‘Go see your relatives,' Namid said, startling everyone, including Dinah. 'They'd be more trustworthy than that Satok fellow. Well, you always told me that some of your relatives, way back, were exiled to Petaybee.’
‘That was the rumour I was raised with. Which, I might add, I checked out on the company computer,' Dinah said, then shrugged. 'I'm not at all sure I'd trust their records. Or anything about the planet.’
‘O'Neill? There are O'Neills at Tanana Bay,' Bunny said, regarding Dinah with a keener interest.
So swiftly did Dinah O'Neill withdraw then that the heavy door-panel had whooshed shut before they realized her intention. Megenda and the crewman had followed smoothly, however, and the captives were left alone.
‘Now, you've done it,' Diego said accusingly to Bunny. 'We had her…’
‘I think Bunny may well have done it,' Marmion said quietly and respectfully.
‘It'll take time for Dinah to absorb the fact of her error,' Namid said thoughtfully. 'But she's extremely intelligent and very flexible. She'd have to be to survive so long in this business. She's usually able to influence Louchard…’
‘You think she'll try to talk him into letting us go?' Bunny asked wistfully, her face crumpling into tears. Forgetting his flash of resentment, Diego cradled her in his arms, stroking her hair and murmuring little hispanic endearments.
Marmion dampened the one towel they had in the room and handed it to him to place over the cut on her cheek. Perversely enough, the tickle returned to Yana's throat and she was unable to stop the reflex. She tried very hard but a spasm racked her again. Namid hastily poured a dose of the medicine for her and she managed to stop hacking long enough to swallow it.
14
Sean swam with the single-minded fish schools until they reached the lake, where the fish all at once made a single silver river into another of the underwater caves. Sean followed and when the water grew too shallow, the fish turned back, but he was in another dry grotto. As he was changing form, he saw the phosphorescence once more organize into a straight line, this time pointing inland. Once his feet were under him again, he followed it. Though Sean had swum the waterways of Petaybee all his life, these caves and passages were new to him, the most recent seismic activity. The line of luminescence led him through passages towards the cries for help that were first only echoes like the one he had heard near Kilcoole, but soon became the faint cries of real voices.
When he turned a corner and saw the five hunters, he almost laughed at the expressions of terrified anger and frustration on their faces. One of them, de Peugh he thought, had developed a distinct twitch and his hair had a great deal more white in it than Sean remembered as well as a tendency to stand straight up. Minkus was gibbering to himself and Ersol kept looking around the cave and up at the opening they had fallen through as if it was about to eat him. The wooden Petaybean weapons Sinead had substituted for their high-tech rifles were piled together in a little heap that someone had tried to set on fire for warmth, he supposed, all but the dagger Mooney clutched in his fist as he pointed to Sean and yelled.
‘You're another damned hallucination! Go away! Nobody walks around bare-assed in this weather.’
‘We have nothing for you, honestly,' Minkus cried, cringing away. 'We gave the rabbit de Peugh had in his pocket to the cat. It would have eaten us otherwise. Please, please don't harm us!’
Sean glanced apologetically down at his own now-human flesh. 'Harm you? What with? I thought you lads wanted help.’
‘Oh, we do, we do!' Minkus cried. 'We've been down here days, weeks, months. It's been the most horrible nightmare. The walls shift and melt and little lights come on and sometimes I see little volcanoes exploding and then when I look again there's nothing…’
Sean shook his head. 'You can't have been down here more than a few hours. Where're my sister and the others?’
‘They abandoned us to be eaten by wild beasts,' Minkus said.
‘Well, we do have a saying here on Petaybee that some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you, but mostly it's not to be taken literally. Shall we find a way to get you out of here?’
‘We'll follow you back the way you came,' Mooney said.
Sean grinned. 'Not unless you can hold your breath for a very long time. How'd you get down here?’
‘We fell!' Ersol pointed to the hole, far above them. With the arrival of someone who was probably able to extricate them from their captivity, his dignity was restored. 'We were lucky we weren't bloody killed. We could sue…’
Sean laughed harder. 'Sue what? The planet? You are, to all legal intents and purposes, trespassing on private property. Very private property.’
‘Private… vat… vat… vatapplied for hunting licences,' Minkus complained, his voice shrill with hysteria.
‘Which were not yet granted, I must warn you. Nor would they have been. However, follow me.’
Sean had spotted the dotted line which Petaybee had illuminated to guide him and now struck out through the remainder of the underground passage leading away from the lake.
‘Hey, man, how come you're not wearing anything?' Ersol asked, staring at him.
‘I… er… was swimming when I heard you yelling for help,' Sean said.
‘Why aren't you freezing?' Minkus demanded. Clot-worthy was also staring in disbelief at their saviour.
‘Oh,' and Sean shrugged, looking down himself as if he might have changed shape since he last looked, 'adaptation to Petaybee. And it's not all that cold down here, you know. You wouldn't have frozen to death by any manner or means.’
‘No, just died of starvation…' Mooney said, licking his lips.
‘Not that either,' Sean said, 'but I'm sure we can find you something to eat when we get where we're going.’
‘Where are we going?’
All five had fallen into a single line behind him as he strode purposefully through the passage, the little line of phosphorescence popping out just ahead of them. Petaybee was full of new tricks these days, he thought with no small degree of wonder. New passages, new ways of communicating direction, and that extremely idiosyncratic and erratic echo.
‘All I know right now is that we're getting out of here. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine,' Sean said.
'Now, guess, guess.'
‘Oh, frag, there it is again. That voice! Once it sounded like it was crying some woman's name. Listen. What is it?' Mooney demanded on a semi-hysterical note. He crouched down, brandishing his dagger, his eyes showing whites all the way around like a spooked curly's.
Tetaybee,' Sean replied amiably, without breaking stride. The others rushed to keep up with him. He really must discover how to bring clothing with him when he went selkying. Despite his disclaimer, the temperature was not all that high in the tunnels.
‘Does it do that often? Echo you?’
‘It wasn't echoing me.’
‘It wasn't?' Ersol lost his pomposity again.
‘If it wasn't,' Minkus said with the edge of fear in his voice, 'who's speaking?’
‘I told you - Petaybee.’
'Petaybee!'
‘Now, see here, Shongili, that was an echo.’
‘Was it?’
'Petaybee.'
‘Oh, my gawd!' Ersol said, his voice quavering badly. 'Lemme outta here!’
‘It can't be far now. The passage is getting narrower and sloping up - we should be reaching the surface soon,' Sean said encouragingly.
And they did. Walking up an incline, they emerged from the side of a hill into a cool snow-laden wind that required all Sean's physical control to resist shivering.