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04 - The Door Through Space - Marion Zimmer Bradley · Classic Sci Fi Books - Daily

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  Speaker 1: Chapter four. By sunset, I was ready to leave. I
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: hadn't had any loose ends to tie up in the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: trade city, since I had already disposed of most of
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: my gear before boarding the ship. I'd never been in
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: better circumstances to take off for parts. Unknown. Mac, still disapproving,
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  Speaker 1: had opened the files to me, and I'd spent most
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  Speaker 1: of the day in the back rooms of floor thirty
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  Speaker 1: eight searching intelligence files to refresh my memory, scanning the
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  Speaker 1: pages of my own old reports sent years ago from
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  Speaker 1: Shansaw and Dayelan. He had sent out one of the
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  Speaker 1: non humans who worked for us to buy or acquire
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  Speaker 1: somewhere in the old Town a dry towner's outfit and
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  Speaker 1: the other things I would wear and carry. I would
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  Speaker 1: have liked to go myself. I felt that I needed
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  Speaker 1: the practice. I was only now beginning to realize how
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  Speaker 1: much I might have forgotten in the years behind a desk.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: But until I was ready to make my presence known,
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  Speaker 1: no one must know that Race Cargle had not left
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  Speaker 1: Wolf on the starship. Above all, I must not be
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  Speaker 1: seen in the Karsa until I went there in the
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  Speaker 1: dry town disguise, which had become years ago a deep
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  Speaker 1: second nature, almost an alternate personality about sunset. I walked
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  Speaker 1: through the clean little streets of the Tarran trade city
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  Speaker 1: toward the Magnuson home, where Julie was waiting for me.
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  Speaker 1: Most of the men who go into civil service of
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  Speaker 1: the Empire come from Earth or from the close in
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  Speaker 1: planets of Proxima and Alpha Centaurus. They go out unmarried
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  Speaker 1: and they stay that way, or merry women native to
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  Speaker 1: the planets where they are sent. But Joanna Magnuson was
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  Speaker 1: one of the rare earth women who had come out
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  Speaker 1: with her husband twenty years ago. There are two kinds
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  Speaker 1: of earth women like that. They make their quarterings a
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  Speaker 1: little bit of home or a little bit of hell.
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  Speaker 1: Joanna had made their house look like a transported corner
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  Speaker 1: of Earth. I never knew quite what to think of
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  Speaker 1: the Magnuson household. It seemed to me almost from madness,
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  Speaker 1: to live under a red sun, yet come inside to
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  Speaker 1: yellow light, to live on a world with the wild
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  Speaker 1: beauty of wolf, and yet live as they might have
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  Speaker 1: lived on their home planet. Or maybe I was the
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  Speaker 1: one who was out of step. I had done the
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  Speaker 1: reprehensible thing they called going native. Possibly I had done
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  Speaker 1: just that, and in absorbing myself into the new world,
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  Speaker 1: had lost the ability to fit into the old. Joanna,
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  Speaker 1: a chubby, comfortable woman in her forties, opened the door
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  Speaker 1: and gave me her hand. Come in, Race, Julie's expecting you.
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  Speaker 1: It's good of you. I broke off, unable to express
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  Speaker 1: my gratitude. Julie and I had come from Earth. Our
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  Speaker 1: father had been an officer on the old starship Landfall.
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  Speaker 1: When Julie was only a child. He had died in
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  Speaker 1: a wreck off Procyon, and mac Magnuson had found me
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  Speaker 1: a place in intelligence because I spoke four of the
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  Speaker 1: wolf languages and haunted the carsa with Recall whenever I
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  Speaker 1: could get away. They had also taken Julie into their
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  Speaker 1: own home like a younger sister. They hadn't said much
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  Speaker 1: because they had liked Recall when the break up came.
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  Speaker 1: But that terrible night when Recall and I nearly killed
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  Speaker 1: each other, and Recall came with his face bleeding and
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  Speaker 1: took Julie away with him had hurt them hard. Yet
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  Speaker 1: it had made them all the kinder to me. Joanna said, forthrightly, nonsense, Race,
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  Speaker 1: what else could we do? She drew me along the hall,
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  Speaker 1: you can talk and hear. I delayed a minute before
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  Speaker 1: going through the door. She indicated, how is Julie better?
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  Speaker 1: I think I put her to bed in Meta's room
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  Speaker 1: and she slept most of the day. She'll be all right.
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  Speaker 1: I'll leave you to talk. Joanna opened the door and
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  Speaker 1: went away. Julie was awake and dressed, and already some
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  Speaker 1: of the terrible, frozen horror was gone from her face.
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  Speaker 1: She was still tense and double ridden, but not hysterical now.
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  Speaker 1: The room, one of the children's bedrooms, wasn't a big one,
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  Speaker 1: even at the top of the Secret Service. A cop
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  Speaker 1: doesn't live too well, not on Terra's civil service pace Gale,
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  Speaker 1: not with five youngsters. It looked as if all five
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  Speaker 1: of the kids had taken it to pieces, one at
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  Speaker 1: a time. I sat down on a too low chair
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  Speaker 1: and said, Julie, we haven't much time. I've got to
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  Speaker 1: be out of the city before dark. I want to
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  Speaker 1: know about recall, what he does, what he's like now.
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  Speaker 1: Remember I haven't seen him for years. Tell me everything,
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  Speaker 1: his friends, his amusements, everything, you know. I always thought
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  Speaker 1: you knew him better than I did. Julie had a fidgety,
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  Speaker 1: little way of coiling the links of the chain around
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  Speaker 1: her wrists, and it made me nervous. It's routine, Julie,
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  Speaker 1: police work. Mostly I play by ear, but I try
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  Speaker 1: to start out by being methodical. She answered everything I
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  Speaker 1: asked her, but the sum total wasn't much and it
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't help much. As I said, it's easy to disappear
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  Speaker 1: on wolf. Julie knew he had been friendly with the
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  Speaker 1: new holders of the Great House on shan Saw, but
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  Speaker 1: she didn't even know their name. I heard one of
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  Speaker 1: the magus and children fly to the street door and
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  Speaker 1: return shouting for her mother. Joanna knocked at the door
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  Speaker 1: of the room and came in. There's a chalk outside.
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  Speaker 1: Who wants to see you? Race? I nodded, probably my
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  Speaker 1: fancy dress? Can I change in the back room? Joanna?
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  Speaker 1: Will you keep my clothes here till I get back.
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  Speaker 1: I went to the door and spoke to the furred
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  Speaker 1: non human in the sibilant jargon of the Karsa, and
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  Speaker 1: he handed me what looked like a bundle of rags.
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  Speaker 1: There were hard lumps inside the chalk. Said softly, I
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  Speaker 1: hear a rumor in the carsaraes. Perhaps it will help you.
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  Speaker 1: Three men from Shane Shah are in the city. They
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  Speaker 1: came here to seek a woman who has vanished and
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  Speaker 1: a toymaker. They are returning at sunrise. Perhaps you can
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  Speaker 1: arrange to travel in their caravan. I thanked him and
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  Speaker 1: carried the bundle inside. In the empty back room, I
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  Speaker 1: stripped to the skin and unrolled the bundle. There was
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  Speaker 1: a pair of baggy striped breeches, a worn and shabby
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  Speaker 1: shirt cloak with capacious pockets, a looped belt with half
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  Speaker 1: the gilt rubbed away in the base, metal showing through,
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  Speaker 1: and a scuffed pair of ankle boots tied with frayed
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  Speaker 1: thongs of different colors. There was a little cluster of
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  Speaker 1: amulets and seals. I chose two or three of the
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  Speaker 1: commonest kind and strung them around my neck. One of
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  Speaker 1: the lumps in the bundle was a small jar holding
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  Speaker 1: nothing but the ordinary spices sold in the market, with
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  Speaker 1: which the average dry towner flavors food. I rubbed some
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  Speaker 1: of the powder on my body, put a pinch in
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  Speaker 1: the pocket of my shirt cloak, and chewed a few
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  Speaker 1: of the buds, wrinkling my nose at the long, unfamiliar pungency.
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  Speaker 1: The second lump was a skein, and unlike the worn
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  Speaker 1: and shabby garments, this was brand new and sharp and bright,
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  Speaker 1: and its edge held a razor glint. I tucked it
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  Speaker 1: into the clasp of my shirt cloak a reassuring weight.
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  Speaker 1: It was the only weapon I could dare to carry
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  Speaker 1: the last of the solid objects in the bundle was
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  Speaker 1: a flat wooden case, about nine by ten inches. I
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  Speaker 1: slid it open. It was divided carefully into sections, cushioned
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  Speaker 1: with sponge absorbent plastic, and in them lay tiny slips
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  Speaker 1: of glass on wolf as precious as jewels. They were lenses,
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  Speaker 1: camera lenses, microscope lenses, even eyeglass lenses. Packed close. There
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  Speaker 1: were nearly a hundred of them, nested by the shock
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  Speaker 1: absorbent stuff. They were my excuse for travel to Shansaw.
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  Speaker 1: Over and above the necessities of trade. A few items
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  Speaker 1: of Terran manufacture. Vacuum tubes, transistors, lenses for cameras and binoculars,
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  Speaker 1: liquors and finely forged small tools are literally worth their
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  Speaker 1: weight in platinum. Even in cities where terns have never gone.
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  Speaker 1: These things bring exorbitant prices, and trading in them as
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  Speaker 1: a dry town privilege recall had been a trader, so
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  Speaker 1: Julie told me, in fine wire and surgical instruments. Wolf
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  Speaker 1: is not a mechanized planet and has never developed any
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  Speaker 1: indigenous industrial system. The psychology of the non human seldom
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  Speaker 1: runs to technological advances. I went down the hallway again
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  Speaker 1: to the room where Julie was waiting. Catching a glimpse
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  Speaker 1: in a full length mirror, I was startled. All traces
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  Speaker 1: of the Terran civil servant, clumsy and uncomfortable in his
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  Speaker 1: ill fitting clothes, had dropped away. A dry towner, rangy
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  Speaker 1: and scarred, looked out at me, and it seemed that
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  Speaker 1: the expression on his face was one of amazement. Joanna
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  Speaker 1: whirled as I came into the room and visibly paled.
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  Speaker 1: Before recovering her self control. She gave me a nervous
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  Speaker 1: little giggle. Goodness, Race, I didn't know you, Julie whispered, yes,
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  Speaker 1: I I remember you better like that. You're you look
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  Speaker 1: so much like The door flew open and Mickey Magnuson
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  Speaker 1: scampered into the room, a chubby little boy, browned by
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  Speaker 1: a Terra type sun lamp and glowing with health. In
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  Speaker 1: his hand, he held some sparkling thing that gave off
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  Speaker 1: tiny flashes and glints of color. I gave the kid
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  Speaker 1: a grin before I realized that I was disguised anyhow,
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  Speaker 1: and probably a hideous sight. The little boy backed off,
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  Speaker 1: but Joanna put her plump hand on his shoulder, murmuring
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  Speaker 1: soothing things. Micky toddled toward Julie, holding up the shining
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  Speaker 1: thing in his hands, as if to display something very
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  Speaker 1: precious and beloved. Julie and held out her arms. Then
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  Speaker 1: her face contracted and she snatched at the plaything. Micky,
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  Speaker 1: what's that? He thrust it protectively behind his back. Mine. Micky,
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  Speaker 1: don't be naughty, Joanna chided, Please let me see. Julie coaxed,
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  Speaker 1: and he brought it out slowly, still suspicious. It was
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  Speaker 1: an ankled prism of crystal star shaped set in a
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  Speaker 1: frame which could get the stars spinning like a solido pick,
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  Speaker 1: but it displayed a new and comical face every time
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  Speaker 1: it was turned. Micky turned it round and round, charmed
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  Speaker 1: at being the center of attention. There seemed to be
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  Speaker 1: dozens of faces shifting with each spin of the prism,
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  Speaker 1: human and non human, all dim and slightly distorted. My
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  Speaker 1: own face, Julie's Joanna's came out of the crystal surface,
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  Speaker 1: not a reflection, but a caricature. A choked sound from
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  Speaker 1: Julie made me turn in dismay. She had let herself
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  Speaker 1: drop to the floor and was sitting there, white as death,
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  Speaker 1: supporting herself with her two hands. Race, find it where
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  Speaker 1: he got that that thing? I bent and shook her.
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  Speaker 1: What's the matter with you? I demanded. She had lapsed
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  Speaker 1: into the dazed, sleepwalking horror of this morning. She whispered.
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  Speaker 1: It's not a toy. Rindy had one, Joanna, Where did
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  Speaker 1: he get it? She pointed at the shining thing with
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  Speaker 1: an expression of horror, which would have been laughable had
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  Speaker 1: it been less real, less filled with terror. Joanna cocked
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  Speaker 1: her head to one side and wrinkled her forehead reflectively.
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  Speaker 1: Why I don't know, now you come to ask me.
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  Speaker 1: I thought maybe one of the chalks had given it
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  Speaker 1: to Mickey, bought it in the bazaar. Maybe he loves it.
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  Speaker 1: Do get up off the floor, Julie. Julie scrambled to
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  Speaker 1: her feet. She said, Rindy had one. It It terrified me.
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  Speaker 1: She would sit and look at it by the hour.
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  Speaker 1: And I told you about it. Race, I threw it
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  Speaker 1: out once, and she woke up and screamed. She shrieked
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  Speaker 1: for hours and hours, and she ran out in the
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  Speaker 1: dark and dug for it in the trash pile where
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  Speaker 1: I'd buried it. She went out in the dark, broke
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  Speaker 1: all her finger nails, but she dug it out again.
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  Speaker 1: She checked herself, staring at Joanna, her eyes wide in appeal. Well, dear,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: said Joanna, with mild, rebuking kindness. You needn't be so upset.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think Mickey's so attached to it as all that.
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  Speaker 1: And anyhow, I'm not going to throw it away. She
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  Speaker 1: patted Julie, reassuring the other the shoulder, then gave Micky
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  Speaker 1: a little shove toward the door and turned to follow him.
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  Speaker 1: You'll want to talk alone before Race leaves. Good luck
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  Speaker 1: wherever you're going, Race, she held out her hand forthrightly.
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  Speaker 1: And don't worry about Julie, she added, in an undertone.
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  Speaker 1: We'll take good care of her. When I came back
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  Speaker 1: to Julie, she was standing by the window, looking through
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  Speaker 1: the oddly filtered glass that dimmed the red sun to orange.
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  Speaker 1: Johanna thinks I'm crazy Race. She thinks you're upset. Rindy's
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  Speaker 1: an odd child, a real dry towner. But it's not
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  Speaker 1: my imagination. Race, It's not. There's something Suddenly, she sobbed
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  Speaker 1: aloud again. Homesick, Julie. I was a little the first years,
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  Speaker 1: but I was happy, believe me. She turned her face
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  Speaker 1: to me, shining with tears. You've got to believe I
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  Speaker 1: never regretted it for a minute. I'm glad, I said, Dully,
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  Speaker 1: that made it just fine. Only that toy. Who knows
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  Speaker 1: it might be a clue to something. The toy had
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: reminded me of something, too, and I tried to remember
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  Speaker 1: what it was. I'd seen non human toys in the
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: CARSA even bought them for Max kids. When a single
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: man is invited frequently to a home with five youngsters,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: it's about the only way he can repay that hospitality
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: by bringing the children odd trifles and knick knacks. But
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  Speaker 1: I had never seen anything quite like this one until
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: until yesterday. The toy cellar they had hunted out of
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  Speaker 1: the CARSA, the one who had fled into the shrine
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  Speaker 1: of Nebroun and vanished, He had had half a dozen
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  Speaker 1: of those prism and star sparklers. I tried to call
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  Speaker 1: up a mental picture of the little toy sellar. I
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: didn't have much luck. I'd seen him only in that
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: one swift glance from beneath his hood. Julie, have you
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: ever seen a little man like a chock, only smaller, twisted, hunchbacked?
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: He sells toys? She looked blank. I don't think so.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Although there are dwarf chalks in the polar cities, but
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: I'm sure I've never seen one. It was just an idea,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: but it was something to think about. A toy seller
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  Speaker 1: had vanished recall, before disappearing, had smashed all Rindy's toys,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: and the sight of a plaything of cunningly cut crystal
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: had sent Julie into hysterics. I'd better go before it's
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: too dark, I said. I buckled the final clasp of
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: my shirt cloak, fitted my skin another notch into it,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: and counted the money Mac had advanced me for expenses.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: I want to get into the Karsa and hunt up
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: a caravan to Shane. Saw you're going there first? Where else?
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Julie turned, leaning one hand against the wall. She looked
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: frail and ill, years older than she was. Suddenly, she
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  Speaker 1: flung her thin arms around me, and a link of
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: the chain on her fettered hand struck me hard as
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: she cried out, Race, Race, He'll kill you. How can
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: I live with that on my conscience? Too? You can
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: live with a hell of a lot on your conscience.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: I disengaged her arms firmly from my neck. A link
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: of the chain caught on the clasp of my shirt cloak,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: and again something snapped inside me. I grasped the chain
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: in my two hands and gave a mighty heave, bracing
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: my foot against the wall. The link snapped asunder a
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: flying end struck Julie under the eye. I ripped at
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: the seals of the jeweled cuffs, tore them from her arms,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: and threw the whole assembly into a corner, where it
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: fell with a clash. Damn it, I roared, that's over.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: You are never going to wear those things again. Maybe
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: after six years in the dry towns, Julie was beginning
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: to guess what those six years behind a desk had
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: meant to me. Julie, I'll find your Rindy for you,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: and I'll bring recall in alive. But don't ask more
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: than that. Just alive, and don't ask me how he'd
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: be alive when I got through with him. Sure he'd
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: be alive. Just end of chapter four,