The Andre Norton Megapack - 15 Classic Novels and Short Stories

swiftly. His companions were in a hurry, but Raf was unprepared for the sight which broke as they came out in a high-roofed cavern.
    There was an odd, cold light there—but that light was not all he saw. Drawn up on a ledge rising out of the contaminated stream were rows of the furred people, all sitting in silence, bone spears resting across their knees, long knives at their belts. They watched with round, unblinking eyes the three who had just come out of the side passage. The rescued merman loosened his grip on Dalgard’s hand and waded forward to confront that quiet, waiting assembly. Neither he nor his fellows made any sound, and Raf guessed that they had some other form of communication, perhaps the same telepathic ability to broadcast messages which this amazing man beside him displayed.
    “They are of his tribe,” the other explained, sensing that Raf could not understand. “They came here to try to save him, for he is one of their Speakers-for-Many.”
    “Who are they? Who are you?” Raf asked the two questions which had been with him ever since the wild adventure had begun.
    “They are the People-of-the-Sea, our friends, our knife brothers. And I am of Homeport. My people came from the stars in a ship, but not a ship of this world. We have been here for many years.”
    The mermen were moving now. Several had waded forward to greet their chief, aiding him ashore. But when Raf moved toward the ledge, Dalgard put out a restraining hand.
    “Until we are summoned—no. They have their customs. And this is a party-for-war. This tribe knows not my people, save by rumor. We wait.”
    Raf looked over the ranks of the sea folk. The light came from globes borne by every twentieth warrior, a globe in which something that gave off phosphorescent gleams swam around and around. The spears which each merman carried were slender and wickedly barbed, the knives almost sword length. The pilot remembered the flame-throwers of the aliens and could not see any victory for the merman party.
    “No, knife blade against the fire—that is not equal.”
    Raf started, amazed and then irritated that the other had read his thoughts so easily.
    “But what else can be done? Some stand must be taken, even if a whole tribe goes down to the Great Dark because they do it.”
    “What do you mean?” Raf demanded.
    “Is it not the truth that Those Others went across the sea to plunder their forgotten storehouse of knowledge?” countered the other. He spoke slowly as if he found difficulty in clothing thoughts with words. “Sssuri said that was why they came.”
    Raf, remembering what he had seen—the stripping of shelves and tables of the devices that were stored on them—could only nod.
    “Then it is also true that soon they will have worse than fire with which to hunt us down. And they shall turn against your colony as they will against Homeport. For the mermen, and their own records, have taught us that it is their nature to rule, that they can live in peace only when all living things on this world are their slaves.”
    “My colony?” Raf was momentarily diverted. “I’m one of a spacer’s crew, not the member of any colony!”
    Dalgard stared at the stranger. His guess had been right. A new ship, another ship which had recently crossed deep space to find them had flown the dark wastes even as the First Elders had done! It must be that more outlaws had come to find a new home! This was wonderful news, news he must take to Homeport. Only, it was news which must wait. For the sea people had come to a decision of their own.
    “What are they going to do now?” Raf asked.
    The mermen were not retreating, instead they were slipping from the ledge in regular order, forming somewhat crooked ranks in the water.
    Dalgard did not reply at once, making mind touch not only to ask but to impress his kinship on the sea people. They were united in a single-minded purpose, with failure before them—unless—He turned to the stranger.
    “They go to war upon Those Others. He who guided us here knows also that the new knowledge they have brought into the city is danger. If an end is not put to it before they can use it, then”—he shrugged—“the mermen must retreat into the depths. And we, who can not follow them—” He made a quick, thrusting gesture as if using a knife on his own throat. “For a time Those Others have been growing fewer in number and weaker. Their children are not many and sometimes there are years when