Is Ancient Anger Within This World : I Have Heard Its Song :
The dream-god’s great brow sparkled starlight. Its small jaw opened. Teeth shone.
: And What Do You Plan To Do? :
Creideiki sensed that It already knew the answer.
: My Duty : He replied in Its own speech. : What Else Can I Ever Do? :
From the depths of the Whale Dream, It sighed approval.
Creideiki turned up the gain on his hydrophones. There were faraway excited echoes from up ahead—joyous sounds of greeting.
On his sled’s sonar display, at the far edge of its range was a small cluster of dots coming inward. They joined the specks that were Streaker’s scouts. The first group had to be Tsh’t’s party from the Seahorse.
Making sure no one was nearby to take note, he turned his sled aside into a small side canyon. He slipped behind the shadows of a rock outcrop and turned off his engine. He waited then, watching Streaker pass below his aerie, until she vanished, along with the last of her flankers, around a curve in the long canyon.
“Good-bye …” He concentrated on the Anglic words, one at a time. “Good-bye … and … good luck …”
When it was safe, he turned on his sled and rose out of the little niche. He swung about and headed northward, toward the place they had left twenty hours before.
: You Can Come Along If You Like: he told the god—part figment of his mind, part something else. The ghostly figure answered in un-words made up from Creideiki’s own sonar sounds.
: I Accompany You : I Would Not Miss This For The Song of the World :
PART SEVEN
The Food Chain
“Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea.”
“Why, as men do aland—the great ones eat up the little ones.”
—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
King Richard the Second
73
Akki
It was a scream that curdled his marrow. Only a monster could make a sound like that. He fled it almost as hard as he fled the creature that voiced it.
By noontime Akki realized it was nearly over.
His exhaustion showed in a laboring heart and heavy breathing, but also in a painful sloughing of the outer layers of his skin. His allergic reaction to the water seemed to be aggravated by fatigue. It had grown worse as he frantically dodged in and out amongst tiny islets. His once-smooth, dynamically supple hide was now a rough mass of sores. His mind felt little more agile than his body.
Several times he had escaped traps that should have left him meat. Once he had fled a sonar reflection almost into K’tha-Jon’s jaws. The giant had grinned and flourished his laser rifle as Akki turned away frantically. It hadn’t been by speed or cleverness that Akki escaped. He realized that his enemy was just toying with him.
He had hoped to flee northward, toward Toshio’s island, but now he was all turned around, and north was lost to him. Perhaps if he could wait until sunset …
No. I won’t last that long. It’s time to end it.
The chilling hunt-scream pealed out again. The ululation seemed to coagulate the water around him.
A large part of Akki’s fatigue had come from the involuntary terror that cry sent through him. What devil was it, that chased him?
A little while ago he thought he had distantly heard another cry. It sounded like a Tursiops search call. But he was probably imagining things. Whatever was going on back at Streaker, they couldn’t have spared anyone to look for him. Even if they had, how could anyone ever find him in this wide ocean?
He had done Streaker one service, in distracting the monster K’tha-Jon, in leading him away from where he could do worse harm.
I hope Gillian and Hikahi got back and straightened things out, he thought. I’m sure they did.
He took quiet breaths in the shadow of a rock cleft. K’tha-Jon knew where he was, of course. It was only a matter of time until he grew bored with the chase and came to collect his prey.
I’m fading, Akki thought. I’ve got to finish this while there’s a chance to win something from it—even if it’s just the honor of choosing my own time to die.
He checked the charge on his harness cells. There was only enough for two good shots from his cutter torch. Those would have to be from very short range, and no doubt K’tha-Jon’s rifle was almost fully charged.
With his harness-hands Akki plugged his breather back over his blowmouth. Ten minutes of oxygen remained. More than