The Yawtl beat her to it. Swinging the blade around over his head, he whooped.
Deyv had no time to be disgusted with Hoozisst's greediness. He could handle the sword better than
Vana anyway, being the stronger. She shot out her tongue at him, an expression of contempt in her tribe, and turned around to withdraw the spear.
Sloosh had closed the door behind him. A good thing, too, for immediately thereafter paws pounded on it, claws scratched, and screeching filled the cabin. Ratlike faces looked through the windows, followed shortly by bodies. Aejip flew along the walls, raking the faces with her claws. Jum leaped up and bit down on others. Vana thrust her spear into a dripping mouth.
"Tell the witch's daughter to order them to stay out!" Deyv whistled at the Yawtl in Archkerri.
The Yawtl spat words at Jowanarr. She hesitated, but when Hoozisst, his sword raised, stepped toward her, she screamed out at the beasts. They ceased trying to get through the windows, though their din filled the cabin.
Deyv grabbed the woman's hand and yanked her off the bed. He pulled her to the opening in the floor and thrust her down ahead of him. She fell down the wooden stairs but would have been up on her feet and down a corridor if he hadn't leaped down on top of her. Her head hit the floor, and she passed out.
He hoped he hadn't killed her, since he might need her later.
Vana came down swiftly, followed by the two animals. Hoozisst took the steps two at a time, surrounded by light. He'd abandoned his torch for the glowing quartz sphere.
"It makes a much better light," he said, grinning. "Besides, I want to make sure nobody else grabs it."
Deyv didn't wait for the Archkerri to make his ponderous way down the steps. He raced ahead toward where the Yawtl had said the witch slept. Open entrances, dark, silent, flashed past. The doorway to
Feersh's room was about ten feet away when he slammed headlong into a wall that shot out of a recess.
He fell back onto the floor, the sword and the torch fallen from his suddenly limp hands. For a moment he didn't know what had happened. Added to the flow of blood from the claw wounds was blood from his nose.
He rose shakily and picked up the torch. The wall had slid out or dropped down from hollows within the corridor walls. It had come out so swiftly he hadn't even been aware of it. Nor had he heard it thud into the floor.
He turned, automatically picking up the sword. Ten feet behind him another wall barred his passage. He was trapped.
Someone was hammering on that wall. He strode to it and shouted. Silence rolled through the chamber.
He put his mouth as close as he could to the very tough but very thin material and yelled, "It's I, Deyv!
Who's there?"
Putting his ear against the wall, he heard, "Quiet, Jum, Aejip!"
Now he could distinguish the low growlings of the animals.
"Vana! I'm caught between two walls. Where are the others?"
"Hoozisst has gone down another corridor. He'll then go down the one which runs alongside the hull and see if he can get to the witch's room from its other end."
"She wouldn't leave that side open—I think," Deyv yelled back. "Where's Sloosh?"
"He's holding off the khratikl in the room below the entrance."
Deyv managed to shove down the panic that was growing like yeast in a pot, pushing up the lid of his self-control. The air in this chamber would last only so long, and any energetic action would bum it up that much faster. He knew that Feersh wouldn't want to trap herself, so she must have an escape route. It wouldn't be through the bottom of the hull because she'd have to have a huge windlass to let herself down on a rope-ladder to the ground. Besides, she wouldn't abandon the tharakorm and so be at the mercy of enemies who might be below.
This was the lower deck. At this point the hull curved inward, like the hull of a canoe. This level had no direct contact with the hull of the neighboring thardkorm. But there probably was a window through which Feersh could put a plank so that she could then cross over to the adjacent ship-creature. She might already be in it. Or she might be waiting to see what happened.
Deyv told Vana his speculations. Then he said, "I'm going to cut through the hull—if I can—and find out if she's gone across. That'll give me air, too. I only hope that the hull isn't as tough as the walls guarding the gas cells."
"But even if you find that out," Vana called, "what good will it do? You won't be able to follow her."
"I told you I have to have air. And for all I know, there is more than one wall between her door and this wall."
Vana shouted, "Sloosh is having trouble. I have to go. I'll be back soon, if I'm able."
He listened but could hear nothing. He called to her and got no reply. Shrugging, he turned and began punching at the hull with the point of his sword. It was hard work, the stuff resisting over fifty punches before the tip of the blade went through. He would have liked to quench his torch because it was burning up the oxygen so swiftly. But he had to see so he could hit the same spot each time. Besides, there was nothing with which he could put the flame out. When it did go out, it would have used up all the air, and he'd be dead.
By the time he made a small slit, he was sweating heavily, his arms were getting numb, and his senses were fading. He lengthened the incision a trifle, then inserted his blade, and with a mighty effort—
relatively mighty, anyway—bent the edges of the cut outward. He put his nose to the hole and breathed in. Fresh air greeted him. He managed to smile, he was so relieved. There could have been an inner wall to the hull, and if there had been, he soon would have been dead.
His strength regained, he worked until he'd made a hole big enough to put his head through. Above him was much noise, men and women screaming and yelling, khratikl screeching and cluttering. To his right he could see a large opening in the hull. The witch could have gotten through that, but there was nothing bridging the gap. However, Feersh wouldn't have left the plank there so she could be followed.
He turned to batter at the wall through which he'd spoken to Vana. Suddenly it shot up into its slot, startling him and leaving him with a knocking heart.
Behind him the Yawtl said, "I thought you might be dead by now."
Hoozisst, holding the glowing sphere, was standing just beyond where the other wall had been. He was grinning as if he'd played a big joke on somebody. Sweat plastered his long reddish hairs to his body.
"I cut through the wall barring my way," he said, "and I got to the witch's quarters. She was gone from there, but I saw the edge of a board on the rim of the window of the tharakorm opposite. I looked around, and I found the control which operates the traps. It's a strange little animal which seems to be glued to the wall. It—"
"Never mind that," Deyv said. "Follow me!"
He ran down the corridor toward the uproar, holding the torch in his left hand. He found Sloosh standing near the bottom of the steps, gesturing at the small remnant of survivors with his torch. Bodies lay around him, khratikl battered with his club and burned with his brand. Vana and the two animals were not in sight.
Seeing the two newcomers, the khratikl fled back up the steps.
Deyv, panting, said, "Where's—?"
"Down the corridor," Sloosh buzzed. "She thinks the slaves and Feersh's children are waiting above to get us when we come back up. They aren't capable of much action on their own. They depend upon the witch too much for orders. Which is a weakness we must take advantage of. I presume the witch escaped, otherwise you'd have told me differently."
Deyv nodded. Above them, ringing the opening, were the pointed faces and bright-yellow eyes of the khratikl. The steps were smeared with blood from the wounded who had fled up them. The Archkerri had lost some of his leaves and others were torn. His skin was pink but looked thick. No veins were visible.