Cycle of Fire

of a crossbow bolt which splintered against the street in front of them. Dar and Kruger, realizing that the projectile must have come from above, rapidly covered with their eyes the roof edges in their vicinity, but nothing moved.

The word had been in Dar’s language, so the pilot took it on himself to answer. He very carefully refrained from raising his own crossbow. “What do you want?”

“You must come with us.”

“Why?” Kruger had understood enough of the foregoing conversation to be able to ask this question.

“You are — — — — — — the city.” The first and last parts of this sentence were all the boy could follow.

“What’s their trouble?” asked Kruger.

“The trouble is ours. We are — we did — coming in the city was bad.”

“Why?”

“They do not say.” Dar did not mention that he thought he knew; this was no time for lengthy explanations.

“Do you have any ideas as to who these are?”

“Ideas, but I don’t know.”

“What do you think we should do?”

“What they say.” Dar, standing in the middle of a bare street, was in no mood for a crossbow duel with an unknown number of antagonists, all under excellent cover. Nevertheless there was one question in his mind.

“What will be done to us for entering your city?”

“Whatever the Teachers say. It is not for us to decide.”

“What has happened in the past?”

“No one has disobeyed a Teacher for many years. At first, when people were young, some did; they suffered, and did not offend again.”

“But suppose we did not know we were offending?”

“You must have known; you are a person. The thing with you may be forgiven. The Teachers will decide.”

“But I never heard of this place; my Teachers never told me of it, and it is not in the books. How could I know?”

“You must have very stupid Teachers. Maybe you will not be blamed for that.” Dar was sufficiently indignant to make a retort which Kruger would have discouraged, had he been able to follow the conversation at all closely.

“Am I from your city?”

“No.”

“Did your Teachers tell you of my city?”

“No.”

“Then there must be two sets of stupid Teachers on Abyormen.” If Kruger had understood this remark he would have confidently expected to see it answered with a volley of crossbow bolts, but nothing of the sort happened. The unseen speaker simply returned to the original question.

“Will you come with us without fighting?”

“We will come.” Dar made the answer without any further consultation with Kruger. After all, the boy had already asked Dar what should be done, and presumably had no opinion of his own.

With Dar Lang Ahn’s words the openings in the surrounding buildings gave forth some fifty beings. Kruger was able to take the revelation without particular surprise, but Dar was shocked beyond measure to find that the attackers were identical physically with himself. He was a well-traveled individual; he had met, on his official trips to the Ice Ramparts and elsewhere, members of his race from several score cities scattered over Abyormen’s globe, and he had never heard of any except the uncaught savages living out of touch with the Teacher-ruled cities. Still, there was no questioning the facts; the beings surrounding him might have come straight from any city he had visited. Even the carrying harness they wore was virtually identical with his own, and the crossbows borne by most of them might have been made by Merr Kra Lar, home in Kwarr.

One who seemed to be in charge spoke as soon as he came up to them.

“You used a word that I never heard a little while ago. What is a book?” This question was not understood by Kruger; Dar had never told him what was in the pack he kept so carefully by him. Dar might not have been surprised at his human companion’s ignorance of such matters, but that a member of his own species should never have heard of a book was quite unthinkable. Life could not go on without a record of the life that had gone before!

When he recovered from the astonishment that the question had caused him he tried to explain, but his listener seemed unable to digest the concept of writing. In an effort to clarify the point Dar removed one of the books from his pack and held it open before him while he tried to explain the significance of the marks, but this produced a result he had not foreseen.

“I do not quite understand why you need such a thing when you can ask Teachers for what you need to know, but perhaps our Teachers can tell why you do. We will show them your books; give them to me.”

V. CONFISCATION

THERE WAS NOTHING else to do; one crossbow can do nothing against two-score. For an instant Dar thought of making a wild break through the surrounding group to the shelter of the nearest building, but he abandoned the idea. Alive, he might recover the books.

“I would prefer to carry them and show them to your Teachers myself,” he suggested.

“There is no need to bring you to them at all unless they order it,” was the reply, “but they will certainly want to see your books. I will go to them and show them the books and ask what is to be done to you.”

“But I want to see them, to explain why I did not know I was breaking their law.”

“I will tell them that. Since you have broken it what you want is not important.”

“But won’t they want to see my companion? You have already said he was different from people.”

“Yes, I will take him.”

“Then you will need me. He knows very little proper speech, and I know some of his words.”

“If the Teachers wish to speak as well as look, and find that they need your aid, you will be sent for.” The speaker held out a hand and Dar reluctantly handed over his priceless pack.

Marching orders were given and the group headed back the way Dar and Kruger had come. However, instead of turning inland when they reached the avenue the pair had followed to the sea, they crossed it and headed toward the seaward side of one of the volcanoes — the one that had been on the left as the wanderers approached the city.

For the first time Dar regretted that he had not insisted on learning more of Kruger’s language. The problem was to get the books back and get out of reach of these people, the sooner the better; failing that, to get out himself and get a report to the Ice Ramparts telling of their location. That had to be done in less than twenty years; no alternative was thinkable. With luck, Nils Kruger would help. Just now it would hardly be advisable to discuss the matter with him; too many of the words they would have to use would be understood by those surrounding them. Later, perhaps they would be left alone; if not, Dar would simply have to make use of the little English he had mastered. In that connection an idea struck him and he spoke to Kruger, using his English vocabulary to the utmost.

“Nils, talk while going. Your tongue. About anything.” He could not be more explicit; he wanted Kruger to discuss what they saw as they went along, in the hope that an occasional word would bear a sufficiently obvious meaning, when considered in connection with the words Dar already knew, for the native to grasp it. Kruger did not understand this, but he could see that Dar had something definite in mind, and endeavored to please. Since the most obvious subject for speech was just what Dar wanted, things did not go too badly.

It was a method which would not have been very practical, used by most human beings, but with the sort of memory Dar possessed it was not completely unreasonable. Even so, the little pilot’s vocabulary increased very,