Doomstar

25

It was late at night and two of the planet's three small moons were shining when Kettrick climbed the steep path up the scarp from the village that had once been Ghnak's. The Krinn came with him, men and women both, their tailed forms crowding around him. There were two chiefs now in the village, Hrach and Djunn, and Djunn wore a chief's collar around his neck. It had only eighteen heart-stones in it because he had given two to the god in memory of his brother Ghnak, who had saved the sun.

The fires still burned in the^; village and the drums of the chief-making still talked, telling the People of the River that Djunn was going home. Djunn was drunk and he should have been happy, happy that he was chief because of his victory over the sun-slayers. But he was not happy. He missed the gray shadow that had followed for so long behind his shoulder, and now was there no more.

At the top of the scarp he stopped and said goodbye to his brothers, promising to return. Then he walked alone across the desert to where the cruiser stood with her lights all blazing, finishing the last checks before takeoff.

Silverwing had escaped her, on the day they stopped the Doomstar. Kettrick remembered how they had succeeded in raising the cruiser on the radio of Silverwing's lifeboat. She came swiftly, but the yacht had vanished for the second time and this time it was no deceptive maneuver. She was on her way back to Kirnanoc with the news of defeat.

Sekma had got the full story, not from Seri but from the other survivor, the wounded man who had fled to safety in the boat. And Kettrick remembered all too clearly how Sekma had told it to them when he and Boker and Glevan came back from building the two cairns that were now in the desert below the Black Hill.

"We were closer behind them than we thought," Sekma said. "We actually almost caught them on the ground. Silverwing sent that message hoping to frighten us into putting all our energies into escaping, and then went into jump, but only long enough to carry her out of radar range. Then she sneaked back to check on us, and of course our radio conversations told her exactly what we were doing. She hung there all day, listening, with one of the moons as a shield, using her lifeboat as a relay station and auxiliary. Once our pattern of sweeps was established, the boat could keep out of our way and still effectively watch the vital area.

"Their boat carried two light missiles. They used them when it became obvious that our boat had sighted the launcher."

The wreckage of the lifeboat had been spotted in one of the craters near the Black Hill. They had not tried to bring out the bodies.

"Seri knew by then that you were trying to make it on foot, and they came down on the mesa to defend the launcher in case you should make it. They were so close, so desperately close!"

Kettrick thought of how Seri had looked at him, still lying where Chai had struck him down, and how he had said, "If you had only come back a day sooner, I'd have had time to make sure of you with my own hand. You and that wretched beast. Or a day later, and I'd have been gone. If you had to come back at all, damn you, oh damn you, Johnny…"

He was in a locked cabin of the cruiser now, with Larith to tend his hurts. The other man was alone and much more ready to talk. Sekma was drawing up an astonishing collection of names.

"A lot of them will slip away," he said, "but we'll have an end to the Doomstar."

As he approached the ship, Kettrick saw that he was not the only one walking in the desert. Boker was there with Glevan, looking off across the moonlit sand toward the Many Hills. He knew what was in their minds. It was heavy also in his.

Nobody thought to mention the collar of heartstones. It was not important.

Boker sighed, and then he looked at Kettrick. "Anyway, Johnny," he said, "this is one place we can come back to."

The three of them went together into the ship.

The warning hooter sounded. The cruiser rose skyward, riding a plume of flame.

Down in the sink the Krinn heard the thunder and scream of her going.

And presently the sun came up.