Shannach—the Last
Copyright© 2024 by Leigh Brackett
Chapter 8
Trevor awakened slowly, rising above the dark sea of oblivion only to sink again, conscious in those brief intervals that he lay in a bed and that his head ached.
There came a time when he rose, not to sink again. After a while his eyes opened, and he saw a metal ceiling.
“We made it,” he said.
“Yes, you made it,” said a friendly voice. “This is Solar City. You’ve been here quite a while.”
Trevor turned his head to the voice, to the white-jacketed doctor beside his bed. But he didn’t see the man or the room. Not at first. He saw only, upon the bedside table in a tray, a tawny eye that winked and glittered at him.
A sun-stone.
His hand started to rise weakly to his face. The doctor forestalled him.
“Don’t bother. It’s out. And a delicate job getting it out, it was. You’ll have a headache for a while, but anyone would take a headache for a sun-stone!”
Trevor didn’t answer that. He said suddenly, “Jen—and Saul...?”
“They’re here. Pretty odd folk they are, too. Won’t talk to any of us. You’re all a blazing mystery, you know.”
He went away. When he came back, Jen and Saul were with him. They wore modern synthecloth garments now. Jen looked as incongruous in hers as a leopardess in a silk dress.
She saw the smile in his eyes and cried, “Don’t laugh at me—ever!”
It occurred to Trevor that civilizing her would take a long time. He doubted if it would ever be done. And he was glad of that.
She stood looking gravely down at him and then said, “They say you can get up tomorrow.”
“That’s good,” said Trevor.
“You’ll have to be careful for a while.”
“Yes. I’ll be careful.”
They said no more than that, but in her steady, grave gaze Trevor read that Hugh and the hawks were forgiven, not forgotten but forgiven, that they two had touched each other and would not let go again.
Saul cried anxiously, “Days we’ve waited! When can we go back to the valley with a ship for the others?”
Trevor turned to the curiously-watching doctor. “Can I charter a ship here?”
“A man with a sun-stone can get almost anything he wants, Trevor! I’ll see about it.”
The chartered ship that took them back to the valley had a minimum crew, and two mining technicians Trevor had hired. They set down outside the ancient city, and the slaves came surging toward them, half in eagerness, half in awe of this embodiment of misty legend.