The Crystal Seas

Blade scrambled back another ten yards over the rocks. He fell and cut or bruised himself twice, but he was able to find a hiding place behind a particularly large rock. He flattened himself against the weeds and shellfish and looked at the creature again.

It stretched nearly fifty feet from nose to tail, every inch covered with glistening black scales. It was almost certainly a sea-dwelling reptile of some sort. Instead of feet or claws, it had four immense flippers, each as large as a good-sized door. And it was lying squarely across Blade's path into the water. Worse, it knew of his existence and was showing no signs of relaxing back into its sleep. The head on the long neck kept weaving back and forth, like the swinging of a guided missile as it homed in on a target. The mouth would gape open, then shut with a bang, like the slamming of the door of a safe.

Once more Blade considered possibilities. He could retreat back down the reef into the cove. On the reef he would probably be able to outrun the creature. But if it took to the water and got ahead of him- and even if it didn't, sooner or later the tide would come in. Then he would have to face the creature in the water. Clumsy though it might be on land, he was sure it would be deadly in the water.

Slip into the water here, quietly, and try to slip away unseen and unscented? A gamble, with certain and gruesome death at the end of the game if he lost. If the creature did not lose his trail, things would once more come down to a fight in the water. Such a fight could end only one way.

No, he would have to fight the creature here, on land, where he could match his speed and wits against its tons of muscle and ferocity. And he would have to kill or cripple it. Wounded and enraged, it would follow his trail like a gigantic, scaled bloodhound, and track him down just as surely.

Weapons. If he hadn't had some notion of the weapons he would be using, Blade would never have considered a death-duel with the creature. But there were plenty of loose stones lying around that were small enough for handy throwing-by a man with a sure eye and a strong arm. Blade had both.

Some of the rocks would split and shatter into pieces as sharp as knives and a great deal heavier. They could also be thrown or used to stab through the heavy scales-if the creature got close enough. It would probably come to that. Blade doubted if he could get through the scales and bone into a vital spot from any distance. But there were always the eyes.

Blade reached out an arm, and hefted a rock the size of an orange. He judged its weight and lifted it over his head. Then in a single motion he sprang to the top of his rock and hurled the stone at the creature's head.

His aim was off enough to make the stone miss the head. It cracked against the scaly neck a foot below the base of the skull, bounced off, and dropped into the sea with a splash. The creature arched its neck and let out another long hiss. The tiny head bobbed up and down and darted from side to side, looking for the enemy. But Blade dropped down behind his rock the moment the stone left his hand. Gradually the creature began to lose interest and the head slowed. As it did, Blade grasped another stone. In a moment when the head hung motionless, broadside on to him, he threw the second stone.

This one struck even harder than the first-and struck its target. It smashed into the side of the creature's mouth. Blade saw yellow splinters of broken teeth shower down into the sea. The creature reared up as if it had been jolted by an electric shock, and let out a roar that half deafened Blade. As the head rose high and was silhouetted against the sky, he let go a third rock and saw it hit. Once again he scrambled up the rock behind him and went to the other side. Once again the creature's head came down with a crash, and its jaws slammed shut on empty air, where Blade had been only seconds before.

This time Blade rose from his cover with rocks in both hands. He threw them-one, two-as hard as he could. At this range, perhaps he could stun the creature.

One rock missed completely, and the other bounced harmlessly off the ridge above the left eye. The ridge cracked, but the creature's skull must have been far too thick. Blade would have to try for the eyes, then close in and kill it-definitely kill it, for he could not just blind the creature and leave it to die.

Blade got off one more stone before he had to shift position again. This one he aimed straight at the right eye, hitting just below it. Broken scales hung down below the eye as the creature's head rose and Blade scrambled for safety.

This time his first refuge offered no stones handy for throwing. So he had to keep scrambling on. With a massive rumbling and grating of disturbed stones, the creature lurched after him, hissing like a leaky boiler. Blade had to roll aside from a dart of the head, then duck around a boulder to safety. Eventually he found himself within easy reach of more throwing stones. Even better, one of the larger rocks was of the black splintery material. Several knife-sharp slivers had already been broken off.

By now Blade was sweating with the exertion and the strain and was bruised and gouged all over. Blood and sweat ran down his body and mixed in a slippery, stinging mess. He tried not to think about what would happen if some large and hungry fish picked up the scent of blood as he swam.

The scent of blood was certainly helping the creature trace him now. It wriggled and heaved itself forward after him, the long neck swaying, the long tail lashing back and forth, sending small stones hurtling into the sea. Every few seconds, the long yellow teeth would part, and a steam-engine hiss would come out. Blade picked up two stones and flung them hard at the head as it came snaking down toward him.

One struck low, taking the creature in the throat in the middle of a hiss. The hiss cut off abruptly. Then the other stone struck hard into the right eye. Blade heard the crunch of thin bone, saw blood spurt, and heard the creature scream in an awful mixture of pain and rage. The head flailed around frantically as the creature tried to watch Blade with its one remaining eye.

But Blade moved too fast for his enemy. He bent and picked up a rock so large that he needed both hands to lift it. Raising it high over his head, he threw it as hard as he could at the creature's, blind side. The rock crashed and clattered on the boulders. The creature's head swung toward the sound, jaws gaping. Blade bent and picked up two of the sharp rock splinters. Then he ran forward, leaping from rock to rock like a mountain goat, ignoring the danger of falling, in his need for speed. He had to get close to the creature and find a vital spot before it could turn to meet him. Otherwise he would die, snapped in two by foot-long yellow teeth or pulped under twenty tons of scaly flesh as it rolled over him.

He leaped to the top of the last rock, then sprang for the creature's back, legs uncoiling in a desperate snap of powerful muscles. He soared eight feet through the air and landed on the black scales. Before the creature could react to Blade's sudden impact, Blade was swarming up its neck. The neck writhed and twisted under him, but he held on and clamped his legs so hard around it that the heavy scales rubbed his flesh raw. After a moment the creature seemed to quiet down. Blade risked loosening the death grip with his legs. The creature still seemed quiet. In a single furious rush, Blade hauled himself up the neck and plunged one of his rock daggers into the intact left eye. He drove the sharp point deep, seeking the brain.

Whether he reached it or not, he never knew. A monstrous convulsion tore through the creature's entire frame. The neck and head shot up into the air, as Blade locked arms and legs again. For a long moment the creature's head towered twenty feet above the rocks, the long neck swaying like a tree in a high wind. Then, like a released bow, the neck snapped hard to the right.