Could it be, her powers were awakening; returning? At last!
****
About an hour behind them, Loni had reached the junction leading into the sewer going up into the slaughter house. The over powering stench that emanated from the hole drew him up short.
He shuddered, not wishing to enter that horrible nightmare of a place. He had never actually gone in before, but he'd seen from other vantage points, what went on in there.
Loni had not even previously gone this far into the drainage tunnel.
The ledge upon which he stood was dangerously slippery, but he only had inches to go to enter the culvert that led up to where he needed to go, the cattle pens.
In there is the love of my life. I'll not be a coward. I will go through whatever it takes to get her back!
Yet, as he stood there, something else made him hesitate. His senses were recording not just the gagging vapors of the sewer beneath him.
Galar has been here...and not too recently, either...about an hour ago...going along this ridge...
And...there was a subtle scent just underneath his...the fragrance of a woman.
Gem! My Gem!
She is with him!
Abruptly, Loni changed direction, going down instead of up.
****
In the sausage plant, Scar had finished his work. All the while he had labored alone, he had mulled sullenly over the situation.
Scar had come to the conclusion, Galar meant to remove the female from his reach, to keep her for himself, alone. They were abandoning him, and that made Scar angry.
Galar said we would share her!
The more the man dwelt on the circumstances, the more wrathful it made him, until at last, Scar threw down his tool, and stomped after his brother into the sewer.
Once in the tunnel, he knew only the path to the ledge, and lacking the olfactory senses of one such as Loni, or the stored knowledge of the planners, he was decidedly disadvantaged. Instead of going in the right direction, he turned the opposite way, and though he searched many a side tunnel for the next few hours, he soon found himself desperately confused, and hopelessly lost.
****
Galar and Gem climbed higher and higher. As they rose top ward, each foot, yard, and mile, brought from above, the most pleasant life-giving atmosphere imaginable. The feeling of well being increased, and Gem grew stronger, more alert, with a broader vision, and understanding.
Is this the way out that I've longed to find for so long? Is the surface above us? Can I finally escape, and go home?
Hope made her two hearts pound in anticipation, but when they finally stepped out on the second ledge, Gem dropped to her knees in both awe, and consternation.
Beyond, in the distance, stretched a landscape so vast, the valley went on for miles. But, it was definitely not the surface she had anticipated. Above them, the sky held a double moon, and the stars spread out like the rings of Saturn; the constellations unrecognizable.
The trees below, and beyond the stone shelf, were so thick they seem to touch, making a pathway off across, and over this world. Like a canopy of up-side-down umbrellas, inverted by the wind, made useless for keeping off the rain, the branches were like roots reaching upward, the leaves on them of a pink-gold shade. The trunks were a dark brown.
Unquestionably, not the trees of Earth!
Across to the nearest tree, someone had built an iron-girder, slat-type bridge with a wooden plank floor, and in the tree across, a small metal and canvas, dome-shaped, housing unit. Suddenly, seeing this, Gemma realized Galar's intent.
Not only was she trapped on another world, never to see her home again, but he planned to take her out alone, into the building yonder, and ravish her in private, uninterrupted.
It was too much!
Never!
In rebellion, Gemma lay down flat upon the stone ledge, refusing to be dragged an inch farther.
She wouldn't let this filthy being touch her like that!
When Galar reached down to pull her up, Gem had gathered just enough psychic energy to raise her shield. The resulting force, zapped him so hard, it sent him flying, and the woman went down mentally, into a physical faint, from the effort.
Chapter 27
Gem came to reality, trembling, and unbearably weak; it had taken all her reserve to send that warning voltage.
Distantly, a faint, desperate voice called out for help, in panic.
Vaguely, in a fog of mental confusion, Gem surveyed her surroundings, wondering where she was.
Rock on two sides; the sweet smell and sound of fresh rain, and beneath that the unpleasant odor of a reeking, unwashed body; her own. Her face was wet from the raindrops; the gravelly clay beneath her, made slippery by puddles formed in a downpour.
She lay there confused.
The urgent voice turned to a scream, calling to her to give it aid. It was not simply a tone of sound, but a mental anguish she could sense and feel, shouting loud and clearly in her head.
Galar? Where is he?
She rolled to her side, toward the distressed sounds; her vision cleared, showing her the drop down ledge nearby, and beyond that, the scenic landscape. Now, Gemma recalled her previous clarification, what it meant to her situation, and what had happened just prior to her passing out.
Again, she heard Galar's desperate pleas for help. They were coming from beneath the edge of the nearby stone cliff.
Her vision seemed to split, as if she were in two heads at once. In the one, she clearly saw, with her own eyes, the stone edge, and one set of fingers, clawing to raise a suspended body.
From the mind of the other, she looked back and down, down, down; to the pit below, so deep the bottom could not be
