of the Great Project. And especially we would like to kill as many of the Vellae as we can.'
His eyes blazed with a most chilling human hatred.
'In any case, we can't hide forever here, crouching in a hole, half-starved, and always watching the sky for Vellae fliers. We'll die if we have to, but we want it to be to some purpose, something the Vellae won't forget.'
A low muttering growl of agreement ran around the room.
Fife looked at the three humans. “You're of their own breed, and yet they hunted you. So for the present you live, because we need something we haven't got — a weapon, a piece of information, anything that will help us plan what we shall do. If you don't have it-” He shrugged expressively.
'Listen,” said Horne. “We've suffered as much from the Vellae as you have. Her father, my ship and my whole career, and now all three of us are fugitives like you.'
Fife said, “I listen eagerly. I am not your enemy — yet. I am nothing. We have a purpose. So have you. Let us see how they run together.'
Ewan said angrily, “Why damn it, Morivenn worked for years and finally gave his life fighting the Vellae, largely on your account. His daughter and I—'
Fife said, “In the tunnels under Skereth we heard very little of Morivenn, or you.” He turned to Horne. “Your story interests me. You are not of Skereth, you say?'
'No,” said Horne, “and like you I wish I'd never heard of it. I'm from Earth, a spaceman in the service of the Federation government.'
Horne went on for the second time to explain exactly what had happened to him and how, and why he had come to Skereth.
'These people,” he said, indicating Yso and Ewan, “went to a lot of trouble to keep me from getting killed too soon. They lost three men and very nearly lost themselves doing it. I'm like you, Fife, I'm only interested in my own affairs, but I'm not so stupid as to throw away good allies. They want to overthrow the Vellae for political reasons. I don't think any of us will quarrel with them, either. I want one of the Vellae leaders, Ardric, so that I can prove he wrecked my ship. You want revenge and freedom. Good enough. They all work together.'
He glanced around the place to see if he was getting home, but the huddled ring of alien faces baffled him completely. He couldn't tell what they thought. And Fife only said, “I am open to instruction. Go on.'
'Ardric is the key to everything. If we can get him and make him talk, everything else comes automatically. The Federation legally can move in and smash the Vellae. The slaves illegally brought here will be freed and taken home. My name will be cleared, and Morivenn's party can bring Skereth into the Federation as a free world and not the private property of the Vellae.'
Fife nodded slowly. “And how would we do this thing?'
'We know Ardric is in Rillah. We'd have to go there and get him.'
'How?'
'There,” said Horne, “I thought you might supply some ideas.'
'Let us sit down,” said Fife, “and discuss this matter.'
They sat on the bare cool sandstone and the whole ring of weird unhuman forms moved in closer to hear. Horne sat beside Yso and kept his hand on hers. Ewan guarded her from the other side.
But it was Yso who said, “There are entrances to the pits in Rillah. You come from the pits, and yet you're on this side of the mountains. So the tunnels must run all the way through. Am I right?'
'You are,” said the humanoid woman with the pointed ears, speaking for the first time. She wore an incongruously splendid piece of metallic embroidery that covered, very scantily, her fine mammalian breasts and ran in a narrow strip down her front to supplement a sort of drapery of blue silk held loosely around her hips with a couple of big gold rings. If you didn't look any higher than her neck, and didn't mind the hackles, she was quite something. And she was looking with typical female interest at the dirty, bedraggled and half-naked Yso.
'I don't suppose,” she said to Fife, “it's possible these people are spies, and all that show the Vellae put on of shooting down their cone was only a show for our benefit?'
CHAPTER XI
Fife showed the edges of his sharp little teeth in what might have been a smile.
'I considered that possibility, Meeva,” he said, “and I decided the chances were against it. Frankly, I doubt whether the Vellae would go to all that trouble just for us. We're not that important.'
'Still,” said one of the purple gargoyles, in halting Universal and a voice that sounded as though it came from three miles underground, “Meeva may be right. We are not good judges of how these humans think.'
Fife nodded. “Right. Perfectly right.'
'And,” said Meeva, her pointed ears quivering with malice and excitement, “see how quickly these humans came forward with their plan. ‘The tunnels must run all the way through.’ Oh, yes! And now we must run into Rillah itself. How? Through the tunnels!'
She sprang up, speaking passionately to the whole group. “What would the Vellae like better than to get us back into the tunnels? Back into the slave-pens and the dark galleries of the Project?'
Some of the aliens said, “That's true.” And they looked balefully with their strange eyes at the humans.
Meeva struck her breast dramatically. “I will not go back. I would rather stay here and die in the open air than to spend one more day in the tunnels. And I would rather kill myself here and now than trust the word of a human!'
She had a magnetic personality. Horne thought her speech was fairly corny but effective. At least, it was highly effective on her particular audience. He began to be afraid of her.
He stood up. “'You don't have to take my word for anything,” he said, “and you don't have to go anywhere, either. Just show us where the tunnels are and we'll go ourselves.'
'Ali,” cried Meeva, whirling on him, “yes — then you could lead the Vellae here and kill us all!'
'Oh, hell,” said Horne disgustedly, “women are women no matter what, I guess.” He turned to Fife. “Who is she, anyway?'
Fife grinned maliciously, as though he had had trouble before with Meeva.
'She was a priestess where she came from,” he said. “She had a big temple built in beautiful stone with hordes of people to wait on her, and they came from all over the world to hear her oracles.'
The two men of Meeva's race jumped up and cried, “That is true — every word!'
Fife said, “If it is, the people of your world are great fools. Sit down, Meeva.'
She started to open her mouth, and he said again, in a certain tone, “Sit down, Meeva. We do not need any of your oracles.'
Meeva shut her mouth and sat down. The two men assisted her, making a great show of her preciousness, Meeva thanked them graciously and then said to Fife, “Do as you will. But I stay here.'
She folded her arms and retired from the argument, looking lofty. Horne felt easier. But then the purple gargoyle said in its subterranean voice, “Even charlatans can speak the truth.'
'I know, I know,” said Fife. He looked impatiently around the circle. “You chose me your leader, didn't you?'
'Yes,” said the gargoyle.
'Why?'
'Because you were clever enough to find a way for us to escape the slave-pens.'
'All right. Now do you think that I have become suddenly so stupid that I can't see what is obvious to everyone else?'
Fife looked up at Horne, and then from him to Ewan and the girl, and his eyes were bright, cruel and utterly without mercy. He had begun to seem almost human to them as they talked, but now in an instant that psuedo- humanness was gone and he was as alien as all the others and far more dangerous.
'I do not trust these humans, either,” said Fife. “But I weigh the chances. We are great gamblers in my home place, and since I left the egg I have been used to casting dice with both hands. So I say this: it is my thought that we should go into the tunnels and on to Rillah with them, by the ways we know. Those who wish to stay here with Meeva can stay. But I say this, too. The three humans go weaponless and each one with a guard, and if there is any
