Eye of Cat Part 15

Even than death."

"What are these things? Why must you follow this trail?"

He took several deep breaths and continued to stare at the ground, as if considering it for the first time.

"I await myself at its ending," he said at last, "as I should

be. If I do not follow this trail, it will be a different sort of death."

"Worse, I think," he added.

"We may not be able to help you if you go on."

"Then that is as it must be," he said. "Thank you for trying."

"We hear you," said the totem as it sank slowly into the ground, face by face sliding from view beneath stone, until only the final, shadowy one remained for an instant, smiling, it seemed, at him. "Gamble, then," it seemed to whisper, and then it, too, was gone.

He rubbed his eyes, but nothing changed. He went on.

...I walk on an invisible arch, feet ready to bear me anywhere.

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"My G.o.d!" Elizabeth said, sinking back into her chair.

Alex Mancin poured a gla.s.s of water and drained it.

"Yes," said Fisher, ma.s.saging his temples.

Mercy Spender commenced a coughing spell which lasted for close to half a minute.

"Now what?." Fisher said softly.

Mancin shook his head.

"I don't know."

"Ironbear was right about his thinking he's in another world," Elizabeth said. "We're not going to move him."

"The h.e.l.l with that," Fisher said. "We tried, and we got through, even if he did turn us into a totem. That's not what's bothering me, and you know it."

"He was there," Mercy said, "in the spirit."

"Somebody call the hospital and make sure Sands is really dead," Fisher said.

"I don't see how they could be mistaken, Charles,"

Elizabeth said. "But Mercy is right. He was with us, some- how, and it seems as if he's still somewhere near."

"Yes," Mercy put in. "He is here."

"You don't need the spirit hypothesis for what I think happened," Mancin finally stated.

"What do you mean?" Elizabeth asked.

"Just the memory of how he died. We were all of us together, functioning as that single ent.i.ty of which we under- stand so little. I think that the trauma of his death served to produce something like a holograph of his mind within our greater consciousness. When we are apart like this it is weakened, but we all bear fainter versions, which is why we seem to have this sense of his presence. When we recreated the larger ent.i.ty just now, the recombination of the traces was sufficient to reproduce a total functioning replica of his - mind as it was."

"You see him as a special kind of memory when we are in that state?" Elizabeth asked. "Will it fade eventually, do you think?"

"Who can say?"

"So what do we do now?" Fisher asked.

"Check on Singer, I suppose, at regular intervals," Man- cin said, -and renew the invitation to be picked up if he'll climb to some recognizable feature."

"He'll just keep refusing. You saw how fixed that mental set of his was."

"Probably - unless something happens to change it. You never know. But I've been thinking about some of the things Ironbear said. He's owed the chance, and we seem the only ones who can give it to him."

"Okay by me. It seems harmless enough. Just don't ask me to go after that alien beast again. Once was enough."

"I'm not too anxious to touch it myself." '

"What about Ironbear?"

"What about him?"

"Shouldn't we try to get in touch and let him know what we're doing?"

"What for? He's mad. He'll just shut us out. Let him call us when he's ready."

"I'd hate to see him do anything foolish."

"Like what?"

"Like go after that thing and find it."

Mancin nodded.

"Maybe you're right. I still don't think he'd listen, but -"

"He might listen to me," Fisher said, "but I'm not sure I can reach him myself at this distance."

"Why don't we locate the nearest trip-box to that canyon and go there?" Elizabeth said. "It will probably make every- thing easier."

"Aren't Indian reservations dry?" Mercy asked.

"Let's tell Tedders and get our stuff together. We'll meet back here in fifteen minutes," Fisher said.

"Walter thinks it's a good idea, too," Mercy said.

There is danger where I walk, in my moccasins, leggings, shirt of black obsidian.

My belt is a black arrowsnake.

Black snakes coil and rear about my head.

The zigzag lightning flashes from my feet, my knees, my speaking tongue.

I wear a disk of pollen upon my head.

The snakes eat it.

There is danger where I walk.

I am become something frightful.

I am whirlwind and gray bear.

The lightning plays about me.

There is danger where I walk.

"I dropped him back here," Yellowcloud said, jabbing at the map, and Ironbear nodded, staring down at the outline of the long, sprawled canyons.

The rain, growing sleetlike, pelted against the floatcar in which they sat, parked near the canyon's rim. Reflexively, Ironbear raised the collar of his borrowed jacket. Pretty good fit. Lucky we're both the same size, he decided.

"I watched for a time," Yellowcloud continued, "to make sure he got down okay. He did, and I saw that he headed east then." His finger moved along the map and halted again.

"Now, at this point," he went on, "he could have turned right into Black Rock Canyon or he could have kept on along Canyon del Muerto proper. What do you think?"

"Me? How should I know?"

"You're the witch-man. Can't you hold a stick over the map, or something like that, and tell?"

Ironbear studied the map more closely.

"Not exactly," he said. "I can feel him out there, down there. But a rock wall's just a rock wall to me, whether I'm seeing it through his eyes or my own. However..." He

placed his finger on the map and moved it. "I'd guess he continued along del Muerto. He wanted lots of room, and Black Rock seems to dead-end too soon."

"Good, good. I feel he went that way, too. He chose a spot before it on purpose, I'd say. I'll bet the trail gets confused at the junction." Yellowcloud folded the map, turned off the interior light and started the engine. "Since we both agree," he said, turning the wheel, "I'll bet I can save us some time. I'll bet that if we head on up the rim, past that branch, and if we climb down into del Muerto, we'll pick up his trail along one of the walls."

"It'll be kind of dark."

"I've got goggles and dark-lights. Full spectrum, too."

"Can you figure out where he might be from where you dropped him and how fast he might be going?"

"Bet I can make a good guess. But we don't want to come down right on top of him now."

"Why not?"

"If something's after him, he's liable to shoot at anything he sees coming."

"You've got a point there."

"So we'll go down around Many Turkey cave, Blue Bull Cave - right before the canyon widens. Should be easier to pick up the trail where it's narrow. Then we'll ignore any false signs leading into Twin Trail Canyon and start on after him."

Winds buffeted the small car as it made its way across a nearly trailless expanse, turning regularly to avoid boulders and dips which dropped too abruptly.

"... Then I guess we just provide him with extra fire- power."

"I'd like to try talking him out of it," Ironbear said.

Yellowcloud laughed.

"Sure. You do that," he said.

Ironbear scanned the other's thoughts, saw his impression of the man.

"Oh, well," he said. "At least I learned to shoot in the P- Patrol."

"You were P-Patrol? I almost joined that."

"Why didn't you?"

"Afraid I'd get claustrophobia in one of those beer cans in the sky. I like to be able to see a long way off."

They were silent for a time as they traveled through the