He signaled as he spoke. The discs above Craig moved aside.
His throat all at once too tight to speak, Craig waved back and spiraled his own disc upward.
But as he did so, another saucer swept down—a saucer ridden by a woman he'd never seen before, a woman with an anguished, strain-taut face. "Alien!" Her voice broke ragged. "Where is Bukal?"
"Here, T'clar!" He glided up beside her. "What is it? Is there trouble?"
"The village—" Again her voice broke, and for a moment Craig thought she was going to faint. Then, rallying, she burst out, "Bukal, the men from the estate of Lady Vydys—"
"Yes, T'clar—?"
"They were her guards, not of the Baemae."
A numb horror gripped Craig. He hardly heard the rush of words between them.
But ... he had to know.
He blurted: "The woman who was with me—Narla—"