bvious that Naxa had never thought about the origin of his
ability to control the animals. And if he hadn't--probably no one else
had. They had no reason to. They simply accepted the powers of talkers
as one of the facts of life.

Ideas slipped towards each other in his mind, like the pieces of a
puzzle joining together. He had told Kerk that the native life of Pyrrus
had joined in battle against mankind, he didn't know why. Well--he still
didn't know why, but he was getting an idea of the "how."

"About how far are we from the city?" Jason asked. "Do you have an idea
how long it would take us to get there by dorym?"

"Half a day there--half back. Why? Y'want to go?"

"I don't want to get into the city, not yet. But I would like to get
close to it," Jason told him.

"See what Rhes say," was Naxa's answer.

* * * * *

Rhes granted instant permission without asking any questions. They
saddled up and left at once, in order to complete the round trip before
dark.

They had been traveling less than an hour before Jason knew they were
going in the direction of the city. With each minute the feeling grew
stronger. Naxa was aware of it too, stirring in the saddle with unvoiced
feelings. They had to keep touching and reassuring their mounts which
were growing skittish and restless.

"This is far enough," Jason said. Naxa gratefully pulled to a stop.

The wordless thought beat through Jason's mind, filling it. He could
feel it on all sides--only much stronger ahead of them in the direction
of the unseen city. Naxa and the doryms reacted in the same way,
restlessly uncomfortable, not knowing the cause.

One thing was obvious now. The Pyrran animals were sensitive to psi
radiation--probably the plants and lower life forms as well. Perhaps
they communicated by it, since they obeyed the men who had a strong
control of it. And in this area was a wash of psi radiation such as he
had never experienced before. Though his personal talents specialized in
psychokinesis--the mental control of inanimate matter--he was still
sensitive to most mental phenomena. Watching a sports event he had many
times felt the unanimous accord of many minds expressing the same
thought. What he felt now was like that.

Only terribly different. A crowd exulted at some success on the field,
or groaned at a failure. The feeling fluxed and changed as the game
progressed. Here the wash of thought was unending, strong and