that. He said to the Gerrn, 'My mind is open to you, whether you understand my words or not. I come to see Sserk.'
There was a rustling and stirring among them. A black shape drifted to the fore and a slurred harsh voice said, 'Both your minds are open to me. I know what it is you want, but I can't help you. Turn back.'
'No,' said Gordon. 'For the love you bear Narath Teyn, you will help us. Not for us, not for the Princess Lianna, but for his sake. You have touched the mind of the gray stranger...'
The Gerrn stirred uneasily, growling. And Korkhann said suddenly, 'Cyn Cryver and the Gray One. Who truly leads, and who follows?'
'The Gray One leads,' said Sserk grudgingly, 'and the count follows, though he does not know it yet.'
'And if Narath Teyn is king at Fomalhaut, who will lead then?'
Sserk's eyes glowed briefly in the aurora light. But he shook his head. 'I can't help you.'
'Sserk,' said Gordon. 'How long will they let Narath Teyn rule-the Gray One and Cyn Cryver and whoever is behind them? Narath Teyn wants power for the nonhumans, but what do they want?'
'I could not see that far,' said Sserk, very softly, 'but whatever it is, it is not for us.'
'Nor for Narath Teyn. They need him now because he's the legitimate heir, if the princess dies or is rendered unfit. But you know what will happen to him in the end. You know, Sserk.'
He could feel now that Sserk was trembling. He said, 'If you love him, save him.' And he added, 'You know that he's not altogether sane.'
'But he loves us,' said Sserk fiercely, and his great paw rose as though to strike Gordon. 'He belongs to us.'
'Then keep him here. Otherwise, he is lost.'
Sserk was silent. The breeze rustled in the tall trees, and the Gerrn swayed where they stood, uneasy and disturbed. Gordon waited, his mind strangely still, occupied distantly with the last resort. If the Gerrn refused, he would find a weapon and try his best to kill the gray stranger.
'You would not live to press the firing stud,' said Sserk. 'Very well. For his sake... For his sake, we'll help.'
Sweat broke out on Gordon. His knees turned weak. 'Then hurry,' he said, and turned to run. 'We must get her out before...'
The Gerrn blocked his way. 'Not you,' Sserk said. 'Stay here, where we can guard your minds, as we've done since you came.' Gordon started to protest, and Sserk grabbed him roughly, shook him as an impatient father might shake a child. 'Our people watch her. We may get her out, you can't. If you go back you'll give us all away and all will be lost.'
'He's right,' Korkhann said, 'Let them go, Gordon.'
They went, four of them with Sserk at their head, and Gordon watched them bitterly as they raced away along the slope of the lawn. The other Gerrn closed around them, and Korkhann said, 'They'll try to shield our minds. You can help them by thinking of other things.'
Other things. What other things were there in the world that mattered? Still, Gordon did his best, and the minutes trickled by with the beads of icy sweat that ran on him, and suddenly there was an outcry, rather faint and confused, from Teyn Hall and then a crackle of shots. Gordon started wildly, felt the same shock run through the Gerrn, and a moment later Sserk came plunging in among the trees. He bore a struggling figure in his arms. Behind him came only three of his companions, and one of them lurched aside and sank to the ground.
'Here,' Sserk said, and thrust Lianna into Gordon's arms 'She does not understand. Make her, quickly, or we all die.'
She fought him. 'Are you behind this, John Gordon? They came through a secret door, pulled me out of bed...' She strained against his hands, her body warm and angry in a thin nightdress. 'How dare you presume to. . .'
He slapped her, not quite dispassionately. 'You can have me shot later if you want to, but right now you'll do as I tell you. Your mind depends on it, your sa...'
It hit him then, a hammer stroke that stunned his mind and rocked it quivering toward the edge of a dark precipice. Lianna's stricken face faded before his eyes. Someone, Korkhann he thought, let out a strangled cry and there was a deep groaning among the Gerrn. Gordon had a dim sense of forces beyond his understanding locked in terrible struggle, and then the darkness lifted somewhat. He heard Sserk crying, 'Come, quickly!'
Gerrn hands pawed and plucked at him, urging. He helped swing Lianna up onto Sserk's back, and was half lifted himself onto the furred lean withers of another big male. The village seemed to have exploded into panic. Females with their young were running wildly about. Sserk sprang away through the trees with eight or ten of the older males following. Gordon hung on with difficulty as his mount fled through belts of forest, lunging and scrambling up and down the steep places. He saw Korkhann borne more lightly on the back of another Gerrn and ahead Lianna's nightdress fluttered in the wind of Sserk's going. Overhead the aurora flamed, scarlet pink and ice green and angelic white, remote and beautiful.
Behind them there was noise and commotion, and there was something else as well. Fear. Gordon's inner being crouched and cringed, awaiting a second blow. He could picture the gray stranger, moving with that queer stunted agility, the cowled robe fluttering...
And it came again. The hammer stroke. It was bearable to Gordon, but he saw Lianna reel and almost fall as the Gerrn closed around her. This time the bolt had been discharged directly at her.
Then, more quickly than before, the force weakened and fell away.
'Thank the gods,' said Korkhann hoarsely, 'the thing does have its limitations. The power weakens with distance.' Sserk said, 'But our minds lose strength also, from weariness.'
He ran faster, bounding through the glades with the girl clinging tightly to his shoulders. The others quickened their pace to match his, their bodies stretching. Yet it seemed to Gordon that they were crawling through endless miles of golden woodland under the burning sky.
All at once he said, 'Listen.'
There was a new sound, far away, a soft rushing noise as though a wind blew through the trees.
Korkhann said, 'Yes, the ground-car. The Gray One follows.'
The Gerrn sped faster, circling farther from the roadway. But they could not lose the rushing whisper that came relentlessly closer. And Gordon knew without need of telepathy that the Gerrn were afraid, already flinching from the next blow before it fell.
A last scrambling of clawed feet up a slope and the edge of the forest was there. The shuttered building of the port, the long slim shapes of the two cruisers, one blazoned with the White Sun, the other with the Mace, stood silent in the shaking glare of the aurora. Both ships had their ports open and lighted. Gordon slid to the ground, catching Lianna as she half fell from Sserk's back.
'The Gray One is close,' said the Gerrn, his flanks heaving.
Gordon could no longer hear the air-jets. The car had stopped somewhere short of the cleared space. The hair on his own neck bristled. 'We're grateful,' he said to the Gerrn. 'The princess will not forget.'
He tightened his arm around Lianna and turned with her to run. Behind him he heard Sserk's voice, saying, 'What we have done, we have done. So be it.' And then Korkhann cried out, 'Don't leave us now, or you'll have done it for nothing. I can't protect her all alone.'
Gordon fled with Lianna across the cracked concrete apron, his whole mind and soul fixed on the light of the open port. He heard Korkhann's lighter footfalls pattering behind him. For a moment he thought that after all the Gray One had given up and that nothing was going to happen. And with a silent thunderclap the darkness came and beat him down floundering to his knees.
Lianna slipped away from him. He groped for her by sheer instinct, hearing her whimper. He fought, blind and squirming, across vast heaving blacknesses toward a far-off spark of light.
There were hands and voices. The spark brightened, growing dizzily. Gordon surfaced through cold ringing dimensions of dread; saw faces, uniforms, men, saw Lianna upheld in Harn Horva's arms, felt himself lifted and carried forward. Far off there was a whistling rush as of a balked and angry wind retreating. And two men carried Korkhann past him, half-conscious.
Harn Horva's voice roared out above all, 'Prepare for take-off!'
Gordon was only partly aware of the clanging hatches, the warning hooters and the roaring thrust of the launch. He was in the lounge and Lianna was clinging to him, trembling like a frightened child, her face bloodless and her eyes wide.
