"Please, Earl." Lallia was shaking with the cold, the thick mane of her hair coated with azure flecks borne by the wind. "Can't we find somewhere to stay, build a fire, per shy;haps?"
"We could get behind a tree," suggested Yalung. The dealer's voice was even, he did not appear to feel the cold. "At least it would protect us from the wind."
Dumarest hesitated, caution prickling his nerves. There was a stillness about the forest he did not like. There should have been underbrush, birds, small animals, perhaps. There should have been the feel of life instead of the eerie still shy;ness as if a giant animal were holding its breath and crouch shy;ing ready to spring.
"A fire," said Nimino. He blew on his hands, his dark skin puckered with the cold. "Always man has found com shy;fort in the leaping dance of a flame. I will gather wood while you select a place to rest." He was gone before Dumarest could object, his figure small against the bole of a soaring giant.
He jerked as something exploded.
It was a short, harsh sound like the vicious crack of a whip. Nimino stumbled and fell to roll on the dark mat of the grass. Dumarest caught Lallia as she went to run to shy;wards him.
"Wait!"
"But, Earl, he tripped and fell. He could be hurt."
"He didn't trip." Dumarest narrowed his eyes as he ex shy;amined the tree. "If he did he will rise. Yalung, that ex shy;plosion, did you hear it?"
"It sounded like the snapping of a branch," said the dealer slowly. "I think it came from the tree."
It came again as they watched, the hard, snapping sound accompanied by the flash of something dark which hit the ground close to where Nimino rolled in pain. Dumarest shouted towards the navigator.
"Don't move! Stay as you are!"
He ran forward as he shouted, head lowered, shoulders high. The cracking explosion came again as he reached the edge of the dark area and he sprang aside as a dozen shafts spined the place where he had been. More explosions echoed from the trees as he stopped, picked up the navigator and, cradling him in his arms, ran from the vicinity of the tree.
Something slammed into his back, his legs and arms, the impact accompanied by more vicious crackings. They ceased as he rejoined the others.
"The tree," said Yalung. "It fired spines at you. I saw the puffs against the bole."
"Earl!" said Lallia. "You were hit!"
Hit but not harmed, the spines had failed to penetrate the mesh buried within the plastic of his clothing. Nimino hadn't been as lucky. A half-dozen spines had hit his torso, finger-thick and covered with pointed scales. Dumarest touched one and felt the sting of poison. Even if they hadn't hit a vital part the navigator was as good as dead.
A defense mechanism, he thought. The trees protecting themselves or using the fired spines to bring down game so as to nourish their roots.
"Earl!" Nimino writhed in his agony, sweat beading his face. "Earl!"
"It's all right," said Dumarest. He lifted his right hand and rested the fingers on the navigator's throat. A pressure on the carotids and the man would pass quickly into uncon shy;sciousness and painless death.
"No!" Nimino twisted, one hand rising to knock away the fingers. "Not that, Earl. I want to see it coming. Meet it face to face."
He coughed and wiped his mouth, looking at the red bright against the darkness of his hand.
"It burns," he said. "God, how it burns!" His hand reached for Dumarest's, found it, tightened. "Earl, do you think I'll have to pay for Claude? Start again at the very beginning? It's such a long, hard climb, Earl. So long. Will I ever reach the Ultimate?"
"Yes," said Dumarest quietly. "You're going to it now. You won't have to pay for Claude. You killed him in order to save my life."
"Yes," said Nimino. He coughed again, blood staining his lips and chin. "Earl, I lied to you. About Earth. I said I didn't know anything about it. I lied."
"You know where it is?" Dumarest stooped close to the dying man, his eyes intent. "How I can find it?"
"Not where it is. But in the old books, the religious works, they talk of it." Nimino's voice faded, became a liquid gur shy;gling. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," he said. "The Earth, Earl! And there is more. In the Rhamda Veda it says: 'From terror did the people fly and they did scatter themselves in the heavens.' Terror, Earl, or Terra? I have thought much about it since you joined the Moray." He coughed again and his voice became clearer. "Find the Original People, Earl. They hold secret knowledge and legends born in ancient days. The Original People."
"A sect?" Dumarest gripped the hand within his own. "What are they, Nimino? A religious sect?"
"Yes, Earl. They will tell you of the Dog Star and the Plow, the magic signs of the zodiac. Where you can see them that is where you will find Earth. They-" The naviga shy;tor broke off, his eyes widening as he stared past Dumarest. "You!" he gasped. "But how-"
Dumarest turned. Behind him was nothing but a mist of swirling snow, azure flecks caught and spun in the wind, ghostly against the darkening sky. He looked back. Nim shy;ino's eyes were still open, still holding an expression of in shy;credulity, but the blood no longer seeped from his parted lips. As he watched a thin patina of azure snow began to cover the dead face.
Gently he closed the staring eyes.
"He's gone?" Lallia was a dim bulk at his side as he rose to his feet. "Earl, is he dead?"
"He was talking," said Yalung. "What did he say?"
"Nothing of importance," said Dumarest. "He was ram shy;bling."
"I thought he might have told us how to get through the trees." The dealer sounded irritable. "He was here once before."
"And saw nothing," reminded Dumarest. "And he could know nothing of the trees or he would not have run towards them." He looked at the sky, the shadowed glades. "We'll have to try and go around them. Perhaps there is a path."
For two days they walked beside the forest, slaking their thirst on snow and sleeping huddled together for warmth. At dawn on the third day Dumarest announced his decision.
"As far as I can tell these trees completely surround the place we have to reach. Therefore we have to go through them."
"And end like the navigator?" Yalung looked at the un shy;broken ranks of trees.
"There could be a way." Dumarest pointed. "See? The grass areas around the trees do not completely meet. I have been watching and all are the same. My guess is that the grass is a form of symbiote. The trees kill game and the grass devours it, in turn feeding the tree and at the same time acting as a sort of trigger mechanism for the spines." He picked up a small boulder. "Watch!"
Explosions cracked the air as the mass of stone fell among the grass of one of the areas. A dozen shafts splintered on the target.
"Now watch this." Again Dumarest threw a large stone, this time on the narrow strip of snow between two of the trees. Nothing happened.
"I see what you mean," said Lallia. "But suppose it gets dark before we pass through the forest?"
"We sleep and continue the next day."
"And if that isn't enough?"
"We have no choice," said Yalung before Dumarest could answer. "Here we shall freeze or starve. Already we are weakening." He turned his round, yellow face away from the wind. "If you lead I shall follow."
It was like treading an intricate maze. No path was straight and all followed circles so that to progress a mile they had to walk four. And, always, Dumarest was conscious of the danger of getting lost.