Breed to Come (6 page)

The Rattons were trying to force the door now.How long would the barrier hold?

Furtig tensed, ready to face the inpour when theweight of those outside would break through.

Foskattpulled himself up, one hand closing upon the caller,raising it to his ear. His eyes glowed.

"It comes! Gammage is right! The rumblers willserve us! Stand ready—"

Then Furtig caught it also, a vibration creepingthrough the stone flooring, echoing dully from the walls about them. It was unlike anything he had experienced before, though it carried some tones ofstorm thunder. It grew louder, outside the door, andonce more the enemy squealed in ragged chorus.

"Stand back—away—" Foskatt's husky whisperbarely reached Furtig. The stranger could not haveheard it, but, so warned, Furtig sprang, grasped theother's arm, and pulled him to one side. The strangerrounded on him with a cry of rage, until he saw Foskatt's warning gesture.

As if some supreme effort supplied strength, Foskatt was sitting up, the caller now at his mouth, histongue ready, extended as if he awaited some signal.Then—there was a squealing from the Rattons, whichbecame a hysterical screeching. These were notbattle cries but rather a response to fear, to a terrible,overpowering fear.

Something struck against the wall with a force thatcertainly the Rattons could not exert. Thudding blows followed, so close on one another that the noisebecame continuous. The door broke, pushed in, butthat was not all. Around its frame ran cracks in thewall itself; small chunks flaked off.

Together Furtig and the stranger backed away. NoRatton had sprung through the opening. The prisoners could see only a solid, dark surface there, as if another wall had been erected beyond. Still those ponderous blows fell, more of the wall broke away.

Yet Foskatt, showing no signs of fear, watched thisas if it were what he expected. Then he spoke, raisinghis voice so they could hear over the sounds of thatpounding.

"This is one of the Demons' servants from the olddays. It obeys my will through this." He indicated thecaller. "When it breaks through to us we must beready to mount on top. And it will carry us out of thisevil den. But we must be swift, for these servantshave a limit on their period of service. When this"—again he brought the caller their notice—"ceases tobuzz, these servants die, and we cannot again awakenthem. Nor do we ever know how long that life willlast."

There was a sharp crash. Through the wall brokewhat looked to be a long black arm. It swept around,clearing the hole. Instantly, at its appearance, Foskatt thrust his tongue into the opening in the cube.

The arm stopped its sweeping, was still, as if pointingdirectly to them. Behind it they could see the darkbulk of the nimbler, solid as a wall.

"We must get on it—quick!" Foskatt tried to risebut his weakened body failed him.

Furtig, at his side, turned to face the stranger.

"Help me!" He made that an order. The other hesitated. He had been heading .for the break in the wall.But now he turned back, though it was plain he camereluctantly.

Together they raised Foskatt, though their handling must have been a torment, for he let out a smallmewling cry at their touch. Then he was silent as theysomehow got him through the broken door, raised himto the back of the boxlike thing.

It had more than one of those jutting arms, all ofthem quiet now. And it was among their roots thatthey settled their burden. How the thing had arrivedthey could not determine, for they could see no legs.

But that it had come with ruthless determinationwas plain by the crushed bodies of the Rattons lyinghere and there.

Once on top, Furtig looked to Foskatt. How didthey now bring to life this Demon rumbler?

Would itindeed carry them on?

"Brother!" Furtig bent over his tribesman. "Whatdo we do now?" But Foskatt lay with closed eyes, and did not answer. The stranger growled.

"He cannot tell you. Perhaps he is near death. Atleast we are free of that hole. So—I shall make themost of such freedom."

Before Furtig could hinder him, he jumped fromthe top of the servant and ran in long leaping boundsinto the dimness beyond. But, greatly as he wastempted to follow, the old belief that one ought not todesert a tribesman held Furtig where he was.

He could hear distant squealing. More Rattonsmust be gathering ahead. Now he no longer believedthat the stranger had made the best choice. He couldwell be heading into new captivity.

As would happen to them unless—Furtig pried atFoskatt's hold on the caller. Tongue tip had gone inthere, and the servant had come. Again tongue tip,and the rumbler had stopped beating down the wall.Therefore the caller ordered it. If that were so, whycould Furtig not command it now?

He brought it close to his mouth. How had Foskattdone it? By some pressure like the sign language?Furtig knew no code. All he was sure of was that hewanted to get the rumbler away from here, back toGammage, if that was where it had come from.

Well, he could only try. Gingerly, not knowingwhether the caller might punish a stranger without learning for attempting to use it, Furtig inserted histongue and tried to press. A sharp tingling sensation followed, but he held steady.

There was an answering vibration in the box onwhich he crouched. The arms pulled back from thewall, and the thing began to move.

Furtig caught at Foskatt lest he be shaken loose asthe rumbler trundled back from the wall and slewedaround, so that the arms now pointed toward the broken door of the room.

They did not move fast, no faster than a walk, butthe rumbler never paused. And Furtig knew a new feeling of power. He had commanded this thing! Itmight not take them to Gammage as he wished it todo, but at least it was bearing them away from theRatton prison, and he believed that those slinkers would not dare to attack again as long as Foskatt andhe rode this servant.

Foskatt's warning of the uncertain life span of theDemons' servants remained. But Furtig would notworry about that now. He was willing to take whatgood fortune was offered in the present.

They slid away from the light of the Ratton-heldchambers. But now the nimbler provided light of itsown. For two of those arms extended before it bore ontheir ends small circles of radiance.

This was not a natural passage like the cave ways; the Demons had built these walls. Furtig and thewounded Foskatt rumbled past other doorways, twicetaking angled turns into new ways. It would seemthat for all the sky-reaching heights of the lairsaboveground, there was a matching spread of passages beneath the surface.

Furtig's ears pricked. They had not outrun, probably could not outrun, pursuit. Behind he heard thehigh-voiced battle cries of the Rattons. At least hewas well above their heads on the box and so had thatsmall advantage.

Hurriedly he used Foskatt's own belt to anchor himto the arms of the rumbler, leaving himself free forany defense tactics needed. With the claws on hishands, he hunched to wait.

Strange smells here. Not only those natural to underground places, but others he could not set nameto. Then the rumbler halted in front of what seemed ablank wall, and Furtig speedily lost what small confidence had carried him this far. They were going to betrapped; all this servant of Gammage had boughtthem was a little time.

But, though the rumbler had halted, its outthrustarms moved. They were doing nothing Furtig couldunderstand, merely jerking up and down, shininground spots of light on the wall here and there.

There was a dull grating sound. The wall itself splitin a wide crack, not such as those arms had beaten inthe prison wall, but clean, as if this was a portalmeant to behave in this fashion. As soon as the opening was wide enough, the rumbler moved on into asection which was again lighted. Furtig looked back; the wall started to shut even as they passed through.He gave a small sigh of relief as he saw the openingclose. At least no Ratton was coming through there!

But the rumbler no longer moved steadfastly; rather it went slower and slower, finally stopping with itsarms curled back upon its body. Now it looked—Furtig's woods-wise mind made the quick comparison—like a great black spider dying. When the nimbler ceased to move he lifted the caller to his mouth,readied his tongue. This time there was no tingling response to his probing. It must be as Foskatt hadwarned—the servant had died, if one might term it so.

There was light here, and they were in another corridor with numerous doors. Furtig hesitated for a longmoment and then dropped to the floor. Leaving Foskatt where he was, he went to the nearest opening tolook within.

The room was not empty. Most of the floor wascovered with metal boxes, firmly based. And there was an acrid smell which made him sneeze and shakehis head to banish it from his nostrils. Nothing moved, and his ears, fully alert, could not pick up theslightest sound.

He returned to the nimbler. If that could not carrythem farther, and Foskatt could not be transported,what was he to do? When he was the merest youngling,he had learned the importance of memory patterns,of learning the ways of the People's tribal huntinggrounds until those became a matter of subconsciousrecall rather than conscious thinking. But here he hadno such pattern as a guide, he had only—

Furtig scrambled up to sit beside Foskatt. Therewas one thing— If they had in truth been heading toward Gammage's headquarters when this journeybegan, he could try— He closed his eyes, set about methodically to blank out the thought of what lay immediately around him.

He must use his thoughts as if they were ears, eyes,nose, to point to what he sought. This could be done,had been done many times over, by some individualsamong the People. But Furtig had never been forcedto try it before.

He had never seen Gammage, but so well was theAncestor fixed in the mind of all who dwelt in thecaves, that he had heard him described many timesover. Now he tried to build in his mind a picture of Gammage. And, because the Ancestor was who he wasand had been to his tribe a figure of awe and wonderacross several generations, doubtless that mind picture was different from the person it represented,being greater than reality.

As he had never tried before, Furtig strove now tothink of Gammage, to discover where in the lairs hecould find this leader. So far—nothing. Perhaps hewas one of those for whom such searching did notwork. Each of the People had his own abilities, hisown weaknesses. When the People worked together,one could supply what another lacked, but here Furtig had only himself. Gammage—where was Gammage?

It was, like picking out the slightest ripple in thegrass, hearing a sound so thin and far away that it was not true sound at all but merely the alerting suggestion of it. But a warm flush of triumph heated Furtig. It was true—he had done it! That sense wouldlead him now. Lead him. He opened his eyes to lookat Foskatt.

What of Foskatt? It was plain that the other couldnot walk, nor could Furtig carry him. He could leave,return later— But perhaps that wall which hadopened and closed was not the only entrance. One dared not underrate the tenacity of the Rattons.Long before Furtig could return with help, Foskattcould be captive or dead.

Suppose that somewhere in one of these chambersalong this way he could find another of these servants,one that could be activated? It would do no harm togo and look, and it might be their only chance.

Furtig began the search. But he found himself moving slowly, needing to stop now and then to leanagainst the wall. All of a sudden, now that the excitement of their escape had died, he needed rest.

He fedon some of the dried meat from Eu-La's bag. But itwas hard to choke down even a few mouthfuls of thatwithout water. And where was he going to find water?

Determinedly Furtig prowled among those metalboxes set in the first chamber, finding nothing useful.Stubbornly" he went on to explore the next room.

This was different in that it had tables, long ones,and those tables were crowded with masses of thingshe did not understand at all. He backed away fromone where the brush of his tail had knocked off a largebasin. The basin shattered on the floor, and the soundof the crash was magnified a hundred times by echoes.

Furtig's startled jump almost brought him to disaster. For he struck against what seemed a smallertable, and that moved! He whirled around, expectingan attack, snarling. The table went on until it bumped against one of the larger tables.

Warily Furtig hooked his claws lightly about one ofits slender legs. Very cautiously he pulled the smalltable back. It answered so readily, he was again startled. Then he mastered surprise, and experimented.

The surface was high; he could barely touch the topwith his chin when he stood at his tallest.

There was amass of brittle stuff lying across it, and when he triedto investigate, it broke and powdered, so that heswept it off, leaving a bare surface.

But he could move the table!

Pushing and pulling, he brought it out of the room,back to the side of the rumbler. Luckily there wasonly a short space between the two levels, the tablebeing a little lower. He was sure he could get Foskattfrom one to the other.

Blood was seeping again from the matted fur aboutFoskatt's wound by the time Furtig had finished. Hesettled the unconscious tribesman in the center of thetable, hoping he would not roll, as there was no anchorage here.

He fastened his belt to the two front legs of thetable and then slung the end over one shoulder. It wasa tight fit, the table bumping continually against hisback and legs, and if it had not rolled so easily he could not have moved it. Resolutely he set out downthe corridor.

There were times following, which could have beennight and day, or day and night, since Furtig could nolonger measure time so here—times when he believedthat he could not go on. He would hunch down, thetable looming over him, breathing so hard it hurt hislower ribs. His whole body was so devoted to pullingthe table that he was not really aware of anythingsave that he had not yet reached the place to whichhe must go.

On and on, and there was no end, from corridor toroom, across room, to another hall. The lights grewbrighter, the strange smells stronger. He was neversure when the vibration in the walls began. It mighthave started long before his dulled senses recorded it.There was a feeling of life here ...