From somewhere within him that clear cold voice had come at his willing—It was a chill wind to cut through the evil vapors of a swampland. In his head the thoughts Arskane had planted long ago were coming to life so clearly that he was confident at last of their truth and Tightness.
“You have fought!”
“Ahhh—” That answering sound was close to the part which Lura might voice when remembering her hunt.
“You have fought,” he repeated for the third time and knew that he had them now. “The Beast Things are dead. These Beast Things—”
That accented word had riveted their full attention.
“You have looked upon the enemy slain—is that not so? Well, I have lain in their hands—and the horror that you know is tenfold in my memory. But I say that you might also look in fear as well as in pride of your victory, for there lies among them a dire promise. My fathers’ fathers fought with these creatures—when still they held to their home burrows. My father died under their claws and fangs. Long have we known them. But now there has been born amongst them something stronger—something which threatens us as the burrow creepers of old never did. Ask it of your wise men, warriors. Ask them what they found in the circle of the dead within that barrier up there—wh*at may come again to plague us in future years. Tell these your people, oh, healer of bodies.” He addressed himself to the Plains white robe. “And you, oh, Lady.” He spoke to the woman chief. “What have you seen?”
It was the woman who replied first.
“I saw and heard many things. In the seeing there was nothing to doubt. I hope with all my heart that your conjectures are mistaken. There lay among the Beast dead one who was different. And if the fates are against us, then this one will be born again among them—again and again. And, its knowledge being greater, so will it prove a worse menace to us and all human beings. Thus, because this may be true, I say that those who are humankind must stand together and put a united sword wall against these things bred out of the ancient evil of the cities which was sown by the Old Ones—”
“It is true that mutants may come of mutant stock.” The white robe spoke after her almost against his will. “And these Beast Things were led and ordered as never has their race been before. When their strange chief fell they were broken, as if their knowledge was all blotted out in that single death. If they breed more such as he, then they shall prove a force we must reckon with. We know but little of these creatures and what their powers may be. How can we guess now what we shall be called to go up against a year, ten years, a generation from now? This land is wide and there may be much hiding within its vastness which is a menace to our breed—”
“The land is wide,” Fors repeated. “What do you and your tribe seek for here, Lanard?”