The Crystal Demon: 15/?
by Nancy Smith and Linda Garrick
XV
Morning dawned bright and sunny. Alan, on watch, awoke his companions and prepared breakfast from the supplies left by the Shirva. They were on their way again early. Miki and Jeel tramped along lightheartedly, keeping up with the Terrans easily. It was close to noon when Miki stopped them suddenly with a sharp word. Then Alan sensed it too.
"Patrol squad. They're coming right toward us."
Together, they dove toward the bushes, concealing themselves in the heavy shrubbery. The Shirva, however, did not follow. They spoke together in low voices for a moment, then leaped lightly upward, vanishing into the trees.
Alan waited, his blaster drawn. He could sense the approaching minds clearly, growing rapidly nearer. Julia lay perfectly still on one side of him, Mark on the other. Far away they could hear the crunch of boots and voices speaking. Then, very suddenly, there were alarmed squawks followed at once by other, less coherent sounds. Alan sensed distress and terror, then, very swiftly, one by one, the emanations from the minds flickered out.
"Holy heck!" he whispered.
"What?"
"Miki and Jeel are killing the patrolmen!"
Mark bit his lip. "They oughtn't t'do that this close to the base!"
"I know. Let's hope they think it's just a routine killing."
"I sure hope so! How're they doin' it?"
"I can't tell." Alan shuddered as he felt the last mind flicker out. "It's over. They're all dead."
Linley got to his feet, a half-grin on his features. "These little guys mean business, don't they? I wonder if they'll tell us how they do it."
The Shirva dropped from above them, looking smug. "All done," Miki said coolly. "Let's move it."
Alan laughed at the mixture of Terran and Shallockian speech. "How did you do that?"
Miki shrugged. "Is sort of a secret. We're not supposed to tell."
"Oh. Well, all right. Everybody ready?"
They tramped on. Once that day Alan thought he sensed Lyn's mind again, but it was gone so quickly that he wasn't sure it had been anything at all. Evening began to settle on the landscape, and with it came clouds and an increasing wind.
"Storm comin'," Mark said.
"We'd better find a campsite soon," Alan said.
Miki fell, sprawling flat on the ground. Jeel bent over him, his voice shrill and frightened. Mark glanced back. "What'sa matter?"
"Nothing, I hope," Alan said. He bent over the Shirva. "Have you had any Lemke since that piece, yesterday?"
Miki wouldn't look at him. "No," he said.
"Well, eat some at once!"
"All right." Miki extracted a leaf from his pack.
Mark frowned. "How much o' that stuff does he need?"
"One or two leaves a day."
"An' how much does he have with him?"
"He says he has enough to see him through."
Mark spoke directly to the Shirva. "How much you got, Mik?"
Miki produced two small, wilted leaves from his pack, still not looking at them. Jeel produced one more.
"That's it?"
"Yes," Miki said. "I will be all right. We will be at the Patrol base tomorrow."
"We hope, dammit! Why didn'tcha let us know you were so short of it?"
"It's enough, dammit," Miki said weakly.
Alan found himself laughing. "Hey, Mark, you're going to have to clean up your language. Miki's going to be talking like a Shallockian street kid soon."
"Best way o' talkin' in the Sector," Mark said. "Listen; what're we gonna do about this? If it takes us too long to swipe a ship than we expect, li'l Mik there's gonna be dead."
"He should have enough, Mark. We'll reach the Patrol base by tomorrow evening if we don't waste time, and he can get along on one leaf a day. He has three."
"Yeah, but there's also the trip home -- twenty-three hours, plus the time the experts need to figure out what he needs that's in the leaf. We're cuttin' it awful slim."
"I know. His tribe brought him all they had."
Linley swore softly. "Well, there ain't no help for it. Let's push on -- what's wrong?"
Alan's shields had automatically snapped into place and he could feel the gooseflesh lifting on his scalp. "There's a Jil around!"
Mark glanced automatically around, but all there was to see were trees. "Where? Which way?"
"East, I think."
"Did he sense you?"
Alan shook his head. "He's tracing, but I put up my shields as soon as I sensed his mind."
"Great. Tell Miki to get his shields up."
Alan cracked his shields cautiously and discovered that Miki's shields were already up tight. His eyes met Alan's in the dimness. "What is it?" he whispered.
Alan wasn't sure if he had sensed the Jilectan, too, or if he was simply reacting to Alan's jolt of alarm, which the Shirva would have undoubtedly sensed. "It's a Jilectan. Keep your shields up."
Miki nodded, moving a little closer to Jeel.
The wind had begun to rise with the coming of evening and the approaching storm, the trees above them tossing wildly. Mark began to forge ahead again as the light faded still more. Drops of water flicked through the air around them, and thunder rumbled in the distance.
The trees began to thin out and they emerged into a field of tossing grass and low, scrubby bushes. Mark looked around, squinting through the dimness. "Looks like a shelf of rocks over that way," he said, raising his voice to be heard over the rising wind. "Let's head for it. Looks like it might be a decent place to spend the night."
Alan lowered his shields, scanning cautiously for the Jilectan. He couldn't sense the alien now, at least in the immediate vicinity, and he didn't want to probe further for fear of alerting the other to his presence.
The field was larger than it had first appeared. Mark paused and turned to face them, shouting to be heard over the wind and rumbles of thunder. "We better join hands, kids! Don't wanna get separated in this stuff!"
He was right, of course. Alan reached over to take Miki's hand in one of his, and clasped his partner's with the other. Julia took Miki's other hand and Jeel came last. Around them, the wind roared through the grass and raindrops whipped stingingly into their faces. Thunder rumbled overhead, louder and closer now, and to the south there was a vivid flash of lightning. Thunder clapped deafeningly seconds later.
"Hurry!" Alan shouted.
Linley ploughed forward, then lurched suddenly, his foot apparently catching on something, and crashed to one side.
Something screamed shrilly. There was a frantic flapping of wings and the thing went shrieking away from them, its long, wailing cry blown back by the wind. Mark rose breathlessly to his feet. "What the hell was that?"
"Is a bird," Miki said.
"Oh." Mark swore under his breath and grasped Alan's hand again. They started on.
Almost at once there was another shriek. The bird swooped upward, its wild cries filling the night, and shot away into the darkness. Alan could see his partner's lips move and knew that Linley was swearing.
"Careful!" Alan shouted. "There's probably more of them out there!"
Mark dashed water from his eyes. "Maybe you'd better lead!"
"I don't think I'll do much better. I'm keeping my shields up."
"All right, come on!"
More cautiously, he started on again. For perhaps twenty steps nothing happened. Then Alan heard him swear luridly and at the same moment there was a deafening shriek. Two of the creatures rose into the air, howling like banshees. For a full twenty seconds they circled above the heads of the party, their panicked cries filling the night, then, with final, departing screams, they shot away into the darkness.
"Will you be careful!" Julia snapped. "You're announcing us to the whole planet!"
Mark turned on her furiously. "All right, baby, *you* give it a try! I'm fed up with the whole damned business and especially with you and your damned aristocratic know-it-all attitude! If I had my way, I'd --"
"If you had your way, you'd chuck the whole business except yourself, Strike Commander, but thank heavens there are other people in this galaxy besides you -- people that care about --"
"Shut *up* dammit! I ain't never hit a woman, but --"
"But you'd sure like to get in practice, wouldn't you?"
Mark moved uncontrollably and Alan grabbed his arm. "Stop it, you two! We're in trouble and fighting among ourselves isn't going to help!"
"You're right," Julia said. "Maybe we should light one of the handlights on low, just 'til we reach the rocks."
"Oh sure, that's a great idea!" Linley snapped. "Now that we've announced ourselves, let's make sure they can find us by showin' a light!"
"Oh, shut up!" Julia's voice shook with fury. "It was just a suggestion, Mr. High and Mighty Strike Commander!"
Miki's hand squeezed Alan's. "I will lead, please."
Alan bent toward him. "Do you think you can?"
"Sure."
"Okay, go ahead." Alan let him go past and Mark also moved aside.
"You feelin' okay now, kid?" Linley asked him.
"What?"
"You all right?"
"Oh sure." A grin flashed. "Is funny when you two fight. Silly, too, since you love each other." He took Mark's hand. "C'mon."
The Shirva began to lead and Linley followed, sputtering. "Love *her*! You gotta be crazy, Mik!"
Alan put his face as close to his partner's ear as he could get. "Quiet, Mark. You can't fool an empath about something like that."
Julia said something under her breath and followed, now between Alan and Jeel. Alan squeezed her hand. "Easy, Julia," he said.
He got no reply, but her hand was trembling in his own. Miki led them easily forward, his feet tracing a silent path through the waving shrubbery. Once he came to an abrupt halt, muttering to himself, and turned sharply right. They followed blindly.
It was now pitch black, except for the occasional lightning flashes, and the rain increased, whipping their faces. The flickering of lightning was followed by deafening peals of thunder. Alan closed his eyes and followed the tug of Linley's hand through the storm.
And suddenly the wind dropped. Alan opened his eyes to find that they were beside a shelf of rock, barren of plant growth on all sides but one. Beneath it was a shallow hollowing, almost like a cave.
"In here," Miki piped. "Okay?"
"Looks like heaven t'me," Linley said. He bent down and crawled within. The interior of the cave was pitch dark, and a dank, musty odor hung in the air. Alan felt his way through the blackness, finding that, a little farther from the entrance, the roof was well above his head. Even Mark should be able to stand without stooping -- barely.
Outside, rain pattered loud on the leaves, and they could hear the wind howling. Lightning flickered, illuminating, just for an instant, the interior of their shelter.
A prickle ran up his spine. Something was watching them. Carefully, he lowered his shields and the sensation hit him full force. "Mark!"
"What?"
"There's something in here with us!"
"Holy --" There was a scuffling sound as Linley groped for his light.
"It's hungry!" Alan said, and heard his voice squeak.
The light came on, revealing barren rock walls and a tumbled pile of boulders at the rear of the cave. At the same instant, Alan became aware of the Jilectan's mind, not far away. He snapped his shields shut. "Put out the light!"
The darkness came down again like a blanket. Silence reigned, except for the sound of the wind and rain and the rumbles of thunder. Julia's slim hand crept into his.
"What is it?" she whispered.
"The Jil. I sensed him again."
"Oh no!" Her hand grasped his more tightly. "What'll we do?"
A sharp, hissing sound filled the cave then. It rose rapidly to an almost unbearable pitch, then died slowly away into silence. Thunder crashed.
"What was *that*?" Julia's voice sounded a little faint.
"I don't know! There's something in here but I don't dare do a scan with the Jil out there."
Miki muttered to himself in his own language. Jeel piped softly in the same language and Alan understood.
"Miki and Jeel say we should turn on the light," he said.
"With that Jil out there?"
"The thing in here is called an Ekkes. It'll run from the light."
"We didn't see nothin' before," Mark objected.
Again the hissing sound came, rising rapidly, like a giant serpent. Mark cussed and flicked on his handlight.
And leaped back with a muffled yelp, grabbing Alan's wrist and dragging him along. The Ekkes had been right beside their feet and Alan caught a glimpse of a long, sinuous body covered with sleek, glistening fur, as the thing whisked backwards, snakelike, to vanish among the tumbled rocks at the rear of the cave.
Mark waited a moment and then stepped cautiously forward, flashing his light over the rocks. There was no sign of the creature. Julia's hand gripped Alan's more tightly. Outside, the wind howled and wailed, the rain lashing the rocky shelf above them. Something that sounded like one of the birds that they had disturbed earlier went past their cave, voicing its long, wailing cry.
"Damn!" Mark said. "This is risky, keepin' the light on. This cave ain't that well-shielded. Someone could see it and we'd be caught like rats in a trap."
Alan glanced around. Miki piped meekly, glancing sideways at Linley. Alan shook his head. "We can't, Miki."
"What? What's he sayin'?"
"He says we should light a fire. The Ekkes won't come back if we keep the cave lit up."
"No way." Linley shielded the light with his hand. "What's this Ekkes critter, Mik? What's it do?"
Miki shrugged, Terran fashion, glancing at Alan. "What?"
"The Ekkes. Will it hurt us?"
"Drinks blood, Alan."
Julia shuddered. "Let's get out of here."
Another wailer, blown by the wind, went past their shelter. Alan saw the Shirva exchange a glance. Almost at once another went by, and then another.
"Someone is near," Miki said softly.
"What? How do you know?"
Miki spoke in his own language. Alan sighed. "Those birds," he explained. "They're called Weepees. They don't fly in storms unless they're disturbed."
"Oh damn!"
Another bird screamed past. Jeel muttered softly. Linley put out his light and once again darkness closed down.
"Let's get out of here," Julia whispered.
"There's a Jil out there, looking for us," Alan said quietly. "We have no guarantee we'll find another cave."
Miki and Jeel whispered softly together and outside the trees and underbrush moaned dismally in the wind. Great situation, Alan thought unhappily. Death outside and a creature to suck their blood inside.
Another wailer went shrieking past.
Mark gave a resigned sigh. "Okay, there ain't really much choice. As long as this critter won't kill us, it's better to lose a little blood than end up in an execution chair. Let's settle down an' try'n get some sleep."
Easier said than done, Alan reflected, but he knew that Mark was right. It wasn't a good spot, but they would have to make the best of it. Gingerly, he settled himself on the rocky floor and pulled the cape that he had made from the emergency blanket around him. Julia huddled against him, and he put an arm around her. Another Weepee went screaming past, followed instantly by another. Thunder pealed.
**********
tbc
