More Than Fire

"I am pleased to find that out. 'Niss Zatzel.' You are not a Thoan, hence you would not be likely to know the ancient language."

Kickaha decided to quote Zazel's supposed words indirectly from here on. About all he knew of the archaic Thoan was a few words Anana had told him. He was glad that he remembered some of their conversation, which had taken place long ago.

"What did he say after that?" Dingsteth said.

Kickaha spoke slowly, his thoughts only a few words ahead of his tongue.

"He said he had learned much from the other spirits and from the Supreme Spirit who rules their land. He sees now what errors and mistakes he made while in the land of the living."

Don't get carried away, Kickaha told himself. Make it effective but short. The less I say, the more chance I won't say something that'll betray me.

"To be brief, he told me that he could not get in contact with you except through a human who was open to psychic cha

After a slight pause, Kickaha said, "He also told me, insisted, in fact, that the Horn of Shambarimen, which you took from Red Orc, should be given to me. It is my property, and as Zazel said, I won't misuse it."

Red Orc's face paled, and it twisted into a silent snarl. But he dared not say anything that would make Dingsteth refuse to release him. On the other hand, Kickaha had to include the Thoan in the people to be freed. If he did not, Red Orc would expose him for the liar he was.

"Zazel ordered that you erase all the data about the engine because it's a great danger to every living thing in every universe. You must do this immediately. And you must make sure the data is not retrievable. By that, he means that none of it is to be left stored in the world-brain. No one'll be able to call it up from the world.

"Then you will let us out of our cages and permit us to gate out of this world. But Zazel ordered that Red Orc's weapons not be given back to him and that his airboat be stripped of its beamers. We will fly our machines to the departure gate. All of us will leave together and gate through to Red Orc's palace on Earth Two."

Red Orc glared. He knew why Kickaha was making these terms.

Kickaha continued: "Zazel did not tell me why he wants us to do that. He must have some reason he didn't care to tell me. But it'll be for the best, I'm sure. The dead know everything."

Dingsteth did not speak for several minutes. Its eyes were as unmoving as those in a statue, though it did blink. It did not shift slightly or twitch minutely as a human would have done in that rigid posture. The caged men, Kumas excepted, did not take their gazes from him.

Kickaha murmured to himself, "Is Dingsteth going to buy it?"

His fabrication would not work on any Thoan or most Earth people. But the creature was not human, and it had had almost no experience with the supreme prevaricator species, Homo sapiens.

At long last, Dingsteth spoke. "If Zazel ordered it, it will be done. If only I could dream, he might speak to me!"

For a moment, Kickaha felt sorry for it. Maybe it was more human than he had thought. Or maybe it just wanted to be.

They would be released within an hour, and they would be gated to the cave wherein their craft were stored. But it took longer to carry out "Zazel's instructions" than Kickaha had anticipated. The unforeseen, as so often happened, took place. Khruuz was the first to be gated through to the place where Dingsteth had put the aircraft. Kumas was to follow Khruuz, after which Red Orc would be transmitted to the storage place. Kickaha had requested this gating order because he wanted Red Orc not to be the first in the storage place. No telling what that wily bastard could do if he were alone or had only his clones to deal with. But Khruuz was powerful enough to overcome him if the need arose.

The Khringdiz disappeared from the circle in his cage. Dingsteth had trouble getting Kumas to obey its orders. Kumas, lying on his blankets, turned his back to Dingsteth. Finally, Dingsteth said, "I have means to make you do as I wish. They involve much pain for you."

For a half-minute, Kumas was silent. Then, his face expressionless, his eyes dull, he rose. He shambled to the center of the circle and stood in it. Dingsteth pointed one end of the small instrument in its hand at the circle and pressed a button. Though the radio signal from it started the process, five seconds would pass before the gate was fully activated.

Kumas must have been counting the seconds. Just before he would have vanished, he moved to one side and stuck his right leg beyond the circle.

Then he was gone. But the leg, spurting blood, remained in the cage. It toppled over immediately.

"Killed himself!" Red Orc shouted. The other humans were silent with shock. Dingsteth may have been, but it did not show it. It said, "Why did he do that?"

"It's as I told you," Kickaha said. "He was crazy, poor bastard." Dingsteth said, "I do not understand the instability and twisted complexities and frequent malfunctionings of human beings."

"We don't either," Kickaha said.

Dingsteth put off cleaning up the mess until after its "guests" had left its world. Or perhaps it was not going to bother with it. It gated the others to the cave in which their aircraft were stored, but sent them to a different circle in the cave from the one originally intended. When Kickaha stepped out of his circle, he saw the Thoan's body in a circle nearby. After a glance at it, he was busy getting ready. That did not take much time. When they were all mounted on the seats of their boats, Dingsteth opened a door to the cave by speaking a code word. A section of the wall slid into the recess, and they flew out into a tu

Twenty minutes later, they were at the gate. Kickaha dismounted from his boat and brought out of his backpack a wrist-binding band. Before Red Orc could react, the clones and Khruuz had seized him. He might have gotten away from Ashatelon and Wemathol, but Khruuz was as strong as a bear. Obeying the orders Kickaha had whispered in the hangar-cave, the Khringdiz held the Thoan's arms behind him, and the clones gripped Red Orc's legs. Dingsteth, watching them via the world-brain, must have wondered what was going on. Kickaha quickly secured Red Orc's wrists together at his back.

Exultantly, Kickaha took the Horn from his pack and blew the seven notes. Immediately, a section of the wall shimmered. Red Orc, who had been silent throughout, was hurried by Khruuz into the gate. A minute later, all were in the palace that held Anana. They were busy for a little while defending themselves against the guards, who had attacked them when they saw that their master was a prisoner. That did not take long. A few beamer shots killed some, and the others scattered.

Soon, however, the guards rallied and took up defensive positions. It looked as if the invaders would have to take the place by room-to-room fighting. But Kickaha called for the captain, who replied from behind a barricade of furniture in a hall. After Kickaha, Wemathol, and Ashatelon talked to the captain, they made an agreement. The captain then conferred with his lieutenants and some of the rank and file. The parley took over an hour, but the result was that the guards swore loyalty to Kickaha and the clones. They did not love Red Orc and did not care who paid them, especially since Kickaha had doubled their wages and reduced their working hours.