They didn't find any water. They found fine dry sand at the bottom of a serpentine crevice, and they followed the sandy bed partly because it was easier walking and partly because they no longer had a very clear idea of what they were doing.
Instinct and reaction still functioned. Horne stopped suddenly, reaching for his stunner. It was oddly heavy in his hand and he had difficulty gripping it. Yso stopped too and went down on her knees and Ewan stumbled over her.
"Quiet,” mumbled Horne. “Listen."
In the twilight and the empty rock, somewhere near them, something moved, and it did not move like anything human.
CHAPTER X
It had been a quick and furtive sound, as though some creature scurried out of sight to lie in wait around the next bend of the crevice. Horne shook his head violently to clear the cobwebs out of it.
Ewan had his gun out. It was a much more formidable weapon than Horne's stunner, which he guessed was almost exhausted of its charge anyway.
"Stay here with Yso,” he said to Ewan. “I'll try and see what it is."
He started forward, one step at a time. He was very tired and curiously reluctant for any more fighting. He wanted to lie down and die, or sleep, he didn't much care which, so long as it was restful. But he went on toward the dark pillar of rock, dragging his feet.
A voice spoke to him. It was a very queer, creaking, rusty voice with long-drawn sibilants and a general sound as though human speech was a trial to it.
"Don't ssshoot,” it said. “Pleassse. I am friend."
Horne stopped, a quiver running down his backbone. “Friend, are you?” he said harshly. “Then why are you hiding?"
"People ssshoot,” said the voice. “Too quick. I have food and water for you. Pleassse?"
Horne laughed. “You do, huh? For us. That's fine. But it's kind of a silly lie. You couldn't possibly know anything about us."
The voice said, “Fife hass a radio. He heard the talk of the Vellae."
"Fife?"
"Our leader."
"But the Vellae thought we were dead."
"We were closer to the wreckage than they. There were no bodies in it. Fife sssaid you got away. We have been looking for you all this time."
"Who are you?” Horne said.
"I am Chell of Chorann."
Horne remembered Chorann. It was one of the remotest worlds of the Fringe, beyond even Allamar, far out on the rim of the galaxy. He had touched there just once, in a ship carrying machinery to a mine project that had been established there. The mine-clearing had been nothing but a pinpoint opening enclosed by the vast, glowering, grotesque forests of that world. The engineers at the mine had spoken of the mysterious form of life that drifted in those mighty forests, aloof, never showing itself in friendliness, glimpsed only as flitting shadows. The memory of that did not make Horne feel any great rush of confidence in the unseen creature who called himself Chell.
He said, “Yes, but who are you with? Where's your group? You said ‘we'."
Chell answered quietly, “We are those few who have escaped from the Vellae slave-pens."
Yso caught her breath and stood up. She came forward.
"Tell him to come out, Horne. I want to talk to him."
"Don't ssshoot?” said Chell.
"Not unless you do something you shouldn't,” Horne said.
There was the faint sound, louder and less furtive this time, but still in some way not human. A peculiar shadow moved out slowly from behind the rock, taking on bulk and solidity in the twilight gloom."
"Sssee?” said Chell, without rancor. “It is safer for usss of Chorann to ssspeak first."
Horne saw very well. He would have been likely to do exactly what Chell feared, to have shot first and wondered later what the devil it was he killed. The creature was round as a balloon, with an indefiniteness of outline that suggested fur or thick bristles. It was frighteningly big, four feet across at least. It seemed to half float in the air and half walk on four or five long tentacles that grew from its lower hemisphere. The fifth one was curled up holding a bundle. There was no head, no visible eyes, no face. Just a big round furry ball that talked.
Ewan said something that sounded like, “I'll be damned."
Yso shrank back a bit by Horne's shoulder, but after a moment she said firmly, “We're glad to meet you, Chell. We've known for a long time that the Vellae brought in slaves from other worlds, but you're the first one we've actually spoken to. Are there many of you who have escaped and are hiding here?"
"You will see.” He put down his bundle and tactfully drew back a little way. “Drink and eat now while I call the others. Then we will take you to Fife."
Ewan said suspiciously, “What others?"
"Searchers like myself.” With just a hint of impatience, Chell said, “If we had meant you harm, we would sssimply have not looked for you. You would all, I think, be dead before the next dawn. Thisss way you have been following leads to no water."
Horne shrugged. “That makes sense, I guess. All right, Chell, we'll trust you."
Horne picked up the bundle and opened it. There were two big plastic flasks of water and some smoked meat that Horne could not identify and did not particularly want to. He was in no mood to question anything in the way of food. They ate and drank, and Horne kept one eye on Chell, who had gone even farther away and was apparently not doing any thing.
"I thought you were going to call your friends,” he said.
"I am calling them. Our normal voices are too high for your hearing. That isss why we sound so funny when we ssspeak to you."
Yso said, “It's a pity we couldn't have known about you before. Everything might have been different. Morivenn might not have died, the Vellae might have been completely crushed. You said your leader has a radio. Couldn't you have got into touch with us somehow?"
She sounded almost hysterical about it. Reaction, Horne thought. Too much strain and violence, too many shocks, and then the hours of physical exhaustion.
Chell only said, “Remember that we know very little of your world. Fife heard from the talk of the Vellae that you were their enemies, and that it wasss important to them that you should all die. Ssso we wanted to keep that from happening. Otherwise…"
Horne could sense the shrug that was physically impossible but implied.
"Otherwise,” said Chell, “to usss the People of Skereth are all enemies."
Two more round shadowy shapes came skimming over the rim of rock against the skyline and dropped down with that curious half-floating glide into the crevice.
"Are you ready?” asked Chell politely. “Then we go."
He moved toward the humans and the other two round, furry shapes followed.
"Now wait a minute,” said Ewan, pulling back a little. “How are we going?"
"We carry you. Much easier than walking, especially at night. Don't fear. Chorann is a heavier world than this. Burdens are light for us here. That is why the Vellae find us so useful."
Horne felt tentacles like enormously strong wire cables wrap around him. Then the creature — he was not sure if it was Chell or one of the others — inflated itself even bigger, exactly like a balloon, and bobbed upward, holding him in carefully against a mat of thick warm fur and helping itself along with a free pair of tentacles outstretched to catch protecting points of rock.
"We are able,” said Chell, “to extract pure hydrogen from the air, as sea-creatures extract oxygen. Physically, we're mostly an air-sac. So do not fear to fall."
Horne abandoned himself to not fearing anything. It seemed that about all he could do right now was go along with what was happening. The fur against which he was so firmly pressed was incredibly soft and had a dry, faintly dusty, not at all unpleasant smell. The body underneath it was weirdly boneless and resilient. Very dimly, as though from far inside it, he could hear the sounds of life — the rhythmic heartbeat, the in-and-out sigh of breathing.