"Rossss?" Only a Hawaikan could make that name a hiss.
"Here! Loketh?" But of course it was Loketh.
"I am here." The other's voice sounded oddly weak as if it issued from a man drained by a long illness.
"What happened to you?" Ross demanded.
"The fire ... the fire in my head—eating ... eating...." Loketh's reply came with long pauses between the words.
The Terran was puzzled. What fire? Loketh had certainly reacted to something beyond the unceremonious handling they had received as captives. This whole ship had reacted. And the dolphins.... But what fire was Loketh talking about?
"I did not feel anything," he stated to himself as well as to the Hawaikan.
"Nothing burning in your head? So you could not think—"
"No."
"It must have been the Foanna magic. Fire eating so that a man is nothing, only that which fire feeds upon!"