Dancer's Luck by Elizabeth Lowell as Ann Maxwell

Author:Elizabeth Lowell as Ann Maxwell [Maxwell, Elizabeth Lowell as Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, SciFi/Fantasy, Contemporary
ISBN: 9780786002078
Google: 9RjrAAAACAAJ
Amazon: 0786002077
Barnesnoble: 0786002077
Goodreads: 1237064
Publisher: Pinnacle
Published: 1983-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter XIII

Kirtn held his breath reflexively, trying to hoard all of the precious air he could even though he knew it was futile. At the same instant, Rheba burst into flame, shaping energy into a shield that would hold in the dissolved mover’s air. It was a reflex as strong and futile as Kirtn’s. Her fire guttered and died out. There was no energy source to draw on other than the human bodies around her. That would bring death as surely as asphyxiation.

She clung to her Bre’n and waited to die.

There was a long time of silence. Then The Luck began to laugh softly, triumphantly. “It seems I’m not other after all!”

Cautiously, Kirtn took a deep breath, then another. With a whoop of joy he swung Rheba in a circle. “There’s air, fire dancer. Breathe it!” he commanded.

Fssa’s glad trill echoed in the confined spaces of the tunnel. Rheba breathed. The air was thin but sweet, and not so cold as she had expected. Nonetheless, she shivered after the warmth of the mover. Immediately, Kirtn shrugged out of his cape and fastened it around her. She did not protest. Bre’ns were much better equipped to withstand cold than Senyasi.

There was air, there was some warmth, but the only light came from cracked, yellowing discs beneath their feet on the tunnel floor. The light did not reach an arm’s length into the tunnel.

“Fssa,” said Kirtn. “What’s ahead of us?”

Darkness presented no barrier to the Fssireeme’s opalescent sensors. He directed a soundless stream of energy down the tunnel, reading what was ahead by the returning patterns. “The tunnel breaks up into a rubble barrier. There are openings, but they are far too small for Fourth People. They’re even too small for a Fssireeme.”

Silence grew in the wake of Fssa’s summary. Then, “How solid is the barrier?” asked Kirtn.

“It’s permeable to air,” said the snake. “Otherwise you would have suffocated and I’d be uncomfortable.”

“It is cemented, or just a jumble of rock?” asked Rheba. “Was it built or did it just happen?”

Fssa’s sensors pointed back down the tunnel. Rheba could almost sense the energy he used, but it was like the next instant of time, always just beyond her grasp. The snake turned toward them and reported in crisp Senyas.

“A jumble, probably the result of a cave-in. Accident, not intent. The air you are breathing comes from the far side, as does the warmth. I therefore postulate the existence of an Installation. However …” Fssa’s sensors darkened. He was not pleased with the rest of what he had to tell them.

“An installation,” whistled Rheba in lilting Bre’n. Though she said no more, the emotional language told of relief.

Kirtn, seeing the snake’s sensors almost dim to invisibility, waited.

Fssa made a subdued sound, protesting that he had to puncture Rheba’s happiness. When he spoke, it was in Senyas. “I suspect that you are thinking of moving the rubble, thereby gaining passage to the Installation beyond.”

The snake’s prim speech made Kirtn grateful for the darkness. He did not want Rheba to see his expression.

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