"Telis," Gorla broke the silence, "can you tell me where we are?"
"Why are we climbing?" Leslie asked. She looked afraid. "Please--I--I asked you to--"
Telis cut her off almost sharply. "I know what you asked me. But we must get high enough to have a look around us. To be lost out here would mean the end for all of us; an unpleasant end, too. It will only be for a short time."
Leslie dropped into an uneasy silence. Higher and higher the air-sled climbed until at last Telis levelled the aircraft off and began a systematic search of the horizon to the east. There was no sign of the greenery that edged the great water-way.
"Telis!" Gorla's shout cut across the roaring of the wind. "Leslie! Look at her!"
Telis whirled to look at the girl. The strange malady from which she suffered had chosen this moment to strike her down. For a moment Telis was shocked. Never had he seen a happy-gas addict react in this way! The thin line of blue that surrounded her mouth was deeper, staining her lips and spreading to tinge her whole face with azure. Her eyes were closed and her breath came in huge rasping gasps. Gorla was cradling her in his arms, chafing her wrists and trying to force water through her slack lips. He looked up at Telis, shouting frantically!
"Down! Down, Telis! We have to get her down low!"
For a moment Telis did not understand, then he realized what was meant and shoved the sled over into a steep dive. The girl was suffering from oxygen-starvation. She seemed to suffer from it chronically, and if the sled did not reach denser air soon she would die! That was the reason she had feared altitude and had begged that the sled be kept low.
Suddenly the whole improbable picture of the escape flashed before Telis' eyes, and a sick feeling swept over him.
In a panic Gorla whipped out a transmitter and began to shout into it. Fearing the girl's death, his instructions were forgotten and he began broadcasting for help. Telis stared for a moment, not understanding. The radio devices used by the Temple were unknown to him, but he knew with an instinctive certainty that Gorla was making contact with the Temple Guard back in Dorliss. The rumors he had heard of the Temple's methods of quick communication seemed to ring in his ears and fury took him by the throat. Why hadn't Gorla used the radio before? Was it because the whole escape was a monstrous hoax, engineered by the Temple for the purpose of somehow shattering the Maldia and what it stood for? The answer was a blazing, irrevocable yes!