The Torian Pearls

Chapter 15

The Menel were so intent on what was happening in the water that Blade probably could have charged down on a horse without alerting them. He had seldom been able to take an opponent so completely by surprise.

He threw one spear with all his strength at the control box. He aimed between the two Menel, and the spear sank a foot deep into the box. The humming died instantly and most of the lights went out. The two signalers turned to face Blade, but since neither of them was armed he ignored them.

He charged the Menel commander, letting out his breath in a roaring battle cry as he went, hoping to startle or distract the being. The Menel was just beginning to turn on its base, the arms that held the weapon swinging upward, when Blade came in with a leaping side kick. Both feet drove into the Menel with all of Blade's speed and all of his two hundred and ten pounds behind them. The Menel weighed half again as much, but it was caught too far off balance. It tottered, the two free arms flailing the air wildly, claws snapping within inches of Blade. Then it went over on its side with a thud and a peculiar warbling cry.

Blade recovered while the Menel was going over. As it landed he was on top of it, striking with the flat of his longsword at the two arms holding the weapon. He not only didn't want to hurt the Menel, he didn't want to damage the weapon if he could avoid it.

The Menel shivered all over at the impact of Blade's sword. One of the claws gripping the weapon opened feebly, the other clicked convulsively, trying to tighten its grip. Blade grabbed the free end of the weapon and jerked it loose. He sprang away from the fallen Menel, just as the two signalers made up their minds to charge him.

They lurched across the ground at him faster than he'd thought they could move, so fast that he had no time to find out how to activate the weapon. He sprang aside from their charge, dropping his longsword and gripping the Menel weapon in both hands like a quarterstaff. He held it crosswise in front of him as the claws reached out.

One of the lunging claws struck the firing control. A beam of eye-searing crimson light darted from the lens at the muzzle. Air crackled and boomed as the crimson beam tore through it.

In the path of the beam lay three full grown trees. Without smoke or flame, sparks or even very much noise, the beam sliced through all three of them as if they'd been straws. Broken branches and solid pieces of wood fell to the ground with cracklings and thuds.

Blade hastily backed away, slapping the square plate that seemed to be the trigger for the beamer. The beam cut off. The two Menel signalers backed away almost as fast as they'd charged, separating as they went. Blade swung the beamer down and aimed it at the control box. The weapon was awkward to handle, being designed for beings nine feet tall, but it weighed no more than twenty pounds.

As they saw Blade taking aim, the two Menel seemed to panic. They slammed all four claws down on the ground and heaved themselves wildly along. In their fear they were so grotesque and ludicrous that Blade burst out laughing.

He fired again. The crimson beam sliced into the control box, and it fell into two pieces as neatly as any piece of meat divided by a hutcher's cleaver. Blade fired again, running the beam along the wires leading into the water, watching them jump and twist and dissolve like sugar lumps dropped into hot coffee.

By this time the Menel commander was heaving itself erect again. One claw clumsily gripped Blade's longsword. Two other claws reached out for the remaining laser. Blade ducked under a wild swing of the sword and fired the beamer with the lens held almost against the laser. The laser fell into half a dozen pieces and something inside it blazed up fiercely with an angry hiss and a cloud of stinking green smoke. The Menel dropped the last piece as if it had suddenly turned red hot and backed away, swaying from side to side like a tree in a high wind. It stood there for a moment. Blade had the sense of being stared at intently and judged by nonhuman senses and a still more nonhuman but keen intelligence. Then the last Menel turned and followed the two signalers toward the water. Blade went to work with the beamer, systematically wrecking every container and piece of equipment in sight.

Meanwhile, the five swimmers had broken off the implant operation. Blade saw the circle around the drugged reptile break up and saw the half-opened skull sink out of sight. That reptile at least wouldn't be troubling anyone again.

The other eight reptiles were just beginning to react, as their sluggish wits struggled to grasp the new situation. The last wild one suddenly found that its herders were no longer paying any attention to it. Foam churned around it as it dove away for open water.

The seven implanted reptiles were slowly realizing that no one was sending commands through their brains any more. They seemed totally unaware of the eight Menel in the water, all swimming furiously toward the submarine.

Blade didn't much care for what he had to do next. The submarine was the last chance the Menel had for rejoining their comrades elsewhere, or even fighting off the reptiles now. It still had to be destroyed, for it was also their last chance for catching and killing Blade on his way back to the safety of the land.

Blade raised the beamer and sighted on the submarine's conning tower. As he did, one of the Menel raised a laser and let fly wildly. A beam of green light flashed close enough for Blade to feel searing-hot air blow painfully across one leg. Then he slapped the trigger plate of the beamer.

The submarine's conning tower exploded upward on top of a pillar of foam and steam. It shot ten feet into the air, then splashed back among the Menel. They stopped swimming as the wave from the explosion swept over them. Now they were too close to the submarine for Blade to have another clear shot at its bow. He shifted his aim, and with another pulse of the beam blew off the stern. Then Blade picked up his fallen sword, tucked the beamer under one arm, and started back the way he'd come. Seven uncontrolled and angry reptiles would certainly be enough to keep eight Menel too busy to think any more about Richard Blade.

Blade was tempted to leave the beamer and swim back to shore. He could probably go faster that way than aboard the raft. But he wasn't sure how long the beasts would be occupied with the Menel, or how well the beamer would work after it got wet. Besides, he wanted to get it back to shore if he could. He might need something to convince the Kargoi of what they faced, if a time suddenly came when they had to be told. He could hardly think of anything more convincing than the beamer.

So he sprinted through the darkness along the shore to where he'd left the raft. He slashed the line with his sword and leaped aboard. The raft dove several inches deep under the impact, then bobbed to the surface. Blade put down the beamer, snatched up the paddle, and began paddling as if a dozen of the sea reptiles were already hard on his trail.

It seemed forever before the little island began receding in the darkness. At last Blade felt free to turn and look toward the shore. The fires there were blazing higher, and smaller dots of light moving back and forth along the shore told Blade of lit torches. He wondered what wild guesses the watchers were making about what they saw and heard, and paddled on. Slowly the island faded behind him, and so did the noise of the battle the Menel were fighting against the sea beasts.

A little while longer, and Blade could begin to make out individual figures moving along the shore, in and out of the pools of light thrown by the fires. In another few minutes he'd be in water shallow enough to slow the attack of the great reptiles, and…

The sea behind him rose into two glistening mounds, and a too familiar roaring hiss rolled across the water.

As the fanged heads broke the surface and rose dripping and terrible, Blade was already lifting the beamer. The two beasts surged forward, Blade's hand came down on the trigger plate, and the crimson beam vanished into the mouth of the one on the left. The whole top of the skull came off, with bits of bone and teeth, hide, flesh, and brain tissue raining down. Blade shifted his aim as the second beast came at him, ignoring the fate of the first one. Again his hand came down on the trigger plate, and this time nothing happened.

Blade struck the trigger plate a second time, a third. Broken or exhausted, the beamer was certainly useless for the moment. Blade shifted it to his left hand and drew his longsword with his right. He still had a chance, if the beast would stay on the surface and not have the sense to dive and come up under the raft.

It came on. Its head reared high above Blade, they scraping and clashing of long teeth added to the hisses and roars. Then the head dipped toward him.

Blade saw the yard-wide mouth descending on him and thrust upward with the useless beamer, ramming it between the filth-caked teeth. At the same time he struck with his sword, putting every bit of his strength into the slash. Even the beast's rugged hide could not stand up under such a blow. Hide and flesh gaped open to the bone all across the beast's nose. It jerked its head back with a convulsive whipping of the long neck, roaring deafeningly. Blade thrust his sword into its scabbard and plunged over the side of the raft.

He dove deep, striking out toward the shore. Hopefully the wounded beast would be distracted by the beamer, then by the raft. By that time he would be safely on land. It was a faint hope, but all he had. He thrust himself furiously through the black depths until a burning in his lungs warned him that his breath was about to run out. He lunged toward the surface and thrust his head up for a gulp of air.

The beast floated now with its head high in the air, twisting about wildly. Between the teeth Blade saw the beamer shining. Good. He'd gained a few seconds head start, at least. He took a deep breath, then got ready to dive again.

As Blade's head was about to dip under, the beast's jaws clamped down hard on the beamer. Somehow that triggered the release of all the weapon's stored energy in a single explosive second. Gold and crimson flame flared where the reptile's head had been, and its last hissing roar was lost in the thunderous crash of the explosion. Bits of charred flesh and bone sprayed down into the water like the blast of a shotgun, kicking up the water all around Blade.

For another moment the mangled stump of the beast's neck waved high in the air, as its body obeyed the last few signals from the now shattered brain. Then it dropped limply into the water, throwing up a wave that washed over Blade's head. By the time he could see again the beast had sunk out of sight, and nothing was left from the battle except a few stray planks of the raft.

So much for using the beamer to convince anybody of anything! At least he was alive, instead of making a meal for one of the reptiles, and now he wouldn't have to worry about how to conceal the beamer until the right time came to reveal it.

On shore the people seemed to be dashing about like ants from a broken hill. It was time to get ashore and try to give them some sort of plausible explanation of what had been going on.

Blade turned and began to swim.