Tau moved forward, his hands
still upraised, clearly in greeting. That trunk touched skyward as if in
salute to the man who could be crushed under one foot.
"_Hodi, eldama!_" For the second time Tau hailed the monster elephant
and the trunk raised in silent greeting from one lord of an earth to
another he recognized as an equal. Perhaps it had been a thousand years
since man and elephant had stood so, and then there had been only war
and death between them. Now there was peace and a current of power
flowing from one to the other. Dane sensed this, saw the men on the
terrace likewise drawing back from the unseen tie between the medic and
the bull he had so clearly summoned.
Then Tau's upheld hands came together in a sharp clap and men held their
breath in wonder. Where the great bull had stood there was
nothing--except rocks in the sun.
As Tau swung around to face the cat-dog, that creature had no substance
either. For he fronted no animal but a man, a small, lean man whose lips
wrinkled back from his teeth in a snarl. His attendant priests fell
back, leaving the spaceman and the witch doctor alone.
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