The Torshind left the unconscious body of the centaur and was headed for the Ghiskind when Trelig opened up. He was like a madman, capable of leaping ten meters or more. Coming to rest on any surface—even walls or ceiling—for an instant, he would fire. Suddenly he dropped directly onto the Yaxa.
The Ghiskind’s crystal form leaped now, crashing into them, jarring them away from each other.
Vistaru, flying about, was afraid to move close in for fear of hitting a friend. She looked anxiously about and screamed, “Where’s the damned Torshind?”
Wooley shouted something and Yulin ran out the door. Spitting and using fore-tentacles as whips, the Yaxa also retreated beyond the door, which banged back down noisily.
Vistaru looked around appalled. Both Dillians were either out cold or dead; Burodir was frozen stiff, Renard was unconscious and covered with sticky Yaxa stuff.
She looked at the two survivors with her. “Nothing to do but go get them before they try again!” she yelled.
“I agree,” yelled Trelig, slapping a new energizer into his pistol. “Let’s go!”
“Let me go out the door first!” the Ghiskind cautioned. “I’m harder to kill.”
There was no argument, and out it went, the other two following a second or so later when they heard no sound of struggle.
The hall was deserted, but there was a thin trail of a pale-green ichor leading toward the other room. One of them, probably the Yaxa from the nature of the stuff, had been hurt.
“Take it easy,” the Ghiskind cautioned. “No sense in playing their game all the way. We hurt one, yes, but they’re still a whole party and we’re down to three. It’s even now. If we go charging in there dead on, they’ll just wipe us out. Let’s think a minute.”
Although Mavra and Joshi knew the plan, they were helpless to do anything one way or the other. This was not their fight; they wanted only to survive it.
When Wooley and Yulin had come crashing back through the door, the horses knew that the plan had been only partially successful; there were some gashes in Wooley’s tentacles, too, which slowed the Yaxa a good deal, and a few nasty welts on Yulin’s back. The Torshind entered by other means and slid back into its crystal shell.
“Be ready,” the Yugash warned them. “The few remaining will come at us as soon as they can. It will be hours before they can count on any of their survivors, and they won’t wait that long.”
Wooley’s death’s head nodded. “If I were they, I’d be coming through that door right now. Check your weapons and be at the ready. Yulin! Dim the light so we can make sure the Ghiskind doesn’t pull our own trick on us! Mavra and Joshi, stay back and out of the way!”
They waited tensely for the counterattack, and they didn’t have long.
The door opened slowly, and they all trained their weapons on it, ready to fire as soon as the creature was visible.
It was the Ghiskind’s ptir, against which they had only the energy pistols, but they fired anyway.
Which played right into the Ghiskind’s hand.
The shots ignited a series of smoke and concussion grenades attached to the creature; these went off with a deafening roar that almost blew the door apart and filled the entire area with a dense, acrid yellow smoke.
Everyone was blinded, and Yulin started coughing. As he did so, something struck him hard on the back of the head and neck, knocking him down and rendering him semiconscious. His pistol skidded into the yellow fog.
The Ghiskind, its shell destroyed by the blasts, drifted across the room to the two horselike creatures it saw cowering helplessly against the far wall and entered the first one it encountered, taking control. Suddenly animated, Mavra made for the Torshind’s crystal shell and plowed right into it, sending it sprawling. The horse reared and with its forelegs struck the fragile crystal form repeatedly, shattering it like glass.
The fog began to clear, allowing Trelig and Vistaru—who were wearing the breathers from their space-suits—to join the action.
The Torshind abandoned its ptir for the body nearest it—Wooley’s. The Yaxa was surprised, but the Torshind knew the Yaxa system well and was in complete control almost immediately. It quickly turned on Trelig, spitting the brownish substance.
The material didn’t devastate the reptile as it had the Agitar, but the goo did blind him for a minute. Wooley then turned to the horse, which was finishing the job on the Torshind’s shell, and raised its pistol.
Joshi, still amazed at Mavra’s jumping into the fight, noticed Wooley’s threat to her, although none of the others did. Without thinking, he leaped to the center of the room, placing himself between the Yaxa and Mavra, who was just turning around.
The pistol fired full-force, enveloping Joshi in a blinding electrical light that flickered like a photographic negative and then faded into nothingness.
Seeing this, Mavra’s mind suddenly exploded, expelling the Ghiskind with unexpected force. “Joshi!” she screamed and started for the Yaxa. Disoriented, the Ghiskind followed just above her, almost as if attached. Vistaru, who had managed to fly out of the smoke, saw what had happened and dived for the Yaxa.
At this moment, Ben Yulin was rising shakily to his feet and noticed a blur of motion from the corner of his eye. Lunging for a saddlebag, he flung it with full force at the shape. The saddlebag struck Vistaru straight on, knocking her to the floor and pinning her under it.
She looked up to see Mavra’s horselike form bearing down on the possessed Yaxa, whose pistol rose to meet the threat.
“Kally! For God’s sake fight it! Take control! My God, Kally! She’s our granddaughter!” the Lata screamed.
A tentacle tried to squeeze the trigger, but could not. The Yaxa body convulsed, and Mavra Chang struck, knocking over the Yaxa and landing on top of the butterfly-creature.
Trelig, meanwhile, spied Yulin picking up his pistol, and leaped for the minotaur. Yulin whirled, saw the frog, dived—and the Makiem sailed over him.
Like a swimmer in a sprint, Trelig didn’t miss a stroke. He turned in midair, and his powerful webbed feet struck the wall, propelling him forward again. He landed, somersaulted, and rose with a pistol on Yulin.
And Yulin had his pistol on Trelig.
The Ghiskind, atop Mavra, regained its senses from the stunning mental blow it had received. No mind that strong had ever been experienced by it or any other Yugash.
In the meantime, Mavra extricated herself from the convulsing Yaxa to avoid being crushed. Clearly, a major battle was being fought within the shiny yellow-black head.
Trelig and Yulin looked at each other. “Standoff,” Trelig chuckled. “How about a truce, Ben? We’re old friends. Let’s see how the rest of this comes out. You and me, together again on New Pompeii!”
Yulin’s big brown eyes shined, his manner softened. The pistol dipped slightly. “Okay, Antor. Partners this time, though. Right?”
Trelig kept one of his eyes on Yulin while the other followed the drama being played out on the floor.
And it was clear now who was winning.
Slowly and unsteadily, the Torshind emerged from the body of the Yaxa; Wooley collapsed and was still.
The Ghiskind immediately hurled itself at the emerging ghostly red figure. As the two met, their forms became less distinct, just a blurry dull-red sheet of energy, a ball of dull fire suspended two meters or so above the floor.
While this was occurring, Vistaru managed to free herself of the heavy saddlebags and rose groggily to her feet. She looked around, saw Yulin and Trelig through the thin yellow haze not three meters apart, pistols half on each other but attention mostly on the drama now in the center of the room.