“Where do you think you’re going?” Coransee asked, looking up again.
“I killed the Clayark who shot you. I want a look at the gun he was using.”
“Stay here.”
Somehow, Teray controlled his temper. “Brother, by the sound of that gun, it wasn’t the kind that the Clayarks usually use against us. It was something special, and if we leave it where it is we’ll be hearing from it again.” As Teray spoke, Amber went back to her horse, watched but not stopped by Coransee’s people.
“You too, girl,” said Coransee. “All this concern over a Clayark rifle.”
“No, Lord,” said Amber. “Actually, I just want to get away from you for a while.”
Coransee stared at her coldly. “Go with him then. Be my alarm in case the gun gives him foolish ideas. Be my alarm and my eyes.” He looked at Teray. “But don’t even think about trying to get away again.”
Without answering, the two urged their horses forward, away from the group.
“I should have followed through,” Said Teray. “Even though he was ready for me. It has to happen soon anyway.”
Amber said nothing.
“It will be harder than ever now.” He looked at her. Her face was too carefully expressionless. “Whatever it is, say it.”
“Just something you should be aware of.”
“Yes?”
“You made a good kill just now, but you went after the wrong animal.”
Teray frowned and turned to stare at her with sudden realization.
“I’ve never known you to move faster than you moved just now,” she said. “You took strength from me, you hit the Clayark?nobody even knew what you had done until a couple of seconds after you’d done it. Now if you had forgotten about the Clayark and hit Coransee …”
Teray shook his head miserably. “I was responding to the Clayark,” he said. “Not thinking, just responding. I don’t think I could have moved as quickly if I had thought about it.”
“I know. And he’s not going to give us the chance to try it again, you can depend on that. The minute we get back to him, he’s going to break us up. No more link.”
“If he does, the Clayarks are liable to finish him for us. None of his people can handle Clayarks as well as we can.”
“Maybe. Or the Clayarks might kill one of us. We’re only two days from Forsyth now. If I were
him, I’d take my chances with the Clayarks.”
They came upon the Clayark sprawled on the side of a low hill, his rifle lay beside him. They did not touch the weapon. Patternists had learned through bitter experience that Clayarks often booby-trapped their rifles just before using them?set them to inject a little recently taken saliva into the fingers of unwary Patternists. This could be done with nothing more than a few well-placed wood or metal splinters. Kept warm and moist, the Clayark disease organism could live for a few moments outside a human body.
Teray and Amber only observed that the rifle was not the usual Clayark weapon, as Teray had thought. It was heavier, and doubtless more powerful. Neither Teray nor Amber had seen one like it before. Mounted atop it was a telescopic sight that had already proven its usefulness. In the past, Clayarks had rarely used such things. But then, in the past, Clayarks had not shot Patternists from nearly a kilometer away with rifles.
Either the long period of Rayal’s illness had given them time to improve their weaponry or they were simply bringing out their best guns?and their best marksmen? to kill two of Rayal’s sons. Probably both.
“What shall we do with the*5 gun?” said Amber. “Burn it?”
“Scorch it, you mean.” Teray stared at the polished wood of the rifle’s stock. “There’s not much more than grass around here to start a fire
with. Mostly green grass.”
“The gun has three bullets left in it.”
Teray probed at the rifle where it lay, and sensed the three remaining bullets. He nodded. Then as Amber covered it with the driest grass she could find, Teray reached down to Coransee. He did not want contact with the Housemaster, but it was necessary. He found Coransee waiting for them, apparently finished healing his shoulder.
You’re going to hear shots, Teray sent. It will be us destroying the gun. Warn the others. He was carefully open enough so that Coransee could see that he was telling the truth?that open, and no more.
Coransee returned wordless agreement.
Teray brought his attention back to Amber and saw that she was ready. She lit the grass, then both she and Teray took cover down the opposite slope of the hill.
There, while Teray kept watch for Clayarks, Amber saw that the tiny fire did its work. As the fire heated the metal of the gun’s receiver, Amber extended her perception into the metal itself and observed minutely the reaction of the metal to the fire?how it changed as it heated. She claimed later that she had never examined an inanimate object so closely before. But she seemed to have no difficulty doing it. She observed the quickening motion of the molecules of the metal. And once she had observed it, understood it, she could control it. She could intensify the heat of the
metal to a point beyond the ability of the tiny dying fire. For a moment she sweated, concentrated on doing the unfamiliar thing. Then the three cartridges exploded almost simultaneously.
The rifle leaped into the air with a roar. It fell to the earth in two pieces, receiver blown open, stock and barrel completely separated. The pieces landed heavily on the body of their Clayark owner.
Teray and Amber went down the hill to where they had left their horses and found that Coransee and the others had ridden forward to meet them. Immediately Coransee gestured Teray up beside him. He spoke as they rode.
