But unlike the mermen, he was not sea-born, nor equipped by nature
with a secondary breathing apparatus to make him as free in the world
of water as he was on land. Sssuri might crawl through that hatch
without fear. For Dalgard it was as big a test as to turn and face
what now raged in the corridor on the inner side.
"There is no hope that they will go now," Sssuri answered his vague
question. "They are stubborn. And hours--or even days--will mean
nothing. Also they can leave a guard there and rove at will, to return
upon signal. That is their way."
This left only the sea door. Sssuri padded across the chamber and
reached up to free one of the strange objects dangling from the wall
pegs. Like all things made of the marvelous substance used by Those
Others for any article which might be exposed to the elements, it
seemed as perfect as on the day it had first been hung there, though
that date might be a hundred or more Astran years earlier. The merman
uncoiled a length of thin, flexible piping which joined a two-foot
canister with a flat piece of metallic fabric.
"Those Others could not breathe under the water, as you cannot," he
explained as he worked deftly and swiftly.
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