Twilight and then night. How long before the runners would make their
appearance? He could pick up the sparks of thought which marked the
coming and going of hoppers, most hurrying off to their mud-plastered
nests, and sometimes a flicker from the mind of some other night
creature. Once he was sure he touched the avid, raging hunger which
marked a flying dragon, though they were not naturally hunters by
darkness.

Dalgard made no move to contact Sssuri. The merman must be left
undisturbed in his mental quest for the runners.

The scout lay back on his miniature island and stared up into the sky,
trying to sort out all the myriad impressions of life about him. It
was then that he saw it....

An arrow of fire streaking across the black bowl of Astra's night sky.
A light so vivid, so alien, that it brought him to his feet with a
chill prickle of apprehension along his spine. In all his years as a
scout and woodsman, in all the stories of his fellows and his elders
at Homeport--he had never seen, never heard of the like of that!

And through his own wonder and alert alarm, he caught Sssuri's added
puzzlement.

"Danger--" The merman's verdict fed his own unease.

Danger had crossed the night, from east to west. And to the west lay
what they had always feared. What was going to happen now?