Nightpeople by Anthony Eaton Page A

up with them.
    â€˜I don’t know. We came across this black strip, sort of a path, and were camping in a cave in some rocks.’
    Behind her, one of the women said something Saria didn’t understand and the pale man nodded.
    â€˜That’ll be it. It’s a bit further off than I’d have thought, but still, we’d better get movin’, eh? Dariand’s got good landsense and he’s probably close already.’
    He held her face a moment longer then dropped his hand. Around them, Saria was only vaguely aware of the group dispersing and starting to gather their bundles together The old man raised a threatening finger, pointing it right in her face.
    â€˜Don’t give me any trouble and we’ll have no problems, right?’
    Reaching up, it took him only a moment to tie his end of the leash onto the tree beside them, high above Saria’s reach.
    â€˜You stay here while I get this bunch movin’.’
    Saria glanced at where he’d knotted it.
    â€˜That won’t come undone in a hurry, an’ if you pull at it you’ll only make it tighter, but we’d better make sure you don’t try, eh?’
    He put two fingers to his lips and whistled, and Saria gasped. The sound was instantly familiar and ran through her like cold water. A clench of remembered terror gripped her as a dirty, skinny, sand-coloured dog came skulking towards them from somewhere beyond the campsite. It approached cautiously, slinking low, ears down, teeth bared, and a soft growl rumbling in the back of its throat. Saria knew it immediately. It was the same beast she’d reached into outside Olympic.
    The old man muttered at the animal, which flattened itself to the ground in front of Saria.
    â€˜You don’t move now, you hear me?’ he said to her. ‘He’ll have your throat out if you do. Stay real still.’
    He grinned his pointed smile again and strode away.
    As soon as he was gone, Saria concentrated on letting as much earthwarmth as possible flow up into her, but she was too distracted and nervous to manage it immediately. All the same, after a few moments she sensed the beginnings of the familiar tingle and, closing her eyes, she tried to surrender herself into it until she felt confident enough to probe out towards the dog.
    Just like last time, the animal’s mind proved surprisingly simple to find, and she was able to reach into it easily. Despite its aggressive stance and rumbling growl, the dog’s mind was passive, resisting her not at all as she gently touched its senses with her own.
    Around them the group was all activity and bustle. In the dog’s perceptions, people moved as bright shadows. The brightest of them all stood still in the middle of the movement, and Saria guessed it was the pale-eyed man. The people gathering up the slaughtered rock-hoppers also featured brightly; the possibility of food offered by them dominating the dog’s thoughts.
    Slowly, Saria probed outward, using the dog’s senses of smell and hearing to search further away, out into the sand, hoping to find Dariand and Dreamer Gaardi waiting there somewhere, following to rescue her.
    A little way away, over a small ridge on the other side of the fire, a series of large, dull shadows moved restlessly. Saria had no idea what they were, but as far as the dog was concerned the creatures were little threat, despite their obvious size, so it paid them no real attention.
    Apart from that, there was nothing. Only vast, dead, empty plains.
    Slowly, gently, Saria withdrew her mind from the dog’s, dissolving the link between them gradually until she was once more completely within her own senses. Then it was everything she could do not to sink immediately into despair. What had she done? All Dariand’s cautions and warnings from the last few days came flooding back, and tears started to well at the corners of her eyes.
    She choked them down.
    I can’t let them see me