The Crystal Seas

Chapter TWO

Blade literally came back down to earth with a bump. Suddenly the darkness was gone, and he was back to normal size. Then he struck something hard and cold with a bone-shaking crash, bounced, and rolled over and over down a long, hard, sloping surface, picking up bruises as he went. He finally arrived in Dimension X with a bone-jarring thump against another hard surface.

He lay there without even trying to move until his head began to clear. He felt aches and pains all over, from the bruises and cuts he had picked up rolling over the rocks. And he knew he must have struck his head harder than usual, since there was a distinct, unmistakable roaring sound in his ears.

Eventually he got up the energy and coordination to move. Everything still seemed to be working-no bones broken that he could see or feel right now. Cautiously he stood up. For a moment his head swam, and he nearly lost his balance. But after that, he knew he would be able to stay on his feet. So he stretched, to get a few more of the aches out of his muscles and joints, then looked around him.

Now he knew why he had been hearing a roaring in his ears. He was standing on a rocky beach by the ocean. Great blue-green waves were roaring in onto the beach and breaking in clouds of foam and spray. They were breaking hard enough to move rocks the size of a man and breaking with a terrible, continuous grinding noise. A long reef of high-piled rocks ran out into the sea, off to Blade's right. The incoming surf broke in high rainbows of spray over a mound of black rocks at the far end, a good quarter of a mile away.

Blade looked back at the shore and along the beach. He didn't like what he saw. The beach lay at the bottom of a semicircle of high, weathered rock cliffs nearly half a mile long. At the foot of the cliffs was thirty or forty feet of rocky slope. Blade realized that he must have struck near the top of that slope and rolled down. Above the slope the cliff shot vertically nearly two hundred feet against the blue sky. Blade could see flowering trees and bushes tossing in the sea wind on top of the cliff. At least the land was not going to be totally barren and inhospitable-if he could ever get to it.

That was going to be the problem-getting off this beach and out of this cove to somewhere more habitable. He could try to climb two hundred feet of crumbling rock in his present battered condition, with only toes and fingers for climbing aids. Or he could try swimming out, getting safely through a hundred-yard belt of boiling white surf without drowning or being smashed against the rocks. Then he would have to swim some unknown distance along a totally unknown coast until he found a better landing place, and then back to shore probably through still more surf. Blade was a superb swimmer who could easily cover twenty miles at a stretch. But that didn't mean he liked such a plunge into the unknown.

Unfortunately, he didn't seem to have much choice. A look along the beach showed no signs of food or fresh water anywhere in sight. Besides, the line of weeds and shellfish on the rocks showed him that even a few more hours might be too long to stay here. The high-tide mark was a good eight feet above his head. As the tide came in, the cove would turn into a boiling cauldron. He would be tossed around like an onion in a stew until he drowned or crashed against the rocks.

But there was that reef extending out to sea. Blade shaded his eyes against the glare of the sun and examined the reef more closely. The spray broke impressively enough over it, but it looked as though the far end was out in deep water. Out there he would find fewer rocks jutting up to crash against. Blade stretched again to test his muscles. He walked to the base of the reef, then started out along it.

He moved slowly and carefully, picking his footing one step at a time. The rocks were crumbling and wet, and many were also slick with weeds or encrusted with shellfish. He knew he would be finished if he slipped and broke or twisted an ankle or split one leg open to the bone. He had to be able to swim out of here before the tide came in.

Step by step, rock by rock, Blade made his way out along the reef. Twice the only practical course lay close to the water's edge, where the breakers were crashing onto the rocks with explosive roars and churning tons of water. Once, he was able to scramble through the dangerous area during the moment between two waves. The second time he miscalculated. The incoming breaker loomed above him like a wall of blue-green crystal crowned with white foam. The moment before it struck, he braced himself as best he could and wrapped his arms around the largest and heaviest rock he could find. Then he took a deep breath and held it. The wave roared down and over him, flattening him against the rocks like a giant hand. Blade held on, although the strain seemed about to pull his arms out of their sockets. He held on until his lungs seemed to be filled with white-hot gas instead of air, and the blue-greenness about him began to turn gray and then black. Then suddenly the wave was past, its roar fading away in his ears. Almost by reflex, Blade's arms and legs pulled him up the rocks, out of the path of the next wave. He sat in safety as it roared past him, gulping in air, and flexing his arms to get the hard knots out of his painfully strained muscles. Then he rose and went on.

It began to seem that he had always been stumbling over crumbling, slimy gray stones, not falling headlong only by a series of desperate muscle-wrenching efforts. The spray from the breakers dried on his skin, stinging painfully in his cuts and leaving an itching crust of salt all over him. Once, a rock sheared in two under his weight, and a sharp edge slashed along his left leg. The cut ran almost from knee to anklebone, but by a miracle it was not deep. It soon stopped bleeding, and then Blade was no longer aware of it. He scrambled on, sweat now running down his skin to carve lines in the caked salt.

Almost before he realized it, he was near the far end of the reef. He found a perch on the highest rock he could reach and looked around. He grinned through salt-caked lips as he realized that he had been right. Out here the water was far deeper than by the beach. The big waves rolled in, rising ten and fifteen feet high, just as they did farther in. But they did not break on the rocks in a white cauldron of foam, ready to swallow even the strongest swimmer. They made a fringe of white around the edge of the reef, but that was all. Diving into the sea would be hardly more dangerous than diving into a swimming pool.

Blade looked out along the shore across the water, looking for a landing place. As he did, he noticed something so intriguing that he completely forgot about the landing place. The sea was incredibly clear and transparent, like crystal. Beyond the white fringe of foam, Blade could see the rocks of the reef falling away to an amazing depth. Far down in the pale blue-green crystal, he saw sparks of color moving and silver flashes as schools of fish passed by. Even farther down, he could see purplish darkness beginning to set in, as the depth of the water finally defeated the sun. He guessed he was looking down three, perhaps four hundred feet into the depths-before the light faded out.

Reluctantly, Blade lifted his eyes from the water and stared across the waves at the distant shore. To his left the cliffs ran away out of sight, without offering any visible way up through them and inland. Heading that way would be a badly conceived gamble.

But far off to the right was something that looked like the yellow sand of a beach backed by green trees. Blade couldn't be as sure as he would have liked to be, for the beach was a good six miles away. If visibility hadn't been nearly perfect, he wouldn't have seen it at all. But there it was. Even if it wasn't a route inland, it would be a better place to spend the night than a cove certain to be submerged twenty feet deep by the incoming tide.

Six miles. A good stiff swim even for Blade, in his present shape. He considered the prospect, then examined his situation to see if there was any alternative. He did this not out of any reluctance to face the swim, but out of an ingrained habit of assessing a situation and considering alternative strategies. His experience as a secret agent in Home Dimension had done that ingraining. It wasn't a habit one could use in tight spots where all that mattered was fast action. But a little care in advance could prevent a lot of those tight spots. Otherwise one was likely to go blundering into unexpected situations, be surprised, and not live very long.

A minute was enough to satisfy Blade that the six-mile swim was the best choice. So there was nothing to do now except slip into the water and start swimming, preferably as soon as possible. Blade had no intention of being caught offshore by darkness in these lovely but strange waters. Approaching an unknown shore by night was something even full-sized ships seldom risked. And he knew that Home Dimension sharks were at their most dangerous after dark. He didn't want to risk these crystal seas being the home of something as large and hungry and with the same habits.

Blade slipped down off his perch and began to make his way over the last few yards of rock. The only problem he could see was that long range of water-rounded black boulders near the outer end of the reef. It looked high and slippery, with no hand- or footholds. But it sprawled squarely across his path. His progress toward it was accompanied by the usual clatter of falling stones.

He was less than ten feet away from the boulders when they gave out a long roaring hiss and began to move.

Blade let out an explosively short hiss as he sucked in his breath and froze where he was. The creature continued to move, writhing its way around in a semicircle over the rocks. A long neck rose, and a small head with a very large tooth-filled mouth rose on the end of it. The head turned toward Blade, and he gasped at a putrid blast of long-dead fish as the mouth opened. Its foot-long teeth stained yellow by age and decay clacked together. Blade continued to stand frozen, but not out of fear. With a head that small, the creature's brain could only be tiny, and its vision might well be dim. If he stood motionless, it might overlook him entirely, or not recognize him as prey, or see him and then forget about him almost at once. The head wove back and forth, and small yellowish eyes under heavy bony ridges flickered open and shut.

Then suddenly the head was driving at Blade with the speed and force of a battering ram. The mouth opened wide, showing a steamy red gullet. Blade sprang up onto the rock behind him and down the other side with split seconds to spare. The living battering ram crashed into the rock, jarring it halfway loose. If Blade had been in its path, he would have been crushed to a pulp and dined on at the creature's leisure.

Blade scrambled back another ten yards over the rocks. He fell and cut or bruised himself twice, but he was able to find a hiding place behind a particularly large rock. He flattened himself against the weeds and shellfish and looked at the creature again.

It stretched nearly fifty feet from nose to tail, every inch covered with glistening black scales. It was almost certainly a sea-dwelling reptile of some sort. Instead of feet or claws, it had four immense flippers, each as large as a good-sized door. And it was lying squarely across Blade's path into the water. Worse, it knew of his existence and was showing no signs of relaxing back into its sleep. The head on the long neck kept weaving back and forth, like the swinging of a guided missile as it homed in on a target. The mouth would gape open, then shut with a bang, like the slamming of the door of a safe.

Once more Blade considered possibilities. He could retreat back down the reef into the cove. On the reef he would probably be able to outrun the creature. But if it took to the water and got ahead of him- and even if it didn't, sooner or later the tide would come in. Then he would have to face the creature in the water. Clumsy though it might be on land, he was sure it would be deadly in the water.

Slip into the water here, quietly, and try to slip away unseen and unscented? A gamble, with certain and gruesome death at the end of the game if he lost. If the creature did not lose his trail, things would once more come down to a fight in the water. Such a fight could end only one way.

No, he would have to fight the creature here, on land, where he could match his speed and wits against its tons of muscle and ferocity. And he would have to kill or cripple it. Wounded and enraged, it would follow his trail like a gigantic, scaled bloodhound, and track him down just as surely.

Weapons. If he hadn't had some notion of the weapons he would be using, Blade would never have considered a death-duel with the creature. But there were plenty of loose stones lying around that were small enough for handy throwing-by a man with a sure eye and a strong arm. Blade had both.

Some of the rocks would split and shatter into pieces as sharp as knives and a great deal heavier. They could also be thrown or used to stab through the heavy scales-if the creature got close enough. It would probably come to that. Blade doubted if he could get through the scales and bone into a vital spot from any distance. But there were always the eyes.

Blade reached out an arm, and hefted a rock the size of an orange. He judged its weight and lifted it over his head. Then in a single motion he sprang to the top of his rock and hurled the stone at the creature's head.

His aim was off enough to make the stone miss the head. It cracked against the scaly neck a foot below the base of the skull, bounced off, and dropped into the sea with a splash. The creature arched its neck and let out another long hiss. The tiny head bobbed up and down and darted from side to side, looking for the enemy. But Blade dropped down behind his rock the moment the stone left his hand. Gradually the creature began to lose interest and the head slowed. As it did, Blade grasped another stone. In a moment when the head hung motionless, broadside on to him, he threw the second stone.

This one struck even harder than the first-and struck its target. It smashed into the side of the creature's mouth. Blade saw yellow splinters of broken teeth shower down into the sea. The creature reared up as if it had been jolted by an electric shock, and let out a roar that half deafened Blade. As the head rose high and was silhouetted against the sky, he let go a third rock and saw it hit. Once again he scrambled up the rock behind him and went to the other side. Once again the creature's head came down with a crash, and its jaws slammed shut on empty air, where Blade had been only seconds before.

This time Blade rose from his cover with rocks in both hands. He threw them-one, two-as hard as he could. At this range, perhaps he could stun the creature.

One rock missed completely, and the other bounced harmlessly off the ridge above the left eye. The ridge cracked, but the creature's skull must have been far too thick. Blade would have to try for the eyes, then close in and kill it-definitely kill it, for he could not just blind the creature and leave it to die.

Blade got off one more stone before he had to shift position again. This one he aimed straight at the right eye, hitting just below it. Broken scales hung down below the eye as the creature's head rose and Blade scrambled for safety.

This time his first refuge offered no stones handy for throwing. So he had to keep scrambling on. With a massive rumbling and grating of disturbed stones, the creature lurched after him, hissing like a leaky boiler. Blade had to roll aside from a dart of the head, then duck around a boulder to safety. Eventually he found himself within easy reach of more throwing stones. Even better, one of the larger rocks was of the black splintery material. Several knife-sharp slivers had already been broken off.

By now Blade was sweating with the exertion and the strain and was bruised and gouged all over. Blood and sweat ran down his body and mixed in a slippery, stinging mess. He tried not to think about what would happen if some large and hungry fish picked up the scent of blood as he swam.

The scent of blood was certainly helping the creature trace him now. It wriggled and heaved itself forward after him, the long neck swaying, the long tail lashing back and forth, sending small stones hurtling into the sea. Every few seconds, the long yellow teeth would part, and a steam-engine hiss would come out. Blade picked up two stones and flung them hard at the head as it came snaking down toward him.

One struck low, taking the creature in the throat in the middle of a hiss. The hiss cut off abruptly. Then the other stone struck hard into the right eye. Blade heard the crunch of thin bone, saw blood spurt, and heard the creature scream in an awful mixture of pain and rage. The head flailed around frantically as the creature tried to watch Blade with its one remaining eye.

But Blade moved too fast for his enemy. He bent and picked up a rock so large that he needed both hands to lift it. Raising it high over his head, he threw it as hard as he could at the creature's, blind side. The rock crashed and clattered on the boulders. The creature's head swung toward the sound, jaws gaping. Blade bent and picked up two of the sharp rock splinters. Then he ran forward, leaping from rock to rock like a mountain goat, ignoring the danger of falling, in his need for speed. He had to get close to the creature and find a vital spot before it could turn to meet him. Otherwise he would die, snapped in two by foot-long yellow teeth or pulped under twenty tons of scaly flesh as it rolled over him.

He leaped to the top of the last rock, then sprang for the creature's back, legs uncoiling in a desperate snap of powerful muscles. He soared eight feet through the air and landed on the black scales. Before the creature could react to Blade's sudden impact, Blade was swarming up its neck. The neck writhed and twisted under him, but he held on and clamped his legs so hard around it that the heavy scales rubbed his flesh raw. After a moment the creature seemed to quiet down. Blade risked loosening the death grip with his legs. The creature still seemed quiet. In a single furious rush, Blade hauled himself up the neck and plunged one of his rock daggers into the intact left eye. He drove the sharp point deep, seeking the brain.

Whether he reached it or not, he never knew. A monstrous convulsion tore through the creature's entire frame. The neck and head shot up into the air, as Blade locked arms and legs again. For a long moment the creature's head towered twenty feet above the rocks, the long neck swaying like a tree in a high wind. Then, like a released bow, the neck snapped hard to the right.

The jerk broke Blade's grip as though it were the grip of a child. He sailed into the air, losing his grip on the other dagger as he went. For a ghastly moment he thought he was going to crash down on the rocks. Then he saw crystal-clear blue-green water underneath him, the gray shapes of weed-grown rocks lurking below the surface. He had just time enough to take a deep breath and close his mouth before he plunged into the water.

The shock nearly knocked Blade's wind out of him. He plunged under, going deep, feeling the coolness and the stinging of the salt in his wounds. He churned furiously with arms and legs, trying to keep himself off the rocks. He could still smash into them hard enough to-

Ten feet down, he hit the rocks. But he did not hit hard enough to do any damage-just hard enough to knock the rest of the breath out of him. He clawed for the surface, feeling his lungs burn and seeing the water around him turn black. Then he burst back up into the sunlight and the air.

For a moment he was too busy gulping in air to worry about the creature. Then he realized that the only sound around him was the wind and the rumble of the waves on the rocks. The hissing, the screams, the scraping of twenty scaly tons on rock-they were gone. Blade trod water and raised his head to look toward the reef. His eyes widened in surprise. The creature lay sprawled motionless across the reef, head almost at the water's edge. Blood from its wounds dripped down onto the rocks and into the water. Already small fish were darting frantically around in the blood-darkened water.

Blade found it hard to believe that the creature had died so quickly, so easily. But in any case he had better get out of the water before any larger and hungrier fish were drawn to the blood. He caught a projecting rock and hauled himself up on the reef with only a few more scratches.

As he did, something on the creature's head flashed sunlight into his eyes. He blinked and looked hard. Something metallic was glinting from the base of the skull. Blade stepped over to the corpse and looked down.

It was a crossbow bolt, a shaft of iron-hard wood driven deep into the base of the creature's skull with almost surgical precision. Blade reached down to pull it out. It was driven in so deeply that he had to use both hands and brace his foot against the scaly skin before he could pull the bolt out. It was a good two feet long, tipped with translucent green stone and finned with what looked like thin-sliced bone.

Where had it come from? Blade didn't know. He wasn't at all happy about not knowing, either. Whoever had fired that bolt into the creature's skull could very well still be lurking within range, ready and perhaps willing to put a second bolt through his own skull. Blade was even unhappier about that idea. He promptly went to cover behind a large rock, then shifted position until he was at least partly covered on all four sides. Very cautiously he raised his head and slowly scanned a complete circle around him.

The cliffs? No, they were out of range, unless the crossbow had the range and power of an antitank gun. The reef itself? There was certainly enough cover along the quarter-mile of tumbled rocks to hide a battalion of archers. But where could they have come from? And in any case, that bolt looked as though it had come from another direction-from the sea. Except that there was nothing visible out to sea. Nothing except the swell and surge of the blue-green waves, little flickers of foam, and the gold sparkle of the sun. No ships, no boats, not even a raft or a-

Wait a minute! There was something in the water about two hundred yards out. Blade rose partly out of cover to get a better look. Yes, something was out there. A small dark shape like a human head, then another, then a third. Swimmers? Divers? Blade ducked down again; so did the heads. On the surface of the water there was suddenly a smooth patch, as though a large fish had dived.

Blade didn't quite like the way those heads had disappeared. It didn't look like the movements of human swimmers. That was the least pleasant thought of all. But he was also curious to see what might be lurking out there, under those crystal seas. Once again he cautiously raised himself to get a better look.

This time he saw them clearly. Far down in the water, perhaps a hundred feet or more, were three moving shapes. They had human form, but no human ever moved so smoothly, so effortlessly through deep water. There was no sign of breathing gear either, not even a silver flash of escaping bubbles. There were mermen down there. Something-somebody-human or humanoid was down there, as much at home in the crystal seas as any fish.

Now the three were rising toward the surface, rising toward Blade. One of them carried a crossbow; the other two carried spears. Blade saw the light glint on the spearheads as they rose toward him. No, definitely, they were not wearing any breathing gear. They slid upward through the water with nothing on their lithe bodies, except fins on their feet and belts and loin-guards around their waists. Blade rummaged around to find another handy-sized throwing stone. But he hoped he wouldn't have another fight on his hands. These-beings-were armed. That meant intelligence, and perhaps the chance of friendship. If they would just continue their approach-

They did. Now Blade could make out that one of them was female-unmistakably, magnificently female. There was a pale bluish tinge to her skin and a deep greenness in her hair. But there was also a lithe and lush body that rose through the water with almost frightening ease and grace. The three were less than twenty feet down now. In another moment Blade knew he would almost be able to read the expressions on those silvery-blue faces with their great golden eyes. Would they be friendly or-? He dropped the stone and got ready to stand up and hold his hands out peacefully.

In an instant the three merpeople had stiffened, going rigid and almost vertical in the water. They seemed to be listening for something, their heads turning back and forth. Then in a movement of unearthly grace, they flipped head downward. Finned feet kicking furiously, they plummeted down into the sea, until he could no longer make them out even as flickers of movement in the depths. Then he raised his head and saw why they had dived away.

A large ship with two masts and three square sails was rounding the point to the left. One of the sails was a dull silvery-gray, and on it was a black trident. Its deck was littered with barrels and boxes, and its railing lined with people.

Blade stood up and began waving frantically. He was not surprised when some of the people at the ship's railing began waving back or when others began lowering a small boat over the railing. But he was almost disappointed as well. The ship's crew looked like normal human beings, and there would probably be less danger among them. But now he might never have anything more to do with the merpeople than that one tantalizing almost-meeting. Unsatisfied curiosity nagged at Blade as he sat on his rock and watched the boat row toward him.