Read Online Lin Carter - Down to a Sunless Sea by Lin Carter, Ken W. Kelly - Cover - Free Book Online

the hell they are. Any ideas?"
    "None," said Harbin. Brant continued looking at him.
    "Let's be square, Doc," he suggested. "I got some cops on my tail 'cause of a fight in a barroom back in Sun Lake City. I know it isn't cops we saw watching us from the high country. But outside of that, I'm clean. Oh, sure, you can't live a life like mine without making enemies, any more than you can make an omelet without cracking eggs. But there's just nobody that wants me bad enough to chase me into this part of the world. How about you?"
    Harbin told him frankly that he was open and above board, and the sincerity in his voice was enough to convince Brant.
    "But what about the two women?" the scientist asked. Brant made a negative gesture. Then he told Harbin how he had encountered the two staked out to die, and had rescued them. He concluded:
    "Being outlawed and left to either die or fend for themselves on their own is punishment enough for their nation," he said. "I know the People well enough to know that."
    "So do I," said the scientist. "That only leaves. . . ."
    "Agila," growled Brant. "How much d'you know about him, anyway?"
    "Not very much," Harbin admitted. "Only what he told me, which was cursory. He's an outcast, too, like the two women, but it might be that he is not exactly as innocent of wrongdoing as he wanted me to think at the time."
    "Let's both keep our eyes on him, then," suggested Brant.
    They agreed.
    Later that evening, Brant went out among the dunes to relieve Zuarra from sentry duty.
    "Have you sighted anything?" he asked. "On the ridgeline or anywhere else?"
    "Nothing, O Brant," she replied.
    "Good!" he grunted. Then he mentioned briefly the matters he and the older man had discussed concerning Agila. And he asked her if she had noticed anything at all peculiar or out of the ordinary in the man's behavior."
    "That one!" the woman sniffed contemptuously. "Zuarra has as little to do with the lean wolf as she may manage."
    "You've never talked, then?" he inquired.
    "As little as possible—since that night when he would lay unwanted hands upon Zuarra, and Brant felled him with a blow of his fist. Besides," she added stiffly, "that one now spends as much time as he can find in whispered converse with Suoli."
    Brant suppressed a smile. All women are given to jealousy, he thought cynically to himself. Even those that eschew the embrace of men and choose their own sex for solace.
    He began the slow, laborious climbing of the dune to its crest, wherefrom a clearer view of the surrounding country could be had. But before returning to their encampment, Zuarra turned to speak to him again. A sudden thought had struck her.
    "Yes?" he inquired.
    "It may perchance mean nothing at all, O Brant," the woman said hesitantly. "But Zuarra has noticed, of nights, before he seeks his pallet, the lean wolf removes something from his baggage, and sleeps with it cradled against his breast. It may very well have naught to do with our present predicament, but Zuarra wonders if Brant has noticed this puzzling act of Agila." •
    He shook his head. "No, I haven't. And it may, after all, mean nothing, as you suggest. Or it may be the answer to the mystery of why the unknown strangers are on our trail ... of what shape is the thing you speak of?"
    She shrugged. "Circular and flat, but I have never caught a good look at it, for the wolf keeps it wrapped in oiled silks, and hidden in his baggage during the day. I but idly noticed it in passing, that is all."
    The woman nodded contentedly, and mounted and rode off in the direction of the camp, leaving the Earthsider alone with his own thoughts.
    There had to be an answer to this puzzle, and Brant was determined to find it out, whatever the risk or the cost.

    THE DESCENT
    11
    The Dish
    The long hours of Brant's watch passed slowly, but without event. In time, timid little Suoli came riding out to take her turn as sentinel. He gruffly informed her that he had seen nothing at all worthy of note,