Sorry to have taken so long with this part. Life has been unbelievably hectic the last few weeks.
The Crystal Demon: 22/?
by Nancy Smith and Linda Garrick
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XXIV
Julia Austell opened her eyes, blinking hazily at the face that hovered over her. Her head pounded and nausea roiled her stomach. Duke Halthzor must have stunned her.
Vaguely, she recalled the Jilectan's frantic flight through the underbrush, and the aircar circling down. She had been fighting desperately the whole time. She remembered sinking her teeth into the alien's wrist, and a cuff on the side of her head that had nearly knocked her senseless, and then the hum of a stunbolt. And after that, nothing.
"She's coming around, Your Grace." It was the voice of a Terran, and through a blur of tears, Julia recognized the insignia of a Patrol doctor. The man turned her to one side, a basin held ready. Julia choked and gagged.
There was a long silence, broken only by the sound of her distress. At last, the spasms ceased and Julia lay back, gasping. The doctor wiped her mouth dispassionately and then stood back as the tall, magnificently clad form of Duke Halthzor approached.
"Are you feeling better, Miss Austell?"
"A little," she replied. Say nothing to antagonize him, she told herself. Be polite and meek. Mark and Alan would try to rescue her. They wouldn't desert her, ever with the odds stacked so impossibly against them.
The Jilectan Lord surveyed her expressionlessly and she found her gaze wavering beneath his. She closed her eyes, concentrating on her shields. She could feel his mental probe battering against them, and his failure must be angering him.
"I have some questions, Miss Austell." His voice was deep and not at all unpleasant, each word carefully pronounced and softly accented, rather like Alan's. "It will save us both time, and in your case, a great deal of unpleasantness, if you will answer them without delay."
Julia smiled faintly. "Naturally, Your Grace."
His smile answered hers. His face was handsome and aristocratic in the soft, reddish lighting of the room. "The globe that you said Miss Parnell gave to you. Where is it?"
Julia closed her eyes again. Few non-psychics were capable of the elusive art of selective shielding, but she was one of that few. Leroy Burke had assured her that her control was excellent. They had been working with her at the Lavirra Base, trying to perfect her skill, and with some success. Alan, however, had always been able to detect her efforts, and Halthzor, theoretically, at least, was a better psychic than Alan. Some doubt had arisen in the last few years about the Jilectan claim to psychic supremacy over Terran psychics, but she knew that Alan considered the Jilectan Viceroy's lieutenant to be the most powerful psychic he had ever encountered, human or Jilectan.
If only she didn't feel so terrible! Her stomach still heaved and her head pounded with each beat of her heart.
"I buried it," she said. "About two kilometers west of our campsite, under a tree. I'm not sure even I could find it again."
"Indeed?" Halthzor glanced across the room. Julia turned her head and her heart seemed to stop beating.
Another Jilectan stood there, his blond, waving hair shining in the artificial light. She didn't recognize him, but it was obvious from his clothing that he was a member of the nobility. Pale blue eyes surveyed her, and she was sure that she didn't simply imagine the hatred in their depths. He came toward her, moving with an odd, limping gait, and memory clicked into place. This, then, must be Lord Linthvar. The limp was a result of the injury he had received years ago in a back alley on Shallock. Alan Westover had thrown an overloaded blaster at the besieging Patrol squadrons, and caught Linthvar in the fringe of the explosion.
The aliens spoke glibly for a moment in their own language, and Julia caught a few words, but not enough for her to be able to decipher the subject of the conversation. Then, two sets of eyes fastened on her again.
"Repeat what you told me a few moments ago, Miss Austell," Halthzor commanded.
"I buried the globe," Julia repeated, dully. "About two kilometers west of the campsite, under a tree."
There was a pause and then Linthvar spoke, sounding puzzled. Julia closed her eyes and concentrated on the words.
"... Detect no shielding, Your Grace."
"But it is there," Halthzor returned, softly.
Linthvar reached forward and Julia flinched as he rested the palm of his hand flat against her forehead. The Jilectan's mind probe brushed her shielding, and she concentrated on blending her shields with the surface thoughts of her mind, camouflaging their presence as Leroy Burke had taught her. Truth, sincerity. The globe was exactly where she had said it was.
"I do not detect them," Linthvar repeated.
Halthzor said something forcefully under his breath that she didn't catch. Apprehensively, she opened her eyes. His face was hard, and suddenly he spoke in Basic, his voice cold and remote. "How quickly these Terrans learn to harness our discoveries. Once already she has deceived me -- in the forest. I thought her too incoherent with fear for her lover's life. It was not so. She lies with the skill of a Lady deceiving her Lord." He leaned forward, addressing her again. "Where is the globe, Terran woman?"
Truth, Julia thought. She was speaking the truth. "I buried it, exactly as I told you." She took a deep breath. Sincerity and femininity. She had heard Mark say, and she knew well from her days in the Terran Embassy on Riskell, that Jilectan males were not indifferent to the beauty and charm of Terran females, and she was well-aware that she had both in abundance. She turned her head. "I don't know why everyone is so interested in the thing," she added petulantly. "All it is, is an ball of glass. It doesn't *do* anything that I can see."
The two Jilectans were silent and Julia could feel their eyes upon her. "My head hurts," she whimpered.
Linthvar drew in his breath sharply. "She is telling the truth, Your Grace! I will swear it!"
"But still, she does not lower her shields," Halthzor said.
"They are lowered! I detect nothing!"
"But you also see nothing. I believe she is lying with the same skill that she employed in the forest. With a woman like her, feminine weakness is her greatest strength."
Halthzor was smart, Julia thought. She lay still, closing her eyes and letting tears trickle from beneath the lids.
The Duke spoke, his voice still dispassionate. "You have the sweetgrass ready, Doctor?"
"Yes, Your Grace."
Julia's heart leaped and began to pound. Sweetgrass! Sweetgrass was an interrogation drug often employed by the Jilectans on stubborn Terran prisoners. They, themselves, used it for recreational purposes. When injected or inhaled as an aerosol, it produced, in Jilectans, mild, pleasant hallucinations and a lowering of the inhibitions. On Terrans, the effect was quite different. Although it produced disorientation, it also excited the pain centers of the brain, and the centers were further excited by the emotional response to lying. Interrogations under sweetgrass were frequently very successful.
Maybe she could talk them out of it. Linthvar was partially in sympathy with her, already. Perhaps a little more emotion would cause him to side in her favor. She began to weep in earnest, fixing her eyes imploringly on the smaller Jilectan.
"Oh, please! Please, you don't need that! What do you want to know? I'll tell you anything! Please, you don't need that stuff!"
The doctor appeared beside Halthzor, a syringe in his hand. Julia shrank back. "No!"
Halthzor spoke quietly. "Where is the globe, Miss Austell?"
"Two kilometers west of our campsite!"
Linthvar bent forward. "Can you give me better directions than that, Miss Austell?"
Julia felt her gaze straying to the syringe in the doctor's hand. Determinedly, she forced her eyes to focus on Linthvar's face, envisioning at the same instant a spot she remembered in the forest, not far to the west of their campsite. How beautiful and peaceful it had been in the woods; like Bellian, her home planet. "There were two trees, a little bigger than the rest, and a mass of ferns --"
Linthvar was reading the images in her surface thoughts. "Yes, I see."
"How easily she speaks her truths," Halthzor said, skeptically. "I have never seen a member of the Underground divulge information so easily before." He glanced at the doctor. "One moment."
"Yes, Your Grace."
Halthzor addressed Linthvar. "Take a squad of men and go. See if you can find it where she claims it is."
Linthvar bowed slightly. "Very well, Your Grace." He turned and left the room. Halthzor continued to watch Julia, his expression unreadable.
"It is not really there, is it?" His tone was conversational. "Where did you truly conceal it, Miss Austell?"
"It's there, I tell you!"
"I do not believe you." His eyes bored into hers. "I will have the truth, woman."
Julia closed her eyes. "It's west of the campsite --"
"Oh yes; there is no need to repeat it." His voice stopped her. "Your shielding is truly excellent, you know. Not many Jilectans would be able to detect your lies."
"I'm not --"
"You *are*!" Again, his voice stopped her. He was silent, then, and Julia squirmed beneath his scrutiny. The Patrol had used sweetgrass on Mark, she told herself firmly, and he hadn't cracked. But then, Mark had lost consciousness very quickly after the drug had been administered, and Julia doubted that she would be so lucky.
"Very well." Halthzor made an abrupt, dismissive gesture. "We will pursue this line of questioning later. I also wish to know about the small amulet that Strike Commander Linley was wearing."
Julia took a deep breath. This was a safer line of questioning. There was no way she could tell what she didn't know.
"What is it?" Halthzor asked.
"I don't know."
"Where did he get it?"
"Alan found it several days ago, in a pool below some falls. He gave it to Mark."
"Why?"
Julia hesitated. "I really don't know. Mark seemed to like it, and Alan gave it to him."
"What do you know about it?"
"Nothing," Julia said. "Mark liked it; that's all I know. I had no idea that it could do the things it ... did."
"The native appeared to know what it was. What did he tell you about it?"
"Nothing," Julia said. "He didn't even know that Mark had it until those things ... happened."
Halthzor was silent, apparently considering the truth of her answers. For a moment he stood, one three-jointed finger scratching his chin absently. "Very well. Could you show me the place that Westover found it?" he inquired suddenly.
Julia thought back. She wasn't completely certain that she could retrace their path to the pool where Alan had discovered the little stone, but if Halthzor would take her back into the woods, her chances of escape would increase dramatically. The amulet had been found in native territory, and even if she was not recognized as a friend by the attacking Shirva, and died with her captors, it would be a cleaner death than the one that the Jilectan undoubtedly had planned for her.
"I probably could," she said.
His mind pounded against her shields, seeking entrance. A tiny smile curved the corners of his mouth. "But you do not think there are any more of the objects there, do you, Miss Austell?"
Julia shrugged, trying to avoid his eyes. "Maybe. Maybe not."
"Very likely not. The chances are excellent that the one found by Westover was there totally by accident. But the native in your company knew about the stone. That was obvious. That means he probably knows how it functions and may even know how to make one. Perhaps he even has one of his own."
"I doubt it," Julia said, evenly.
Again the mirthless smile. "Perhaps not, Miss Austell, but surely he can direct us to one who does."
Julia was silent.
Halthzor nodded to the Patrol doctor. "And now, I must discover where you concealed the globe, Miss Austell. Since you will not tell me of your own accord, I am forced to use other tactics." He addressed the doctor. "Give her the sweetgrass."
**********
XXV
Alan moved softly through the underbrush. All was very still, and darkness had fallen. Mark was a huge, dark shadow, stepping softly along behind him. His partner was trying desperately to be quiet and Alan sensed his distress as a twig cracked under his foot. He paused, glancing back.
"Sorry," Mark said.
"It's okay. I'm scanning. There's nobody around."
"That's a relief. I wonder how much farther."
Alan was wondering that, too. The Shirva hadn't known, but the chances were that it wasn't too far. He seriously doubted that Halthzor would have ventured many kilometers from the base and into the dangerous forest.
Then, the sensation reached him and his shields snapped automatically shut. A Jilectan was nearby.
He doubted the alien had sensed him. There had been no recognition in the mind touch. Alan paused again, reaching for his partner's arm in the dimness. Linley stopped at once. "Company?"
"A Jil."
"Thought so. How close?"
"I'm not sure. Just a minute." Carefully, Alan lowered his shielding again. Yes, there was the flicker of the alien mind, growing rapidly nearer. "He's getting closer -- coming from behind and heading for the base, I think."
"Is it Halthzor? If it is, Julia might be with him."
But Alan had seen enough to know that it wasn't. "I think it's Linthvar. I've sensed his mind before, you know."
"No kiddin'. What should we do?"
"Let's wait for him." Alan pulled him back into a patch of underbrush. An idea was simmering in his mind. Linthvar was traveling via crawler, he thought. Now, if they could just tempt him nearer without arousing his suspicions ...
But perhaps they wouldn't need to. The alien seemed to be coming right toward them.
"What's goin' on?" Mark whispered.
"He's on his way."
"Yeah?"
"And I was just thinking, if we could get our hands on Lord Linthvar --"
"-- We could negotiate for Julia! Whatcha got in mind?"
"Hold on. They're in crawlers, I think, and there's quite a few of them. Darn! I wish we'd brought Lyn and the Shirva along!"
"Can you contact her, maybe? Tell her to come, quick?"
"Not enough time. M'lord'll be here in a few minutes --" He broke off suddenly. A soft sound sent prickles down his spine. Alan spun, his eyes and mind searching the underbrush. Mark's hand pulled him back.
"Whatcha hear?"
"I don't know." Alan strained his eyes into the darkness. "Do you hear anything?"
Linley cocked his head. "Not a thing."
But Alan did, even with his shields now closed. The sound was like a dry whisper in the leaves, drawing steadily closer. "Someone's coming." Cautiously, he opened his shields and did a quick scan. "Nothing. It *has* to be the Shirva. I'm not sensing anyth --"
"Alan?" The voice was soft, and very familiar.
Mark cussed under his breath. "Lyn! Damn! You scared the hell outta me!"
Lyn materialized from the darkness, her feet soundless in the twigs and leaves. "Alan?" she whispered again.
"Here." Alan felt an odd rush of sudden affection and relief. "What are you doing here?"
Her shields were up tight, which was why he hadn't sensed her approach, but now, with her proximity, emotions were filtering through. "I'm sorry. I felt like you needed me, so I came."
Alan stared down at her in the darkness, the emotions spinning crazily in his mind. He forced them back, a little angry with himself. Lyn had taunted him once, and had never even hinted that she was sorry that she had done so. How could he feel anything for her but a mild friendship for her, due to the fact that she had now changed sides?
She was watching him, her face a dim blur in the darkness. "Was I wrong? I'm sorry. I'll go back to the cave if you like."
"No." Alan forced himself to speak matter-of-factly. "Your intuition was right. Where are the Shirva?"
She glanced upward. "In the tree above us, probably. They said they'd follow."
"What did you do with Davis?" Mark asked.
"I tied him up and stunned him. He'll be okay." She looked back at Alan. "Why did you want us?"
Quickly, he explained. "There's a Jil coming."
He heard her breath catch. "Halthzor?"
"No, I think it's Linthvar. If we can take him prisoner, we might be able to negotiate for Julia."
"A *Jil*?" He heard her gulp. "You mean *kidnap* him?"
"Exactly. Now, listen: I want you to do exactly as I say ..."
**********
tbc
