<h2><SPAN name="II" id="II"></SPAN>II</h2>
<p>Lightning played along the black ridges above them, and
below was a sheer drop to a river which was only a silver
thread. Under their boots, man-made and yet dominating the
wildness of jungle and mountain, was a platform of rock
slabs, fused to support a palace of towering yellow-white
walls and curved cups of domes, a palace which was also
half fortress, half frontier post.</p>
<p>Dane set his hands on the parapet of the river drop, blinked
as a lightning bolt crackled in a sky-splitting glare of violet
fire. This was about as far from the steaming islands of Xecho
as a man could imagine.</p>
<p>"The demon graz prepare for battle." Asaki nodded toward
the distant crackling.</p>
<p>Captain Jellico laughed. "Supposed to be whetting their
tusks, eh? I wouldn't care to meet a graz that could produce
such a display by mere tusk whetting."</p>
<p>"No? But think of the reward for the tracker who discovers
where such go to die. To find the graveyard of the graz
herds would make any man wealthy beyond dreams."</p>
<p>"How much truth is there in that legend?" Tau asked.</p>
<p>The Chief Ranger shrugged. "Who can say? This much <i>is</i>
true: I have served my life in the forests since I could walk.
I have listened to the talk of Trackers, Hunters, Rangers in
my father's courtyards and field camps since I could understand
their words. Yet never has any man reported the
finding of a body of a graz that died a natural death. The
scavengers might well account for the bulk of flesh, but the
tusks and the bones should be visible for years. And this, too,
I have seen with my own eyes: a graz close to death, supported
by two of its kind and being urged along to the big
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></SPAN></span>swamps. Perhaps it is only that the suffering animal longs
for water at its end, or perhaps in the heart of that morass
there does lie the graz graveyard. But no man has found a
naturally dead graz, nor has any returned from exploring the
big swamps...."</p>
<p>Lightning on peaks which were like polished jet—bare
rock above, the lush overgrowth of jungle below. And
between, this fortress held by men who dared both the
heights and the depths. The wildly burgeoning life of Khatka
had surrounded the off-worlders since they had come here.
There was something untameable about Khatka; the lush
planet lured and yet repelled at the same time.</p>
<p>"Zoboru far from here?"</p>
<p>The Chief Ranger pointed north in answer to the captain's
question.</p>
<p>"About a hundred leagues. It is the first new preserve we
have prepared in ten years. And it is our desire to make it
the best for tri-dee hunters. That is why we are now operating
taming teams—"</p>
<p>"Taming teams?" Dane had to ask.</p>
<p>The Chief Ranger was ready enough to discuss his project.</p>
<p>"Zoboru is a no-kill preserve. The animals, they come to
learn that after a while. But we cannot wait several years
until they do. So we make them gifts." He laughed, evidently
recalling some incident. "Sometimes, perhaps, we are too
eager. Most of our visitors who wish to make tri-dees want
to picture big game—graz, amplet, rock apes, lions—"</p>
<p>"Lions?" echoed Dane.</p>
<p>"Not Terran lions, no. But my people, when they landed on
Khatka, found a few animals that reminded them of those
they had always known. So they gave those the same names.
A Khatkan lion is furred, it is a hunter and a great fighter,
but it is not the cat of Terra. However, it is in great demand
as a tri-dee actor. So we summon it out of lurking by providing
free meals. One shoots a poli, a water rat, or a landeer
and drags the carcass behind a low-flying flitter. The
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></SPAN></span>lion springs upon the moving meat, which it can also scent,
and the rope is cut, leaving a free dinner.</p>
<p>"The lions are not stupid. In a very short time they connect
the sound of a flitter cutting the air with food. So they
come to the banquet and those on the flitter can take their tri-dee
shots at ease. Only there must also be care taken in
such training. One forest guard on the Komog preserve became
too enterprising. He dragged his kill at first. Then, to
see if he could get the lions to forget man's presence entirely,
he hung the training carcasses on the flitter, encouraging
them to jump for their food.</p>
<p>"For the guard that was safe enough, but it worked too
too well. A month or so later a Hunter was escorting a client
through Komog and they swung low to get a good picture
of a water rat emerging from the river. Suddenly there was
a snarl behind them and they found themselves sharing the
flitter with a lioness annoyed at finding no meat waiting on
board.</p>
<p>"Luckily, they both wore stass belts; but they had to land
the flitter and leave until the lioness wandered off, and she
seriously damaged the machine in her irritation. So now our
guards play no more fancy tricks while on taming runs.
Tomorrow—no," he corrected himself, "the day after tomorrow
I will be able to show you how the process works."</p>
<p>"And tomorrow?" inquired the captain.</p>
<p>"Tomorrow my men make hunting magic." Asaki's voice
was expressionless.</p>
<p>"Your chief witch doctor being?" questioned Tau.</p>
<p>"Lumbrilo." The Chief Ranger did not appear disposed to
add to that but Tau pursued the subject.</p>
<p>"His office is hereditary?"</p>
<p>"Yes. Does that make any difference?" For the first time
there was a current of repressed eagerness in the other's
tone.</p>
<p>"Perhaps a vast amount of difference," Tau replied. "A
hereditary office may carry with it two forms of conditioning,
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></SPAN></span>one to influence its holder, one to affect the public-at-large.
Your Lumbrilo may have come to believe deeply in his own
powers; he would be a very <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'remarkble'.">remarkable</ins> man if he did not.
It is almost certain that your people unquestionably accept
him as a worker of wonders?"</p>
<p>"They do so accept." Once more Asaki's voice was drained
of life.</p>
<p>"And Lumbrilo does not accept something you believe
necessary?"</p>
<p>"Again the truth, Medic. Lumbrilo does not accept his
proper place in the scheme of things!"</p>
<p>"He is a member of one of your Five Families?"</p>
<p>"No, his clan is small, always set apart. From the beginning
here, those who spoke for gods and demons did not
also order men."</p>
<p>"Separation of church and state," commented Tau thoughtfully.
"Yet in our Terran past there have been times when
church and state were one. Does Lumbrilo desire that?"</p>
<p>Asaki raised his eyes to the mountain peaks, to the
northward where lay his beloved work.</p>
<p>"I do not know what Lumbrilo wants, save that it makes
mischief—or worse! This I tell you: hunting magic is part of
our lives and it has at its core some of those unexplainable
happenings which you have acknowledged do exist. I have
used powers I can neither explain nor understand as part
of my work. In the jungle and on the grasslands an off-worlder
must guard his life with a stass belt if he goes
unarmed. But I—any of my men—can walk unharmed if we
obey the rules of our magic. Only Lumbrilo does other
things which his forefathers did not. And he boasts that he
can do more. So he has a growing following of those who
believe—and those who fear."</p>
<p>"You want me to face him?"</p>
<p>The Chief Ranger's big hands closed upon the rim of the
parapet as if they could exert enough pressure to crumble
the hard stone. "I want you to see whether there is trickery
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></SPAN></span>in this. Trickery I can fight, for that there are weapons. But
if Lumbrilo truly controls forces for which there is no name,
then perhaps we must patch up an uneasy peace—or go
down in defeat. And, off-worlder, I come from a line of
warriors—we do not drink defeat easily!"</p>
<p>"That I also believe," Tau returned quietly. "Be sure, sir,
if there is trickery in this man's magic and I can detect it,
the secret shall be yours."</p>
<p>"Let us hope that so it shall be."</p>
<p>Subconsciously, Dane had always associated the practice
of magic with darkness and the night. But the next morning
the sun was high and hot when he made one of the party
coming down to a second and larger walled terrace where
the Hunters, Trackers, Guards and other followers of the
Chief Ranger <ins class="correction" title="Transcriber's note: original reads 'was'.">were</ins> assembled in irregular rows.</p>
<p>There was a low sound which was more a throb in the
clear air about them, getting into a man's blood and pumping
in rhythm there. Dane tracked the sound to its source:
four large drums standing waist high before the men who
tapped them delicately with the tips of all ten fingers.</p>
<p>The necklaces of claws and teeth about those dusky
throats, the kilts of fringed hide, the crossed belts of brilliantly
spotted or striped fur were in contrast to the very
efficient and modern side arms each man wore, to the rest
of the equipment sheathed and strapped at their belts.</p>
<p>There was a carved stool for the Chief Ranger, another
for Captain Jellico. Dane and Tau settled themselves on the
less comfortable seats of the terrace steps. Those tapping
fingers increased their rate of beat, and the notes of the
drums rose from the low murmur of hived bees to the
mutter of mountain thunder still half a range away. A bird
called from those inner courts of the palace from which the
women never ventured.</p>
<p>Da—da—da—da.... Voices took up the thud-thud of the
drums, the heads of the squatting men moved in a slow swing
from side to side. Tau's hand closed about Dane's wrist and
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></SPAN></span>the younger man looked around, startled, to see that the
medic's eyes were alight, that he was watching the assembly
with the alertness of Sindbad approaching prey.</p>
<p>"Calculate the stowage space in Number One hold!"</p>
<p>That amazing order, delivered in a whisper, shocked Dane
into obeying it. Number One hold ... there were three
divisions now and the stowage was—He became aware that
for a small space of time he had escaped the net being woven
by the beat of the drum, the drone of voices, the nodding
of heads. He moistened his lips. So that was how it worked!
He had heard Tau speak often enough about self-hypnotism
under such conditions, but this was the first time the meaning
of it had been clear.</p>
<p>Two men were shuffling out of nowhere, wearing nothing
on their dark bodies but calf-length kilts of tails, black tails
with fluffy white tips, which swayed uniformly in time to
their pacing feet. Their heads and shoulders were masked
by beautifully cured and semi-mounted animal heads displaying
half-open jaws with double pairs of curved fangs.
The black-and-white striped fur, the sharply pointed ears,
were neither canine nor feline, but a weird combination of
the two.</p>
<p>Dane gabbled two trading formulas under his breath and
tried to think of the relation of Samantine rock coinage to
galactic credits. Only this time his defenses did not work.
From between the two shuffling dancers padded something
on four feet. The canine-feline creature was more than just
a head; it was a loose-limbed, graceful body fully eight feet
in length, and the red eyes in the prick-eared head were
those of a confident killer. It walked without restraint,
lazily, with arrogance, its white-tufted tail swinging. And
when it reached the mid-point of the terrace, it flung up its
head as if to challenge. But words issued from between
those curved fangs, words which Dane might not understand
but which undoubtedly held meaning for the men nodding
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></SPAN></span>in time to the hypnotic cadence of that da—da—da....</p>
<p>"Beautiful!" Tau spoke in honest admiration, his own eyes
almost as feral as those of the talking beast as he leaned
forward, his fists on his knees.</p>
<p>Now the animal was dancing also, its paws following
the pace set by the masked attendants. It must be a man in
an animal skin. But Dane could hardly believe that. The
illusion was too perfect. His own hands went to the knife
sheath at his belt. Out of deference to local custom they
had left their stun rods in the palace, but a belt knife was an
accepted article of apparel. Dane slid the blade out surreptitiously,
setting its point against the palm of his hand and
jabbing painfully. This was another of Tau's answers for
breaking a spell. But the white and black creature continued
to dance; there was no blurring of its body lines into those
of a human being.</p>
<p>It sang on in a high-pitched voice, and Dane noted that
those of the audience nearest the stools where Asaki and the
captain were seated now watched the Chief Ranger and the
space officer. He felt Tau tense beside him.</p>
<p>"Trouble coming...." The warning from Tau was the
merest thread of sound. Dane forced himself to look away
from the swaying cat-dog, to watch instead the singers who
were now furtively eying their lord and his guest. The
Terran knew that there were feudal bonds between the
Ranger and his men. But suppose this was a showdown
between Lumbrilo and Asaki—whose side would these men
take?</p>
<p>He watched Captain Jellico's hand slide across his knee,
his fingers drop in touching distance of knife hilt. And the
hand of the Chief Ranger, hanging lax at his side, suddenly
balled into a fist.</p>
<p>"So!" Tau expelled the word as a hiss. He moved with sure-footed
speed. Now he passed between the stools to confront
the dancing cat-dog. Yet he did not look at that weird creature
and its attendants. Instead his arms were flung high as
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></SPAN></span>if to ward off—or perhaps welcome—something on the mountain
side as he shouted:</p>
<p>"<i>Hodi, eldama! Hodi!</i>"</p>
<p>As one, those on the terrace turned, looked up toward the
slope. Dane was on his feet, holding his knife as he might a
sword. Though of what use its puny length would be against
that huge bulk moving in slow majesty toward them, he did
not try to think.</p>
<p>Gray-dark trunk curled upward between great ivory tusks,
ears went wide as ponderous feet crunched volcanic soil. Tau
moved forward, his hands still upraised, clearly in greeting.
That trunk touched skyward as if in salute to the man who
could be crushed under one foot.</p>
<p>"<i>Hodi, eldama!</i>" For the second time Tau hailed the monster
elephant and the trunk raised in silent greeting from one
lord of an earth to another he recognized as an equal. Perhaps
it had been a thousand years since man and elephant had
stood so, and then there had been only war and death between
them. Now there was peace and a current of power flowing
from one to the other. Dane sensed this, saw the men on the
terrace likewise drawing back from the unseen tie between
the medic and the bull he had so clearly summoned.</p>
<p>Then Tau's upheld hands came together in a sharp clap
and men held their breath in wonder. Where the great bull
had stood there was nothing—except rocks in the sun.</p>
<p>As Tau swung around to face the cat-dog, that creature
had no substance either. For he fronted no animal but a man,
a small, lean man whose lips wrinkled back from his teeth in
a snarl. His attendant priests fell back, leaving the spaceman
and the witch doctor alone.</p>
<p>"Lumbrilo's magic is great," Tau said evenly. "I hail Lumbrilo
of Khatka." His hand made the open-palmed salute of
peace.</p>
<p>The snarl faded as the man brought his face under control.
He stood naked, but he was clothed in inherit dignity. And
there was power with that dignity, power and a pride before
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></SPAN></span>which even the more physically impressive Chief Ranger
might have to give place.</p>
<p>"You have magic also, outlander," he replied. "Where
walks this long-toothed shadow of yours now?"</p>
<p>"Where once the men of Khatka walked, Lumbrilo. For
it was men of your blood who long, long past hunted this
shadow of mine and made its body their prey."</p>
<p>"So that it now might have a blood debt to settle with us,
outlander?"</p>
<p>"That you said, not I, man of power. You have shown us
one beast, I have shown another. Who can say which of them
is stronger when it issues forth from the shadows?"</p>
<p>Lumbrilo pattered forward, his bare feet making little
sound on the stones of the terrace. Now he was only an
arm's-length away from the medic.</p>
<p>"You have challenged me, off-world man." Was that a
question or a statement? Dane wondered.</p>
<p>"Why should I challenge you, Lumbrilo? To each race its
own magic. I come not to offer battle." His eyes held steady
with the Khatkan's.</p>
<p>"You have challenged me." Lumbrilo turned away and
then looked back over his shoulder. "The strength you depend
upon may become a broken staff, off-worlder. Remember my
words in the time when shadows become substance, and substance
the thinnest of shadows!"</p>
<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></SPAN></span></p>
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