Medusa: A Tiger by the Tail

That very thought—of flying strongly for a day or less rather than three days of dangerous walking—was enough. Now, for the first tune, I could see in the others the creature I had willed up from some unknown source. Great, black man-sized birds, with oddly human eyes and curious, twisted beaks and taloned, powerful feet that could grab and rend if need be.

“Now what?” somebody called out.

“Let the Wardens do the work!” I called back. “We want to fly, so we will fly!” Awkwardly I walked out of the protected rock shelter and into a pretty strong wind. The drop was not sheer, but the ice-covered ground did fall away fairly fast. If this didn’t work, I was going to be a bug spot down there someplace, that was for sure. And yet, I had to be first. Mind control and autohypnosis would provide the relaxation and confidence I knew I’d need, control the others sorely lacked. But if I took off, if I flew, faith would no longer be necessary, and would be replaced in them by will.

I concentrated for a moment, then looked out again and could see the air as clearly divided layers and swirls. Not as something solid—I could still see through it—but rather as differences in textures, a softness here, a bright clarity rushing through there. “Take off with a strong leap into the wind!” I told them, then summoned up my courage and leaped, spreading my great wings as I did so.

I plunged down at an angle, barely skimming the tops of the slope, and only my mental control kept me from panicking and crashing. Down, down, and then I let loose the last of the tenseness and—as I’d told them—allowed the Wardens, replacing the bird’s instinct, to take over. I bottomed out the drop and glided upward at an equal angle, up into empty, cloud-filled skiesl I flew!

Ching, to her credit, got over her amazement quickly and followed my lead as I watched from above with nervous eyes. Oddly, she had an easier time of it than I had. Perhaps, I thought, there’s more to faith than I’d thought. Then, one by one, the rest launched themselves, and I circled nervously and waited for them.

Once in the air, most were exultant, like little children, doing loops and swirls and having a grand time. I finally had.to move to herd them in, reminding them, “We have a long way to go—don’t waste your energy. You’re not immortal, just powerfull”

“And strong,” Hono shouted back. “We are truly blessedl” But she accepted my lead as we formed up close together and headed back out toward the ice.

I hadn’t taken the low ceiling into consideration. We were still certainly within easy sight of the ground, as I didn’t want to risk bodies as large and relatively cumbersome as ours controlled by novices in any real storm.

Since those creatures on the ice could see us if they were looking for us, or had some simple radar scan, I wanted to get up some speed to put as much distance as possible between them and us. The air currents helped a great deal; though we had a little trouble with firm control, there were levels where we could just rest on the currents and let them carry us, with a minimum expenditure of effort.

“There’re our demons!” Hono snarled, looking down and to the west. “Looks to be the same four. I don’t think they see us.”

“Let’s keep it that way,” I responded. “We don’t have the time or the experience to tangle with them.”

“They killed four of us!” Sitzter protested angrily. “And who knows how many others? We are powerful, strong, and blessed by Mother Medusal We should avenge our sisters!”

“Nol” I shouted. “Dammit, if we can do this the odds are they can, tool” But my warning was too late. The madness that power brings and the religious fervor that had been kindled on the mountain was just too much for them, and, after all, they were hunters. First Sitzter, then Hono, and finally the others peeled off and made for the four large, dark forms below.

I picked up my speed and made a dangerous turn, trying to cut them off and steer them away. “This is madness!” I cried, but they were beyond talking now—and the aliens below had now spotted us.

Hono had taken the lead, as befitted her role as master hunter and group leader, and dove on the four dark forms. The aliens suddenly shot up into the air and dispersed, then hovered in an obviously preplanned diamond formation that allowed each to come to the aid of the others. I had a pretty strong feeling that these were pros who had been through situations like this many tunes before. I didn’t like it at all. A strange idea popped into my head that these four, out here like this, were bait in a subtle trap as well as a discouragement to any mass movement to the sacred mountain.

Hono approached the lead alien, whose pressure suit, complete with some sort of backpack,, was now clearly visible. The alien didn’t let her get very close. The creatures looked really strange now, with just fifty centimeters of each of their ten tentacles showing. Those tentacles were three meters long and apparently independent of one another. Hono was coming at the hovering alien at great speed, but the alien never wavered, never even moved, until the great bird was almost upon it. Then, suddenly, the creature zipped a few carefully measured meters to one side, enough for Hono to miss and also to render her unable to break her forward momentum. Tentacles shot out not only from the target creature but from the next closest, and they hit home. Hono whirled in midair and great feathers flew off in all directions. Clearly she was totally off balance and she plunged like a stone, to the ground.

Quarl and Sitzter flew right behind her, and the other three behind them. Suddenly the sky was a mass of feathers, screams, and flying tentacles extended to full length, skillfully and independently wielded with expert skill.

I pulled up, seeing Ching following behind me, and tried to create a diversion for the others. It worked to an extent, pulling one alien’s attention off the furiously attacking great birds and allowing a gap in their tight tentacle- tip-to-tentacle-tip formation. But instead of using the opportunity to escape, Tyne and Sitzter went after the exposed alien. Tyne grabbed hold of a snaking tentacle with her talons and, while it wasn’t really clear who had whom, she managed to yank the alien off balance and whip it to one side. The alien let out one of those piercing screams, and fun time was over.

A dozen more suddenly shot up through the ice, and these bore small handlebar-shaped devices held between two forward tentacles. Energy shot from the nub of the “bars,” the newcomers being totally uncaring whether they hit their own or us.

That was enough. Tyne was down with her alien, and Sitzter and two others soon after. I decided there was nothing I could do and swooped up and away, toward the cloud bank overhead. Suddenly I heard Ching scream, “Tari! Watch out!” I immediately dropped, rolled, and sped off in another direction, but not before I saw Ching take the beam that had been meant for me and drop like the others to the sea floor. Then I suddenly made a complete upturn as a handy current came by and shot like a rocket up into the clouds.

I remained there for some time, trying to decide what to do next. Certainly the game had been over ever since Tyne had grabbed that one alien soldier, and they suddenly brought up their reinforcements with their equivalent of hand weapons. The indiscriminate way the gunners had used their weapons could indicate a callous disregard for individual lives, but somehow I didn’t think so. The beam seemed very wide field, and if it were a death weapon it would be better suited to large battles or simply to clean away all comers across the ice from fixed positions. No, it was almost certainly a stun weapon, which meant they were even now cleaning up on the ice below, checking unconscious bodies, both theirs and ours, for signs of life.

That they were killers was clear from their earlier actions, but I didn’t believe they were indiscriminate killers. Otherwise why give the prey what could only be seen as a sporting chance, provided that prey didn’t threaten the lives of one or more of them?

I knew I had to have one more look, perhaps several more, and I came out of the clouds cautiously, ever on the alert to duck back into them. A dozen or so aliens were on the ice below, as I expected, setting bodies out in a row and examining them. Three alien bodies were visible, along with our own people, who were, I noted, rapidly reverting to then¹ human forms. They didn’t see me, and I didn’t drop down too close, getting back up into the cloud cover again and circling around.

I counted six half-bird, half-human bodies down there, which meant at least one other besides me had gotten away—but I had no real way of telling who. I was pretty certain, though, that Ching had been hit, and that was my main concern. I liked Hono and most of the others, but they had brought this upon themselves despite my best efforts and were in any event impossible to save. The only hope I had was that, after a while, perhaps near darkness, the aliens would relax enough so that I might try a dive-snatch-and-grab operation on Ching. I had no idea if she or any of the others were dead or alive, but I had to assume that they survived until evidence proved otherwise. My only practical question was how long I could maintain this form and this energy level.