A dozen attempts later he gave up. The summit of the wall was too smooth to offer a hold and he was sweating with the effort of casting the grapnel. Dropping the rope he rested the side of his face against the wall and studied the unbroken expanse. Light shimmered from it as if it had been polished. Even at the place blasted by the explosives it resembled the sheen of a mirror. Against his cheek it felt neither hot nor cold, the temperature equal to his own.
Entering the ship he heard voices raised in argument.
"Do you think I gimmick the fuse?" The engineer's voice was a roar. "Is that what you're saying?"
"I'm trying to understand." Usan Labria was sharp. "You gave him the detonators and fuses, right?"
"Yes."
"And you didn't go back with him when they failed to work. So-"
"So you think I refused because I knew the charges would blow? Woman, you're crazy! You know anything about explosives?"
"A little."
"Then listen. The stuff was safety plastic and you could hit it with a hammer and it would remain inert. Earl shot at it with no effect. The detonators were chemical-cascade; three units-the first blowing the second, the second the third, the third doing the job. "Got that?"
"The fuse?"
"Again chemical. Regular burn and normally you could set a watch by it, but things can happen. A fuse can volley- burn faster than expected, the flame jumping at accelerated speed. Or it can die, but when it does there's always the chance that it's still alive. The flame just moves slower, that's all. Acilus knew that but he was too damned impatient." Timus ended bleakly, "It cost him his life."
They were all in the salon aside from Embira, Usan Labria breathing deeply, the locket containing her drugs clutched in one hand. Pacula rose as Dumarest entered.
"I'd better go and look after the girl."
"Leave her." Marek toyed with his cards. "She isn't a baby."
"She's blind. Have you forgotten?"
"We're all blind when asleep, my dear." He turned three cards, pursed his lips, then gathered up the deck. "You worry about her too much."
"And you too little."
"Not so." Marek smiled, his teeth, sharp and regular, flashing in the light. "I think of her often and, when she is close, it is easy to forget her disability. Her charms negate her lack of vision and it would be no handicap. After all, are not fingers the eyes of the night?"
"You're vile!"
"No, my dear," he said blandly. "Not vile-human. She is a woman, is she not? And I am a man."
"Degenerate filth!" She stood looking down at him, her eyes cold. "I warn you, Marek Cognez. If you touch her I'll-"
"Do what?" He rose to face her, his eyes as hard and bleak as her own. "You threaten me? That is a challenge I am tempted to accept. And if I should take the girl what could you do? Nothing. Nothing."
"Perhaps not," said Dumarest. "But I could. Touch Embira and you'll answer to me."
"A challenge multiplied." For a moment Marek held his eyes, and then abruptly, shrugged and smiled. "You make the odds too great, Earl. A woman, what is that to come between friends? And we are friends, are we not?"
Dumarest said, "Pacula, if you're going to the girl go now." As she left the salon he sat and looked at Marek. "One day you'll go too far. And you're wrong about Pacula not being able to take revenge. Any woman can use a knife against a man when he is asleep. She may not kill you, but she could ruin your face and teach you what it is to be blind."
"And you, Earl?"
"I'd kill you."
A cold statement of fact which the man accepted for what it was. Even so, the devil within him forced him on.
"An interesting development, Earl. Had another man made that threat I would assume him to be in love with the girl. Or are you anticipating the future and the enjoyment of unsullied goods?"
Timus said quickly, "Be careful, Marek."
"Another warning? This seems to be a time of warnings. Even the cards are full of dire prophecy. A pity the captain had no trust in my skill. But then-one less and the more to share."
"The more of what?" Jarv Nonach gestured with his pomander. "As yet we have found nothing, and unless we can break through the walls, we'll remain empty-handed. Did you have any luck?"
"No," admitted Dumarest.
"Then what is left?" The navigator looked from one to the other. "I say we should leave here and return later with rafts and-"
"No!" Sufan's hand slammed on the table. "No!"
"What point in staying? With the captain dead I am in command of the Mayna. I am a fair man and as eager as any of you to find treasure, but the wall beats us. How long are we to sit looking at it? I say we leave. With rafts and other equipment we could crack that city open like a nut."
"We stay!" Sufan Noyoka was trembling with passion. "To have come so far, to have risked so much-we stay!"
"For a little longer." The navigator rose, his face drawn, determined. "But not for too long. I command the Mayna now and when I leave you may come or stay as you wish."
Dumarest said, "We are partners, Jarv. Sufan Noyoka leads this expedition."
"Then why doesn't he accept the obvious? It's our lives as well as his. Acilus is dead-how many more must follow him? Without equipment we haven't a chance. No, Earl, I've decided. One more day and then I leave."
A threat he might have carried out had he been allowed, but when the blue sun rose and the yellow sank he was dead.
* * *
Dumarest heard the cry and was running, catching Usan Labria as she fell, following the finger of her pointing hand.
"Earl," she gasped. "I found him. The navigator-under that bush."
She was quivering, her lips blue, pain contorting her raddled features. Dumarest passed her to Timus as he came running, Marek at his side.
"Earl?"
"Take her back to the ship. Get hold of Pacula, she knows what to do."
"And Jarv?"
"I'll see what's wrong."
There was nothing he could do. The man sat with his back against a bole, his head slumped forward down on his chest, one hand clenched at his side, the other open, the pomander lying an inch from his fingers. Dumarest halted Marek as he moved forward.
"Wait. Look around. See if you can spot tracks of any kind."
"On this moss?"
"The stems could be broken. Look."
A heavy weight would have left an impression but nothing could be found aside from the marks of the navigator's footprints and those left by Usan and themselves. Dumarest quested in a wide circle, frowning as he rejoined Marek.
"Nothing?"
"No."
"Which means nothing jumped him from the vegetation," mused Marek. "He must have come out here to sit, maybe to think and plan, resting his back against the bole and then something happened. But what? There seems to be no sign of a struggle. Poison of some kind? Those blooms, Earl! The bush he is under bears blossom. Could they have emitted a lethal vapor of some kind?"
"Perhaps." Dumarest glanced at the sky. This world was strange, beneath the varying influence of the suns anything could happen. "Be careful now, don't get too close."
Holding his breath he lifted the dead man's face. It was tranquil, the open eyes glazed, the lips slightly parted. The skin was cool and a little moist. Death had come quickly.
Marek said, "Shall we bury him, Earl?"