The Defiant Agents

en mist clouded most of the landscape. His head ached with dull persistence, the pain fostered in some way by his own bewilderment. To study the land ahead was

ns of his actually ga-n, spirits who could choose their shape at will and had, oddly, this time assumed the bod

formed a word he di

he coming of morning light, that the four-footed ones trotting with him as he walked aimlessly had unbeastl

n his head, and the creatures had nudged him in another direction, bringing him to

me out of the welter of dreams which shadowed h

o far from his side. Naginlta (He-Who-Scouts-Ahead) was the male who did just that, disappearing at long int

from her mouth as she panted. Not from exertion, he was certain of th

There was meat-rich, fresh-just ahead. Meat that lived, waiting to be killed. In

gers did not find what vague memory told him sho

l with the vegetation about him. He wore a loose shirt, belted in at the narrow waist by a folded strip of cloth, the ends of which flut

re above another. One thing he did know for sure-he had no weapons. And that realization struck hom

lder, yellow eyes slitted, her demand on him as instant and real as if she had voiced understandab

the stab of pain the motion cost him, and paid more attention to his surroundings. It was apparent that the earth under him, the grass around, the valle

strange smell, or was it taste? He could not be sure which. He knew

Now three pictures fought to focus in his mind: the two landscapes which did not match and a shadowy third. He shook his head aga

te present and the portion of world he could se

d when he ventured through the edge of a patch it was like creeping through a fog of golden, dancing motes with here and ther

ne he associated with a living creature. Flat to earth, he pushed

h clear under the morning sun. And grazing there were three a

ance to those beasts in that they had four slender legs, a rounded body, and a hea

long and moved about in a serpentine motion, as though their spines were as limber as reptiles'. On the end of those long and twisting necks were heads which also appeared more suitable to an

e browsers. There were three of them: two larger and with horns, the other a smaller beast with less

d in the odd appearance of the grazing creatures; she was intent upon their usefulness in anoth

t could be tricked into hunting range through its inordinate curiosity. The slender l

nner. But the suggestion which had flashed from coyote to him had taken root. Tra

If the creatures depended on speed, then Travis believed they could probably out

se were truly no animals, but ga-n, ga-n of power! And as ga-n he must treat them, accede to their will. Spurred by that, the Ap

was ga-n magic, and with it the strong impression urging him to the right. He was making pro

ruding directly from their surfaces, made a partial wall for the pocket-sized meadow. That screen reached a rocky cleft where the mist cu

on of his species, a stone pulled from an earth pocket and balanced

road. These ga-n had put their thoughts-or their desi

y scientists deep space away had hoped he might. Nor did Travis guess that at this point he had already traveled far beyond the expectations of the men who had bred and trained the two mutant coyotes. He only believed that

ngered the stone, weighed it. There would probably be just on

t Travis knew, as well as if he watched the scene, that the coyotes were creeping

ert had come, the drive was beginn

t describe, a noise which was neither cough nor gr

Wide eyes-milky and seeming to be without pupils-fastened on Travis, but he could not be sure the thing saw him, for it kept on,

re at a slant-aimed now at Travis. He had been right in his guess at their deadliness, but he had only a fleeting c

where he fought madly to regain his feet, expecting at any moment to feel trampling hoofs an

hind him. He saw the flirt of a triangular flap-tail in the mouth of the

battle was in progress. Then the second of the adult beasts came into view, backing and turning, trying to keep

m the same side, leaving it a clear path to retreat. It made a rush before which they fled easily, and then it whirled with a speed and gr

animal. The actions of the coyotes had convinced him that there was no danger now; they wou

the head, stunning it. Then the momentum of its charge had carried it full force against the rock to kill it. Blind luck-or the power

The double horn had been easy to free from the shattered skull, and some careful work with stones had broken off one prong at just the ang

he water. Then she sat up on her haunches, watch

lanced up, measuring the value of the wood represented by tr

s half closed, her whole pose one

, "and a bow." He needed w

quick to attack, but Travis could have avoided it, and it had not hunte

round in the grass, crushing down the growth into a nest in which she curled up, head on paws. But Travis sat back on his

. Its horn lay within touch now. All that was real and unchangeable. Which meant that the rest of it, that other desert world in which he had

ert place, returning from a successful foray against the Mexicans. Mexicans! Travis caught at t

che, one of the Eagle people,

of that past. He was Travis Fox, of the very late twentieth century,

im in rising fear. Wait! He had been in the dark when he got out of the desert, lying in

age with smooth metallic walls, an

she was staring at the man's drawn face, at

ad cocked a little to one side. As the man turned to seek his own back trail she padded along in his wake and whined for

d things buzzed from the bushes, small scuttling things fled from him through the tall grass. Once Naginlta growled a warning wh

e than the animals he had always known. And one part of him, the part which remembered the desert rancherias where Cochise had ruled, said the

the rough country of hills and ravines. Now the mist lifted above towering walls of mountains very near him, yet not the mountain

oyotes. And, as the man joined them, first one and then the other flung back its he

n side was identifiable-a spaceship! Cold fear gripped him and his own head went back; from b