"Dr. Allison," he corrected tersely, surprised in a minor way--the major surprise had blurred lesser ones--that she knew his name. Kendricks spoke swiftly to the girl, in one of the Darkovan languages Jay didn"t understand, and then drew Jay aside, out of earshot. He said in a shaken voice, "Jay, I didn"t know--I wouldn"t have believed--you"re _Doctor Allison_? Good Lord--Jason!"
And then he moved fast. "What"s the matter? Oh, h.e.l.l, Jay, don"t faint on me!"
Jay was aware that he didn"t come out of it too bravely, but anyone who blamed him (he thought resentfully) should try it on for size; going to sleep in a comfortably closed-in office and waking up on a cliff at the outer edges of nowhere. His hand hurt; he saw that it was bleeding and flexed it experimentally, trying to determine that no tendons had been injured. He rapped, "How did this happen?"
"Sir, keep your voice down--or speak Darkovan!"
Jay blinked again. Kendricks was still the only familiar thing in a strangely vertiginous universe. The s.p.a.ceforce man said huskily. "Before heaven, Jay, I hadn"t any idea--and I"ve known you how long? Eight, nine years?"
Jay said, "That idiot Forth!" and swore, the colorless profanity of an indoor man.
Somebody shouted, "Jason!" in an imperative voice, and Kendricks said shakily, "Jay, if they see you--you literally are not the same man!"
"Obviously not." Jay looked at the tent, one pole still unpitched.
"Anyone in there?"
"Not yet." Kendricks almost shoved him inside. "I"ll tell them--I"ll tell them something." He took a radiant from his pocket, set it down and stared at Allison in the flickering light, and said something profane.
"You"ll--you"ll be all right here?"
Jay nodded. It was all he could manage. He was keeping a tight hold on his nerve; if it went, he"d start to rave like a madman. A little time pa.s.sed, there were strange noises outside, and then there was a polite cough and a man walked into the tent.
He was obviously a Darkovan aristocrat and looked vaguely familiar, though Jay had no conscious memory of seeing him before. Tall and slender, he possessed that perfect and exquisite masculine beauty sometimes seen among Darkovans, and he spoke to Jay familiarly but with surprising courtesy:
"I have told them you are not to be disturbed for a moment, that your hand is worse than we believed. A surgeon"s hands are delicate things, Doctor Allison, and I hope that yours are not badly injured. Will you let me look?"
Jay Allison drew back his hand automatically, then, conscious of the churlishness of the gesture, let the stranger take it in his and look at the fingers. The man said, "It does not seem serious. I was sure it was something more than that." He raised grave eyes. "You don"t even remember my name, do you, Dr. Allison?"
"You know who I am?"
"Dr. Forth didn"t tell me. But we Hasturs are partly telepathic, Jason--forgive me--Doctor Allison. I have known from the first that you were possessed by a G.o.d or daemon."
"Superst.i.tious rubbish," Jay snapped. "Typical of a Darkovan!"
"It is a convenient manner of speaking, no more," said the young Hastur, overlooking the rudeness. "I suppose I could learn your terminology, if I considered it worth the effort. I have had psi training, and I can tell the difference when half of a man"s soul has driven out the other half. Perhaps I can restore you to yourself--"
"If you think I"d have some Darkovan freak meddling with my mind--" Jay began hotly, then stopped. Under Regis" grave eyes, he felt a surge of unfamiliar humility. This crew of men needed their leader, and obviously he, Jay Allison, wasn"t the leader they needed. He covered his eyes with one hand.
Regis bent and put a hand on his shoulder, compa.s.sionately, but Jay twitched it off, and his voice, when he found it, was bitter and defensive and cold.
"All right. The work"s the thing. I can"t do it, Jason can. You"re a parapsych. If you can switch me off--go right ahead!"
I stared at Regis, pa.s.sing a hand across my forehead. "What happened?" I demanded, and in even swifter apprehension, "Where"s Kyla? She was hurt--"
"Kyla"s all right," Regis said, but I got up quickly to make sure. Kyla was outside, lying quite comfortably on a roll of blankets. She was propped on her elbow drinking something hot, and there was a good smell of hot food in the air. I stared at Regis and demanded, "I didn"t conk out, did I, from a little scratch like this?" I looked carelessly at my gashed hand.
"Wait--" Regis held me back, "don"t go out just yet. Do you remember what happened, Doctor Allison?"
I stared in growing horror, my worst fear confirmed. Regis said quietly, "You--changed. Probably from the shock of seeing--" he stopped in mid-sentence, and I said, "The last thing I remember is seeing that Kyla was bleeding, when we got her clothes off. But--good G.o.ds, a little blood wouldn"t scare _me_, and Jay Allison"s a surgeon, would it bring him roaring up like that?"
"I couldn"t say." Regis looked as if he knew more than he was telling.
"I don"t believe that Dr. Allison--he"s not much like you--was very concerned with Kyla. Are you?"
"d.a.m.n right I am. I want to make sure she"s all right--" I stopped abruptly. "Regis--did they all see it?"
"Only Kendricks and I," Regis said, "and we will not speak of it."
I said, "Thanks," and felt his rea.s.suring hand-clasp. d.a.m.n it, demiG.o.d or prince, I _liked_ Regis.
I went out and accepted some food from the kettle and sat down between Kyla and Kendricks to eat. I was shaken, weak with reaction.
Furthermore, I realized that we couldn"t stay here. It was too vulnerable to attack. So, in our present condition, were we. If we could push on hard enough to get near Dammerung pa.s.s tonight, then tomorrow we could cross it early, before the sun warmed the snow and we had snowslides and slush to deal with. Beyond Dammerung, I knew the tribesmen and could speak their language.
I mentioned this, and Kendricks looked doubtfully at Kyla. "Can she climb?"
"Can she stay here?" I countered. But I went and sat beside her anyhow.
"How badly are you hurt? Do you think you can travel?"
She said fiercely, "Of course I can climb! I tell you, I"m no weak girl, I"m a free Amazon!" She flung off the blanket somebody had tucked around her legs. Her lips looked a little pinched, but the long stride was steady as she walked to the fire and demanded more soup.
We struck the camp in minutes. The trailmen band of raiding females had s.n.a.t.c.hed up almost everything portable, and there was no sense in striking and caching the tent; they"d return and hunt it out. If we came back with a trailmen escort, we wouldn"t need it anyway. I ordered them to leave everything but the lightest gear, and examined each remaining rucksack. Rations for the night we would spend in the pa.s.s, our few remaining blankets, ropes, sungla.s.ses. Everything else I ruthlessly ordered left behind.
It was harder going now. For one thing, the sun was lowering, and the evening wind was icy. Nearly everyone of us had some hurt, slight in itself, which hindered us in climbing. Kyla was white and rigid, but did not spare herself; Kendricks was suffering severely from mountain sickness at this alt.i.tude, and I gave him all the help I could, but with my stiffening slashed hand I wasn"t having too easy a time myself.
There was one expanse that was sheer rock-climbing, flattened like bugs against a wall, scrabbling for hand-holds and footholds. I felt it a point of pride to lead, and I led; but by the time we had climbed the thirty-foot wall, and scrambled along a ledge to where we could pick up the trail again, I was ready to give over. Crowding together on the ledge, I changed places with the veteran Lerrys, who was better than most professional climbers.
He muttered, "I thought you said this was a _trail_!"
I stretched my mouth in what was supposed to be a grin and didn"t quite make it. "For the trailmen, this is a superhighway. And no one else ever comes this way."
Now we climbed slowly over snow; once or twice we had to flounder through drifts, and once a brief bitter snowstorm blotted out sight for twenty minutes, while we hugged each other on the ledge, clinging wildly against wind and icy sleet.
We bivouacked that night in a creva.s.se blown almost clean of snow, well above the tree-line, where only scrubby unkillable thornbushes cl.u.s.tered. We tore down some of them and piled them up as a windbreak, and bedded beneath it; but we all thought with aching regret of the comfort of the camp gear we"d abandoned. The going had gotten good and rough.
That night remains in my mind as one of the most miserable in memory.
Except for the slight ringing in my ears, the height alone did not bother me, but the others did not fare so well. Most of the men had blinding headaches, Kyla"s slashed side must have given her considerable pain, and Kendricks had succ.u.mbed to mountain-sickness in its most agonizing form: severe cramps and vomiting. I was desperately uneasy about all of them, but there was nothing I could do; the only cure for mountain-sickness is oxygen or a lower alt.i.tude, neither of which was practical.
In the windbreak we doubled up, sharing blankets and body warmth: I took a last look around the close s.p.a.ce before crawling in beside Kendricks, and saw the girl bedding down slightly apart from the others. I started to say something, but Kendricks spoke, first. Voicing my thoughts.
"Better crawl in with us, girl." He added, coldly but not unkindly, "you needn"t worry about any funny stuff."
Kyla gave me just the flicker of a grin, and I realized she was including me on the Darkovan side of a joke against this big man who was so unaware of Darkovan etiquette. But her voice was cool and curt as she said, "I"m not worrying," and loosened her heavy coat slightly before creeping into the nest of blankets between us.
It was painfully cramped, and chilly in spite of the self-heating blankets; we crowded close together and Kyla"s head rested on my shoulder. I felt her snuggle closely to me, half asleep, hunting for a warm place; and I found myself very much aware of her closeness, curiously grateful to her. An ordinary woman would have protested, if only as a matter of form, sharing blankets with two strange men. I realized that if Kyla had refused to crawl in with us, she would have called attention to her s.e.x much _more_ than she did by matter-of-factly behaving as if she were, in fact, male.