"Finish your kill, young one. There is not that much haste."
The old wolf sat down, his tongue lolling out. "Besides, we have run far, from the hills above Mreela. We would rest."
Through Asha's eyes, Nelson saw that these were lean and ragged wolves from an outlying tribe that ranged the upper levels. They did not know him, did not know that he was outlaw.
He finished his meal in gulps, crunching down the last sweet bones. Then he licked his lips and waited. The long wailing Hai-oo! of the Clan-call rose across the river and was answered and answered again.
The old wolf told him, "We go toward Anshan to watch."
"I, too."
"Then go with us, young one."
He could not get away from them without arousing suspicion. He must join them now, and later see what was best to do.
The lean gray shapes rose, ten of them, long-fanged hunters of the barren heights, full of a quivering excitement. Almost, Nelson felt as he ran that he was really Asha, running with his own kind.
But he was not. His kind, Nelson's kind, lay in wait at Anshan with machine-guns and grenades.
When the first light of dawn began to pale in the sky, he and the pack were miles southward. He started to drift away from the upland pack. He would be safer now alone. He must find some place to lie up until it was dark again before he made his attempt to enter Anshan. By night he had one chance in a hundred of succeeding without being shot on sight as a spy from Vruun. By day he had none.
Nelson would have slipped safely away as he planned had not the dawn wind risen and betrayed him.
He was lagging behind the others, watching his chance to slide off into the brush, when from downwind came a sudden barking cry and with it a mental call— "Ho, brothers! There is a stranger with you!"
The whole of the upland pack turned and faced Nelson, instantly suspicious. Before he could run, wolves were all about him, Wolves from Vruun, whose minds spoke in chorus like one great curse.
"Asha!”
Nelson wheeled and leaped clean over the old dog-wolf, breaking for the shelter of the brush.
Behind him, as it had in Vruun, the mental shout went baying through the trees.
"Asha is outlaw! Drive him, brothers! Drive him from the forest!"
Then the pack was after him in full cry and the call was echoing all across the valley, tossed from one pack to another and picked up and carried on until it burst from the hillsides in a wailing malediction.
"Outlaw!"
Once again Nelson ran, belly-down and straining. Ahead of him lay the open plains around Anshan, and in them lay death. Desperately he swerved and dodged and circled, but the wolves of the Clan drove and drove him without mercy. There was no escape.
The forest began to thin. In the distance between the trees he could see the open flatness of the plain. Far out upon it Anshan burned like a great jewel in its setting of green forest by the river.
He crouched, trapped and desperate, tried to think.
Abruptly, overhead, he heard the whistling thunder of great wings and leaped up snarling. Then he saw that it was Ei and he heard Ei's mind speaking to him with urgent swiftness.
"This way, outlander! You can dodge the pack if you do as I order."
He could do no worse than obey.
The eagle swooped skyward again, where he could see the movements of the whole pack, and sent his guarded thought down to Nelson.
"Run hard this way, outlander! Now. Into the pool. Swim, swim quickly, upstream. Stay in the water, the wind is with you. Now! Under the overhang of the bank there and crouch still — still!"
Nelson crouched, wet and shivering, half submerged, and heard the pack swing past him and go on. Presently Ei swooped down and perched on a nearby rock. Nelson crawled out where it was drier and lay panting.
"We will wait," the eagle told him, and composed himself.
Nelson studied the other. Finally he sent a questioning thought. "I don't understand. Why should you come to help me?"
And Ei answered, "Nsharra sent me."
Chapter XII
DEATH IN ANSHAN
All through the long hot hours of the day they hid there, waiting — the great eagle and the man who was now a wolf. It was the dry season. Nelson could see how the stream had dropped in its rocky bed and the scent of pine needles lay heavy on the warm still air. All the forest seemed to sleep.
They talked, the two of them, with their thoughts.
Once Nelson said, "You seem friendly to me, Ei. You stood up for me in the Council Hall. I don't understand."
The eagle answered, "You saved one of my Clan from torture by Shan Kar. The other Winged One, who escaped, saw and told."
"I see." Nelson was silent for a time. Then he said, "I have learned many things in the forest, Ei. I have learned many things from the mind of Asha, which I share. I would like to learn also from yours if it is possible."
He caught the bright, sharp glance from Ei's golden eyes. A look that was wise and understanding.
"It is possible," Ei said. "Let your mind relax."
Nelson laid his rough wolf's head on his paws and let his eyes drop shut. The heat of the day made it easy to relax. Almost he dropped into a half doze.
And then his mind was touched by another. A wise mind, wiser far than Asha's because it was far older, a mind whetted and honed to razor sharpness by the upper air, keen as the eagle's curving beak and sharp as his talons — able to grip and tear and worry a thought until its inner bones lay bare and truthful.
Once again Nelson had the strange experience of seeing the world through the eyes of another being.
He saw the whole valley of L'Lan spread out below him, so far down that the great trees of the forest appeared as a mere roughness of texture, like a tapestry thrown over the knees of the mountains. He saw the high crags of the barrier cliffs, leaping and thrusting up into the sky, tossing the cold winds from their shoulders in flying clouds of snow, exulting in the sun.
In imagination his lungs were filled with air that was thin and pure and more intoxicating than wine. He felt the surging strength of mighty wings and flung himself headlong into the buffeting, swirling gales that swept among the high peaks and fought them joyously as a swimmer fights the surf. He knew the long whistling rush of the swoop, the exquisite precision of the tilting wing, the excitement of the strike and kill.
All this, and much more. The gossip and the quarrels of the eyries, the time of mating and the young. The first flight, when the young untried wings plunge out into the blue gulf and beat and stagger and hold. And the long silent times when Ei and the others like him would perch on the high crags and brood, thinking-thinking with minds like those of men, there among the vast upper reaches, where thought must be as broad as the heavens and as clean as the snow.
Here again, more clearly and strongly than before, in the older wisdom of Ei's thought, Nelson felt the power of the Clan law and the Brotherhood. L'Lan was a world unto itself. No matter how the social order ran between man and beast in the outer world, here the Brotherhood was right. The rough but obvious parallel of tyranny and democracy occurred to him.
He began suddenly to detest Shan Kar. As for Sloan and Piet Van Voss and himself, he was filled with loathing. Not for the first time he thought back over the years of his life and was conscious of bitter regret.
He thought somberly, "The wolf and the tiger of the outer world, who have only the minds of beasts, are worthier than I."
Ei answered quietly, "Not one of us lives who is without shame at one time or another. It is not the end of the world."