was terrifying to walk between the two pairs of waving seeking tips, each ending in a long hooked claw. Deyv whispered soft encouragement to Jum, and Vana urged Aejip to stay immediately behind the Archkerri.
Deyv sweated more in a minute than he had in most hours.
Then they were out of danger.
Sloosh veered away from the boulder and approached it in a wide arc. When they got to its other side, they saw that a copse of trees was beyond it, about twenty yards away. Deyv thought that the Yawtl might be hiding in it. Sloosh, however, turned toward the base of the boulder. As Deyv neared it, he saw the rim of a large pit.
The Archkerri stopped short of the edge and pointed downward.
"There is the thief."
17
AT first, Deyv thought that the Yawtl had been seized by a sand-beast and dragged into the pit. There was no evidence of a struggle, though. It was also doubtful that the Yawtl could have resisted for very long anything so monstrous. Whatever had happened, he was injured and in pain. Nevertheless, the reddish eyes glared challengingly at them. He tried to raise himself and to lift the rock gripped in one of his hands. He grimaced and fell back.
Though he was naked, his loincloth having somehow been lost, he had managed to retain the bone whistle. Sloosh pointed his beak down at him and said in Archkerri, "We are not here to kill you,
Hoozisst. All we want is the recovery of the eggs and my crystal."
Once more, Sloosh had flabbergasted Deyv. Deyv said, "You know him?"
"Yes. I met him a long time ago when he visited us with some others of his kind. How else would he know our language?"
"You knew it was him all the time? Why didn't you say so?"
"It was his theft, not his identity, that concerned me."
Vana, her face twisted, said, "I swear, I swear, I'm going to kick you so hard all your leaves will fall off!"
"If it will help your infantile emotional state, go ahead. However, you'll only hurt your foot."
The Yawtl said, "If you don't mean to kill me or torture me, then quit standing there talking. Get down here and get me out. I have a broken arm, my pelvis feels as if it's fractured, I've bled a lot, and I'm very thirsty and hungry."
"Where are the eggs?" Deyv whistled.
"Tell me, or I'll tear your heart out!" Vana whistled.
The Yawtl's thin lips opened in a very malicious smile, revealing the teeth of a carnivore. Then he closed his mouth and put the whistle to it. "They're up there. On the ship-creatures. Feersh the Blind has them.
Help me, and I'll help you. I want my own egg, and even more I want revenge."
The two humans went down into the pit and carried him back up between them. When he was let down on the edge, he said, "They're all sleeping now, or should be. Let's hope so; otherwise we're done for.
Get me back to the forest, and I'll tell you my story. You Can't do anything without knowing it."
"That seems sensible," Sloosh said. "Put him on my back."
They had to endure the ordeal of the tentacles again, but otherwise the return was much less frightening than the original venture. Once within the shelter of the trees, they gave Hoozisst what he wanted. They set his arm and put it in a splint. Vana brought water to bathe the bruises and lacerations. Deyv threw his spear up among the tree branches and knocked off many of the large purplish pear-shaped fruit. The
Yawtl devoured a dozen of these with such pleasure that the others decided to eat some with him. Deyv thought they were the most delicious fruit he'd ever tasted.
When the Yawtl's needs had been fulfilled, he closed his eyes. No one bothered him until he opened them a long time later. They understood that he had to probe his body with his mind to locate every cell that needed repair. Having done this, he could then direct the healing substances to those parts. He could also fix the rate of speed at which the healing would be done. There was an upper limit to this, but the procedure was considerably faster than the natural process. However, the degree of speed depended upon the amount of food and water ingested. Which meant that since Hoozisst had to get well soon, he would require much sustenance. Which meant that his captors were going to be busy providing him with all his belly could hold.
The probing and directions would take about half an hour if he was as skillful in technique as the two humans, and he was. Then he would sleep for a while and wake up ravenous.