“Could be.”
Kay’s interest in the sledchamber was wrenched away as he suddenly started growling at thedoor. Deck said, “Someone must be coming. Probably to ask us why webroke into their building.”
“Yeah, this looks prettysuspicious,” Kennedy agreed.
They ran out into thecorridor towards the exit, only to be confronted by Tievas Gallooand five armed Intabet. Hands held aloft, Decker and Kennedydropped their weapons as instructed. Tievas demanded, “Why do youtrespass here? By what means did you detect the geidestone?”
Kennedy said, “We didn’t.We broke in here because we thought somebody was hurt in thisplace. We wanted to help if we could. That’s all.”
“You claim no interest inthe geide?” Tievas asked. “You confer on we lies. We marked yourwords as we made our approach. You presume to steal away thegeide?”
“Yeah, we’re interested inkiatilium – most of the galaxy is interested in that rock. But it’snot the way of our people to steal. However, if you’re selling it,then we’re always in the market for—”
“We possess a buyer ofsteadiness and ease – we want no other. Not, most surely, onesharing fellowship with the Featay and Maykure.”
Deck asked, “The Maykurearen’t part of this?”
“Those dupes coweringunder their dome hold not the wit to embrace the off-world worth ofthe geide.” Tievas glared at the humans. “But you would carry thisword to them. I mark that with ease.” Turning to the armed guards,Tievas said, “We cannot allow them their journey back to thelow-land. Our work to keep low-landers away from our prize wouldcrumble. Slay the off-worlders, directly.”
Con warned, “You shouldn’tdo that – there’s one of our heavily armed warships on the wayhere. You’d be bringing a world of trouble down uponyourselves.”
“The cloaking of this areaholds impervious. They will not mark clear the happening of yourdeaths.”
“Our technology is able topenetrate the cloak of Maykah,” Naiche said, which she nowbelatedly remembered had been supplied by the Intabet. “Our peopleknow the last place they heard from us was here, in Intabah. That’sthe first place they’ll look.”
“And nothing will theymark. We will feed your deaths to peerazu before your fellows beginthe search.” Tievas gestured imperially at guards. “Hold nohesitation to accord them death.”
In a low steady voice,Kennedy asked, “Those weapons of yours pierce the body, don’t they?Because our species lets off a deadly gas when our skin is broken.You kill us – you’ll die, too.”
When the guards uncertainlylowered their weapons, Tievas declared, “The strangers confer on welies upon lies!” The older Intabet assured the guards, “There livesno such species.”
“Why do you think theveil-worms…loerna, as you call them,” Deck asked, “why do you thinkthey didn’t bother us? Because they sensed this about ourspecies.”
One of the guards askedTievas, “Is truth accorded here of loerna?”
“They have extended to wewords, solely. We cannot mark the truth of it, Utarl. It sounds asa children’s fable.”
“You hold no certainty,”Utarl replied. “Why must I claim this danger? After so manyseasons, the time of off-world living comes soon to me.” There wasa rumble of agreement from the other guards.
“You hold fear of dangerso slight? Not one among you will claim off-world time if PurtCassay finds our secret broken. I stand in place of cassay withPurt off-world. Carry forth your duty!” The guards made no argumentbut neither did they raise their weapons.
After a minute of thisimpasse, Tievas pointed at the room containing the cage, saying,“If you hold fear so mighty, compel the strangers to thefietem-chamber. The geidewill accord them death and peerazu will pickclean their bones while the fietem awaits transport.”
As they were being backedinto the room, Decker called out, “Kayatennae, run and get help!”The dog took off without hesitation, bolting past the Intabet andout the front door.
Tievas sneered, “Anaction, desperate – but holding no use.” After the guards hadforced them into the cage, Tievas, looked up at the chamberceiling, thirty-feet above their heads, declaring, “That creature,brainless and small, will be running this mountain still, when thenext load of the geide accords you death.” The Intabet leader pushed a large buttonnext to the cage and the bars slammed down, locking Decker andKennedy in the chamber. As the troop of Intabet vacated the room,Tievas said, “You should have left Intabah at my command. Deathcomes to you this same hour because you claimed as your due,business not your own.”
Chapter 19
Cleavesthe Mountain Asunder
“…every moment an epiphany arrives and cleavesthe mountain asunder.” Jalal al-Din Rumi, Mystical Poems of Rumi
Con abandoned his fruitlesseffort to make contact with someone via comm-link; the signalsimply couldn’t get through to anyone outside the cloaked area. Heturned his attention to Naiche – she’d finally given up attemptingto scale the slick metal bars and had spent the last few minutestrying to bank-shot small pieces of kiatilium off the wall to hitthe cage release button. Her most recent shot went wide of the mark– just like all of the previous tries.
After finding no morescraps of stone near the sled, Decker hung her head, then looked atKennedy. “Our only hope is that Kay can get us some help before weend up pulverized.”
Kennedy curled his handsaround two of the closely-spaced, unyielding bars. “Meaning, thereis no hope forus?” When she glared at him, he said, “Come on, Deck. He can’tpossibly run all the way back to the Aurora in time. That’s a longer shotthan you hitting that button. Or us finding a way to break out ofthis cage.”
“Yeah…I guess you’reright.” She threw herself down onto the sled in disgust.
Kennedy eased himself downbeside her and looked up at the chamber ceiling. “How long do youthink we have?”
“I don’t know. Howeverlong it takes for their mining robot to dig up the next load.”Naiche cocked an ear towards the roar of machinery below them.“No wonder theseismic activity on Tolu is so weird – it’s from the Intabet blastmining this mountain.” She looked back at Con. “Damn, we were sowrong about them. They’re not crazy; they’re smart –and greedy.”
“They sure are – not manypeople would be degenerateenough to think of using the peerazu as a coverfor their mining operation. All so they can sell
