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The Door Through Space - Marion Zimmer Bradley · Classic Mystery & Suspense Book Collection

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Speaker 1: Author's note, I've always wanted to write, but not until
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Speaker 1: I discovered the old pulp's science fantasy magazines at the
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Speaker 1: age of sixteen did this general desire become a specific
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Speaker 1: urge to write science fantasy adventures. I took a lot
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Speaker 1: of detours on the way. I discovered s F in
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Speaker 1: its golden age, the age of Kutner, C. L. Moore,
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Speaker 1: Leigh Brackett at Hamilton, and Jack Vance. But while I
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Speaker 1: was still collecting rejection slips for my early efforts, the
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Speaker 1: fashion changed. Adventures on faraway worlds and strange dimensions went
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Speaker 1: out of fashion, and the new look in science fiction,
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Speaker 1: emphasis on the science, came in. So my first stories
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Speaker 1: were straight science fiction, and I'm not trying to put
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Speaker 1: down that kind of story. It has its place. By
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Speaker 1: and large, the kind of science fiction which makes tomorrow's
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Speaker 1: headlines as near as this morning's coffee has enlarged popular
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Speaker 1: awareness of the modern, miraculous world of science we live in.
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Speaker 1: It has helped generations of young people feel at ease
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Speaker 1: with a rapidly changing world. But Fashion's change, old Love's return,
1:00
Speaker 1: and now that Sputnik's clutter up the sky with new
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Speaker 1: and unfamiliar moons. The readers of science fiction are willing
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Speaker 1: to wait for tomorrow to read tomorrow's headlines once again.
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Speaker 1: I think there is a place, a wish, a need,
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Speaker 1: and hunger for the wonder and color of the world,
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Speaker 1: way out, the world beyond the stars, the world we
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Speaker 1: won't live to see. That is why I wrote The
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Speaker 1: Door through Space Marian Zimmer Bradley, end of author's note,
1:29
Speaker 1: Chapter one. Beyond the Spaceport gates, the men of the
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Speaker 1: CARSA were hunting down a thief. I heard the shrill cries,
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Speaker 1: the pad padding of feet and strides just a little
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Speaker 1: too long and loping to be human, raising echoes all
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Speaker 1: down the dark, dusty streets leading up to the main square,
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Speaker 1: But the square itself lay empty in the crimson noon
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Speaker 1: of Wolf. Overhead the dim red amber of thigh coronas
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Speaker 1: Wolf's old and dying sun gave out a pale and
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Speaker 1: heatless light. The pair of Space Force guards at the gates,
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Speaker 1: wearing the black leathers of the Terran Empire, shockers holstered
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Speaker 1: at their belts, were drowsing under the arched gateway, where
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Speaker 1: the star and rocket emblem proclaimed the domain of Terra.
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Speaker 1: One of them, a snubnosed youngster only a few weeks
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Speaker 1: out from Earth, cocked an inquisitive ear at the cries
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Speaker 1: and scuffling feet, then jerked his head at me, Hi, cargol,
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Speaker 1: you can talk there, LINGO, what's going on out there?
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Speaker 1: I stepped out past the gateway to listen. There was
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Speaker 1: still no one to be seen in the square. It
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Speaker 1: lay white and wind swept, a barricade of emptiness. To
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Speaker 1: one side the space sport and the sky scraper of
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Speaker 1: the Terran headquarters, and at the other side the clutter
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Speaker 1: of low buildings, the street shine, the little spaceport cafe
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Speaker 1: smelling of coffee and jocko, and the dark opening mouths
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Speaker 1: of streets that rambled down into the Karsa, the old town,
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Speaker 1: the Native quarter. But I was alone in the square,
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Speaker 1: with the shrill cries closer now, raising echoes from the
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Speaker 1: enclosing walls, and the loping of many feet down one
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Speaker 1: of the dirty streets. Then I saw him running, dodging
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Speaker 1: a hail of stones flying around his head. Someone or
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Speaker 1: something small and cloaked and agile behind him. The still
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Speaker 1: faceless mob howled and threw stones. I could not yet
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Speaker 1: understand the cries, but they were out for blood, and
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Speaker 1: I knew it, I said, briefly, trouble coming. Just before
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Speaker 1: the mobs built out into the square. The fleeing dwarf
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Speaker 1: stared about wildly for an instant, his head jerking from
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Speaker 1: side to side so rapidly that it was impossible to
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Speaker 1: get even a fleeting impression of his face, human or
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Speaker 1: non human, familiar or bizarre. Then, like a pellet loosed
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Speaker 1: from its sling, he made straight for the gateway and safety.
3:30
Speaker 1: And behind him the loping mob yelled and howled, and came,
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Speaker 1: pouring over half the square, just half. Then, by that
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Speaker 1: sudden intuition which permeates even the most crazed mob with
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Speaker 1: some semblance of reason, they came to a ragged halt,
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Speaker 1: heads turning from side to side. I stepped up on
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Speaker 1: the lower step of the headquarters building and looked over them.
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Speaker 1: Most of them were chalks, the furred man tall non
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Speaker 1: humans of the Carsa, and not the better class. Their
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Speaker 1: fur was unkempt, their tails naked with filth and disease.
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Speaker 1: Their leather aprons hung in tatters. One or two in
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Speaker 1: the crowd were humans, the dregs of the Karsa. But
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Speaker 1: the star and rocket emblem blazoned across the Spaceport gates
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Speaker 1: sobered even the wildest bloodlust somewhat. They milled and shifted
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Speaker 1: uneasily in their half of the square. For a moment,
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Speaker 1: I did not see where their quarry had gone. Then
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Speaker 1: I saw him crouched not four feet from me, in
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Speaker 1: a patch of shadow. Simultaneously the mob saw him huddled
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Speaker 1: just beyond the gateway, and a howl of frustration and
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Speaker 1: rage went ringing round the square. Someone threw a stone.
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Speaker 1: It zipped over my head, narrowly missing me, and landed
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Speaker 1: at the feet of the black leathered guard. He jerked
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Speaker 1: his head up and gestured with the shakra, which had
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Speaker 1: suddenly come unholstered. The gesture should have been enough. On Wolf,
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Speaker 1: Taran law has been written in blood and fire and
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Speaker 1: exploding atoms, and the line is drawn firm and clear.
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Speaker 1: The men of the Space Force do not interfere in
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Speaker 1: the old town or in any of the native cities.
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Speaker 1: But when violent steps over the threshold, passing the blazon
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Speaker 1: of the Star and Rocket, punishment is swift and terrible.
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Speaker 1: The threat should have been enough. Instead, a howl of
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Speaker 1: abuse went up from the crowd. Taranin son of the Ape.
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Speaker 1: The Space Force guards were shouldered to shoulder behind me. Now,
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Speaker 1: the snubnosed kid, looking slightly pale, called out, get inside
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Speaker 1: the gates, cargol if I have to shoot. The older
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Speaker 1: man motioned him to silence. Wait, Cargole, he called. I
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Speaker 1: nodded to show that I heard you talk there, LINGO,
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Speaker 1: tell them to haul off. Damned if I want to shoot.
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Speaker 1: I stepped down and walked into the open square, across
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Speaker 1: the crumbled white stones toward the ragged mob. Even with
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Speaker 1: two armed Space Force men at my back. It made
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Speaker 1: my skin crawl, but I flung up my empty hand
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Speaker 1: in token of peace. Take your mob out of the square,
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Speaker 1: I shouted, in the jargon of the Karsa, this territory
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Speaker 1: is held in compact of peace. Settle your quarrels Elsewhere.
5:48
Speaker 1: There was a little stirring in the crowd. The shock
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Speaker 1: of being addressed in their own tongue instead of the
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Speaker 1: Terran standard which the Empire had forced on Wolf held
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Speaker 1: them silent for a minute. I had learned that long
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Speaker 1: ago that speaking an any of the languages of Wolf
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Speaker 1: would give me a minute's advantage, but only a minute.
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Speaker 1: Then one of the mob yelled, we'll go if you
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Speaker 1: give him to us. He's no right to tearan sanctuary.
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Speaker 1: I walked over to the huddled dwarf, miserably trying to
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Speaker 1: make himself smaller against the wall. I nudged him with
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Speaker 1: my foot. Get up, Who are you? The hood fell
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Speaker 1: away from his face as he twitched to his feet.
6:21
Speaker 1: He was trembling violently. In the shadow of the hood.
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Speaker 1: I saw a furred face, a quivering, velvety muzzle, and great,
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Speaker 1: soft golden eyes which held intelligence and terror. What have
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Speaker 1: you done? Can't you talk? He held out the tray,
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Speaker 1: which he had shielded under his cloak, an ordinary peddler's tray.
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Speaker 1: Toys sell toys, children, You got em. I shook my
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Speaker 1: head and pushed the creature away, with only a glance
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Speaker 1: at the array of delicately crafted mannikins, tiny animals, prisms,
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Speaker 1: and crystal whirligigs. You'd better get out of here, scram
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Speaker 1: down that street. I pointed. A voice from the crowd
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Speaker 1: shouted again, and it had a very ugly sound. He's
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Speaker 1: a spy of never Nebron. The dwarfish non human gabbled something,
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Speaker 1: then doubled behind me. I saw him dodge faint in
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Speaker 1: the direction of the gates. Then as the crowd surged
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Speaker 1: that way, run for the street shrine across the square,
7:11
Speaker 1: slipping from recess to recess of the wall. A hail
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Speaker 1: of stones went flying in that direction. The little toy
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Speaker 1: sellar dodged into the street shrine. Then there was a
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Speaker 1: horse ah of terror, and the crowd edged away, surged backward.
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Speaker 1: The next minute it had begun to melt away, its entity,
7:27
Speaker 1: dissolving into separate creatures, slipping into the side alleys and
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Speaker 1: the dark streets that disgorged into the square. Within three minutes,
7:34
Speaker 1: the square lay empty again. In the pale crimson noon,
7:37
Speaker 1: the kid in black leather let his breath go and swore,
7:40
Speaker 1: Slipping his shocker into his holster. He stared and demanded profanely,
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Speaker 1: where'd the little fellow go? Who knows? The other shrugged,
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Speaker 1: probably sneaked into one of the alleys. Did you see
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Speaker 1: where he went? Cargo? I came slowly back to the gateway.
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Speaker 1: To me, it had seemed that he ducked into the
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Speaker 1: street shrine and vanished into thin air. But I've lived
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Speaker 1: on Wolf long enough to know you can't trust your
8:00
Speaker 1: eyes here, I said so, and the kid swore again, gulping,
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Speaker 1: more upset than he wanted to admit. Does this kind
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Speaker 1: of thing happen often all the time? His companion assured
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Speaker 1: him soberly with a sidewise wink at me. I didn't
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Speaker 1: return the wink. The kid wouldn't let it drop. Where
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Speaker 1: did you learn their lingo, mister Cargle. I've been on
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Speaker 1: Wolf a long time, I said, spun on my heel
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Speaker 1: and walked toward headquarters. I tried not to hear, but
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Speaker 1: their voices followed me anyhow, discreetly lowered, but not lowered enough. Kid,
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Speaker 1: don't you know who he is? That's Cargole of the
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Speaker 1: Secret Service six years ago. He was the best man
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Speaker 1: in intelligence. Before the voice lowered another decibel, and then
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Speaker 1: there was the kid's voice, asking, shaken, but what the
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Speaker 1: hell happened to his face? I should have been used
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Speaker 1: to it by now. I'd been hearing it more or
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Speaker 1: less behind my back for six years. Well, if my
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Speaker 1: luck held, I'd never hear it again. I strode up
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Speaker 1: the white steps of the skyscraper to finish the arrangements
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Speaker 1: that would take me away from Wolf forever, to the
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Speaker 1: other end of the Empire, to the other end of
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Speaker 1: the galaxy anywhere, so long as I need not wear
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Speaker 1: my past like a medallion round my neck, or blazoned
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Speaker 1: and branded on what was left of my ruined face.
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Speaker 1: End of chapter one, Chapter two, the Terran Empire has
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Speaker 1: set its blazon on four hundred planets circling more than
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Speaker 1: three hundred suns. But no matter what the color of
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Speaker 1: the sun, the number of the moons overhead, or the
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Speaker 1: geography of the planet, once you step inside a headquarters building,
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Speaker 1: you are on Earth, and Earth would be alien to
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Speaker 1: many who call themselves earthmen. Judging by the strangeness I
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Speaker 1: always felt when I stepped into that marble and glass
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Speaker 1: world inside the sky scraper, I heard the sound of
9:42
Speaker 1: my steps ringing into thin resonance along the marble corridor,
9:45
Speaker 1: and squinted my eyes, readjusting them painfully to the cold,
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Speaker 1: yellowness of the lights. The traffic division was efficiency made
9:53
Speaker 1: insolent in glass and chrome and polished steel mirrors and windows,
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Speaker 1: and looming electronic clerical machines. Most of one wall was
10:02
Speaker 1: taken up by a TV monitor, which gave a view
10:04
Speaker 1: of the spaceport, a vast open space lighted with blue,
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Speaker 1: white mercury vapor lamps and a chained down skyscraper of
10:12
Speaker 1: a starship littered over with swarming ants. The process crew
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Speaker 1: was getting the big ship ready for skylift tomorrow morning.
10:20
Speaker 1: I gave it a second and then a third look
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Speaker 1: eyed be on it when it lifted. Turning away from
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Speaker 1: the monitored spaceport, I watched myself stride forward in the
10:29
Speaker 1: mirrored surfaces that were everywhere. A tall man, a lean man,
10:33
Speaker 1: bleached out by years under a red sun, and deeply
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Speaker 1: scarred on both cheeks and around the mouth, even after
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Speaker 1: six years behind a desk. My neat business clothes suitable
10:43
Speaker 1: for an earth man with a desk job didn't fit
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Speaker 1: quite right, and I still rose unconsciously on the balls
10:49
Speaker 1: of my feet, approximating the lean, stooping walk of a
10:52
Speaker 1: dry towner from the coronas plains. The clerk behind the
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Speaker 1: sign marked transportation was a little rabbit of a man
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Speaker 1: with a sun lamped hand, barricaded by a small sized
11:02
Speaker 1: spaceport of desk, and looking as if he liked being
11:05
Speaker 1: shut up there. He looked up in civil inquiry, Can
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Speaker 1: I do something for you? My name's Cargle. Have you
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Speaker 1: a pass for me? He stared. A free pass aboard
11:16
Speaker 1: a starship is rare, except for professional spacement, which I
11:19
Speaker 1: obviously wasn't. Let me check my records. He hedged and
11:24
Speaker 1: punched scanning buttons on the glassy surface. Shadows came and went,
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Speaker 1: and I saw myself half reflected a tipsy shadow in
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Speaker 1: a flurry of racing colors. The patterns finally stabilized, and
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Speaker 1: the clerk read off names. Brill Cameron, ah Yes, Cargle,
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Speaker 1: Race Andrew, Department thirty eight Transfer Transportation. Is that you?
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Speaker 1: I admitted it, and he started punching more buttons. When
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Speaker 1: the sound of the name made connection in whatever desk
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Speaker 1: clerks use for a brain. He stopped with his hand
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Speaker 1: half way to the button. Are you Race Cargle of
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Speaker 1: the Secret Service? Sir? The race? It's right there, I said,
12:02
Speaker 1: gesturing wearily at the projected pattern under the glassy surface.
12:06
Speaker 1: Why I thought, I mean, everybody took it for granted.
12:10
Speaker 1: That is, I heard you thought Cargo had been killed
12:12
Speaker 1: a long time ago, because his name never turned up
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Speaker 1: in news dispatches any more. I grinned sourly, seeing my
12:17
Speaker 1: image dissolve in blurring shadows, and feeling the long heeled
12:21
Speaker 1: scar and my mouth draw up to make the grin hideous.
12:25
Speaker 1: I'm cargole all right. I've been up on floor thirty
12:27
Speaker 1: eight for six years, holding down a desk. Any clerk
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Speaker 1: could handle you. For instance, he gaped, he was a
12:34
Speaker 1: rabbit of a man who had never stepped out of
12:36
Speaker 1: the safe, familiar boundaries of the Tarran trade city. You
12:40
Speaker 1: mean you're the man who went to Charin in disguise
12:42
Speaker 1: and routed out the lists, the man who scouted the
12:45
Speaker 1: Black Ridge and Shane Saw and you've been working at
12:48
Speaker 1: a desk upstairs all these years. It's hard to believe, sir.
12:53
Speaker 1: My mouth twitched. It had been hard for me to
12:55
Speaker 1: believe while I was doing it. The pass right away, sir.
13:00
Speaker 1: He punched buttons, and a printed chip of plastic extruded
13:03
Speaker 1: from the slot on the desktop. Your finger print, please.
13:06
Speaker 1: He pressed my finger to the still soft surface of
13:08
Speaker 1: the plastic, indelibly recording the print, waited for a moment
13:11
Speaker 1: for it to harden, then laid the chip in the
13:13
Speaker 1: slot of a pneumatic tube. I heard it woosh away.
13:17
Speaker 1: They'll check your finger print against that when you board
13:19
Speaker 1: the ship. Skylift isn't till dawn, but you can go
13:21
Speaker 1: aboard as soon as the process crew finishes with her.
13:24
Speaker 1: He glanced at the monitor screen, where the swarming crew
13:27
Speaker 1: were still doing inexplicable things to the immobile spacecraft. It
13:30
Speaker 1: will be another hour or two. Where are you going,
13:33
Speaker 1: mister Cargle? Some planet in the hideas cluster, vain Wall,
13:37
Speaker 1: I think something like that. What's it like there? How
13:41
Speaker 1: should I know? I'd never been there either. I only
13:44
Speaker 1: knew that vain Wall had a red sun, and the
13:46
Speaker 1: Terran leggate could use a trained intelligence officer and not
13:50
Speaker 1: pin him down to a desk. There was respect and
13:53
Speaker 1: even envy in the little man's voice. Could I buy
13:57
Speaker 1: you a drink before you go aboard, mister Cargle? Thanks,
14:00
Speaker 1: but I've a few loose ends to tie up. I didn't,
14:03
Speaker 1: but I was damned if I'd spend my last hour
14:05
Speaker 1: on Wolf under the eyes of a desk bound rabbit
14:07
Speaker 1: who preferred his adventure safely second hand. But after I
14:11
Speaker 1: had left the office in the building, I almost wished
14:13
Speaker 1: I had taken him up on it. It would be
14:15
Speaker 1: at least an hour before I could board the starship.
14:18
Speaker 1: With nothing to do but hash over old memories better forgotten.
14:23
Speaker 1: The sun was lower now THI coronas is a dim star,
14:26
Speaker 1: a dying star, and once past the crimson zenith of noon,
14:30
Speaker 1: its light slance into a long, pale, reddish twilight. Four
14:34
Speaker 1: of Wolf's five moons were clustered in a pale bouquet overhead,
14:37
Speaker 1: mingling thin violet moonlight into the crimson dusk. The shadows
14:42
Speaker 1: were blue and purple in the empty square. As I
14:44
Speaker 1: walked across the stones and stood looking down one of
14:46
Speaker 1: the side streets, a few steps and I was in
14:50
Speaker 1: an untidy slum which might have been on another world
14:52
Speaker 1: from the neat bright trade city which lay west of
14:55
Speaker 1: the spaceport. The carsa was alive and reeking, with the
14:58
Speaker 1: sounds and smells of human and half human life. A
15:01
Speaker 1: naked child, diminutive and golden fird, darted between two of
15:05
Speaker 1: the chinked pebble houses and disappeared, spilling fragile laughter like
15:08
Speaker 1: breaking glass. A little beast, half snake and half cat,
15:13
Speaker 1: crawled across a roof, spread leathery wings and flapped to
15:16
Speaker 1: the ground. The sour, pungent reek of incense from the
15:19
Speaker 1: open street shrine made my nostrils twitch, and a hulked
15:22
Speaker 1: form inside not human cast me a surly green glare.
15:26
Speaker 1: As I passed, I turned, retracing my steps. There was
15:30
Speaker 1: no danger, of course, so close to the trade city.
15:33
Speaker 1: Even on such planets as wolf Terra's laws are respected
15:36
Speaker 1: within earshot of their gates. But there had been rioting
15:40
Speaker 1: here and in Charin during the last month. After the
15:43
Speaker 1: display of mob violence this afternoon, a lone Terran, unarmed,
15:46
Speaker 1: might turn up as a solitary corpse flung on the
15:49
Speaker 1: steps of the HQ building. There had been a time
15:52
Speaker 1: when I had walked alone from chin Saw to the
15:54
Speaker 1: polar colony. I had known how to melt into this
15:57
Speaker 1: kind of night, shabby and inconspicuous. A worn shirt cloak
16:00
Speaker 1: hunched around my shoulders, weaponless except for the razor sharp
16:03
Speaker 1: skin in the clasp of the cloak, walking on the
16:05
Speaker 1: balls on my feet like a dry towner, not looking
16:08
Speaker 1: or sounding or smelling like an earth man. That rabbit
16:12
Speaker 1: in the traffic office had stirred up things I'd be
16:14
Speaker 1: wiser to forget. It had been six years, six years
16:17
Speaker 1: of slow death behind a desk, since the day when
16:20
Speaker 1: Rakhael's censar had left me a marked man, death warrant
16:24
Speaker 1: written on my scarred face anywhere outside the narrow confines
16:27
Speaker 1: of the Terran law on Wolf Recall Censar, my fists
16:32
Speaker 1: clenched with the old impotent hate if I could get
16:34
Speaker 1: my hands on him. It had been Recall who first
16:37
Speaker 1: led me through the byways of the Kharsa, teaching me
16:40
Speaker 1: the jargon of a dozen tribes, the chirping call of
16:42
Speaker 1: the Yamen, the way of the catman, of the rain forests,
16:45
Speaker 1: the argate of the thieves market, the walk and step
16:48
Speaker 1: of the dry Tanners, from Shansaw and d'elon and ard Karan,
16:51
Speaker 1: the patched cities of dusty salt stone which spread out
16:54
Speaker 1: on the bottoms of Wolf's vanished oceans. Recall was from
16:58
Speaker 1: shansa human tall as an earth man, weathered by salt
17:02
Speaker 1: and sun, and he had worked for Terran intelligence since
17:04
Speaker 1: we were boys. We had traveled all over our world
17:08
Speaker 1: together and found it good. And then, for some reason
17:12
Speaker 1: I had never known, it had come to an end.
17:15
Speaker 1: Even now I was not wholly sure why. He had
17:17
Speaker 1: erupted that day into violence and a final explosion. Then
17:21
Speaker 1: he had disappeared, leaving me a marked man and a
17:25
Speaker 1: lonely one. Julie had gone with him. I strode the
17:31
Speaker 1: streets of the slum, unseeing my thoughts running a familiar channel. Julie,
17:35
Speaker 1: my kid's sister, clinging around Rocall's neck, her gray eyes
17:39
Speaker 1: hating me. I had never seen her again. That had
17:44
Speaker 1: been six years ago. One more adventure had shown me
17:47
Speaker 1: that my usefulness to the Secret Service was over. Recall
17:50
Speaker 1: had vanished, but he had left me a legacy, my
17:54
Speaker 1: name written in the sure scrolls of death anywhere outside
17:57
Speaker 1: the safe boundaries of Terran law. A marked man. I
18:00
Speaker 1: had gone back to slow stagnation behind a desk. I
18:04
Speaker 1: stood it as long as I could. When it finally
18:07
Speaker 1: got too bad, Magnuson had been sympathetic. He was the
18:10
Speaker 1: chief of Terran intelligence on Wolf, and I was next
18:12
Speaker 1: in line for his job. But he understood when I quit.
18:16
Speaker 1: He'd arranged the transfer and the pass, and I was
18:19
Speaker 1: leaving tonight. I was nearly back to the spaceport by
18:23
Speaker 1: now across from the street shrine at the edge of
18:25
Speaker 1: the square. It was here that little toy sellar had vanished,
18:29
Speaker 1: But it was exactly like a thousand, a hundred thousand
18:32
Speaker 1: other street shrines on Wolf, A smudge of incense reeking
18:35
Speaker 1: and stinking before the squatting image of Nebron, the toad god,
18:38
Speaker 1: whose face and symbol were everywhere on Wolf. I stared
18:42
Speaker 1: for a moment at the ugly idol, then slowly moved away.
18:47
Speaker 1: The lighted curtains of the Spaceport cafe attracted my attention,
18:49
Speaker 1: and I went inside. A few spaceport personnel and storm
18:53
Speaker 1: gear were drinking coffee at the counter, a pair of
18:55
Speaker 1: furred chocks lounging beneath the mirrors at the far end,
18:58
Speaker 1: and a trio of dry towner rangy weathered men in
19:01
Speaker 1: crimson and blue shirt cloaks were standing at a wall shelf,
19:04
Speaker 1: eating Terran food with aloof dignity. In my business clothes,
19:08
Speaker 1: I felt more conspicuous than the chalks. What place had
19:11
Speaker 1: a civilian here? Between the uniforms of the spacemen and
19:14
Speaker 1: the colorful brilliance of the dry towners, A snubnosed girl
19:18
Speaker 1: with alabaster hair came to take my order. I asked
19:21
Speaker 1: for jacko and bunlets, and carried the food to a
19:23
Speaker 1: wall shelf near the dry towners. Their dialect fell soft
19:26
Speaker 1: and familiar on my ears. One of them without altering
19:29
Speaker 1: the expression on his face or the easy tone of
19:31
Speaker 1: his voice, began to make elaborate comments on my entrance,
19:34
Speaker 1: my appearance, my ancestry, and probably personal habits, all defied
19:39
Speaker 1: in the colorfully obscene dialect of shainsa that had happened before.
19:44
Speaker 1: The wolf and sense of humor is only half human.
19:47
Speaker 1: The finest joke is to criticize and insult a stranger,
19:50
Speaker 1: preferably an earth man, to his very face, in an
19:52
Speaker 1: unknown language, perfectly deadpan. In my civilian clothes, I was
19:57
Speaker 1: obviously fair game. A look or a just sure of
20:00
Speaker 1: resentment would have lost face and dignity what the dry
20:03
Speaker 1: towners called their kihar Permanently, I leaned over and remarked
20:07
Speaker 1: in their own dialect that I would, at some future,
20:09
Speaker 1: an unspecified time, appreciate the opportunity to return their compliments.
20:13
Speaker 1: By rights, they should have laughed, made some barbed remark
20:16
Speaker 1: about my command of language, and crossed their hands in
20:18
Speaker 1: a symbol of jest. Decently reversed on themselves. Then we
20:21
Speaker 1: would have bought each other a drink, and that would
20:23
Speaker 1: be that. But it didn't happen that way, not this time.
20:27
Speaker 1: The tallest of the three whirled, upsetting his drink. In
20:30
Speaker 1: the process. I heard its thin shatter through the squeal
20:32
Speaker 1: of the alabaster haired girl. As the chair crashed over.
20:35
Speaker 1: They faced me three abreast, and one of them fumbled
20:38
Speaker 1: in the clasp of his shirt cloak. I edged backward,
20:41
Speaker 1: my own hand, racing up for a skein I hadn't
20:44
Speaker 1: carried in six years, and fronted them squarely, hoping I
20:46
Speaker 1: could face down the prospect of a rough house. They
20:49
Speaker 1: wouldn't kill me this close to the h Q, but
20:51
Speaker 1: at least I was in for an unpleasant mauling. I
20:53
Speaker 1: couldn't handle three men, and if nerves were this taunt
20:56
Speaker 1: in the Karsa, I might get knifed. Quite by accident,
20:59
Speaker 1: of course, the chocks moaned and gibbered. The dry towners
21:02
Speaker 1: glared at me, and I tensed for the moment when
21:04
Speaker 1: their steady stare would explode into violence. Then I became
21:08
Speaker 1: aware that they were gazing not at me, but at
21:11
Speaker 1: something or some one behind me. The skeins snipped back
21:14
Speaker 1: into the clasps of their cloaks. Then they broke rank,
21:17
Speaker 1: turned and ran. They ran, blundering into stools, leaving havoc
21:21
Speaker 1: of upset benches and broken crockery in their wake. One
21:25
Speaker 1: man barged into the counter, swore and ran on, limping,
21:28
Speaker 1: and let my breath go. Something had put the fear
21:31
Speaker 1: of God into those brutes, and it was at my own,
21:33
Speaker 1: ugly mug. I turned and saw the girl. She was slight,
21:39
Speaker 1: with waving hair like spun black glass circled with faint
21:42
Speaker 1: tracery of stars. A black glass belt bound her narrow
21:46
Speaker 1: waist like clasped hands, and her robe stark white bore
21:50
Speaker 1: an ugly embroidery across the breast, the flat sprawl of
21:53
Speaker 1: a conventionalized toad god nebron. Her features were delicate, chiseled, pale,
21:59
Speaker 1: a dry top face, all human, all woman, but set
22:03
Speaker 1: in an alien and unearthly repose. The great eyes gleamed red.
22:08
Speaker 1: They were fixed, almost unseeing, but the crimson lips were
22:11
Speaker 1: curved with inhuman malice. She stood motionless, looking at me
22:16
Speaker 1: as if wondering why I had not run with the others.
22:19
Speaker 1: In half a second, the smile flickered off and was
22:21
Speaker 1: replaced by the startled look of recognition. Whoever and whatever
22:26
Speaker 1: she was, she had saved me a mauling. I started
22:29
Speaker 1: to phrase formal thanks, then broke off in astonishment. The
22:32
Speaker 1: cafe had emptied, and we were entirely alone. Even the
22:36
Speaker 1: chalks had leaped through an open window. I saw the
22:38
Speaker 1: whisk of a disappearing tail. We stood frozen, looking at
22:42
Speaker 1: one another, while the toad gods sprawled across her breasts
22:45
Speaker 1: rose and fell for half a dozen breaths. Then I
22:48
Speaker 1: took one step forward, and she took one step backward
22:51
Speaker 1: at the same instant. In one swift movement, she was
22:54
Speaker 1: outside in the dark street. It took me only an
22:56
Speaker 1: instant to get into the street after her. But as
22:58
Speaker 1: I stepped across the door, there was a little stirring
23:00
Speaker 1: in the air, like the rising of heat waves across
23:02
Speaker 1: the salt flats at noon. Then the street shrine was empty,
23:07
Speaker 1: and nowhere was there any sign of the girl. She
23:10
Speaker 1: had vanished. She simply was not there. I gaped at
23:14
Speaker 1: the empty shrine. She had stepped inside and vanished like
23:17
Speaker 1: a wraith of smoke, like like the little toy cellar
23:20
Speaker 1: they had hunted out of the carsa there were eyes
23:23
Speaker 1: in the street again, and becoming aware of where I was,
23:26
Speaker 1: I moved away. The shrines of Nebron are on every
23:29
Speaker 1: corner of Wolf. But this is one instance when familiarity
23:33
Speaker 1: does not breed contempt. The street was dark and seemed empty,
23:36
Speaker 1: but it was packed with all the little noises of living.
23:40
Speaker 1: I was not unobserved, and meddling with a street shrine
23:43
Speaker 1: would be just as dangerous as the skeins of my
23:45
Speaker 1: three loudmouthed, dry town roughnecks. I turned and crossed the
23:49
Speaker 1: square for the last time, turning toward the loom of
23:52
Speaker 1: the spaceship, filing the girl away as just another riddle
23:55
Speaker 1: of Wolf. I'd never solve. How wrong I was. End
24:02
Speaker 1: of chapter two, Chapter three, from the spaceport gates, exchanging
24:09
Speaker 1: brief greetings with the guards, I took a last look
24:11
Speaker 1: at the carsa for a minute, I toyed with the
24:14
Speaker 1: notion of just disappearing down one of those streets. It's
24:17
Speaker 1: not hard to disappear on Wolf, if you know how.
24:20
Speaker 1: And I knew, or had known once loyalty to Tara.
24:25
Speaker 1: What a Terra given me except a taste of color
24:27
Speaker 1: and adventure out there in the dry towns, and then
24:30
Speaker 1: taken it away again. If an earth man is very
24:33
Speaker 1: lucky and very careful, he lasts about ten years in intelligence.
24:37
Speaker 1: I had had two years more than my share, and
24:40
Speaker 1: I still knew enough to leave my Terran identity behind
24:43
Speaker 1: like a worn out jacket. I could seek out, recall,
24:46
Speaker 1: settle our blood feud, see Julie again. How could I
24:50
Speaker 1: see Julie again as her husband's murderer? No other way?
24:54
Speaker 1: Blood feud on wolf is a terrible and elaborate ritual
24:57
Speaker 1: of the code Duello. And once I stepped outside the
25:00
Speaker 1: borders of Aran law, sooner or later Rakhal and I
25:03
Speaker 1: would meet, and one of us would die. I looked back,
25:08
Speaker 1: just once at the dark rambling streets away from the square.
25:12
Speaker 1: Then I turned toward the blue white lights that hurt
25:14
Speaker 1: my eyes, and the starship that loomed huge and hateful
25:17
Speaker 1: before me. A steward in white took my fingerprint and
25:20
Speaker 1: led me to a coffin sized chamber. He brought me
25:23
Speaker 1: coffee and sandwiches I hadn't, after all, eaten in the
25:26
Speaker 1: spaceport cafe. Then got me into the skyhook and strapped
25:30
Speaker 1: me deftly and firmly into the acceleration cushions tugged at
25:33
Speaker 1: the Garranson belts until I ached all over. A long
25:36
Speaker 1: needle went into my arm, the narcotic that would keep
25:39
Speaker 1: me safely drowsy all through the terrible tug of interstellar acceleration.
25:45
Speaker 1: Doors clanged, buzzers vibrated lower down in the ship, men
25:48
Speaker 1: tramped the corridors, calling to one another in the language
25:51
Speaker 1: of the spaceports. I understood one word in four. I
25:56
Speaker 1: shut my eyes, not caring. At the end of the trip,
26:00
Speaker 1: it would be another star, another world, another language, another life.
26:05
Speaker 1: I had spent all my adult life on wolf. Julie
26:09
Speaker 1: had been a child under the red Star. But it
26:11
Speaker 1: was a pair of wide crimson eyes and black hair
26:14
Speaker 1: combed into ringlets, like spun black glass that went down
26:17
Speaker 1: with me, into the bottomless pit of sleep. Someone was
26:21
Speaker 1: shaking me, Ah, come on, cargle, wake up, man, shake
26:24
Speaker 1: your boots. My mouth foul tasting and stiff, fumbled at
26:27
Speaker 1: the shapes of words. Wahaven't woy what? My eyes throbbed.
26:33
Speaker 1: When I got them open, I saw two men in
26:35
Speaker 1: black leathers bending over me. We were still inside gravity.
26:40
Speaker 1: Get out of the skyhook you're comin with us. Wha,
26:44
Speaker 1: even through the layers of the sedative that got to me.
26:46
Speaker 1: Only a criminal under interstellar law can be removed from
26:49
Speaker 1: a passage paid starship once he has formally checked in
26:52
Speaker 1: on board I was legally at this moment on my
26:56
Speaker 1: planet of destination. I haven't been charged, arged. Did I
27:01
Speaker 1: say you had snapped? One man shut up, he's doped,
27:05
Speaker 1: the other said, hurriedly. Look, he continued, pronouncing every word
27:09
Speaker 1: loudly and distinctly. Get up, now, come with us. The
27:14
Speaker 1: coordinator will hold up blast off if we don't get
27:16
Speaker 1: off in three minutes, and operations will scream come on please.
27:21
Speaker 1: Then I was stumbling along the lighted, empty corridor, swaying
27:24
Speaker 1: between the two men, foggily realizing the crew must think
27:27
Speaker 1: me a fugitive caught trying to leave the planet. The
27:30
Speaker 1: locks dilated. A uniformed spaceman watched us, fussily regarding a chronometer.
27:35
Speaker 1: He fretted the dispatcher's office. We're doing the best we can.
27:38
Speaker 1: The Space Force man said, can you walk cargo? I could,
27:42
Speaker 1: though my feet were a little shaky on the ladders.
27:45
Speaker 1: The violet moonlight had deepened to mauve, and gusty winds
27:48
Speaker 1: spun tendrils of grit across my face. The Space Force
27:51
Speaker 1: men shepherded me, one on either side, to the gateway.
27:54
Speaker 1: What the hell is all? This is something wrong with
27:57
Speaker 1: my pass? The guard shook his head. How would I know?
28:01
Speaker 1: Magnuson put out the order take it up with him.
28:04
Speaker 1: Believe me, I muttered, I will. They looked at each other,
28:08
Speaker 1: hell said one. He's not under arrest. We don't have
28:11
Speaker 1: to haul him around like a convict. Can you walk
28:13
Speaker 1: all right now, cargle. You know where the Secret Service
28:16
Speaker 1: office is, don't you floor thirty eight? The chief wants
28:18
Speaker 1: you and make it fast. I knew it made no
28:21
Speaker 1: sense to ask questions. They obviously knew no more than
28:24
Speaker 1: I did. I asked, anyhow are they holding the ship
28:27
Speaker 1: for me? I'm supposed to be leaving on it, not
28:30
Speaker 1: that one, the guard answered, jerking his head toward the spaceport.
28:33
Speaker 1: I looked back just in time to see the dust
28:35
Speaker 1: dimmed ship leap upward, briefly whitening in the field of searchlights,
28:39
Speaker 1: and vanish into the surging clouds above. My head was
28:43
Speaker 1: clearing fast, and anger speeded up the process. The HQ
28:46
Speaker 1: building was empty and the chill silence of just before dawn.
28:50
Speaker 1: I had to rout out a dozing elevator operator, and
28:52
Speaker 1: as the lift swooped upward, my anger rose with it.
28:56
Speaker 1: I wasn't working for Magnuson any more, What right had
28:58
Speaker 1: he or anybody to gram off an outbound starship like
29:01
Speaker 1: a criminal. By the time I barged into his office,
29:04
Speaker 1: I was spoiling for a fight. The Secret Service office
29:08
Speaker 1: was full of grayish pink morning and yellow lights left
29:10
Speaker 1: on from the night before. Magduson at his desk looked
29:14
Speaker 1: as if he'd slept in his rumpled uniform. He was
29:16
Speaker 1: a big bull of a man, and his littered desk
29:19
Speaker 1: looked as always like the track of a typhoon. In
29:21
Speaker 1: the salt flats, the clutter was weighed down here and
29:24
Speaker 1: there with solidopic cubes of the five Magnuson youngsters, and
29:27
Speaker 1: as usual, Magduson was fiddling with one of the cubes.
29:30
Speaker 1: He said, not looking up, Sorry to pull this at
29:33
Speaker 1: the last minute. Race. There was just time to put
29:36
Speaker 1: out a pull order and get you off the ship,
29:37
Speaker 1: but no time to explain. I glared at him. Seems
29:42
Speaker 1: I can't even get off the planet without trouble. You
29:44
Speaker 1: raised hell all the time I was here, But when
29:46
Speaker 1: I try to leave, what is this anyhow? I'm sick
29:48
Speaker 1: of being shoved around. Magduson made a conciliating gesture. Wait,
29:53
Speaker 1: until you hear. He began and broke off, looking at
29:56
Speaker 1: someone who was sitting in the chair in front of
29:57
Speaker 1: his desk, somebody whose back was turned to me. Then
30:01
Speaker 1: the person twisted, and I stopped cold, blinking and wondering
30:05
Speaker 1: if this were a hallucination and I'd wake up in
30:06
Speaker 1: the starship's skyhook, far out in space. Then the woman cried, Race, Race,
30:12
Speaker 1: don't you know me? I took one dazed step and another.
30:17
Speaker 1: Then she flew across the space between us, her thin
30:20
Speaker 1: arms tangling around my neck, and I caught her up,
30:22
Speaker 1: still disbelieving. Julie, Oh, Race. I thought I'd die when
30:27
Speaker 1: Mac told me you were leaving tonight. It's been the
30:29
Speaker 1: only thing that's kept me alive, knowing, knowing I'd see you.
30:33
Speaker 1: She sobbed and laughed, her face buried in my shoulder.
30:36
Speaker 1: I let her cry for a minute, then held my
30:38
Speaker 1: sister at arm's length for a moment. I had forgotten
30:41
Speaker 1: the six years that lay between us. Now I saw them,
30:44
Speaker 1: all of them printed plain on her face. Julie had
30:47
Speaker 1: been a pretty girl. Six years, had fined her face
30:50
Speaker 1: into beauty, but there was tension in the set of
30:52
Speaker 1: her shoulders and her gray eyes had looked on horrors.
30:56
Speaker 1: She looked tiny and thin and unbearably frail under the
30:59
Speaker 1: scanty folds of her fur robe, a dry town woman's robe.
31:03
Speaker 1: Her wrists were manacled the jeweled, tight bracelets fastened together
31:07
Speaker 1: by the links of a long, fine chain of silvered gilt,
31:10
Speaker 1: that clashed a little thinly as her hands fell to
31:13
Speaker 1: her sides. What's wrong, Julie, where's Rakhal? She shivered, And
31:19
Speaker 1: now I could see that she was in a state
31:20
Speaker 1: of shock. Gone. He's gone, That's all I know. And oh, Race, Race.
31:26
Speaker 1: He took Rindy with him. From the tone of her voice,
31:29
Speaker 1: I had thought she was sobbing. Now I realized that
31:32
Speaker 1: her eyes were dry. She was long past tears. Gently
31:36
Speaker 1: I unclasped her clenched fingers and put her back in
31:39
Speaker 1: the chair. She sat like a doll, her hands falling
31:42
Speaker 1: to her sides with a thin clash of chains. When
31:44
Speaker 1: I picked them up and laid them in her lap,
31:46
Speaker 1: she let them lie there motionless. I stood over her
31:49
Speaker 1: and demanded, who's Rindy? She didn't move Our daughter, Race,
31:53
Speaker 1: our little girl. Magnuson broke in his voice, harsh, well, cargle,
31:58
Speaker 1: Should I have let you leave. Don't be a damn fool.
32:02
Speaker 1: I was afraid you'd tell the poor kid she had
32:03
Speaker 1: to live with her own mistakes, growled Magnuson you're capable
32:07
Speaker 1: of it. For the first time, Julie showed a sign
32:09
Speaker 1: of animation. I was afraid to come to you, Mac.
32:12
Speaker 1: You never wanted me to marry. Recall either, water under
32:16
Speaker 1: the bridge, Magison grunted, And I've got lads of my own,
32:19
Speaker 1: Miss Cargle, Missus He stopped in distress, vaguely remembering that
32:22
Speaker 1: in the dry towns, an improper form of address can
32:25
Speaker 1: be a deadly insult. But she guessed his predicament. You
32:28
Speaker 1: used to call me Julie Mac. It will do now
32:31
Speaker 1: you've changed, he said quietly. Julie, then tell Race what
32:35
Speaker 1: you told me, all of it. She turned to me.
32:38
Speaker 1: I shouldn't have come for myself. I knew that Julie
32:42
Speaker 1: was proud, and she had always had the courage to
32:43
Speaker 1: live with her own mistakes. When I first saw her,
32:46
Speaker 1: I knew this wouldn't be anything so simple as the
32:48
Speaker 1: complaint of an abused wife or even an abandoned or
32:51
Speaker 1: deserted mother. I took a chair, watching her and listening
32:56
Speaker 1: she began, you made a mistake when you turn recall
32:58
Speaker 1: out of the service. Mac, in his way, he was
33:01
Speaker 1: the most loyal man you had on Wolf Magnuson had
33:04
Speaker 1: evidently not expected her to take this tack. He scowled
33:08
Speaker 1: and looked disconcerted, shifting uneasily in his big chair. But
33:11
Speaker 1: when Julie did not continue, obviously awaiting his answer, he said, Julie,
33:15
Speaker 1: he left me no choice. I never knew how his
33:18
Speaker 1: mind worked, that final deal he engineered. Have you any
33:21
Speaker 1: idea how much that costs the service? And have you
33:24
Speaker 1: taken a good look at your brother's face, Julie, girl.
33:27
Speaker 1: Julie raised her eyes slowly, and I saw her flinch.
33:30
Speaker 1: I knew how she felt. For three years, I had
33:32
Speaker 1: kept my mirror covered, growing an untidy straggle of beard,
33:35
Speaker 1: because it hid the scars and saved me the ordeal
33:38
Speaker 1: of facing myself to shave. Julie whispered, Pracaus is just
33:43
Speaker 1: as bad worse. That's some satisfaction, I said, and Mac
33:48
Speaker 1: stared at us, baffled. Even now I don't know what
33:50
Speaker 1: it was all about, and you never will, I said,
33:54
Speaker 1: for the hundredth time, we've been over this before, nobody
33:57
Speaker 1: could understand it unless he'd lived in the Dry Towns.
33:59
Speaker 1: Let's not talk about it. You talk, Julie, what brought
34:02
Speaker 1: you here like this? What about the kid? There's no
34:05
Speaker 1: way I can tell you the end without telling you
34:07
Speaker 1: the beginning, she said reasonably. At first, Recall worked as
34:10
Speaker 1: a trader in shan Saw. I wasn't surprised. The Dry
34:14
Speaker 1: Towns were the core of Terran trade on Wolf, and
34:16
Speaker 1: it was through their co operation that Terra existed here
34:19
Speaker 1: peaceably on a world only half human or less. The
34:23
Speaker 1: men of the Dry Towns existed strangely poised between two worlds.
34:27
Speaker 1: They had made dealings with the first Terran ships, and
34:29
Speaker 1: thus gave entrance to the wedge of the Terran Empire.
34:32
Speaker 1: And yet they stood proud and apart. They alone had
34:36
Speaker 1: never yielded to the terranizing, which overtakes all Empire planets.
34:39
Speaker 1: Sooner or later, there were no trade cities in the
34:42
Speaker 1: Dry Towns, and earthmen who went there unprotected faced a
34:46
Speaker 1: thousand deaths, each one worse than the last. There were
34:49
Speaker 1: those who said that the men of Shanesaw and Da'elon
34:51
Speaker 1: and ed Karin had sold the rest of Wolf to
34:54
Speaker 1: the Terrans to keep the Terrans from their own door.
34:57
Speaker 1: Even Racall, who had worked with Terra since boy hood,
35:00
Speaker 1: had finally come to a point of decision and gone
35:02
Speaker 1: his own way, And it was not Terra's way. That
35:07
Speaker 1: was what Julie was saying now he didn't like what
35:09
Speaker 1: Terra was doing on Wolf. I'm not so sure I
35:11
Speaker 1: like it myself. Mangueson interrupted her again. Do you know
35:15
Speaker 1: what Wolf was like when we came here? Have you
35:17
Speaker 1: seen the slave colony, the idiot's village? Your own brother
35:20
Speaker 1: went to Shansaw and routed out the lists, and Recall
35:24
Speaker 1: helped him, Julie reminded him. Even after he left you,
35:27
Speaker 1: he tried to keep out of things. He could have
35:29
Speaker 1: told them a good deal that would hurt you. After
35:30
Speaker 1: ten years in intelligence, you know I knew it was,
35:35
Speaker 1: although I wasn't going to tell Julie this one reason why.
35:37
Speaker 1: At the end, during that terrible explosion of violence which
35:40
Speaker 1: no normal Terran mind could comprehend, I had done my
35:43
Speaker 1: best to kill him. We had both known that after
35:46
Speaker 1: this the planet would not hold the two of us.
35:49
Speaker 1: We could both go on living only by dividing it Unevenly.
35:53
Speaker 1: I had been given the slow death of the Terran zone,
35:56
Speaker 1: and he had all the rest. But he never told
35:59
Speaker 1: them anything. I tell you he was one of the
36:01
Speaker 1: most loyal Maca grunted, Yeah, he's an angel. Go ahead.
36:06
Speaker 1: She didn't not immediately. Instead, she asked what sounded like
36:10
Speaker 1: an irrelevant question, Is it true what he told me
36:13
Speaker 1: that the Empire has a standing offer of a reward
36:15
Speaker 1: for a working model of a matter transmitter. That offer's
36:19
Speaker 1: been standing for three hundred years. Tarann reckoning one million
36:22
Speaker 1: credits cash. Don't tell me he was figuring to invent one.
36:26
Speaker 1: I don't think so, but I think he heard rumors
36:28
Speaker 1: about one. He said, with that kind of money, he
36:31
Speaker 1: could bargain the Terrans right out of Shansaw. That was
36:33
Speaker 1: where it started. He began coming and going at odd times,
36:37
Speaker 1: but he never said any more about it. He wouldn't
36:39
Speaker 1: talk to me at all. When was all this about
36:42
Speaker 1: four months ago? In other words, just about the time
36:45
Speaker 1: of the riots in Charin. She nodded. Yes, he was
36:49
Speaker 1: away in Charin when the ghost wind blew and he
36:51
Speaker 1: came back with knife cuts in his thigh. I asked
36:54
Speaker 1: if he had been mixed up in the anti Terran rioting,
36:56
Speaker 1: but he wouldn't tell me Race. I don't know anything
36:59
Speaker 1: about politics. I don't really care. But just about that time,
37:02
Speaker 1: the Great House in Shansaw changed hands. I'm sure Recall
37:06
Speaker 1: had something to do with that. And then Julie twisted
37:09
Speaker 1: her chained hands together in her lap. He tried to
37:12
Speaker 1: mix Rindy up in it. It was crazy awful. He
37:16
Speaker 1: brought her some sort of non human toy from one
37:18
Speaker 1: of the lowland towns Charin. I think it was a
37:21
Speaker 1: weird thing. Scared me. But he'd sit Rindy down in
37:24
Speaker 1: the sunlight and have her look into it, and Rindy
37:26
Speaker 1: would gabble all sorts of nonsense about little men and
37:29
Speaker 1: birds and a toy maker. The chains about Julie's wrists
37:32
Speaker 1: clashed as she twisted her hands together. I stared somberly
37:36
Speaker 1: at the fetters. The chain, which was long, did not
37:38
Speaker 1: really hamper her movements much. Such chains were symbolic ornaments,
37:42
Speaker 1: and most dry town women went all their lives with
37:44
Speaker 1: fettered hands. But even after the years I'd spent in
37:47
Speaker 1: the dry towns, the sight still brought an uneasiness to
37:50
Speaker 1: my throat, a vague discomfort. We had a terrible fight
37:54
Speaker 1: over that Julie went on, I was afraid, afraid of
37:57
Speaker 1: what it was doing to Rindy. I threw it out,
37:59
Speaker 1: and Rindy woke up and screamed. Julie checked herself and
38:02
Speaker 1: caught it vanishing self control. But you don't want to
38:04
Speaker 1: hear about that. It was then I threatened to leave
38:07
Speaker 1: him and take Rindy the next day. Suddenly, the hysteria
38:10
Speaker 1: Julie had been forcing back broke free, and she rocked
38:12
Speaker 1: back and forth in her chair, shaken and strangled with sobs.
38:15
Speaker 1: He took Randy. Oh Race, he's crazy, crazy. I think
38:19
Speaker 1: he hates Rindy. He he race. He smashed her toys.
38:22
Speaker 1: He took every toy the child had and broke them
38:24
Speaker 1: one by one, smashed them into powder, every toy the
38:27
Speaker 1: child had. Julie, please please, Magnuson pleaded, shaken. If we're
38:32
Speaker 1: dealing with a maniac, I don't dare think he'd harm her.
38:35
Speaker 1: He warned me not to come here, I'd never see
38:37
Speaker 1: her again. But if it meant war against Terra, I
38:39
Speaker 1: had to come. But mac please don't do anything against him.
38:42
Speaker 1: Please please, he's got my baby, he's got my little girl.
38:46
Speaker 1: Her voice failed, and she buried her face in her hands.
38:49
Speaker 1: Mac picked up the solidopic cube of his five year
38:51
Speaker 1: old son and turned it between his pudgy fingers, saying, unhappily, Julie,
38:55
Speaker 1: We'll take every precaution, but can't you see we've got
38:58
Speaker 1: to get him. If there's there's a question of a
39:00
Speaker 1: matter transmitter or anything like that in the hands of
39:03
Speaker 1: Terra's enemies. I could see that too, but Julie's agonized
39:07
Speaker 1: face came between me and the picture of disaster. I
39:09
Speaker 1: clenched my fist around the chair arm, not surprised to
39:12
Speaker 1: see the fragile plastic buckle crack and split under my
39:15
Speaker 1: grip if it had been Recall's neck. Mac, let me
39:19
Speaker 1: handle this, Julie. Shall I find Rindy for you? A
39:23
Speaker 1: hope was born in her ravaged face and died while
39:26
Speaker 1: I looked Race. He'd kill you, or have you killed?
39:31
Speaker 1: He'd try, I admitted the moment Recall knew I was
39:33
Speaker 1: outside the Terran zone, I'd walk with death. I had
39:36
Speaker 1: accepted the code during my years in Chainsaw, but now
39:39
Speaker 1: I was an earth man and felt only contempt. Can't
39:43
Speaker 1: you see once he knows I'm at large, that very
39:45
Speaker 1: code of his will force him to abandon any intrigue,
39:47
Speaker 1: whatever you call it, conspiracy, and come after me first.
39:51
Speaker 1: That way we do two things. We get him out
39:53
Speaker 1: of hiding and we get him out of the conspiracy,
39:56
Speaker 1: if there is one. I looked at the shaking Julie
39:59
Speaker 1: and something snapped. I stooped and lifted her, not gently,
40:02
Speaker 1: my hands biting her shoulders. And I won't kill him,
40:05
Speaker 1: do you hear? He may wish I had. By the
40:07
Speaker 1: time I get through with him, I'll beat the living
40:09
Speaker 1: hell out of him. I'll cram my fists down his throat,
40:11
Speaker 1: but I'll settle it with him like an earth man.
40:14
Speaker 1: I won't kill him, hear me, Julie, because that's the
40:16
Speaker 1: worst thing I could do to him. Catch him and
40:18
Speaker 1: let him live. Afterward, Maguson stepped toward me and pried
40:22
Speaker 1: my crushing hands off her arms. Julie rubbed the ruses mechanically,
40:25
Speaker 1: not knowing what she was doing. Max said, you can't
40:28
Speaker 1: do it, Cargle. You wouldn't get as far as Delawn.
40:30
Speaker 1: You haven't been out of the zone in six years. Besides,
40:33
Speaker 1: his eyes rested full on my face. I hate to
40:36
Speaker 1: say this, race, but damn it, man, go and take
40:38
Speaker 1: a good, look at yourself in a mirror. Do you
40:39
Speaker 1: think I'd have ever pulled you off the Secret Service? Otherwise?
40:42
Speaker 1: How in hell can you disguise yourself now? There are
40:45
Speaker 1: plenty of scarred men in the dry towns, I said,
40:47
Speaker 1: Rakau will remember my scars, but I don't think any
40:50
Speaker 1: one else will look Twice, Magnuson walked to the window.
40:53
Speaker 1: His huge form bulked against the light, perceptibly darkening the office.
40:58
Speaker 1: He looked over the far away panorama, the neat, bright
41:01
Speaker 1: trade city below, and the vast wilderness lying outside. I
41:04
Speaker 1: could almost hear the wheels grinding in his head. Finally,
41:08
Speaker 1: he swung around Race. I've heard these rumors before, but
41:11
Speaker 1: you're the only man I could have sent to track
41:13
Speaker 1: them down. And I wouldn't send you out in cold
41:15
Speaker 1: blood to be killed. I won't now. Space Force will
41:18
Speaker 1: pick him up. I heard the harsh, inward gasp of
41:21
Speaker 1: Julie's breath and said, damn it, No, the first move
41:24
Speaker 1: you make I couldn't finish. Rindy was in his hands,
41:27
Speaker 1: and I knew Recall he hadn't been given to making
41:29
Speaker 1: idle threats. We all three knew what Recall might do.
41:32
Speaker 1: At the first hint of the long arm of Aran
41:34
Speaker 1: law reaching out for him. I said, for God's sake,
41:37
Speaker 1: let's keep space force out of it. Let it look
41:39
Speaker 1: like a personal matter between we're callin' me, and let
41:42
Speaker 1: us settle it on those terms. Remember he's got the kid.
41:45
Speaker 1: Magnuson sighed again. He picked up one of the cubes
41:48
Speaker 1: and stared into the clear plastic where the three dimensional
41:51
Speaker 1: image of a nine year old girl looked out at him,
41:53
Speaker 1: smiling and innocent. His face was transparent as the plastic cube.
41:57
Speaker 1: Mac acts tough, but he has five kids, and he
42:00
Speaker 1: is as soft as a dish of pudding where a
42:02
Speaker 1: kid is concerned. I know another thing too, If we
42:06
Speaker 1: send out space force after all the riots, how many
42:09
Speaker 1: Terrans are on this planet a few thousand, no more?
42:12
Speaker 1: What chance would we have if it turned into a
42:14
Speaker 1: full scale rebellion, None at all, unless we wanted to
42:17
Speaker 1: order a massacre. Sure we have bombs and disc guns
42:20
Speaker 1: and all that, but would you dare use them? And
42:23
Speaker 1: where would we be after that? We're here to keep
42:25
Speaker 1: the pot for boiling over, to keep out of planetary incidents,
42:28
Speaker 1: not push them along to a point where a bluff
42:30
Speaker 1: won't work. That's why we've got to pick up Recall
42:33
Speaker 1: before he gets out of hand. I said, give me
42:36
Speaker 1: a month, then you can move in if you have to.
42:38
Speaker 1: Recall can't do much against Terra in that time, and
42:41
Speaker 1: I might be able to keep Rindy out of it.
42:44
Speaker 1: Manguson stared at me hard eyed. If you do this
42:47
Speaker 1: against my advice, I won't be able to step in
42:49
Speaker 1: and pull you out of a jam later on, you know,
42:51
Speaker 1: and God help you if you start up the machines
42:53
Speaker 1: and can't stop them. I knew that a month was
42:57
Speaker 1: it much. Wolf is forty thousand miles of diday diameter,
43:00
Speaker 1: at least half unexplored mountain and forests, swarming with non
43:04
Speaker 1: human and semi human cities where the Terrence had never been.
43:07
Speaker 1: Finding Recall or any one man would be like picking
43:10
Speaker 1: out one star in the Andromeda nebula. Not impossible, Not
43:15
Speaker 1: quite impossible. Mac's eyes wandered again to his child's face
43:19
Speaker 1: deep in the transparent cube. He turned it in his hands. Okay, cargle,
43:24
Speaker 1: he said, slowly, So we're all crazy. I'll be crazy too,
43:27
Speaker 1: Try it your way. End of chapter three, Chapter four,
43:35
Speaker 1: My sunset. I was ready to leave. I hadn't had
43:38
Speaker 1: any loose ends to tie up in the trade city.
43:40
Speaker 1: Since I had already disposed of most of my gear
43:42
Speaker 1: before boarding the ship, I'd never been in better circumstances
43:45
Speaker 1: to take off for parts. Unknown. Mac, still disapproving, had
43:49
Speaker 1: opened the files to me, and I'd spent most of
43:51
Speaker 1: the day in the back rooms of floor thirty eight
43:53
Speaker 1: searching intelligence files to refresh my memory, scanning the pages
43:56
Speaker 1: of my own old reports sent years ago from Shane
43:59
Speaker 1: Saw and Dayelah. He had sent out one of the
44:02
Speaker 1: non humans who worked for us to buy or acquire
44:04
Speaker 1: somewhere in the Old Town a dry towner's outfit and
44:07
Speaker 1: the other things I would wear and carry. I would
44:10
Speaker 1: have liked to go myself. I felt that I needed
44:13
Speaker 1: the practice. I was only now beginning to realize how
44:16
Speaker 1: much I might have forgotten in the years behind a desk.
44:19
Speaker 1: But until I was ready to make my presence known,
44:21
Speaker 1: no one must know that Race Cargill had not left
44:24
Speaker 1: Wolf on the starship. Above all, I must not be
44:27
Speaker 1: seen in the Carsa until I went there, in the
44:29
Speaker 1: dry Town disguise, which had become years ago a deep
44:32
Speaker 1: second nature, almost an alternate personality. About Sunset, I walked
44:37
Speaker 1: through the clean little streets of the Tarran trade city
44:39
Speaker 1: toward the Magnuson home, where Julie was waiting for me.
44:43
Speaker 1: Most of the men who go into civil service of
44:45
Speaker 1: the Empire come from Earth or from the close in
44:47
Speaker 1: planets of Proxima and Alpha Centaurus. They go out unmarried,
44:51
Speaker 1: and they stay that way, or merry women native to
44:53
Speaker 1: the planets where they are sent. But Joanna Magnuson was
44:57
Speaker 1: one of the rare earth women who had come out
44:59
Speaker 1: with her husband twenty fe years ago. There are two
45:01
Speaker 1: kinds of earth women like that. They make their quarterings
45:04
Speaker 1: a little bit of home or a little bit of hell.
45:07
Speaker 1: Joanna had made their house look like a transported corner
45:10
Speaker 1: of Earth. I never knew quite what to think of
45:12
Speaker 1: the Magnuson household. It seemed to me almost from madness,
45:15
Speaker 1: to live under a red sun, yet come inside to
45:18
Speaker 1: yellow light, to live on a world with the wild
45:20
Speaker 1: beauty of wolf, and yet live as they might have
45:22
Speaker 1: lived on their home planet. Or maybe I was the
45:25
Speaker 1: one who was out of step. I had done the
45:27
Speaker 1: reprehensible thing they called going native. Possibly I had done
45:31
Speaker 1: just that, and in absorbing myself into the new world,
45:33
Speaker 1: had lost the ability to fit into the old Joanna,
45:38
Speaker 1: a chubby, comfortable woman in her forties, opened the door
45:40
Speaker 1: and gave me her hand. Come in, Race, Julie's expecting you.
45:45
Speaker 1: It's good of you. I broke off, unable to express
45:48
Speaker 1: my gratitude. Julie and I had come from Earth. Our
45:51
Speaker 1: father had been an officer on the old starship Landfall
45:53
Speaker 1: when Julie was only a child. He had died in
45:56
Speaker 1: a wreck off Procyon, and mac Magnuson had found me
45:58
Speaker 1: a place in intelligence because I spoke four of the
46:01
Speaker 1: wolf languages and haunted the carsa with Recall whenever I
46:04
Speaker 1: could get away. They had also taken Julie into their
46:07
Speaker 1: own home like a younger sister. They hadn't said much
46:10
Speaker 1: because they had liked Recall when the break up came.
46:13
Speaker 1: But that terrible night when Recall and I nearly killed
46:15
Speaker 1: each other, and Recall came with his face bleeding and
46:17
Speaker 1: took Julie away with him had hurt them hard. Yet
46:21
Speaker 1: it had made them all the kinder to me. Joanna said, forthrightly, nonsense, Race,
46:26
Speaker 1: what else could we do? She drew me along the hall.
46:29
Speaker 1: You can talk and hear I delayed a minute before
46:32
Speaker 1: going through the door, she indicated, how is Julie better?
46:36
Speaker 1: I think I put her to bed in Meta's room
46:38
Speaker 1: and she slept most of the day. She'll be all right.
46:40
Speaker 1: I'll leave you to talk. Joanna opened the door and
46:43
Speaker 1: went away. Julie was awake and dressed, and already some
46:47
Speaker 1: of the terrible, frozen horror was gone from her face.
46:50
Speaker 1: She was still tense and double ridden, but not hysterical now.
46:54
Speaker 1: The room, one of the children's bedrooms, wasn't a big one,
46:57
Speaker 1: even at the top of the Secret Service. A cop
46:59
Speaker 1: doesn't live too well, not on Terra's civil service pace Gale,
47:03
Speaker 1: not with five youngsters. It looked as if all five
47:06
Speaker 1: of the kids had taken it to pieces, one at
47:08
Speaker 1: a time. I sat down on a too low chair
47:10
Speaker 1: and said, Julie, we haven't much time. I've got to
47:13
Speaker 1: be out of the city before dark. I want to
47:15
Speaker 1: know about Recall, what he does, what he's like now.
47:18
Speaker 1: Remember I haven't seen him for years. Tell me everything,
47:21
Speaker 1: his friends, his amusements, everything, you know. I always thought
47:25
Speaker 1: you knew him better than I did. Julie had a
47:28
Speaker 1: fidgety little way of coiling the links of the chain
47:30
Speaker 1: around her wrists and it made me nervous. It's routine, Julie,
47:33
Speaker 1: police work. Mostly I play by ear, but I try
47:36
Speaker 1: to start out by being methodical. She answered everything I
47:40
Speaker 1: asked her, but the sum total wasn't much and it
47:42
Speaker 1: wouldn't help much. As I said, it's easy to disappear
47:45
Speaker 1: on Wolf. Julie knew he had been friendly with the
47:48
Speaker 1: new holders of the Great House on Shansaw, but she
47:50
Speaker 1: didn't even know their name. I heard one of the
47:52
Speaker 1: Magnuson children fly to the street door and return shouting
47:55
Speaker 1: for her mother. Joanna knocked at the door of the
47:57
Speaker 1: room and came in. There's a chalk outside. Her wants
48:00
Speaker 1: to see you race. I nodded, probably my fancy dress.
48:04
Speaker 1: Can I change in the back room? Joanna? Will you
48:06
Speaker 1: keep my clothes here till I get back. I went
48:09
Speaker 1: to the door and spoke to the furred non human
48:11
Speaker 1: in the sibilant jargon of the Haarsa, and he handed
48:13
Speaker 1: me what looked like a bundle of rags. There were
48:16
Speaker 1: hard lumps inside the chalk. Said softly, I hear a
48:19
Speaker 1: rumor in the carsarrees, perhaps it will help you. Three
48:23
Speaker 1: men from shane Shah are in the city. They came
48:25
Speaker 1: here to seek a woman who has vanished and a toymaker.
48:28
Speaker 1: They are returning at sunrise. Perhaps you can arrange to
48:31
Speaker 1: travel in their caravan. I thanked him and carried the
48:35
Speaker 1: bundle inside. In the empty back room, I stripped to
48:38
Speaker 1: the skin and unrolled the bundle. There was a pair
48:40
Speaker 1: of baggy striped breeches, a worn and shabby shirtcloak with
48:43
Speaker 1: capacious pockets, a looped belt with half the gilt rubbed
48:46
Speaker 1: away in the bass, metal showing through, and a scuffed
48:49
Speaker 1: pair of ankle boots tied with frayed thongs of different colors.
48:52
Speaker 1: There was a little cluster of amulets and seals. I
48:54
Speaker 1: chose two or three of the commonest kind and strung
48:57
Speaker 1: them around my neck. One of the lumps in the
48:59
Speaker 1: bundle was a small jar holding nothing but the ordinary
49:02
Speaker 1: spices sold in the market with which the average dry
49:04
Speaker 1: towner flavors food. I rubbed some of the powder on
49:07
Speaker 1: my body, put a pinch in the pocket of my
49:09
Speaker 1: shirt cloak, and chewed a few of the buds, wrinkling
49:11
Speaker 1: my nose at the long, unfamiliar pungency. The second lump
49:15
Speaker 1: was a skeen and unlike the worn and shabby garments.
49:18
Speaker 1: This was brand new and sharp and bright, and its
49:21
Speaker 1: edge held a razor glint. I tucked it into the
49:24
Speaker 1: clasp of my shirt cloak a reassuring weight. It was
49:27
Speaker 1: the only weapon I could dare to carry the last
49:30
Speaker 1: of the solid objects in the bundle was a flat
49:32
Speaker 1: wooden case about nine by ten inches. I slid it open.
49:36
Speaker 1: It was divided carefully into sections, cushioned with sponge absorbent plastic,
49:40
Speaker 1: and in them lay tiny slips of glass on wolf
49:43
Speaker 1: as precious as jewels. They were lenses, camera lenses, microscope lenses,
49:48
Speaker 1: even eyeglass lenses. Packed close. There were nearly a hundred
49:52
Speaker 1: of them, nested by the shock absorbent stuff. They were
49:55
Speaker 1: my excuse for travel to Shane saw. Over and above
49:57
Speaker 1: the necessities of trade, a few items of Terran manufacture.
50:01
Speaker 1: Vacuum tubes, transistors, lenses for cameras and binoculars, liquors, and
50:05
Speaker 1: finely forged small tools are literally worth their weight in platinum.
50:10
Speaker 1: Even in cities where Terrans have never gone. These things
50:12
Speaker 1: bring exorbitant prices, and trading in them is a dry
50:15
Speaker 1: town privilege. Recall had been a trader, so Julie told me,
50:19
Speaker 1: in fine wire and surgical instruments. Wolfe is not a
50:22
Speaker 1: mechanized planet and has never developed any indigenous industrial system.
50:26
Speaker 1: The psychology of the non human seldom runs to technological advances.
50:31
Speaker 1: I went down the hallway again to the room where
50:33
Speaker 1: Julie was waiting. Catching a glimpse in a full length mirror,
50:35
Speaker 1: I was startled. All traces of the Terran civil servant,
50:38
Speaker 1: clumsy and uncomfortable in his ill fitting clothes, had dropped away.
50:42
Speaker 1: A dry towner, rangy and scarred, looked out at me,
50:45
Speaker 1: and it seemed that the expression on his face was
50:48
Speaker 1: one of amazement. Joanna whirled as I came into the room,
50:51
Speaker 1: invisibly paled. Before recovering her self control, she gave me
50:54
Speaker 1: a nervous little giggle. Goodness, Race, I didn't know you,
50:58
Speaker 1: Julie whispered, yes, I I remember you better like that.
51:02
Speaker 1: You're you look so much like The door flew open
51:05
Speaker 1: and Mickey Magnuson scampered into the room, a chubby little boy,
51:08
Speaker 1: browned by a Terra type sun lamp and glowing with health.
51:11
Speaker 1: In his hand he held some sparkling thing that gave
51:13
Speaker 1: off tiny flashes and glints of color. I gave the
51:16
Speaker 1: kid a grin before I realized that I was disguised anyhow,
51:18
Speaker 1: and probably a hideous sight. The little boy backed off,
51:22
Speaker 1: but Joanna put her plump hand on his shoulder, murmuring
51:24
Speaker 1: soothing things. Micky toddled toward Julie, holding up the shining
51:28
Speaker 1: thing in his hands, as if to display something very
51:30
Speaker 1: precious and beloved. Julie bent and held out her arms.
51:33
Speaker 1: Then her face contracted and she snatched at the plaything. Micky,
51:37
Speaker 1: what's that? He thrust it protectively behind his back. Mine. Micky,
51:42
Speaker 1: don't be naughty, Joanna chided, Please let me see. Julie coaxed,
51:46
Speaker 1: and he brought it out slowly, still suspicious. It was
51:50
Speaker 1: an ankled prism of crystal, star shaped set in a
51:52
Speaker 1: frame which could get the stars spinning like a solid
51:55
Speaker 1: a pick, but it displayed a new and comical face
51:57
Speaker 1: every time it was turned. Micky turned it round and round,
52:00
Speaker 1: charmed at being the center of attention. There seemed to
52:03
Speaker 1: be dozens of faces shifting with each spin of the prism,
52:06
Speaker 1: human and non human, all dim and slightly distorted. My
52:09
Speaker 1: own face, Julie's, Joanna's came out of the crystal surface,
52:12
Speaker 1: not a reflection, but a caricature. A choked sound from
52:16
Speaker 1: Julie made me turn in dismay. She had let herself
52:18
Speaker 1: drop to the floor and was sitting there, white as death,
52:21
Speaker 1: supporting herself with her two hands. Race, find it where
52:24
Speaker 1: he got that that thing? I bent and shook her.
52:27
Speaker 1: What's the matter with you? I demanded. She had lapsed
52:30
Speaker 1: into the dazed, sleepwalking horror of this morning. She whispered,
52:33
Speaker 1: It's not a toy. Rindy had one, Joanna, Where did
52:36
Speaker 1: he get it? She pointed at the shining thing with
52:39
Speaker 1: an expression of horror, which would have been laughable had
52:41
Speaker 1: it been less real, less filled with terror. Joanna cocked
52:45
Speaker 1: her head to one side and wrinkled her forehead reflectively.
52:47
Speaker 1: Why I don't know, now you come to ask me.
52:50
Speaker 1: I thought maybe one of the chalks had given it
52:51
Speaker 1: to Mickey, bought it in the bazaar. Maybe he loves it.
52:55
Speaker 1: Do get up off the floor, Julie. Julie scrambled to
52:58
Speaker 1: her feet. She said, Rindy, it it terrified me. She
53:02
Speaker 1: would sit and look at it by the hour, and
53:04
Speaker 1: I told you about it. Race. I threw it out
53:06
Speaker 1: once and she woke up and screamed. She shrieked for
53:08
Speaker 1: hours and hours, and she ran out in the dark
53:10
Speaker 1: and dug for it in the trash pile where I'd
53:12
Speaker 1: buried it. She went out in the dark, broke all
53:14
Speaker 1: her finger nails, but she dug it out again. She
53:17
Speaker 1: checked herself, staring at Joanna, her eyes wide in appeal. Well, dear,
53:21
Speaker 1: said Joanna, with mild, rebuking kindness, you needn't be so upset.
53:26
Speaker 1: I don't think Micky's so attached to it as all that.
53:28
Speaker 1: And anyhow, I'm not going to throw it away. She
53:31
Speaker 1: patted Julie reassuringly on the shoulder, then gave Micky a
53:33
Speaker 1: little shove toward the door and turned to follow him.
53:36
Speaker 1: You'll want to talk alone before Race leaves. Good luck
53:39
Speaker 1: wherever you're going, Race, she held out her hand forthrightly.
53:43
Speaker 1: And don't worry about Julie, she added, in an undertone.
53:46
Speaker 1: We'll take good care of her. When I came back
53:49
Speaker 1: to Julie, she was standing by the window, looking through
53:51
Speaker 1: the oddly filtered glass that dimmed the red sun to orange.
53:55
Speaker 1: Johanna thinks I'm crazy, Race. She thinks you're upset. Rindy's
54:00
Speaker 1: He's an odd child, a real dry towner. But it's
54:02
Speaker 1: not my imagination, race, it's not there's something suddenly, she
54:05
Speaker 1: sobbed aloud again. Homesick, Julie. I was a little the
54:10
Speaker 1: first years, but I was happy, believe me. She turned
54:13
Speaker 1: her face to me, shining with tears. You've got to
54:16
Speaker 1: believe I never regretted it for a minute. I'm glad,
54:19
Speaker 1: I said, Dully, that made it just fine. Only that toy.
54:24
Speaker 1: Who knows it might be a clue to something. The
54:27
Speaker 1: toy had reminded me of something, too, and I tried
54:29
Speaker 1: to remember what it was. I'd seen non human toys
54:32
Speaker 1: in the Harsa, even bought them for max kids. When
54:35
Speaker 1: a single man is invited frequently to a home with
54:37
Speaker 1: five youngsters, it's about the only way he can repay
54:40
Speaker 1: that hospitality by bringing the children odd trifles and nick knacks.
54:43
Speaker 1: But I had never seen anything quite like this one
54:46
Speaker 1: until until yesterday. The toy cellar they had hunted out
54:50
Speaker 1: of the Harsa, the one who had fled into the
54:52
Speaker 1: shrine of Nebron and vanished, he had had half a
54:55
Speaker 1: dozen of those prism and star sparklers. I tried to
54:58
Speaker 1: call up a mental picture of the little toy Cellar.
55:01
Speaker 1: I didn't have much luck. I'd seen him only in
55:03
Speaker 1: that one swift glance from beneath his hood. Julie, have
55:07
Speaker 1: you ever seen a little man like a chock, only smaller, twisted, hunchbacked?
55:11
Speaker 1: He sells toys? She looked blank. I don't think so.
55:15
Speaker 1: Although there are dwarf chalks in the polar cities, but
55:18
Speaker 1: I'm sure I've never seen one. It was just an idea,
55:21
Speaker 1: but it was something to think about. A toy. Cellar
55:23
Speaker 1: had vanished. Recall, before disappearing, had smashed all Rindy's toys,
55:28
Speaker 1: and the sight of a plaything of cunningly cut crystal
55:31
Speaker 1: had sent Julie into hysterics. I'd better go before it's
55:34
Speaker 1: too dark, I said. I buckled the final clasp of
55:36
Speaker 1: my shirt cloak, fitted my skin another notch into it,
55:39
Speaker 1: and counted the money mac had advanced me for expenses.
55:42
Speaker 1: I want to get into the Karsa and hunt up
55:44
Speaker 1: a caravan to Shane. Saw. You're going there first? Where else?
55:49
Speaker 1: Julie turned, leaning one hand against the wall. She looked
55:52
Speaker 1: frail and ill, years older than she was. Suddenly she
55:56
Speaker 1: flung her thin arms around me, and a link of
55:58
Speaker 1: the chain on her fettered hands struck me hard. She
56:00
Speaker 1: cried out, Race, Race, He'll kill you. How can I
56:03
Speaker 1: live with that on my conscience too? You can live
56:06
Speaker 1: with a hell of a lot on your conscience. I
56:08
Speaker 1: disengaged her arms firmly for my neck. A link of
56:11
Speaker 1: the chain caught on the clasp with my shirt cloak,
56:12
Speaker 1: and again something snapped inside me. I grasped the chain
56:16
Speaker 1: in my two hands and gave a mighty heave, bracing
56:18
Speaker 1: my foot against the wall. The lynx snapped asunder. The
56:21
Speaker 1: flying end struck Julie under the eye. I ripped at
56:24
Speaker 1: the seals of the jeweled cuffs, tore them from her arms,
56:26
Speaker 1: and threw the whole assembly into a corner, where it
56:28
Speaker 1: fell with a clash. Damn it, I roared, that's over.
56:31
Speaker 1: You're never going to wear those things again. Maybe after
56:35
Speaker 1: six years in the dry towns, Julie was beginning to
56:37
Speaker 1: guess what those six years behind a desk had meant
56:39
Speaker 1: to me. Julie, I'll find your Rindy for you, and
56:42
Speaker 1: I'll bring recall in alive. But don't ask more than that.
56:45
Speaker 1: Just alive, and don't ask me how he'd be alive.
56:49
Speaker 1: When I got through with him, sure he'd be alive.
56:52
Speaker 1: Just end of chapter four, Chapter five, it was getting
57:01
Speaker 1: dark when I slipped through the side gate, shabby and inconspicuous,
57:05
Speaker 1: into the Spaceport Square beyond the other lamps. I knew
57:08
Speaker 1: that the old city was beginning to take on life
57:10
Speaker 1: with the falling night. Out of the chinked pebble houses,
57:13
Speaker 1: men and women, human and non human, came forth into
57:16
Speaker 1: the moonlit streets. If anyone noticed me cross the square,
57:20
Speaker 1: which I doubted, they took me for just another dry
57:22
Speaker 1: town vagabond, curious about the world of the strangers from
57:25
Speaker 1: beyond the stars, and who curiosity satisfied, was drifting back
57:29
Speaker 1: where he belonged. I turned down one of the dark
57:32
Speaker 1: alleys that led away, and soon was walking in the dark.
57:36
Speaker 1: The Carsa was not unfamiliar to me as a Terran,
57:39
Speaker 1: but for the last six years I had seen only
57:42
Speaker 1: its daytime face. I doubted if there were a dozen
57:44
Speaker 1: earth Men in the old town tonight, though I saw
57:47
Speaker 1: one in the bazaar, dirty and lurching, drunk, one of
57:50
Speaker 1: those who run renegade and homeless between worlds, belonging to neither.
57:54
Speaker 1: This was what I had nearly become. I went further
57:58
Speaker 1: up the hill with the rising streets. Once I turned
58:01
Speaker 1: and saw below me the bright lighted spaceport, the black,
58:04
Speaker 1: many windowed loom of the sky scraper, like a patch
58:06
Speaker 1: of alien shadow in the red violet moonlight. I turned
58:10
Speaker 1: my back on them and walked on. At the fringe
58:13
Speaker 1: of the thieves Market, I paused outside a wine shop
58:16
Speaker 1: where dry towners were made welcome. A golden non human
58:19
Speaker 1: child murmured something as she pattered by me in the street,
58:22
Speaker 1: and I stopped, gripped by a spasm of stage fright.
58:25
Speaker 1: Had the dialect of shainsaw grown rusty on my tongue.
58:28
Speaker 1: Spies were given short shrift on wolf and a mile
58:30
Speaker 1: from the spaceport, I might as well have been on
58:32
Speaker 1: one of those moons. There were no spaceport shockers at
58:36
Speaker 1: my back now, and some one might remember the tail
58:38
Speaker 1: of an earth man with a scarred face who had
58:40
Speaker 1: gone to shain Saw in disguise. I shrugged the shirt
58:44
Speaker 1: cloak around my shoulders, pushing the door, and went in.
58:47
Speaker 1: I had remembered that Racal was waiting for me, not
58:50
Speaker 1: beyond this door, but at the end of the trail,
58:52
Speaker 1: behind some other door somewhere. And we have a byword
58:55
Speaker 1: in Chainsaw, a trail without beginning has no end. Right there,
59:00
Speaker 1: I stopped thinking about Julie Rindy, the Terran Empire, or
59:03
Speaker 1: what Recall, who knew too many of Terra's secrets, might
59:06
Speaker 1: do if he had turned renegade. My fingers went up
59:09
Speaker 1: and stroked musingly the ridge of the scar tissue along
59:11
Speaker 1: my mouth. At that moment, I was thinking only of Recall,
59:15
Speaker 1: of an unsettled blood feud, and of my revenge. Red
59:20
Speaker 1: lamps were burning inside the wine shop, where men reclined
59:23
Speaker 1: on frowsy couches. I stumbled over to one of them,
59:26
Speaker 1: found an empty place, and let myself sink down on it,
59:29
Speaker 1: arranging myself automatically. In the sprawl of drytowners indoors in public,
59:34
Speaker 1: they stood rigid and formal, even to eat and drink
59:38
Speaker 1: among themselves. Anything less than a loose limbed sprawl betrayed
59:42
Speaker 1: insulting watchfulness. Only a man who fears secret murder keeps
59:46
Speaker 1: himself on guard. A girl with a tangled rope of
59:49
Speaker 1: hair down her back came toward me. Her hands were unchained,
59:52
Speaker 1: meaning she was a woman of the lowest class, not
59:55
Speaker 1: worth safeguarding her first smock was shabby and matted with filth.
1:00:00
Speaker 1: I sent her for wine. When it came, it was
1:00:02
Speaker 1: surprisingly good, the sweet and treacherous wine of ard Koran.
1:00:06
Speaker 1: I sipped it slowly, looking round. If a caravan of
1:00:10
Speaker 1: shan Saw were leaving tomorrow, it would be known here.
1:00:13
Speaker 1: A word dropped that I was returning. There would bring
1:00:15
Speaker 1: me by iron bound custom and invitation to travel in
1:00:18
Speaker 1: their company. When I sent the woman for wine a
1:00:21
Speaker 1: second time, a man on a nearby couch got up
1:00:24
Speaker 1: and walked over to me. He was tall, even for
1:00:26
Speaker 1: a dry towner, and there was something vaguely familiar about him.
1:00:30
Speaker 1: He was no riff raff of the Karsa either, for
1:00:32
Speaker 1: his shirt cloak was of rich silk, interwoven with metallic
1:00:36
Speaker 1: threads and crusted with heavy embroideries. The hilt of his
1:00:39
Speaker 1: skin was carved from a single green gem. He stood
1:00:42
Speaker 1: looking down at me for some time before he spoke,
1:00:45
Speaker 1: I never forget a voice. Although I cannot bring your
1:00:48
Speaker 1: face to mind, have I a duty toward you? I
1:00:51
Speaker 1: had spoken a jargon to the girl, but he addressed
1:00:53
Speaker 1: me in the lilting sing song speech of Shainsa. I
1:00:56
Speaker 1: made no answer, gesturing him to be seated on wolf.
1:00:59
Speaker 1: For courtesy requires a series of polite non sequiturs, and
1:01:03
Speaker 1: while a direct question merely borders un rudeness, a direct
1:01:06
Speaker 1: answer is the mark of a simpleton. A drink. I
1:01:11
Speaker 1: joined you, unasked, he retorted, and summoned the tangle headed girl,
1:01:15
Speaker 1: bring us better wine than this swill. With that word
1:01:18
Speaker 1: and gesture, I recognized him, and my teeth clamped hard
1:01:21
Speaker 1: on my lip. This was the loud mouth who had
1:01:23
Speaker 1: sworn fight in the Spaceport cafe and run away before
1:01:26
Speaker 1: the dark girl with a sign of Nebrin scrawled on
1:01:29
Speaker 1: her breast. But in this poor light he had not
1:01:32
Speaker 1: recognized me. I moved deliberately into the full red glow.
1:01:35
Speaker 1: If he did not know me, For the terran he
1:01:37
Speaker 1: had challenged last night in the Spaceport cafe, it was
1:01:40
Speaker 1: unlikely that any one else would. He stared at me
1:01:43
Speaker 1: for some minutes, but in the end he only shrugged
1:01:45
Speaker 1: and poured wine from the bottle he had ordered. Three
1:01:48
Speaker 1: drinks later, I knew that his name was Keral, and
1:01:50
Speaker 1: that he was a trader in wire and fine steel
1:01:53
Speaker 1: tools through the non human towns, and I had given
1:01:56
Speaker 1: him the name I had chosen Rascar, He asked, are
1:02:00
Speaker 1: you thinking of returning to Shane? Saw worry of a trap.
1:02:03
Speaker 1: I hesitated, but the question seemed harmless, so I only countered,
1:02:07
Speaker 1: have you been long in the carsa several weeks trading? No?
1:02:13
Speaker 1: He applied himself to the wine again. I was searching
1:02:16
Speaker 1: for a member of my family. Did you find him? Her?
1:02:20
Speaker 1: Said Carral in ceremoniously spat no, I didn't find her.
1:02:24
Speaker 1: What is your business in shainsas I chuckled briefly, as
1:02:28
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, I am searching for a member
1:02:30
Speaker 1: of my family. He narrowed his eyelids, as if he
1:02:33
Speaker 1: suspected me of mocking him. But personal privacy is the
1:02:36
Speaker 1: most rigid convention of the dry towns, and such mockery
1:02:39
Speaker 1: showed a sensible disregard for prying questions if I did
1:02:42
Speaker 1: not choose to answer them, he questioned, No, further, I
1:02:46
Speaker 1: can use an extra man to handle the loads. Are
1:02:48
Speaker 1: you good with pack animals? If so, you are welcome
1:02:51
Speaker 1: to travel under the protection of my caravan. I agreed, then,
1:02:55
Speaker 1: reflecting that Julian recall must after all be known in
1:02:59
Speaker 1: shainsas I asked, do you know a traitor who calls
1:03:02
Speaker 1: himself censar. He stared slightly. I saw his eyes move
1:03:06
Speaker 1: along my scars, then reserve like a lowered curtain, shut
1:03:09
Speaker 1: itself over his face, concealing a brief satisfied glimmer. No,
1:03:14
Speaker 1: he lied and stood up. We leave at first daylight.
1:03:17
Speaker 1: Have your gear ready. He flipped something at me, and
1:03:20
Speaker 1: I caught it in mid air. It was a stone
1:03:22
Speaker 1: insized with Karral's name and the idiographs of Shane Saw.
1:03:25
Speaker 1: You can sleep with the caravan if you care to
1:03:27
Speaker 1: show that token to kuin Kiirral's caravan was encamped in
1:03:31
Speaker 1: a barred field past the furthest gates of the Karsa.
1:03:34
Speaker 1: About a dozen men were busy loading the pack animals
1:03:37
Speaker 1: horses shipped in from dark Over mostly. I asked the
1:03:40
Speaker 1: first man I met for Quinn. He pointed out a
1:03:43
Speaker 1: burly fellow in a shiny red shirtcloak who was busy
1:03:45
Speaker 1: chewing out one of the young men for the way
1:03:47
Speaker 1: he'd put a pack saddle on his beast. Shane Saw
1:03:50
Speaker 1: is a good language for cursing, but Quinn had a
1:03:52
Speaker 1: special talent at it. I blinked in admiration while I
1:03:55
Speaker 1: waited for him to get his breast. So I could
1:03:57
Speaker 1: hand him Krral's token. In the light of the fire,
1:04:00
Speaker 1: I saw what I'd half expected. He was the second
1:04:02
Speaker 1: of the dry towners who tried to rough me up
1:04:04
Speaker 1: in the spaceport cafe. Quinn barely glanced at the cut
1:04:07
Speaker 1: stone and tossed it back, pointing out one of the
1:04:09
Speaker 1: pack horses. Load your personal gear on that one. Then
1:04:12
Speaker 1: get busy and show this mush headed wearer of sandals
1:04:15
Speaker 1: an insult carrying particularly filthy implications in chainsaw how to
1:04:19
Speaker 1: fasten a pack strap. He drew a breath and began
1:04:22
Speaker 1: to swear at the luckless youngster again, and I relaxed.
1:04:24
Speaker 1: He evidently hadn't recognized me either. I took the strap
1:04:28
Speaker 1: in my hand, guiding it through the saddle loop like that,
1:04:31
Speaker 1: I told the kid, and Quinn stopped swearing long enough
1:04:34
Speaker 1: to give me a curt nod of acknowledgment and point
1:04:36
Speaker 1: out a heap of boxed and crated objects. Help him
1:04:38
Speaker 1: load up. We want to get clear of the city
1:04:40
Speaker 1: by daybreak, he ordered, and went off to swear at
1:04:43
Speaker 1: someone else. Kiral turned up at dawn, and a few
1:04:46
Speaker 1: minutes later the camp had vanished into a small scattering
1:04:49
Speaker 1: of litter and we were on our way. Kiral's caravan,
1:04:52
Speaker 1: in spite of Quinn's cursing, was well managed and well handled.
1:04:55
Speaker 1: The men were dried houners, eleven of them silent and capable,
1:04:59
Speaker 1: and most of them very young. They were cheerful on
1:05:02
Speaker 1: the trail, handling pack animals competently during the day, and
1:05:05
Speaker 1: spent most of the nights grouped around the fire, gambling
1:05:08
Speaker 1: silently and the fall of the cut crystal prisms they
1:05:10
Speaker 1: used for dice. Three days at Ofharsa, I began to
1:05:14
Speaker 1: worry about Quinn. It was, of course, a spectacular piece
1:05:18
Speaker 1: of bad luck to find all three of the men
1:05:20
Speaker 1: from the Spaceport Cafe in Karral's caravan. Karl had obviously
1:05:24
Speaker 1: not known me, and even by daylight he paid no
1:05:26
Speaker 1: attention to me, except to give an occasional order. The
1:05:29
Speaker 1: second of the three was a gangling kid who probably
1:05:32
Speaker 1: never gave me a second look, let alone a third.
1:05:35
Speaker 1: But Quinn was another matter. He was a man my
1:05:37
Speaker 1: own age, and his fierce eyes had a shrewdness in
1:05:40
Speaker 1: them that I did not trust. More than once I
1:05:42
Speaker 1: caught him watching me, and on the two or three
1:05:44
Speaker 1: occasions when he drew me into conversation. I found his
1:05:47
Speaker 1: questions more direct than dry town good manners. Aloud, I
1:05:51
Speaker 1: weighed the possibility that I might have to kill him
1:05:53
Speaker 1: before we reached shan Saw. We crossed the foothills and
1:05:57
Speaker 1: began to climb upward toward the mountains. The first few
1:06:00
Speaker 1: days I found myself short of breath as we worked
1:06:02
Speaker 1: upward into thinner air. Then my acclimatization returned and I
1:06:05
Speaker 1: began to fall into the pattern of the days and
1:06:07
Speaker 1: nights on the trail. The trade city was still a
1:06:10
Speaker 1: beacon in the night, but its glow on the horizon
1:06:12
Speaker 1: grew dimmer with each day's march. We climbed higher along
1:06:16
Speaker 1: dangerous trails, where men had to dismount and let the
1:06:19
Speaker 1: pack animals pick their way foot by foot. Here in
1:06:22
Speaker 1: these altitudes, the sun at noonday blazed redder and brighter,
1:06:25
Speaker 1: and the dry towners who came from the parched lands
1:06:28
Speaker 1: and the sea bottoms were burned and blistered by the
1:06:30
Speaker 1: fierce light. I had grown up under the blazing sun
1:06:33
Speaker 1: of Terra, and a red sun like wolf, even at
1:06:35
Speaker 1: its hottest, caused me no discomfort. This alone would have
1:06:38
Speaker 1: made me suspect. Once again, I found Quinn's fierce eyes
1:06:42
Speaker 1: watching me as we crossed the passes and began to
1:06:45
Speaker 1: descend the long trail through the thick forests, we got
1:06:48
Speaker 1: into non human country. Racing against the ghost wind, we
1:06:51
Speaker 1: skirted the country around Charin and the woods inhabited by
1:06:54
Speaker 1: the terrible yamen bird like creatures who turned cannibal when
1:06:57
Speaker 1: the ghost wind blows. Later, the trail wound through thicker
1:07:01
Speaker 1: forests of indigo trees and grayish purple brushwood, and at
1:07:04
Speaker 1: night we heard the howls of the catmen of these latitudes.
1:07:08
Speaker 1: At night we set guards about the caravan, and the
1:07:10
Speaker 1: dark spaces and shadows were filled with noises and queer
1:07:14
Speaker 1: smells and rustlings. Nevertheless, the days marches and the night
1:07:18
Speaker 1: watches passed without event until the night I shared guard
1:07:21
Speaker 1: with Quinn. I had posted myself at the edge of
1:07:25
Speaker 1: the camp, the fire behind me. The men were sleeping.
1:07:28
Speaker 1: Rolls of snores huddled close around the fire. The animals
1:07:31
Speaker 1: hobbled with double ropes front feet to hind feet, shifted
1:07:34
Speaker 1: uneasily and let out uncanny wines. I heard Quinn pacing
1:07:39
Speaker 1: behind me. I heard a rustle at the edge of
1:07:41
Speaker 1: the forest astir and whisper beyond the trees, and turned
1:07:44
Speaker 1: to speak to him, then saw him slipping away toward
1:07:47
Speaker 1: the outskirts of the clearing. For a moment I thought
1:07:50
Speaker 1: nothing of it, thinking that he was taking a few
1:07:52
Speaker 1: steps toward the gap in the trees where he had disappeared.
1:07:55
Speaker 1: I suppose I had the idea that he had slipped
1:07:57
Speaker 1: away to investigate some noise or shadow, and that I
1:07:59
Speaker 1: should be at hand. Then I saw the flicker of
1:08:02
Speaker 1: lights beyond the trees, light from the lantern Quinn had
1:08:05
Speaker 1: been carrying in his hand. He was signaling. I slipped
1:08:09
Speaker 1: the safety class from the hilt to my skin and
1:08:11
Speaker 1: went after him. In the dimming glow of the fire,
1:08:13
Speaker 1: I fancied, I saw luminous eyes watching me, and the
1:08:15
Speaker 1: skin on my back crawled. I crept up behind him
1:08:18
Speaker 1: and leaped. We went down in a tangle of flailing
1:08:21
Speaker 1: legs and arms, and in less than a second he
1:08:22
Speaker 1: had his skeen out and I was gripping his wrist,
1:08:25
Speaker 1: trying desperately to force the blade away from my throat.
1:08:27
Speaker 1: I gasped, don't be a fool one yell in. The
1:08:30
Speaker 1: whole camp will be awake. Who are you signaling? In
1:08:33
Speaker 1: the light of the fallen lantern. Lips drawn back in
1:08:35
Speaker 1: a snarl, he looked almost inhuman. He strained at the
1:08:38
Speaker 1: knife for a moment, then dropped it. Let me up,
1:08:41
Speaker 1: he said. I got up and kicked the fallen skein
1:08:43
Speaker 1: toward him. Put that away. What the hell were you
1:08:46
Speaker 1: doing trying to bring the catmen down on us? For
1:08:48
Speaker 1: a moment he looked taken aback. Then his fierce face
1:08:51
Speaker 1: closed down again, and he said, wrathfully, can't a man
1:08:54
Speaker 1: walk away from the camp without being half strangled? I
1:08:57
Speaker 1: glared at him, but realized I really had no to
1:09:00
Speaker 1: go by. He might have been answering a call of
1:09:02
Speaker 1: nature and the movement of the lantern accidental, and if
1:09:05
Speaker 1: someone had jumped me from behind, I might have pulled
1:09:07
Speaker 1: a knife on him myself. So I only said, don't
1:09:10
Speaker 1: do it again. We're all too jumpy. There were no
1:09:13
Speaker 1: other incidents that night or the next. The night after,
1:09:17
Speaker 1: while I lay huddled in my shirt, cloak and blanket
1:09:19
Speaker 1: by the fire, I saw Quinn slip out of his
1:09:21
Speaker 1: bed roll and steal away. A moment later there was
1:09:24
Speaker 1: a gleam in the darkness, but before I could summon
1:09:26
Speaker 1: the resolve to get up and face it out with him.
1:09:28
Speaker 1: He turned, looking cautiously at the snoring men, and crawled
1:09:31
Speaker 1: back into his blankets. While we were unpacking at the
1:09:35
Speaker 1: next camp, Carroll halted beside me. Heard anything queer lately.
1:09:39
Speaker 1: I've got the notion we're being trailed. We'll be out
1:09:41
Speaker 1: of these forests tomorrow, and after that it's clear road
1:09:44
Speaker 1: all the way to Shane's Saw. If anything's going to happen,
1:09:46
Speaker 1: it will happen tonight, I debated, speaking to him about
1:09:50
Speaker 1: Quinn's signals. No, I had my own business waiting for
1:09:53
Speaker 1: me in shane Saw. Why mix myself up with some
1:09:55
Speaker 1: other private intrigue, He said, I am putting you and
1:09:59
Speaker 1: Quinn one again. The old men doze off and the
1:10:02
Speaker 1: young fellows get to daydreaming or fooling around. That's all
1:10:04
Speaker 1: right most of the time, but I want someone who'll
1:10:06
Speaker 1: keep his eyes open tonight. Did you ever know Quinn
1:10:09
Speaker 1: before this? Never set eyes on him? Funny, I had
1:10:13
Speaker 1: the notion. He shrugged, turned away, then stopped. Don't think
1:10:17
Speaker 1: twice about rousing the camp. If there's any disturbance, Better
1:10:20
Speaker 1: a false alarm than an ambush that catches us all
1:10:22
Speaker 1: in our blankets. If it came to a fight, we
1:10:24
Speaker 1: might be in a bad way. We all carry skeins,
1:10:27
Speaker 1: but I don't think there's a shocker in the whole group,
1:10:29
Speaker 1: let alone a gun. You don't have one by any chance.
1:10:33
Speaker 1: After the men had turned in, Quinn, patrolling the camp,
1:10:35
Speaker 1: halted a minute beside me and cocked his head toward
1:10:37
Speaker 1: the rustling forest. What's going on in there? Who knows?
1:10:42
Speaker 1: Catman on the prowl, probably thinking the horses would make
1:10:44
Speaker 1: a good meal, or maybe that we would think it
1:10:47
Speaker 1: will come to a fight. I wouldn't know. He surveyed
1:10:51
Speaker 1: me for a moment, without speaking, And if it did,
1:10:54
Speaker 1: we'd fight. Then I sucked in my breath, for Quinn
1:10:57
Speaker 1: had spoken Taran standard, and I, without the thinks thinking,
1:11:00
Speaker 1: had answered in the same language. He grinned, showing white
1:11:03
Speaker 1: teeth filed to a point, I thought, so. I seized
1:11:07
Speaker 1: his shoulder and demanded, roughly, and what are you going
1:11:09
Speaker 1: to do about it? That depends on you? He answered,
1:11:12
Speaker 1: And what you want in chainsaw? Tell me the truth?
1:11:15
Speaker 1: What were you doing in the terran zone? He gave
1:11:17
Speaker 1: me no chance to answer. You know who Kerral is,
1:11:20
Speaker 1: don't you a trader? I said? Who? Pays my wages
1:11:24
Speaker 1: and minds his own affairs. I moved backward, hand on
1:11:27
Speaker 1: my skein, braced for a sudden rush. He made no
1:11:29
Speaker 1: aggressive motion. However, Kirol told me you'd been asking questions
1:11:33
Speaker 1: about Recall cince our, He said, clever. Now, I, for one,
1:11:37
Speaker 1: could have told you that he'd never set eyes on recall.
1:11:40
Speaker 1: I he broke off, hearing a noise in the forest,
1:11:42
Speaker 1: a long eerie howl. I muttered, if you've brought them
1:11:46
Speaker 1: down on us. He shook his head urgently. I had
1:11:49
Speaker 1: to take that chance to get word to the others.
1:11:51
Speaker 1: It won't work. Where's the girl? I hardly heard him.
1:11:54
Speaker 1: I was hearing twig snap and silently sneaking feet. I
1:11:57
Speaker 1: turned for a yell that would rouse the camp, and
1:11:59
Speaker 1: Quinn grabbed my hand hard, saying, insistently, quick, where's the girl?
1:12:03
Speaker 1: Go back and tell her it won't work. If Corral suspected,
1:12:06
Speaker 1: he never finished the sentence. Just behind us came another
1:12:09
Speaker 1: of the long eerie howls. I knocked Quinn away, and
1:12:12
Speaker 1: suddenly the night was filled with crouching forms that came
1:12:14
Speaker 1: down on us like a whirlwind. I shouted madly as
1:12:17
Speaker 1: the camp came alive, with men struggling out of blankets,
1:12:20
Speaker 1: fighting for life itself. I ran hard, still shouting for
1:12:23
Speaker 1: the enclosure where we had tied the horses. A catman,
1:12:25
Speaker 1: slim and black furred, was crouched and cutting the hobble
1:12:28
Speaker 1: strings of the nearest animal. I hurled myself on him.
1:12:30
Speaker 1: He exploded, clawing, raking my shoulder with talons that ripped
1:12:34
Speaker 1: through rough cloth like paper. I whipped out my skin
1:12:36
Speaker 1: and slashed upward. The talons contracted on my shoulder, and
1:12:39
Speaker 1: I gasped with pain. Then the thing howled and fell away,
1:12:43
Speaker 1: clawing at the air. It twitched and lay still. Fore
1:12:47
Speaker 1: shots and rapid succession cracked in the clearing care all.
1:12:49
Speaker 1: To the contrary, someone must have had a pistol. I
1:12:52
Speaker 1: heard one of the cat things wail a hoarse, drying rattle.
1:12:55
Speaker 1: Something dark clawed my arm, and I slashed with the knife,
1:12:58
Speaker 1: going down as another set of talents fastened on my back.
1:13:00
Speaker 1: Rolling and clutching, I managed to get the thing's forelimbs
1:13:03
Speaker 1: wedged under my elbow, my knee, and its spine. I
1:13:06
Speaker 1: heaved bent it backward backward till it screamed a high wail.
1:13:10
Speaker 1: Then I felt the spine snap, and the dead thing
1:13:12
Speaker 1: muled once just air escaping from collapsing lungs, and slid
1:13:16
Speaker 1: limp from my thigh erect. It had not been over
1:13:18
Speaker 1: four feet tall, and in the light of the dying fire,
1:13:21
Speaker 1: it might have been a dead lynx rascar hem. I
1:13:25
Speaker 1: heard a gasp, a groan. I whirled and saw Kiral
1:13:28
Speaker 1: go down, struggling, drowning in half a dozen or more
1:13:30
Speaker 1: of the fierce half humans. I leaped at the smother
1:13:33
Speaker 1: of bodies, ripped one away with a stranglehold, slashed at
1:13:35
Speaker 1: its throat. They were easy to kill. I heard a high,
1:13:39
Speaker 1: urgent scream in their mewing tongue. Then the furred black
1:13:42
Speaker 1: things seemed to melt into the forest as silently as
1:13:44
Speaker 1: they had come. Kirral, dazed, his forehead running blood, his
1:13:47
Speaker 1: arms slashed to the bone, was sitting on the ground,
1:13:50
Speaker 1: still stunned. Somebody had to take charge. I bellowed, lights,
1:13:54
Speaker 1: get lights. They won't come back if we have enough light.
1:13:57
Speaker 1: They can only see well in the dark. Someone stood
1:14:00
Speaker 1: the fire. It blazed up as they piled on dead branches,
1:14:03
Speaker 1: and I roughly commanded one of the kids to fill
1:14:05
Speaker 1: every lantern he could find. And get them burning. Four
1:14:07
Speaker 1: of the dead things were lying in the clearing. The
1:14:09
Speaker 1: youngster I had helped loading horses the first day, gazed
1:14:12
Speaker 1: down at one of the catmen, half disemboweled by somebody's skin,
1:14:15
Speaker 1: and suddenly bolted for the bushes, where I heard him wretching.
1:14:18
Speaker 1: I set the others with stronger stomachs to dragging the
1:14:21
Speaker 1: bodies away from the clearing, and went back to see
1:14:23
Speaker 1: how badly Karral was hurt. He had the rip in
1:14:25
Speaker 1: his arm and his face was covered with blood from
1:14:27
Speaker 1: a shallow scalp wound, but he insisted on getting up
1:14:30
Speaker 1: to inspect the hurts of the others. There was no
1:14:32
Speaker 1: one without a claw wound in leg or back or shoulder,
1:14:35
Speaker 1: but none were serious, and we were all feeling fairly
1:14:38
Speaker 1: cheerful when someone demanded where's Quinn. He didn't seem to
1:14:42
Speaker 1: be anywhere. Kirall staggered slightly, insisting on searching, but I
1:14:45
Speaker 1: felt we wouldn't find him. He probably went off with
1:14:48
Speaker 1: his friends. I snorted and told about the signaling. Kirall
1:14:51
Speaker 1: looked grave. You should have told me, he began, but
1:14:55
Speaker 1: shouts from the far end of the clearing sent us
1:14:57
Speaker 1: racing there. We nearly stumbled over a single sol military,
1:15:00
Speaker 1: motionless form outstretched and lifeless, blind eyes staring upward at
1:15:04
Speaker 1: the moon's It was Quinn, and his throat had been
1:15:07
Speaker 1: torn completely out end of Chapter five, Chapter six. Once
1:15:15
Speaker 1: we were free of the forest, the road to the
1:15:17
Speaker 1: dry towns lay straight before us, with no hidden dangers.
1:15:21
Speaker 1: Some of us limped for a day or two, or
1:15:23
Speaker 1: favored an arm or leg clawed by the catmen, But
1:15:25
Speaker 1: I knew that what Karol said was true. It was
1:15:28
Speaker 1: a lucky caravan which had to fight off only one attack.
1:15:32
Speaker 1: Quinn haunted me a night or two of turning over
1:15:35
Speaker 1: his cryptic words in my mind had convinced me that
1:15:37
Speaker 1: whoever or whatever he'd been signaling it wasn't the Catman,
1:15:41
Speaker 1: and his urgent question where's the girl swam endlessly in
1:15:45
Speaker 1: my brain, making no more sense than when I had
1:15:47
Speaker 1: first heard it. Who had he mistaken me for? What
1:15:50
Speaker 1: did he think I was mixed up in? And who?
1:15:52
Speaker 1: Above all were the others who had to be signaled
1:15:54
Speaker 1: at the risk of an attack by Catman, which had
1:15:56
Speaker 1: meant his own death. With Quinn dead and Carrol thinking
1:16:00
Speaker 1: I had saved his life, a large part of the
1:16:01
Speaker 1: responsibility for the caravan now fell on me, and strangely
1:16:05
Speaker 1: I enjoyed it, making the most of this interval when
1:16:07
Speaker 1: I was separated from the thought of blood, feud or revenge,
1:16:10
Speaker 1: the need of spying, or the threat of exposure. During
1:16:13
Speaker 1: those days and nights on the trail, I grew back
1:16:15
Speaker 1: slowly into the dry towner I once had been. I
1:16:17
Speaker 1: knew I would be sorry when the walls of shane
1:16:19
Speaker 1: Saw rose on the horizon, bringing me back inescapably to
1:16:22
Speaker 1: my own quest. We swung wide, leaving the straight trail
1:16:26
Speaker 1: to shane Saw, and Karral announced his intention of stopping
1:16:29
Speaker 1: for half a day at Canarsa, one of the walled
1:16:32
Speaker 1: non human cities which lay well off the traveled road.
1:16:35
Speaker 1: To my inadvertent show of surprise, he returned that he
1:16:38
Speaker 1: had trading connections there. We all need a day's rest,
1:16:41
Speaker 1: and the silent ones will buy from me, though they
1:16:43
Speaker 1: have few dealings with men. Look here, I owe you something.
1:16:46
Speaker 1: You have lenses. You can get a better price in
1:16:48
Speaker 1: Canarsa than you'd get an Ard Koran or shane Saw.
1:16:51
Speaker 1: Come along with me and I'll vouch for you. Kil
1:16:53
Speaker 1: had been most friendly since the night I had dug
1:16:55
Speaker 1: him out from under the catmen, and I knew no
1:16:57
Speaker 1: way to refuse without exposing myself for the ship sham
1:17:00
Speaker 1: trader I was. But I was deathly apprehensive. Even with Recall,
1:17:04
Speaker 1: I had never entered any of the non human towns
1:17:07
Speaker 1: on wolf Human and non human have lived side by
1:17:10
Speaker 1: side for centuries, and the human is not always the
1:17:13
Speaker 1: superior being. I might pass among the dry towners and
1:17:16
Speaker 1: the relatively stupid humanoid shocks for another dry towner, but
1:17:19
Speaker 1: Recall had cautioned me I could not pass among non
1:17:22
Speaker 1: humans for native Wolfen, and warned me against trying. Nevertheless,
1:17:27
Speaker 1: I accompanied Karl, carrying the box, which had cost about
1:17:30
Speaker 1: a week's pay in the terran Zone and was worth
1:17:31
Speaker 1: a small fortune in the dry towns, Canarsa seemed inside
1:17:35
Speaker 1: the gates like any other town. The houses were round
1:17:38
Speaker 1: bee hive fashion, and the streets totally empty. Just inside
1:17:42
Speaker 1: the gates, a hooded figure greeted us and gestured us
1:17:44
Speaker 1: by signs to follow him. He was covered from head
1:17:47
Speaker 1: to foot with some coarse and shiny fiber woven into
1:17:49
Speaker 1: stuff that looked like sacking, But under the thick hooding
1:17:53
Speaker 1: was horror. It slithered, and it had nothing like a
1:17:57
Speaker 1: recognizable human shape or walk, and I felt the press
1:18:00
Speaker 1: my evil ape and meek howering and gibbering in the
1:18:02
Speaker 1: corner of my mind. Kiral muttered close to my ear.
1:18:05
Speaker 1: No outsider is ever allowed to look on the silent
1:18:07
Speaker 1: Ones in their real form. I think they're deaf and dumb.
1:18:10
Speaker 1: But be damned careful, you bet, I whispered, and was
1:18:14
Speaker 1: glad the streets were empty. I walked along, trying not
1:18:17
Speaker 1: to look at the gliding motion of the shrouded thing
1:18:19
Speaker 1: up ahead. The trading was done in an open hut
1:18:22
Speaker 1: of reeds, which looked as if it had been built
1:18:24
Speaker 1: in a hurry, and was not square, round, hexagonal, or
1:18:27
Speaker 1: any other recognizable geometrical shape. It formed a pattern of
1:18:31
Speaker 1: its own, presumably, but my human eyes couldn't see it.
1:18:34
Speaker 1: Kiral said, in a breath of a whisper. They'll tear
1:18:36
Speaker 1: it down and burn it after we leave. We're supposed
1:18:38
Speaker 1: to have contaminated it too greatly for any of the
1:18:41
Speaker 1: silent Ones ever to enter again. My family has traded
1:18:44
Speaker 1: with them for centuries and were almost the only ones
1:18:46
Speaker 1: who have ever entered the city. Then two of the
1:18:49
Speaker 1: silent Ones of Canarsa also covered with that coarse, shiny stuff.
1:18:53
Speaker 1: Slithered into the hut, and Kiral choked off his words
1:18:56
Speaker 1: as if he had swallowed them. It was the strangest
1:18:59
Speaker 1: trading I had ever done. Kiral laid out the small
1:19:01
Speaker 1: forged steel tools and the coils of thin, fine wire,
1:19:04
Speaker 1: and I unpacked my lenses and laid them out in
1:19:06
Speaker 1: neat rows. The silent Ones neither spoke nor moved, but
1:19:10
Speaker 1: through a thin piece in the gray veiling, I saw
1:19:12
Speaker 1: a speck which might have been a phosphorescent eye, moving
1:19:15
Speaker 1: back and forth, as if scanning the things laid out
1:19:17
Speaker 1: for their inspection. I smothered a gasp, for suddenly, blank
1:19:21
Speaker 1: spaces appeared in the rows of merchandise. Certain small tools,
1:19:25
Speaker 1: wire cutters, calipers, surgical scissors had vanished, and all the
1:19:28
Speaker 1: coils of wire had disappeared. Blanks equally had appeared in
1:19:31
Speaker 1: the rows of lenses. All of my tiny, powerful microscope
1:19:35
Speaker 1: lenses had vanished. I cast a quick glance at Kiral,
1:19:38
Speaker 1: but he seemed unsurprised. I recalled vague rumors of the
1:19:41
Speaker 1: silent Ones and concluded that eerie, though it seemed this
1:19:45
Speaker 1: was merely their way of doing business. Kiral pointed at
1:19:48
Speaker 1: one of the tools, at an exceptionally fine pair of
1:19:51
Speaker 1: binocular lenses, and at the last coils of wire. The
1:19:54
Speaker 1: shrouded ones did not move, but the lenses and the
1:19:56
Speaker 1: wire vanished. The small tool remained, and after a moment
1:19:59
Speaker 1: ki All dropped his hand. I took my cue from
1:20:02
Speaker 1: Kiral and remained motionless, awaiting whatever surprise was coming. I
1:20:06
Speaker 1: had halfway expected what happened next. In the blank spaces,
1:20:09
Speaker 1: little points of light began to glimmer, and after a moment,
1:20:12
Speaker 1: blue and red and green gemstones appeared there. To me,
1:20:15
Speaker 1: the substitution appeared roughly equitable and fair, though I am
1:20:18
Speaker 1: no judge of the fine points of gems. Kiral scowled
1:20:21
Speaker 1: slightly and pointed to one of the green gems, and
1:20:23
Speaker 1: after a moment it whisked away, and a blue one
1:20:25
Speaker 1: took its place in another spot, where a fine set
1:20:28
Speaker 1: of surgical instruments had lain. Kiral pointed at the blue
1:20:31
Speaker 1: gem which now lay there, shook his head and held
1:20:33
Speaker 1: out three fingers. After a moment, a second blue stone
1:20:36
Speaker 1: lay winking beside the first. Kiral did not move, but
1:20:39
Speaker 1: inexorably held out the three fingers. There was a little
1:20:42
Speaker 1: swirling in the air, and then both gems vanished, and
1:20:45
Speaker 1: the case of surgical instruments lay in their place. Still.
1:20:49
Speaker 1: Kial did not move, but held the three fingers out
1:20:51
Speaker 1: for a full minute. Finally he dropped them and bent
1:20:54
Speaker 1: to pick up the case instruments again. The little swirl
1:20:57
Speaker 1: in the air, and the instruments vanished. In their place
1:20:59
Speaker 1: lay three of the blue gems. My mouth twitched in
1:21:02
Speaker 1: the first amusement I had felt since we entered this
1:21:04
Speaker 1: uncanny place. Evidently, bargaining with the silent Ones was not
1:21:08
Speaker 1: a great deal different than bargaining with anyone anywhere. Nevertheless,
1:21:12
Speaker 1: under the eyes of those shrouded but horrible forms, if
1:21:15
Speaker 1: they had eyes, which I doubted, I had no impulse
1:21:18
Speaker 1: to protest their offered prices. I gathered up the rejected lenses,
1:21:22
Speaker 1: repacked them neatly, and helped Kiral recrate the tools and
1:21:25
Speaker 1: instruments the silent Ones had not wanted. I noticed that,
1:21:28
Speaker 1: in addition to the microscope lenses and surgical instruments, they
1:21:31
Speaker 1: had taken all the fine wire. I couldn't imagine, and
1:21:34
Speaker 1: didn't particularly want to imagine, what they intended to do
1:21:37
Speaker 1: with it. On our way back through the streets, unshepherded.
1:21:40
Speaker 1: This time, Krral's tongue was loosened, as if with a
1:21:43
Speaker 1: great release from tension their psychokinetics. He told me, quite
1:21:47
Speaker 1: a few of the non human races are I guess
1:21:49
Speaker 1: they have to be, having no eyes and no hands.
1:21:52
Speaker 1: But sometimes I wonder if we of the dry towns
1:21:54
Speaker 1: ought to deal with them at all. What do you mean?
1:21:57
Speaker 1: I asked, not really listening. I was thinking mostly about
1:22:00
Speaker 1: the way the small objects had melted away and reappeared.
1:22:03
Speaker 1: The sight had stirred some uncomfortable memory, a vague sense
1:22:06
Speaker 1: of danger. It was not tangible enough for me to
1:22:09
Speaker 1: know why I feared it, but just a subliminal uneasiness
1:22:12
Speaker 1: that kept prodding at me, like a tooth that isn't
1:22:15
Speaker 1: quite aching yet. Kiral said, we of Shane saw live
1:22:19
Speaker 1: between fire and flood terra on the one hand, and
1:22:22
Speaker 1: on the other may be something worse. Who knows. We
1:22:25
Speaker 1: know so little about the silent ones and those like them.
1:22:28
Speaker 1: Who knows? Maybe we're giving them the weapons to destroy us.
1:22:30
Speaker 1: He broke off with a gasp and stood staring down
1:22:33
Speaker 1: one of the streets. It lay open and bare between
1:22:36
Speaker 1: two rows of round houses, and Kiral was staring fixedly
1:22:39
Speaker 1: at a doorway which had opened there. I followed his
1:22:41
Speaker 1: paralyzed gaze and saw the girl, hair like spun black
1:22:45
Speaker 1: glass fell in hard waves around her shoulders, and the
1:22:48
Speaker 1: red eyes smiled with alien malice, alien mischief beneath the
1:22:52
Speaker 1: dark crown of little stars, and the toad god sprawled
1:22:55
Speaker 1: in hideous embroideries across the white folds of her breast.
1:22:59
Speaker 1: Kirol gulped horse his hand flew up as he clutched
1:23:01
Speaker 1: the charms strung about his neck. I imitated the gesture mechanically,
1:23:05
Speaker 1: watching Karol, wondering if he would turn and run again.
1:23:07
Speaker 1: But he stood frozen for a minute. Then the spell
1:23:10
Speaker 1: broke and he took one step toward the girl, arms outstretched, Miellyn.
1:23:15
Speaker 1: He cried, and there was heart break in his voice,
1:23:17
Speaker 1: and again the cry making ringing echoes in the strange street, Miellyn, Miellyn.
1:23:23
Speaker 1: This time it was the girl who whirled and fled.
1:23:25
Speaker 1: Her white robes fluttered, and I saw the twinkle of
1:23:27
Speaker 1: her flying feet as she vanished into the space between
1:23:29
Speaker 1: the houses and was gone. Kil took one blind step
1:23:33
Speaker 1: down the street, then another, but before he could burst
1:23:36
Speaker 1: into a run, I had him by the arm, dragging
1:23:37
Speaker 1: him back to sanity. Man, you've gone mad chase in
1:23:41
Speaker 1: a non human town. He struggled for a minute, then
1:23:44
Speaker 1: with a harsh sigh, he said, it's all right, I
1:23:46
Speaker 1: won't and shook loose from my arm. He did not
1:23:49
Speaker 1: speak again until we reached the gates of Canarsa, and
1:23:52
Speaker 1: they closed silently and untouched behind us. I had forgotten
1:23:56
Speaker 1: the place already. I had space only to think of
1:23:58
Speaker 1: the girl, whose face I had not forgotten since the
1:24:00
Speaker 1: moment when she saved me and disappeared. Now she had
1:24:04
Speaker 1: appeared again to Karral. What did it all mean? I asked,
1:24:08
Speaker 1: as we walked toward the camp. Do you know that girl?
1:24:10
Speaker 1: But I knew the question was futile. Kil's face was closed,
1:24:13
Speaker 1: conceding nothing, and his friendliness had vanished completely. He said,
1:24:18
Speaker 1: now you know you saved me from the catmen and
1:24:20
Speaker 1: again in Canarsa, so my hands are bound from harming you.
1:24:23
Speaker 1: But it is evil to have dealings with those who
1:24:25
Speaker 1: have been touched by the toad God. He spat noisily
1:24:28
Speaker 1: on the ground, looking at me with loathing, and said
1:24:31
Speaker 1: we will reach Shane Saw in three days. Stay away
1:24:34
Speaker 1: from me. End of chapter six chapter seven, Shane Saw
1:24:42
Speaker 1: first in the chain of dry towns that lie in
1:24:44
Speaker 1: the bed of a long dried ocean, is set at
1:24:47
Speaker 1: the center of a great alkali plain, a dusty, parched
1:24:50
Speaker 1: city bleached by a million years of sun. The houses
1:24:54
Speaker 1: are high, spreading buildings, with many rooms and wide windows.
1:24:58
Speaker 1: The poorer sort were made of sun dried the more imposing,
1:25:01
Speaker 1: being cut from the bleached salt stone of the cliffs
1:25:04
Speaker 1: that rise behind the city. News travels fast in the
1:25:07
Speaker 1: dry towns. If Recall were in the city, he'd soon
1:25:10
Speaker 1: know that I was here and guess who I was
1:25:12
Speaker 1: or why I'd come. I might disguise myself so that
1:25:16
Speaker 1: my own sister or the mother who bore me would
1:25:18
Speaker 1: not know me. But I had no illusions about my
1:25:21
Speaker 1: ability to disguise myself from Acall. He had created the
1:25:24
Speaker 1: disguise that was me. When the second sun sat red
1:25:28
Speaker 1: and burning behind the salt cliffs, I knew he was
1:25:31
Speaker 1: not in Shaine Saw, but I stayed on, waiting for
1:25:34
Speaker 1: something to happen. At night, I slept in a cubby
1:25:37
Speaker 1: hole behind a wine shop, paying an inordinate price for
1:25:40
Speaker 1: that very dubious privilege. And every day in the sleepy
1:25:44
Speaker 1: silence of the blood red noon, I paced the public
1:25:46
Speaker 1: square of shane Saw. This went on for four days.
1:25:50
Speaker 1: No one took the slightest notice of another nameless man
1:25:53
Speaker 1: in a shabby shirt cloak, without name or identity or
1:25:56
Speaker 1: known business. No one appeared to see me, except the
1:25:59
Speaker 1: dusty children with pale, fleecy hair, who played their patient
1:26:02
Speaker 1: games on the wind swept curving of the square. They
1:26:05
Speaker 1: surveyed my scarred face with neither curiosity or fear, and
1:26:09
Speaker 1: it occurred to me that Rindy might be such another
1:26:12
Speaker 1: as these. If I had still been thinking like an earthman,
1:26:16
Speaker 1: I might have tried to question one of the children
1:26:18
Speaker 1: or win their confidence. But I had a deeper game
1:26:21
Speaker 1: in hand. On the fifth day, I was so much
1:26:24
Speaker 1: a fixture that my pacing went unnoticed even by the children.
1:26:27
Speaker 1: On the gray moss of the square, a few dried
1:26:30
Speaker 1: looking old men, their faces as faded as their shirtcloaks,
1:26:33
Speaker 1: and bearing the knife scars of a hundred forgotten flights,
1:26:36
Speaker 1: drowsed on the stone benches and along the flagged walk
1:26:39
Speaker 1: at the edge of the square. As suddenly as an
1:26:41
Speaker 1: autumn storm in the salt flats, a woman came walking.
1:26:46
Speaker 1: She was tall, with a proud, swinging walk, and a
1:26:49
Speaker 1: metallic clashing kept rhythm to her swift steps. Her arms
1:26:52
Speaker 1: were fettered, each wrist bound with a jeweled bracelet, and
1:26:55
Speaker 1: the bracelets linked together by a long silver gilt chain,
1:26:59
Speaker 1: passed through a silk and loop at her waist. From
1:27:01
Speaker 1: the loop swung a tiny golden padlock, but in the
1:27:05
Speaker 1: lock stood an even tinier key, signifying that she was
1:27:08
Speaker 1: a higher caste than her husband or consort, and that
1:27:11
Speaker 1: her fettering was by choice and not command. She stopped
1:27:15
Speaker 1: directly before me and raised her arm in formal greeting
1:27:18
Speaker 1: like a man. The chain made a tinkling sound in
1:27:21
Speaker 1: the hushed square as her other hand was pulled up
1:27:23
Speaker 1: tight against the silken loop at her waist. She stood
1:27:26
Speaker 1: surveying me for a few moments, and finally I raised
1:27:29
Speaker 1: my head and returned her gaze. I don't know why
1:27:32
Speaker 1: I had expected her to have hair like spun black glass,
1:27:35
Speaker 1: and eyes that burned with the red reflection of the
1:27:37
Speaker 1: burning star. This woman's eyes were darker than the poison
1:27:40
Speaker 1: berries of the salt cliffs, and her mouth was a
1:27:42
Speaker 1: cut berry that looked just as dangerous. She was young,
1:27:46
Speaker 1: the slimness of her shoulders, and the narrow, steel chained
1:27:48
Speaker 1: wrists told me how very young she was, But her
1:27:52
Speaker 1: face had seen weather and storms, and her dark eyes
1:27:56
Speaker 1: had weathered worse psychic storms than that. She did not
1:27:59
Speaker 1: flinch at the sight of my scars, and met my
1:28:01
Speaker 1: gaze without dropping her eyes. You are a stranger. What
1:28:06
Speaker 1: is your business in Chainsaw? I met the direct question
1:28:10
Speaker 1: with the insolence it demanded, hardly moving my lips. I
1:28:14
Speaker 1: have come to buy women for the brothels of Ardkoran.
1:28:17
Speaker 1: Perhaps when washed, you might be suitable. Who could arrange
1:28:20
Speaker 1: for your sail? She took the rebuke impassively, though the
1:28:24
Speaker 1: bitter crimson of her mouth twitched a little in mischief
1:28:27
Speaker 1: or rage, but she made no sign. The battle was
1:28:30
Speaker 1: joined between us, and I knew already that it would
1:28:32
Speaker 1: be fought to the end. From somewhere in her draperies,
1:28:36
Speaker 1: something fell to the ground with a little tinkle, But
1:28:39
Speaker 1: I knew that trick too, and I did not move. Finally,
1:28:42
Speaker 1: she went away without bending to retrieve it, And when
1:28:45
Speaker 1: I looked around, I saw that all the fleecehaired children
1:28:47
Speaker 1: had stolen away, leaving their playthings lying on the curb.
1:28:51
Speaker 1: But one or two of the gaffers on the stone benches,
1:28:53
Speaker 1: who were old enough to show curiosity without losing face,
1:28:56
Speaker 1: were watching me with impassive eyes. I could have asked
1:29:00
Speaker 1: the woman's name then, but I held back, knowing it
1:29:02
Speaker 1: could only lessen the prestige I had gained from the encounter.
1:29:05
Speaker 1: I glanced down, without seeming to do so, at the
1:29:08
Speaker 1: tiny mirror which had fallen from the recesses of the
1:29:11
Speaker 1: fur robe. Her name might have been inscribed on the reverse,
1:29:15
Speaker 1: but I left it lying there to be picked up
1:29:16
Speaker 1: by the children when they returned and went back to
1:29:18
Speaker 1: the wine shop. I had accomplished my first objective. If
1:29:22
Speaker 1: you can't be inconspicuous, be so damned conspicuous that nobody
1:29:26
Speaker 1: can miss you. And that in itself is a fair concealment.
1:29:30
Speaker 1: How many people can accurately describe a street riot. I
1:29:34
Speaker 1: was finishing off a bad meal with a stone bottle
1:29:37
Speaker 1: of worse wine when the chalk came in, disregarding the proprietor,
1:29:40
Speaker 1: and made straight for me. He was furred immaculately white.
1:29:44
Speaker 1: His velvet muzzle was contracted as if the very smells
1:29:47
Speaker 1: might soil it, and he kept a dainty paw outstretched
1:29:50
Speaker 1: to ward off accidental contact with greasy counters or tables
1:29:54
Speaker 1: or tapestries. His fur was scented and his throat circled
1:29:58
Speaker 1: with a collar of embroidered silk. This pampered minion surveyed
1:30:02
Speaker 1: me with the innocent malice of an uninvolved non human
1:30:05
Speaker 1: for merely human intrigues. You are wanted in the great
1:30:08
Speaker 1: house of Shanithath's guard man. He spoke the Shainsaw dialect
1:30:12
Speaker 1: with an affected lisp. Will it please you to come
1:30:14
Speaker 1: with me? I came with no more than polite protest,
1:30:19
Speaker 1: but was startled. I had not expected the encounter to
1:30:22
Speaker 1: reach the great house so soon. Shainsa's Great House had
1:30:25
Speaker 1: changed hands four times since I had last been in Shainsaws.
1:30:29
Speaker 1: I wasn't overly anxious to appear there. The white chalk
1:30:33
Speaker 1: as out of place in the rough, dry town as
1:30:35
Speaker 1: a jewel in the streets or a rain drop in
1:30:37
Speaker 1: the desert. Led me along a winding boulevard to an
1:30:40
Speaker 1: outlying district. He made no attempt to engage me in conversation,
1:30:44
Speaker 1: and indeed I got the distinct impression that this coxcomb
1:30:47
Speaker 1: of a non human considered me well Beneath his notice
1:30:50
Speaker 1: he seemed much more aware of the blowing dust in
1:30:53
Speaker 1: the street, which ruffled and smudged his carefully combed fur.
1:30:57
Speaker 1: The great house was carved from blocks of rock pink basalt,
1:31:01
Speaker 1: the entry guarded by two great Caryadids, and wrapped in
1:31:04
Speaker 1: chains of carved metal set somehow into the surface of
1:31:07
Speaker 1: the basalt. The guilt had long ago worn away from
1:31:10
Speaker 1: the chains, so that it alternately gleamed gold or smudged
1:31:14
Speaker 1: base metal. The Carryadids were patient and blind, their jewel
1:31:18
Speaker 1: eyes long vanished under a hotter sun than to day's.
1:31:22
Speaker 1: The entrance hall was enormous. A Terran starship could have
1:31:25
Speaker 1: stood upright inside. It was my first impression, but I
1:31:28
Speaker 1: dismissed that thought quickly. Any Terran thought was apt to
1:31:31
Speaker 1: betray me. But the main hall was built on a
1:31:34
Speaker 1: scale even more huge, and it was even colder than
1:31:37
Speaker 1: the legendary hell of the Chalks. It was far too
1:31:40
Speaker 1: big for the people in it. There was a little
1:31:42
Speaker 1: solar heater in the ceiling, but it didn't help much.
1:31:45
Speaker 1: A dim glow came from a metal brazier, but that
1:31:48
Speaker 1: didn't help much either. The chalk melted into the shadows,
1:31:51
Speaker 1: and I went down the steps into the hall by myself,
1:31:54
Speaker 1: feeling carefully for each step with my feet, and trying
1:31:57
Speaker 1: not to seem to be doing so. My comparaton to
1:32:00
Speaker 1: night blindness is the only significant way in which I
1:32:02
Speaker 1: really differ from a native wolfin There were three men,
1:32:07
Speaker 1: two women, and a child in the room. They were
1:32:09
Speaker 1: all dry towners and had an obscure family likeness, and
1:32:12
Speaker 1: they all wore rich garments of fur dyed in many colors.
1:32:16
Speaker 1: One of the men, old and stooped and withered, was
1:32:18
Speaker 1: doing something to the brazier. A slim boy of fourteen
1:32:22
Speaker 1: was sitting cross legged on a pile of cushions in
1:32:24
Speaker 1: the corner. There was something wrong with his legs. A
1:32:27
Speaker 1: girl of ten, in a too short smock that showed long,
1:32:31
Speaker 1: spider thin legs above her low leather boots, was playing
1:32:33
Speaker 1: with some sort of shimmery crystals, spilling them out into
1:32:36
Speaker 1: patterns and scooping them up again from the uneven stones
1:32:38
Speaker 1: of the floor. One of the women was a fat,
1:32:41
Speaker 1: creased slattern whose jewels and dyed furs did not disguise
1:32:44
Speaker 1: her greasy slovenliness. Her hands were unchained, and she was
1:32:49
Speaker 1: biting into a fruit which dripped red juice down the
1:32:51
Speaker 1: rich blue fur of her robe. The old man gave
1:32:54
Speaker 1: her a look like murder as I came in, and
1:32:56
Speaker 1: she straightened slightly, but did not discard the fruit. The
1:33:00
Speaker 1: whole room had a curious look of austere, dignified poverty,
1:33:03
Speaker 1: to which the fat woman was the only discordant note.
1:33:07
Speaker 1: But it was the remaining man and woman who drew
1:33:09
Speaker 1: my attention, so that I noticed the others only peripherally
1:33:12
Speaker 1: in their outermost orbit. One was Kirral, standing at the
1:33:15
Speaker 1: foot of the dais and glowering at me. The other
1:33:18
Speaker 1: was the dark eyed woman I had rebuked to day
1:33:21
Speaker 1: in the public square. Kirral said, so it's you, and
1:33:25
Speaker 1: his voice held nothing, not rebuke, not friendliness or lack
1:33:28
Speaker 1: of it, not even hatred. Nothing. There was only one
1:33:32
Speaker 1: way to meet it. I faced the girl. She was
1:33:35
Speaker 1: sitting on a throne like chair next to the fat
1:33:37
Speaker 1: woman and looked like a doe next to a pig,
1:33:39
Speaker 1: and said boldly, I assume this summons to mean that
1:33:43
Speaker 1: you informed your kinsmen of my offer. She flushed, and
1:33:47
Speaker 1: that was triumph enough. I held back the triumph, however,
1:33:51
Speaker 1: warry of overconfidence, the gaffer laughed the high cackle of age,
1:33:55
Speaker 1: and Kirral broke in with a sharp, angry monosyllable, by
1:33:58
Speaker 1: which I knew that my remark had indeed been repeated,
1:34:01
Speaker 1: and had lost nothing in the telling. But only the
1:34:04
Speaker 1: line of his jaw betrayed the anger, as he said, calmly,
1:34:07
Speaker 1: be quiet, Delissa, Where did you pick this up? I said, boldly?
1:34:12
Speaker 1: The great House has changed rulers since last I smelled
1:34:14
Speaker 1: the salt cliffs. Newcomers do not know my name, and
1:34:18
Speaker 1: theirs is unknown to me, the old gaffer said thinly
1:34:21
Speaker 1: to Karl, our name has lost Kihar. One daughter is
1:34:25
Speaker 1: lured away by the toy maker, and another babbles with
1:34:27
Speaker 1: strangers in the square, and a homeless no good of
1:34:30
Speaker 1: the streets does not know our name. My eyes, growing
1:34:34
Speaker 1: accustomed to the dark blaze of the brazier, saw that
1:34:36
Speaker 1: Kiral was biting his lip and scowling. Then he gestured
1:34:40
Speaker 1: to a table where an array of glassware was set,
1:34:42
Speaker 1: and at the gesture, the white chalk came on noiseless
1:34:45
Speaker 1: feet and poured wine. If you have no blood feud
1:34:48
Speaker 1: with my family, will you drink with me? I will,
1:34:51
Speaker 1: I said, relaxing, even if he had associated the trader
1:34:54
Speaker 1: with the scarred earthmen of the spaceport. He seemed to
1:34:56
Speaker 1: have decided to drop the matter. He seemed startled, but
1:35:00
Speaker 1: he waited until I had lifted the glass and taken
1:35:02
Speaker 1: a sip. Then, with a movement like lightning, he leaped
1:35:05
Speaker 1: from the dais and struck the glass from my lips.
1:35:08
Speaker 1: I staggered back, wiping my cut mouth in a split second,
1:35:11
Speaker 1: juggling possibilities. The insult was terrible and deadly. I could
1:35:15
Speaker 1: do nothing now, but fight men had been murdered in
1:35:18
Speaker 1: Shainsaw for far less. I had come to settle one feud,
1:35:22
Speaker 1: not involve myself in another. But even while these lightning
1:35:25
Speaker 1: thoughts flickered in my mind, I had whipped out my skin,
1:35:28
Speaker 1: and I was surprised at the shrillness of my own voice.
1:35:30
Speaker 1: You contrive a fence beneath your own roof, spy and renegade,
1:35:34
Speaker 1: kir All thundered. He did not touch his skein. From
1:35:38
Speaker 1: the table, he caught a long, fore thonged whip, making
1:35:41
Speaker 1: it whistle through the air. The long legged child scuttled backward.
1:35:44
Speaker 1: I stepped back one pace, trying to conceal my desperate puzzlement.
1:35:47
Speaker 1: I could not guess what had prompted Kiral's attack, but
1:35:50
Speaker 1: whatever it was, I must have made some bad mistake
1:35:53
Speaker 1: and could count myself lucky to get out of there alive.
1:35:56
Speaker 1: Kirrall's voice perceptibly trembled with rage. You dare to come
1:35:59
Speaker 1: in to my own home after I have tracked you
1:36:01
Speaker 1: to the cars and back, blind fool that I was,
1:36:04
Speaker 1: but now you shall pay. The whip sank through the air,
1:36:07
Speaker 1: hissing past my shoulders. I dodged to one side, retreating
1:36:10
Speaker 1: step by step as Kiral swung the powerful thongs. It
1:36:13
Speaker 1: cracked again, and a pain like the burning of red
1:36:15
Speaker 1: hot iron seared my upper arm. My skein rattled down
1:36:18
Speaker 1: from numb fingers. The whip whacked the floor. Pick up
1:36:23
Speaker 1: your skin, said Karol, pick it up if your dare.
1:36:26
Speaker 1: He poised the lash again. The fat woman screamed. I
1:36:29
Speaker 1: stood rigid, gaging my chances of disarming him with a
1:36:32
Speaker 1: sudden leap. Suddenly, the girl Dollissa leaped from her seat
1:36:35
Speaker 1: with a harsh, musical chiming of chains. Kiral, no, no carral.
1:36:40
Speaker 1: He moved slightly, but did not take his eyes from me.
1:36:43
Speaker 1: Get back Dollissa. No wait. She ran to him and
1:36:47
Speaker 1: caught his whip arm, dragging it down and spoke to
1:36:49
Speaker 1: him hurriedly and urgently. Kiral's face changed as she spoke.
1:36:53
Speaker 1: He drew a long breath and threw the whip down
1:36:55
Speaker 1: beside my skin on the floor. Answer straight on your life,
1:36:58
Speaker 1: what are you doing? In Shane's sah, I could hardly
1:37:01
Speaker 1: take it in that for the moment I was reprieved
1:37:03
Speaker 1: from sudden death, from being beaten into bloody death here
1:37:06
Speaker 1: at Karol's feet. The girl went back to her throne
1:37:08
Speaker 1: like chair. Now I must either tell the truth or
1:37:11
Speaker 1: a convincing lie, and I was lost in a game
1:37:14
Speaker 1: where I didn't know the rules. The explanation I thought
1:37:17
Speaker 1: might get me out alive might be the very one
1:37:19
Speaker 1: which would bring down instant and painful death. Suddenly, with
1:37:23
Speaker 1: a poignancy that was almost pain, I wished Rakhal were
1:37:26
Speaker 1: standing here at my side, but I had to bluff
1:37:29
Speaker 1: it out alone. If they had recognized me for Race Cargill,
1:37:32
Speaker 1: the Terran spy who had often been in Chainsaw, they
1:37:35
Speaker 1: might release me. It was possible. I supposed that they
1:37:39
Speaker 1: were Terran sympathizers. On the other hand, Karl's shouts of
1:37:43
Speaker 1: spy renegade seemed to suggest the opposite. I stood trying
1:37:48
Speaker 1: to ignore the searing pain in my lashed arm, but
1:37:50
Speaker 1: I knew that blood was running hot down my shoulder. Finally,
1:37:53
Speaker 1: I said, I came to settle blood feud. Kiirral's lips
1:37:57
Speaker 1: thinned in what might have been meant for a smile.
1:38:00
Speaker 1: You shall, assuredly, but with whom remains to be seen.
1:38:04
Speaker 1: Knowing I had nothing more to lose, I said, with
1:38:06
Speaker 1: a renegade, called recall Censar. Only the old man echoed
1:38:10
Speaker 1: my words, dully, recall Censar. I felt heartened, seeing I
1:38:15
Speaker 1: wasn't dead yet I have sworn to kill him. Kirraal
1:38:19
Speaker 1: suddenly clapped his hands and shouted to the white chuck
1:38:21
Speaker 1: to clean up the broken glass on the floor. He said, huskily,
1:38:25
Speaker 1: you are not yourself. Recall Censar. I told you he wasn't,
1:38:29
Speaker 1: said Dallisa, high and hysterical. I told you he wasn't
1:38:34
Speaker 1: a scarred man tall. What was I to think? Kirral
1:38:37
Speaker 1: sounded and looked badly shaken. He filled a glass himself
1:38:40
Speaker 1: and handed it to me, saying, hoarsely, I did not
1:38:43
Speaker 1: believe even the renegade. Recall would break the codes so
1:38:46
Speaker 1: far as to drink with me. He would not. I
1:38:49
Speaker 1: could be positive about this. The codes of Tera had
1:38:52
Speaker 1: made some superficial impress on Recall, but down deep his
1:38:55
Speaker 1: own world held sway. If these men were at blood
1:38:58
Speaker 1: feud with Recall, and he stood here where I stood,
1:39:00
Speaker 1: he would have let himself be beaten into bloody rags
1:39:03
Speaker 1: before tasting their wine. I took the glass, raised it,
1:39:06
Speaker 1: and drained it. Then holding it out for more, I said,
1:39:09
Speaker 1: Rikaal's life is mine. But I swear by the red star,
1:39:12
Speaker 1: and by the unmoving mountains, by the black snow, and
1:39:15
Speaker 1: by the ghost wind, I have no quarrel with any
1:39:17
Speaker 1: beneath this roof. I cast the glass to the floor,
1:39:20
Speaker 1: where it shattered on the stones. Kiroll hesitated, but under
1:39:24
Speaker 1: the blazing eyes of the girl, he quickly poured himself
1:39:27
Speaker 1: a glass of wine and drank a few SIPs, then
1:39:29
Speaker 1: flung down the glass. He stepped forward and laid his
1:39:31
Speaker 1: hands on my shoulders. I winced as he touched the
1:39:34
Speaker 1: welt of the lash, and could not raise my own
1:39:36
Speaker 1: arm to complete the ceremonial toast. Kill stepped away and shrugged.
1:39:40
Speaker 1: Shall I have one of the women. See to your hurt.
1:39:43
Speaker 1: He looked at Dalisa, but she twisted her mouth. Do
1:39:46
Speaker 1: it yourself. It is nothing, I said, not truthfully. But
1:39:50
Speaker 1: I demand in requital that, since we are bound by
1:39:52
Speaker 1: spilt blood under your roof, that you give me what
1:39:54
Speaker 1: news you have of Recall this spy and renegade, Kirall
1:39:58
Speaker 1: said fiercely. If I knew, would I be under my
1:40:01
Speaker 1: own roof. The old gaffer on the dais broke into shrill,
1:40:04
Speaker 1: whining laughter. You have drunk with him, Kirraal. Now he's
1:40:07
Speaker 1: bound you not to do him harm. I know the
1:40:09
Speaker 1: story of Rakhal. He was a spy for Terra twelve
1:40:12
Speaker 1: years twelve years, and then he fought and flung their
1:40:16
Speaker 1: filthy money in their faces and left them. But his
1:40:19
Speaker 1: partner was some dry town half breed or Terran spy,
1:40:22
Speaker 1: and they fought with clawed gloves and near killed one another,
1:40:25
Speaker 1: except the Terrans, who have no honor, stopped em. See
1:40:28
Speaker 1: the marks of the Kafirra on his face by Shara,
1:40:31
Speaker 1: the golden chained, said Kiral, gazing at me with something
1:40:33
Speaker 1: like a grin. You are, if nothing else, a very
1:40:36
Speaker 1: clever man. What are you spy? Or half caste of
1:40:39
Speaker 1: some ard koran slut. What I am doesn't matter to you,
1:40:43
Speaker 1: I said. You have blood feud with Recall, but mine
1:40:46
Speaker 1: is older than yours, and his life is mine. As
1:40:49
Speaker 1: you are bound in honor to kill. The formal phrases
1:40:52
Speaker 1: came easily now to my tongue. The earth man had
1:40:54
Speaker 1: slipped away. So you are bound in honor to help
1:40:56
Speaker 1: me kill If any one beneath your roof knows anything
1:40:59
Speaker 1: of Kirraal's smile bared his teeth. Recaw works against the
1:41:04
Speaker 1: son of the Ape, he said, using the insulting wolf
1:41:07
Speaker 1: term for the Terrans. If we help you to kill him,
1:41:09
Speaker 1: we remove a goad from our flanks. I prefer to
1:41:12
Speaker 1: let the filthy Tehranins spend their strength trying to remove
1:41:15
Speaker 1: it themselves. Moreover, I believe you are yourself an earth man.
1:41:20
Speaker 1: You have no right to the courtesy I extend to
1:41:22
Speaker 1: we the people of the sky. Yet you have drunk
1:41:24
Speaker 1: wine with me, and I have no quarrel with you.
1:41:27
Speaker 1: He raised his hand in dismissal, out fencing me. Leave
1:41:30
Speaker 1: my roof in safety and my city with honor. I
1:41:33
Speaker 1: could not protest or plead a man's kihar his personal
1:41:37
Speaker 1: dignity is a precious thing in Shainsa, and he had
1:41:40
Speaker 1: placed me so I could not compromise mine further in words.
1:41:43
Speaker 1: Yet I lost Krhal equally if I left at his
1:41:46
Speaker 1: bidding like an inferior dismissed one desperate gambol remained a word,
1:41:52
Speaker 1: I said, raising my hand, and while he half turned startled,
1:41:55
Speaker 1: believing I was indeed about to compromise my dignity by
1:41:58
Speaker 1: a further plea, I lung it at him. I will
1:42:01
Speaker 1: bet Schegri with you. His iron composure looked shaken. I
1:42:05
Speaker 1: had delivered a blow to his belief that I was
1:42:07
Speaker 1: an earth Man. For it is doubtful if there are
1:42:09
Speaker 1: six earthmen on Wolf who know about Schegri, the dangerous
1:42:13
Speaker 1: game of the dry towns. It is no ordinary gamble,
1:42:16
Speaker 1: for what the better stakes is his life, possibly his reason.
1:42:20
Speaker 1: Rarely indeed will a man beg Schegri unless he has
1:42:23
Speaker 1: nothing further to lose. It is a cruel, possibly decadent game,
1:42:27
Speaker 1: which has no parallel anywhere in the known universe. But
1:42:30
Speaker 1: I had no choice. I had struck a cold trail
1:42:32
Speaker 1: in Shainsaw. Recal might be anywhere on the planet, and
1:42:35
Speaker 1: half of Magnuson's month was already up. Unless I could
1:42:38
Speaker 1: force Kirol to tell what he knew, I might as
1:42:40
Speaker 1: well quit, So I repeated, I will bet Schegri with
1:42:44
Speaker 1: you and Kirall stood unmoving. For what the Chagrin wagers
1:42:49
Speaker 1: is his courage and endurance in the face of torture
1:42:51
Speaker 1: and an unknown fate on his side. The stakes are
1:42:54
Speaker 1: clearly determined beforehand. But if he loses, his punishment or
1:42:58
Speaker 1: penalty is at the whim of the one who has
1:43:00
Speaker 1: accepted him, and he may be put to whatever doom
1:43:02
Speaker 1: the winner determines. And this is the contest. The Chagrin
1:43:06
Speaker 1: permits himself to be tortured from sunrise to sunset. If
1:43:10
Speaker 1: he endures, he wins. It is as simple as that
1:43:13
Speaker 1: he can stop the torture at any moment by a word,
1:43:16
Speaker 1: but to do so is a concession of defeat. This
1:43:19
Speaker 1: is not as dangerous as it might at first seem.
1:43:22
Speaker 1: The other party to the bet is bound by the
1:43:24
Speaker 1: ironclad codes of Wolf to inflict no permanent physical jamage,
1:43:28
Speaker 1: no injury that will not heal with three sun courses,
1:43:31
Speaker 1: but from sunrise to sunset, any torment or painful ingenuity
1:43:35
Speaker 1: which the half human mentality of wolf can devise must
1:43:38
Speaker 1: be endured. The man who can outthink the torture of
1:43:41
Speaker 1: the moment, the man who can hold in his mind
1:43:44
Speaker 1: the single thought of his goal. That man can claim
1:43:46
Speaker 1: the stakes he has set, as well as other concessions
1:43:49
Speaker 1: made traditional. The silence grew in the hall. Dalisa had
1:43:53
Speaker 1: straightened and was watching me intently, her lips parted and
1:43:56
Speaker 1: the tip of a little red tongue visible between her teeth.
1:43:59
Speaker 1: The only sound was the tiny crunching as the fat
1:44:02
Speaker 1: woman nibbled at nuts and cast their shells into the brazier.
1:44:05
Speaker 1: Even the child on the steps had abandoned her game
1:44:07
Speaker 1: with the crystal dice and sat looking up at me
1:44:09
Speaker 1: with her mouth open. Finally, Kirall demanded, your stakes, tell
1:44:14
Speaker 1: me all you know of Recall, censar and keep silence
1:44:16
Speaker 1: about me and shainsa by the red shadow. Kirall burst out,
1:44:20
Speaker 1: You have courage, Rascar, say only yes or no, I retorted, rebuked.
1:44:26
Speaker 1: He fell silent. Dalisa leaned forward and again, for some
1:44:30
Speaker 1: unknown reason, I thought of a girl with hair like
1:44:32
Speaker 1: spun black glass. Kirall raised his hand. I say no,
1:44:36
Speaker 1: I have blood feud with Recall, and I will not
1:44:38
Speaker 1: sell his death to another. Further, I believe you are
1:44:41
Speaker 1: Terran and I will not deal with you. And finally,
1:44:44
Speaker 1: you have twice saved my life, and I would find
1:44:46
Speaker 1: small pleasure in torturing you. I say no, drink again
1:44:50
Speaker 1: with me, and we part without a quarrel. Beaten, I
1:44:52
Speaker 1: turned to go, wait, said Dallisa. She stood up and
1:44:57
Speaker 1: came down the dais slowly, this time walking with dick
1:45:00
Speaker 1: nity to the rhythm of her musically clashing chains. I
1:45:03
Speaker 1: have a quarrel with this man. I started to say
1:45:05
Speaker 1: that I did not quarrel with women, and stopped myself.
1:45:09
Speaker 1: The Terran concept of chivalry has no equivalent on wolf.
1:45:13
Speaker 1: She looked at me with her dark poison berry eyes,
1:45:15
Speaker 1: icy and level, and amused, and said, I will bet
1:45:18
Speaker 1: Schegri with you unless you fear me Rascar, and I
1:45:22
Speaker 1: knew suddenly that if I lost, I might better have
1:45:25
Speaker 1: trusted myself to Kirale and his whip or to the
1:45:28
Speaker 1: wild beast things of the mountains. End of chapter seven,
1:45:35
Speaker 1: Chapter eight. I slept little that night. There is a
1:45:39
Speaker 1: tale told in Delaon of the Chagri where a challenger
1:45:42
Speaker 1: was left in a room alone where he was blindfolded
1:45:45
Speaker 1: and told to await the beginning of the torment. Somewhere
1:45:48
Speaker 1: in those dark hours of waiting between the unknown and
1:45:50
Speaker 1: the unexpected, the hours of telling over to himself the
1:45:53
Speaker 1: horrors of past chagri, the torture of anticipation alone became unbearable.
1:45:58
Speaker 1: A little past noon, he collapson screams of horror, and died, raving, unmarred, untouched.
1:46:05
Speaker 1: Daybreak came slowly, and with the first streamers of light
1:46:08
Speaker 1: came Dalisa with the white chalk, maliciously uninvolved, sniffing his
1:46:12
Speaker 1: way through the shabby poverty of the Great Hall. They
1:46:15
Speaker 1: took me to a lower dungeon, where the slant of
1:46:16
Speaker 1: the sunlight was less visible. Daliesa said, the sun has risen.
1:46:22
Speaker 1: I said nothing. Any word may be interpreted as a
1:46:24
Speaker 1: confession of defeat. I resolved to give them no excuse.
1:46:28
Speaker 1: But my skin crawled, and I had that peculiar prickling
1:46:31
Speaker 1: sensation where the hair on my forearms was bristling, erect
1:46:34
Speaker 1: with tension and fear. Dalisa said to the chalk, his
1:46:38
Speaker 1: gear was not searched. See that he has swallowed no
1:46:40
Speaker 1: anesthetic drugs. Briefly, I gave her credit for thoroughness, even
1:46:45
Speaker 1: while I wondered in a split second why I had
1:46:47
Speaker 1: not thought of this. Drugs could blur consciousness at least
1:46:50
Speaker 1: or suspend reality. The white non human sprang forward and
1:46:54
Speaker 1: pinioned my arms with one strong, spring steel forearm. With
1:46:57
Speaker 1: his other hand, he forced my jaws open. I felt
1:47:00
Speaker 1: the furred fingers at the back of my throat, gagged,
1:47:02
Speaker 1: struggled briefly, and doubled up in uncontrollable wretching. Dalsa's poison
1:47:07
Speaker 1: berry eyes regarded me levily. As I struggled upright, fighting
1:47:10
Speaker 1: off the dizzy sickness of disgust. Something about her impassive
1:47:14
Speaker 1: face stopped me cold. I had been momentarily raging with
1:47:18
Speaker 1: fury and humiliation. Now I realized that this had been
1:47:21
Speaker 1: a calculated, careful gesture to make me lose my temper
1:47:24
Speaker 1: and thus sap my resistance. If she could set me
1:47:28
Speaker 1: to fighting, if she could make me spend my strength
1:47:30
Speaker 1: and rage, my own imagination would fight on her side
1:47:33
Speaker 1: to make me lose control. Before the end. Swimming in
1:47:36
Speaker 1: the glare of her eyes, I realized she had never
1:47:38
Speaker 1: thought for a moment that I had taken any drug.
1:47:41
Speaker 1: Acting on Karrel's hint, that I was a Terran. She
1:47:43
Speaker 1: was taking advantage of the well known Terran revulsion for
1:47:46
Speaker 1: the non human blindfold him. Dalisa commanded, then instantly countermanded
1:47:51
Speaker 1: that no strip him first. The chalk ripped off shirt, cloak, shirt, shoes, breeches,
1:47:57
Speaker 1: and I had my first triumph when the wheeled claw
1:48:00
Speaker 1: marks on my shoulders, worse, if possible, than those which
1:48:03
Speaker 1: disfigured my face, were laid bare. The chalk screwed up
1:48:06
Speaker 1: his muzzle in fastidious horror, and Alisa looked shaken. I
1:48:10
Speaker 1: could almost read her thoughts, if he endured this, what
1:48:13
Speaker 1: hope have I to make him cry mercy? Briefly I
1:48:16
Speaker 1: remembered the months I lay feverish and half dead, waiting
1:48:19
Speaker 1: for the wounds Recal had inflicted to heal, those months
1:48:22
Speaker 1: when I had believed that nothing would ever hurt me again,
1:48:24
Speaker 1: that I had known the worst of all suffering. But
1:48:27
Speaker 1: I had been younger then. Dalisa had picked up two small,
1:48:31
Speaker 1: sharp knives. She weighed them briefly, gesturing to the chalk.
1:48:35
Speaker 1: Without resisting, I let myself be man handled backward, spread
1:48:38
Speaker 1: eaglet against the wall. Dalisa commanded drive the knives through
1:48:42
Speaker 1: his palms. To the wall. My hands twitched convulsively anticipating
1:48:46
Speaker 1: the slash of steel, and my throat closed in spasmodic dread.
1:48:49
Speaker 1: This was breaking the compact, bound as they were not
1:48:51
Speaker 1: to inflict physical damage. I opened my lips to protest
1:48:54
Speaker 1: this breaking of the bond of honor and met her dark,
1:48:56
Speaker 1: blazing stare, and suddenly the sweat broke out on my foot.
1:49:00
Speaker 1: I had placed myself wholly in her hands, and as
1:49:03
Speaker 1: Karl had said, they were in no way bound by
1:49:05
Speaker 1: honor to respect a pledge to a terran. Then, as
1:49:09
Speaker 1: my hands clenched into fists, I forced myself to relax.
1:49:12
Speaker 1: This was a bluff, a mental trick to needle me
1:49:15
Speaker 1: into breaking the pact and pleading for mercy. I set
1:49:18
Speaker 1: my lips, spread my palms wide against the wall, and
1:49:20
Speaker 1: waited impassively. She said, in her lilting voice, take care
1:49:25
Speaker 1: not to sever the tendons, or his hands would be paralyzed,
1:49:27
Speaker 1: and he may claim we have broken our compact. The
1:49:30
Speaker 1: points of the steel razor sharp touched my palms, and
1:49:33
Speaker 1: I felt blood run down my hand. Before the pain,
1:49:36
Speaker 1: with an effort that turned my face white, I did
1:49:38
Speaker 1: not pull away from the point the knives drove deeper,
1:49:42
Speaker 1: dully suggesture to the chalk. The knives dropped two pinpricks,
1:49:46
Speaker 1: a quarter of an inch deep, stung in my palm.
1:49:48
Speaker 1: I had out bluffed her, had I if I had
1:49:52
Speaker 1: expected her to betray disappointment, And I had. I was
1:49:55
Speaker 1: disappointed abruptly, as if the game had wearied her already.
1:49:59
Speaker 1: She just and I could not hold back a gasp
1:50:01
Speaker 1: as my arms were hauled up over my head, twisted
1:50:04
Speaker 1: violently around one another, and trussed with thin cords that
1:50:06
Speaker 1: bit deep into the flesh. Then the rough upward pull
1:50:09
Speaker 1: almost jerked my shoulders from their sockets, and I heard
1:50:12
Speaker 1: the giant chalk grunt with effort as I was hauled
1:50:14
Speaker 1: upward until my feet, barely on tiptoe, touched the floor.
1:50:18
Speaker 1: Blindfold him said, do Lisa languidly so that he cannot
1:50:22
Speaker 1: watch the ascent of the sun or its descent, or
1:50:24
Speaker 1: know what is to come. A dark softness muffled my eyes.
1:50:28
Speaker 1: After a little I heard her steps retreating. My arms,
1:50:31
Speaker 1: wrenched overhead and numbed with the bite of the cords,
1:50:33
Speaker 1: were beginning to hurt badly now, but it wasn't too bad.
1:50:36
Speaker 1: Surely she did not mean that this should be all Sternly,
1:50:40
Speaker 1: I controlled my imagination, taking a tight rein on my thoughts.
1:50:43
Speaker 1: There was only one way to meet this hanging blind
1:50:46
Speaker 1: and racked in space, my toes barely scrambling at the floor,
1:50:49
Speaker 1: and that was to take each thing as it came,
1:50:51
Speaker 1: and not look ahead for an instant. First of all,
1:50:54
Speaker 1: I tried to get my feet under me, and discovered
1:50:56
Speaker 1: that by arching upwards to my fullest height, I could
1:50:58
Speaker 1: bear my weight on tiptoe and ease a little the
1:51:01
Speaker 1: dislocating ache in my armpits by slackening the overhead rope.
1:51:04
Speaker 1: But after a little a cramping pain began to flare
1:51:07
Speaker 1: through the arches of my feet, and it became impossible
1:51:09
Speaker 1: to support my weight on tiptoe. I jarred down with
1:51:11
Speaker 1: violent strain on my wrists and wrenched shoulders again, and
1:51:14
Speaker 1: for a moment the shooting agony was so intense that
1:51:17
Speaker 1: I nearly screamed. I thought I heard a soft breath
1:51:20
Speaker 1: near me. After a little it subsided to a sharp ache,
1:51:23
Speaker 1: then to a dull ache, and then to the violent
1:51:26
Speaker 1: cramping again, and once more I struggled to get my
1:51:28
Speaker 1: toes under me. I realized that by allowing my toes
1:51:31
Speaker 1: barely to touch the floor. They had doubled and tripled
1:51:33
Speaker 1: the pain by the tantalizing hope of, if not momentary relief,
1:51:37
Speaker 1: at least the alteration of one pain for another. I
1:51:40
Speaker 1: haven't the faintest idea even now, how long I repeated
1:51:43
Speaker 1: that agonizing cycle, struggle for a toe hold on rough stone,
1:51:46
Speaker 1: scraping my bare feet raw arch upward with all my strength,
1:51:49
Speaker 1: to release for a few moments, the strain on my
1:51:51
Speaker 1: wrenched shoulders, the momentary illusion of relief as I found
1:51:54
Speaker 1: my balance and the pressure lightened on my wrists, Then
1:51:58
Speaker 1: the slow creeping first of an then of a pain,
1:52:01
Speaker 1: then of a violent agony in the arches of my
1:52:03
Speaker 1: feet and calves, and delayed to the last endurable moment,
1:52:06
Speaker 1: that final terrible anguish, when the drop of my full
1:52:09
Speaker 1: weight pulled shoulder and wrist and elbow joints with that
1:52:12
Speaker 1: bone shattering jerk. I started at once to estimate how
1:52:15
Speaker 1: much time had passed, how many hours had crawled by,
1:52:19
Speaker 1: then checked myself, for that was imminent madness. But once
1:52:22
Speaker 1: the process had begun, my brain would not abandon, and
1:52:25
Speaker 1: I found myself with compulsive precision, counting off the seconds
1:52:29
Speaker 1: and the minutes in each cycle, stretch upward, release the
1:52:32
Speaker 1: pressure on the arms, the beginning of pain in the
1:52:34
Speaker 1: calves and arches and toes, the creeping of pain up
1:52:37
Speaker 1: the ribs and loins and shoulders, the sudden jarring drop
1:52:40
Speaker 1: on the arms. Again, my throat was intolerably dry. Under
1:52:44
Speaker 1: other circumstances, I might have estimated the time by the
1:52:46
Speaker 1: growing hunger and thirst, but the rough treatment I had
1:52:49
Speaker 1: received made this impossible. There were other unmentionable, humiliating pains.
1:52:55
Speaker 1: After a time to bolster my flagging courage, I found
1:52:57
Speaker 1: myself thinking of all the ways it might have been worse.
1:53:00
Speaker 1: I have heard of a chagrin exposed to the bite
1:53:02
Speaker 1: of poisonous not fatal, but painfully poisonous insects, and to
1:53:06
Speaker 1: the worrying of the small gnawing rodents which can be
1:53:09
Speaker 1: trained to bite and tear. Or I might have been branded.
1:53:12
Speaker 1: I banished the memory with a powerful exorcism. The man
1:53:15
Speaker 1: in Delonn whose anticipation a loan of a torture which
1:53:18
Speaker 1: never came had broken his mind. There was only one
1:53:21
Speaker 1: way to conquer this, and that was to act as
1:53:23
Speaker 1: if the present moment was the only one, and never
1:53:26
Speaker 1: for a moment to forget that the strongest of compacts
1:53:29
Speaker 1: bound them not to harm me, that the end of
1:53:31
Speaker 1: this was fixed by sunset. Gradually, however, all such rational
1:53:35
Speaker 1: thoughts blurred in the semi delirium of thirst and pain,
1:53:38
Speaker 1: narrowing to a red blaze of agony across my shoulder blades.
1:53:42
Speaker 1: I eased up on my toes again. White hot pain
1:53:44
Speaker 1: blazed through my feet. The rough stone on which my
1:53:47
Speaker 1: toes sank had been covered with metal, and I smelled
1:53:49
Speaker 1: scorching flesh, jerking up my feet with a wordless snarl
1:53:51
Speaker 1: of rage and fury, hanging in agony by my shoulders alone.
1:53:55
Speaker 1: And then I lost consciousness, at least for several moments.
1:53:58
Speaker 1: For when I became aware again, through the nightmare of pain,
1:54:01
Speaker 1: my toes were resting lightly and securely on cold stone.
1:54:04
Speaker 1: The smell of burned flesh remained, and the painful stinging
1:54:07
Speaker 1: in my toes. Mingled with that smell was a drift
1:54:10
Speaker 1: of perfume. Close by. Dallisa murmured, I do not wish
1:54:14
Speaker 1: to break our bargain by damaging your feet. It's only
1:54:16
Speaker 1: a little touch of fire to keep you from too
1:54:18
Speaker 1: much security. In resting them, I felt the taste of
1:54:21
Speaker 1: blood mingle in my mouth, with a sour taste of vomit.
1:54:24
Speaker 1: I felt delirious, light headed, after another eternity, I wondered
1:54:27
Speaker 1: if I had really heard De Lisa's lilting croon, or
1:54:30
Speaker 1: whether it was a nightmare born of feverish pain. Plead
1:54:34
Speaker 1: with me, a word, only a word, and I will
1:54:36
Speaker 1: release you, strong man, scarred man. Perhaps I shall demand
1:54:39
Speaker 1: only a little space in your arms. Would not such
1:54:42
Speaker 1: doom be light upon you? Perhaps I shall set you
1:54:45
Speaker 1: free to seek racal, if only to plague cararal. A
1:54:48
Speaker 1: word only a word from you, A word, only a
1:54:51
Speaker 1: word from you. It died into an endlessly echoing whisper.
1:54:55
Speaker 1: Swaying blindly, I wondered why I endured. I drew a
1:54:58
Speaker 1: dry tongue over lips, salty and bloody, and nightmarishly considered yielding,
1:55:03
Speaker 1: winning my way somehow around Alisa, or knocking her suddenly
1:55:06
Speaker 1: senseless and escaping I, who need not be bound by
1:55:09
Speaker 1: Wolf's codes either. I fumbled with a stiff shape of words,
1:55:13
Speaker 1: and a breath saved me, a soft, released breath of anticipation.
1:55:18
Speaker 1: It was another trick. I swayed limp and racked. I
1:55:22
Speaker 1: was not race cargole. Now I was a dead man,
1:55:24
Speaker 1: hanging in chains, swinging filthy vultures pecking at my dangling feet.
1:55:28
Speaker 1: The sounds of boots rang on the stone. In Carral's voice,
1:55:30
Speaker 1: low and bitter, demanded, somewhere behind me, what have you
1:55:33
Speaker 1: done with him? She did not answer, but I heard
1:55:36
Speaker 1: her chains clash lightly, and imagined her gesture. Kiraal muttered,
1:55:40
Speaker 1: women have no genius at any torture. Except his voice
1:55:43
Speaker 1: faded out into great distances. Their words came to me
1:55:45
Speaker 1: over a sort of windy ringing, like the howling of
1:55:48
Speaker 1: lost men dying in the snowfast passes of the mountains.
1:55:52
Speaker 1: Speak up, you fool. He can't hear you now. If
1:55:55
Speaker 1: you have let him faint, you are clumsy. You talk
1:55:57
Speaker 1: of clumsiness. Dalisa's voice, even thinned by the nightmare, ringing
1:56:01
Speaker 1: in my head, held concentrated scorn. Perhaps I shall release
1:56:05
Speaker 1: him to find Recall when you failed. The Terrans have
1:56:07
Speaker 1: a price on Recall's head too, And at least this
1:56:09
Speaker 1: man will not confuse himself with his prey. If you
1:56:12
Speaker 1: think I would let you bargain with a taranin Dallisa
1:56:15
Speaker 1: cried passionately. You trade with the Terrans, How would you
1:56:18
Speaker 1: stop me?
1:56:18
Speaker 2: Then?
1:56:19
Speaker 1: I trade with him because I must, but for a
1:56:21
Speaker 1: matter involving the honor of the Great House, the great
1:56:23
Speaker 1: house whose steps you would never have climbed except for Recall.
1:56:26
Speaker 1: Dalsa sounded as if she were chewing her words in
1:56:28
Speaker 1: little pieces and spitting them at Karol. Oh, you were
1:56:31
Speaker 1: clever to take us both as your consorts. You did
1:56:33
Speaker 1: not know what was Recall's doing. Did you hate the Terrans?
1:56:36
Speaker 1: Then she spaed an obscenity at him. Enjoy your hate,
1:56:39
Speaker 1: wallow in hating, and in the end all shan Thau
1:56:41
Speaker 1: will fall prey to the toy maker like mee Lyn.
1:56:44
Speaker 1: If you speak that name again, said Kerral, very low,
1:56:47
Speaker 1: I will kill you like Miellyn, mae Lyn, mae Lyyn.
1:56:50
Speaker 1: Dallisa repeated deliberately, You fool, Recall knew nothing of Miellyn.
1:56:55
Speaker 1: He was seen with me, You fool with me. You
1:56:57
Speaker 1: cannot tell twin from twin. Recall me to ask news
1:57:01
Speaker 1: of her, Kiral cried out hoarsely, like a man in anguish.
1:57:05
Speaker 1: Why didn't you tell me? You don't really have to ask,
1:57:07
Speaker 1: do you, Kral? You bitch said Karral, you filthy bitch.
1:57:12
Speaker 1: I heard the sound of a blow. The next moment,
1:57:14
Speaker 1: Krral ripped the blindfold from my eyes, and I blinked
1:57:16
Speaker 1: in the blaze of light. My arms were wholly numb,
1:57:18
Speaker 1: now twisted above my head, but the jar of his
1:57:20
Speaker 1: touch sent fresh pain racing through me. Carral's face swam
1:57:23
Speaker 1: out of the blaze of hell. If that is true,
1:57:26
Speaker 1: then this is a damnable farce. Elsa, you have lost
1:57:28
Speaker 1: our chance of learning what he knows of Mielyn. What
1:57:30
Speaker 1: he knows, De Lisa lowered her hand from her face,
1:57:33
Speaker 1: where a bruise was already darkening. Milyn has twice appeared
1:57:37
Speaker 1: when I was with him. Loose him, De Lisa, and
1:57:39
Speaker 1: bargain with him what we know of Recall for what
1:57:40
Speaker 1: he knows of Milyn. If you think I would let
1:57:43
Speaker 1: you bargain with Tarannin, she mocked, weakling, this quarrel is mine,
1:57:47
Speaker 1: you fool. The others in the caravan will give me
1:57:49
Speaker 1: news if you will not. Where is Quinn? From a
1:57:52
Speaker 1: million miles away, Carrol laughed, you've slipped the wrong hawk,
1:57:56
Speaker 1: De Lisa. The CapMan killed him. His skin flicked loose.
1:57:59
Speaker 1: He climbed Apperach near the rope at my wrists, bargain
1:58:02
Speaker 1: with me, Rascar, I coughed, unable to speak, and Kiral insisted,
1:58:06
Speaker 1: will you bargain? End this damned woman's farce, which makes
1:58:09
Speaker 1: a mock of schagri. The slant of sun told me
1:58:12
Speaker 1: there was light left. I found a shred of voice,
1:58:15
Speaker 1: not knowing what I was going to say until I
1:58:16
Speaker 1: had said it irrevocably. This is between Dalisa and me.
1:58:21
Speaker 1: Kirall glared at me in mounting rage. With four strides.
1:58:23
Speaker 1: He was out of the room, flinging back a harsh
1:58:25
Speaker 1: furious I hope you kill each other, and the door slammed.
1:58:29
Speaker 1: Dalisa's face swam red and again, as before, I knew
1:58:31
Speaker 1: the battle which was joined between us would be fought
1:58:34
Speaker 1: to a dreadful end. She touched my chest lightly, but
1:58:36
Speaker 1: the touch jolted excruciating pain through my shoulders. Did you
1:58:40
Speaker 1: kill Quinn? I wondered wearily what this presaged?
1:58:44
Speaker 2: Did you?
1:58:45
Speaker 1: In a passion? She cried answer, did you kill him?
1:58:47
Speaker 1: She struck me hard, and where the touch had been pained,
1:58:50
Speaker 1: the blow was a blaze of white agony. I fainted answer.
1:58:54
Speaker 1: She struck me again, and the white blaze jolted me
1:58:56
Speaker 1: back to consciousness. Answer me, Answer each I brought a
1:59:00
Speaker 1: blow until I gasped. Finally he signaled, set catman on us. No.
1:59:06
Speaker 1: She stood staring at me, and her white face was
1:59:08
Speaker 1: a death mask in which the eyes lived. She screamed wildly,
1:59:12
Speaker 1: and the huge chalk came running. Cut him down, Cut
1:59:15
Speaker 1: him down, cut him down. A knife slashed the rope,
1:59:18
Speaker 1: and I slumped, falling in a bone breaking huddle to
1:59:20
Speaker 1: the floor. My arms were still twisted over my head.
1:59:23
Speaker 1: The chalk cut the ropes apart, pulled my arms roughly
1:59:25
Speaker 1: back into place, and I gagged with the pain as
1:59:27
Speaker 1: the blood began flowing painfully through the chafed and swollen hands.
1:59:31
Speaker 1: And then I lost consciousness, more or less permanently, this
1:59:34
Speaker 1: time end of chapter eight. Chapter nine. When I came
1:59:42
Speaker 1: to again, I was lying with my head in Delica's lap,
1:59:44
Speaker 1: and the reddish color of the sunset was in the room.
1:59:47
Speaker 1: Her thighs were soft under my head, and for an
1:59:50
Speaker 1: instant I wondered if, in delirium I had conceded to her.
1:59:54
Speaker 1: I muttered, son, not down. She bent her face to mine, whispering, hush, hush.
2:00:01
Speaker 1: It was heaven, and I drifted off again. After a moment,
2:00:04
Speaker 1: I felt a cup against my lips. Can you swallow this?
2:00:09
Speaker 1: I could, and did. I couldn't taste it yet, but
2:00:11
Speaker 1: it was cold and wet and felt heavenly trickling down
2:00:14
Speaker 1: my throat. She bent and looked into my eyes, and
2:00:17
Speaker 1: I felt as if I were falling into those reddish
2:00:19
Speaker 1: and stormy depths. She touched my scarred mouth with a
2:00:22
Speaker 1: light finger. Suddenly my head cleared and I sat upright.
2:00:25
Speaker 1: Is this a trick to force me into calling my bed?
2:00:28
Speaker 1: She recoiled as if I had struck her. Then the
2:00:31
Speaker 1: trace of a smile flitted around her red mouth. Yes,
2:00:34
Speaker 1: Between us it was battle. You are right to be suspicious,
2:00:38
Speaker 1: I suppose. But if I tell you what I know
2:00:40
Speaker 1: of Recall, will you trust me? Then I looked straight
2:00:43
Speaker 1: at her and said no. Surprisingly, she threw back her
2:00:47
Speaker 1: head and laughed. I flexed my freed wrists cautiously. The
2:00:50
Speaker 1: skin was torn away and chafed, and my arms ached
2:00:53
Speaker 1: to the bone. When I moved, harsh lances of pain
2:00:56
Speaker 1: drove through my chest well until some one said, I
2:01:00
Speaker 1: have no right to ask you to trust me, said Delisa,
2:01:03
Speaker 1: when she was done laughing and since you are bound
2:01:05
Speaker 1: by my command until the last ray has fallen, I
2:01:08
Speaker 1: command that you lay your head upon my knees. I blazed.
2:01:11
Speaker 1: You are making a game of me? Is that my privilege?
2:01:15
Speaker 1: Do you refuse? Refuse? It was not yet sunset. This
2:01:20
Speaker 1: might be a torture more complex than any which had
2:01:23
Speaker 1: yet greeted me. From the scarlet glint in her eyes,
2:01:26
Speaker 1: I felt she was playing with me as the cat
2:01:27
Speaker 1: things of the forest play with their helpless victims. My
2:01:31
Speaker 1: mouth twitched in a grimace of humiliation as I lowered
2:01:33
Speaker 1: myself obediently until my head rested on her fur clad knees.
2:01:39
Speaker 1: She murmured, smiling, Is this so unbearable? Then? I said nothing. Never, Never,
2:01:45
Speaker 1: for an instant could I forget that all human, all woman,
2:01:48
Speaker 1: as she seemed. Dallis's race was worn and old when
2:01:52
Speaker 1: the Terran Empire had not left their home star. The
2:01:55
Speaker 1: mind of Wolf, which has mingled with the non human
2:01:57
Speaker 1: since before the beginnings of recorded time, is un fathomable
2:02:00
Speaker 1: to an outsider. I was better equipped than most Earthmen
2:02:04
Speaker 1: to keep pace with its surface axe, but I could
2:02:06
Speaker 1: never pretend to understand its deeper motivations. It works on
2:02:11
Speaker 1: complex and irrational logic. Mischief is an integral part of it.
2:02:15
Speaker 1: Even the deadly blood feud with Recall had begun with
2:02:18
Speaker 1: an over elaborate, practical joke, which had lost the service,
2:02:21
Speaker 1: incidentally several thousand credits worth of spaceship. And so I
2:02:25
Speaker 1: could not trust Dallisa for an instant. Yet it was
2:02:28
Speaker 1: wonderful to lie here with my head resting against the
2:02:31
Speaker 1: perfumed softness of her body. Then suddenly her arms were
2:02:35
Speaker 1: gripping me, frantic and hungry, the subdued thing in her voice,
2:02:38
Speaker 1: her eyes flamed out, hot and wild. She was pressing
2:02:41
Speaker 1: the whole length of her body to mine, breasts and
2:02:43
Speaker 1: thighs and long legs, and her voice was hoarse. Is
2:02:47
Speaker 1: this torture too? Beneath the fur robe, she was soft
2:02:50
Speaker 1: and white, and the subtle scent of her hair seemed
2:02:53
Speaker 1: deeper entrapment than any frail as she seemed. Her arms
2:02:57
Speaker 1: had the strength of steel, and pain blazed down my
2:02:59
Speaker 1: ring shoulders, seared through the twined wrists. Then I forgot
2:03:03
Speaker 1: the pain over her shoulder. The last dropping redness of
2:03:07
Speaker 1: the sun vanished and plunged the room into orchid twilight.
2:03:11
Speaker 1: I caught her wrists in my hands, prising them backward,
2:03:13
Speaker 1: twisting them upward over her head. I said thickly, the
2:03:16
Speaker 1: sun's down. And then I stopped her wild mouth with mine,
2:03:19
Speaker 1: and I knew that the battle between us had reached
2:03:21
Speaker 1: climax and victory simultaneously, and any question about who had
2:03:25
Speaker 1: won was purely academic. During the night, some time, while
2:03:30
Speaker 1: her dark head lay motionless on my shoulder, I found
2:03:32
Speaker 1: myself staring into the darkness, wakeful. The throbbing of my
2:03:36
Speaker 1: bruises had little to do with my sleeplessness. I was
2:03:39
Speaker 1: remembering other chained girls from the old days in the
2:03:41
Speaker 1: dry towns, and the honey and poison of them distilled
2:03:45
Speaker 1: into Dallis's kisses. Her head was very light on my shoulder,
2:03:49
Speaker 1: and she felt curiously insubstantial, like a woman of feathers.
2:03:54
Speaker 1: One of the tiny moons was visible through the slitted windows.
2:03:57
Speaker 1: I thought of my rooms in the Terran trade city,
2:03:59
Speaker 1: clean and in bright and warm, and all the nights
2:04:01
Speaker 1: when I had paced the floor hating, filled to the
2:04:04
Speaker 1: teeth with bitterness, longing for the wind swept stars of
2:04:07
Speaker 1: the dry towns, the salt smell of the winds, and
2:04:09
Speaker 1: the musical clashing of the walk of the chained women.
2:04:13
Speaker 1: With a sting of guilt, I realized that I had
2:04:15
Speaker 1: half forgotten Julie and my pledge to her at her misfortune,
2:04:18
Speaker 1: which had freed me again for this Yet I had won,
2:04:22
Speaker 1: and what they knew had narrowed my planet wide search
2:04:25
Speaker 1: to a pin point. Recal was in Charin. I wasn't
2:04:30
Speaker 1: altogether surprised. Charin is the only city on Wolf except
2:04:33
Speaker 1: the Karsa, where the Terran Empire has put down deep
2:04:36
Speaker 1: roots into the planet, built a trade city, a smaller
2:04:39
Speaker 1: spaceport like the Carsa. It lies within the circle of
2:04:42
Speaker 1: Terran law and a million miles outside it. A non
2:04:46
Speaker 1: human town inhabited largely by chalks, it is the core
2:04:49
Speaker 1: and center of the resistance movement. A noisy town in
2:04:52
Speaker 1: perpetual ferment, it was the logical place for a renegade.
2:04:56
Speaker 1: I settled myself so that the ache in my racked
2:04:58
Speaker 1: shoulders was less violent, and muttered Why Charon slight as
2:05:03
Speaker 1: the movement was? It roused Dallisa. She rolled over and
2:05:07
Speaker 1: propped herself on her elbows, quoting drowsily. The prey walks
2:05:10
Speaker 1: safest at the hunter's door. I stared at the square
2:05:14
Speaker 1: of violet moonlight, trying to fit together all the pieces
2:05:16
Speaker 1: of the puzzle, and asked half aloud, what prey and
2:05:21
Speaker 1: what hunters? Dallisa didn't answer. I hadn't expected her to answer.
2:05:26
Speaker 1: I asked the real question in my mind, why does
2:05:29
Speaker 1: Karral hate to recall Censar when he doesn't even know
2:05:32
Speaker 1: him by sight? There are reasons, she said somberly. One
2:05:37
Speaker 1: of them is Miellyn, my twin sister. Karral climbed the
2:05:40
Speaker 1: steps of the Great House by claiming us both as
2:05:42
Speaker 1: his consorts. He is our father's son by another wife.
2:05:46
Speaker 1: That explained much. Brother and sister marriages, not uncommon in
2:05:50
Speaker 1: the dry towns, are based on expediency and suspicion, and
2:05:53
Speaker 1: are frequently, though not always, loveless. It explained Dalyis's taunts,
2:05:58
Speaker 1: and it partly explained, only partly, why I found her
2:06:01
Speaker 1: in my arms. It did not explain Recall's part in
2:06:04
Speaker 1: this mysterious intrigue, nor why Kiral had taken me for recall.
2:06:08
Speaker 1: But only after he remembered seeing me in terran clothing.
2:06:11
Speaker 1: I wondered why it had never occurred to me before
2:06:13
Speaker 1: that I might be mistaken for Recall. There was no
2:06:15
Speaker 1: close resemblance between us, but a casual description would apply
2:06:18
Speaker 1: equally well to me, or to recall my height as
2:06:22
Speaker 1: unusual for a Terran within an inch of recall zone.
2:06:25
Speaker 1: And we had roughly the same build, the same coloring.
2:06:28
Speaker 1: I had copied his walk, imitated his mannerisms since we
2:06:31
Speaker 1: were boys together, and blurring minor facial characteristics. There were
2:06:36
Speaker 1: the scars of the kefich on my mouth, cheeks and shoulders.
2:06:40
Speaker 1: Anyone who did not know us by sight, any one
2:06:42
Speaker 1: who had known us by reputation from the days when
2:06:44
Speaker 1: we had worked together in the dry towns, might easily
2:06:47
Speaker 1: take one of us for the other. Even Julie had blurted,
2:06:50
Speaker 1: you're so much alike before thinking better of it. Other
2:06:54
Speaker 1: odd bits of the puzzle floated in my mind, stubbornly
2:06:57
Speaker 1: refusing to take on recognizable patterns. The disappearance of a
2:07:00
Speaker 1: toy seller, Julie's hysterical babbling, the way the girl Miellyn
2:07:05
Speaker 1: had vanished into a shrine of Nebron, and the taunts
2:07:08
Speaker 1: of Dallisa and the old man about a mysterious toy maker,
2:07:12
Speaker 1: and something some random joggling of a memory in that
2:07:15
Speaker 1: eerie trading in the city of the silent ones. I
2:07:18
Speaker 1: knew all these things fitted together somehow, but I had
2:07:21
Speaker 1: no real hope that Dallisa could complete their pattern for me.
2:07:25
Speaker 1: She said, with a vehemence that startled me. Miellyn is
2:07:28
Speaker 1: only the excuse Carral hates Recall because Recal will compromise,
2:07:32
Speaker 1: and because he'll fight. She rolled over and pressed herself
2:07:36
Speaker 1: against me in the darkness. Her voice trembled, race. Our
2:07:39
Speaker 1: world is dying. We can't stand against Tera. And there
2:07:42
Speaker 1: are other things, worse things. I sat up, surprised to
2:07:46
Speaker 1: find myself defending Tara to this girl. After all these years,
2:07:50
Speaker 1: I was back in my own world. And yet, and yet,
2:07:52
Speaker 1: I heard myself say quietly, the Terrans aren't exploiting Wolf.
2:07:56
Speaker 1: We haven't abolished the rule of Chainsaw. We've changed nothing.
2:08:00
Speaker 1: It was true. Terra held Wolf by compact, not conquest.
2:08:04
Speaker 1: They paid and paid generously for the lease of the
2:08:06
Speaker 1: lands where their trade cities would rise, and stepped beyond
2:08:09
Speaker 1: them only when invited to do so. We let any
2:08:12
Speaker 1: city or state that wants to keep its independence govern
2:08:15
Speaker 1: itself until it collapses, Dallisa, and they do collapse. After
2:08:18
Speaker 1: a generation or so. Very few primitive planets can hold
2:08:21
Speaker 1: out against us. The people themselves get tired of living
2:08:25
Speaker 1: under feudal or theocratic systems, and they beg to be
2:08:28
Speaker 1: taken into the empire. That's all. But that's just it,
2:08:32
Speaker 1: Dalisa argued. You give the people all those things we
2:08:35
Speaker 1: used to give them, and you do it better just
2:08:37
Speaker 1: by being here. You're killing the dry Tounds. They're turning
2:08:40
Speaker 1: to you and leaving us, and you'll let them do it.
2:08:43
Speaker 1: I shook my head. We've kept the Terran peace for centuries.
2:08:46
Speaker 1: What do you expect? Should we give you arms, planes, bombs,
2:08:49
Speaker 1: weapons to hold your slaves down? Yes, she flared at me.
2:08:53
Speaker 1: The dry Tounds have ruled Wolf since since you you
2:08:57
Speaker 1: can't even imagine how long. And we made compact with
2:08:59
Speaker 1: you to trade here, and we have rewarded you by
2:09:02
Speaker 1: leaving you untouched, I said quietly. But we have not
2:09:05
Speaker 1: forbidden the dry towns to come into the empire and
2:09:07
Speaker 1: work with Terra. She said bitterly. Men like Karral will
2:09:11
Speaker 1: die first, and pressed her face helplessly against me, and
2:09:14
Speaker 1: I will die with them. Mie Llyn broke away. But
2:09:16
Speaker 1: I cannot courage is what I lack. Our world is rotten, race,
2:09:20
Speaker 1: rotten all through and I'm as rotten as the core
2:09:23
Speaker 1: of it. I could have killed you to day, and
2:09:25
Speaker 1: I'm here in your arms. Our world is rotten, but
2:09:28
Speaker 1: I've no confidence that the new world will be better.
2:09:31
Speaker 1: I put my hand under her chin and looked down
2:09:33
Speaker 1: gravely into her face, only a pale oval in the darkness.
2:09:37
Speaker 1: There was nothing I could say. She had said it all,
2:09:39
Speaker 1: and truthfully. I had hated and yearned and starved for this,
2:09:43
Speaker 1: and when I found it, it turned salty and bloody
2:09:46
Speaker 1: on my lips, like Dollis's despairing kisses. She ran her
2:09:49
Speaker 1: fingers over the scars on my face, then gripped her
2:09:52
Speaker 1: small thin hands round my wrists so fiercely that I
2:09:55
Speaker 1: grunted protest. You will not forget me, she said, in
2:09:58
Speaker 1: her strangely lilting voice. You will not forget me, although
2:10:01
Speaker 1: you were victorious. She twisted and lay looking up at me,
2:10:05
Speaker 1: her eyes glowing faintly luminous in darkness. I knew that
2:10:08
Speaker 1: she could see me as clearly as if it were day.
2:10:11
Speaker 1: I think it was my victory, not yours. Race cargle gently,
2:10:15
Speaker 1: on an impulse I could not explain. I picked up
2:10:18
Speaker 1: one delicate wrist, then the other unclasping the heavy jeweled bracelets.
2:10:22
Speaker 1: She let out a stifled cry of dismay, and then
2:10:25
Speaker 1: I tossed the chains into a corner before I drew
2:10:27
Speaker 1: her savagely into my arms again and forced her head
2:10:30
Speaker 1: back under my mouth. I said good bye to her
2:10:33
Speaker 1: alone in the reddish, wind swept space before the great House.
2:10:37
Speaker 1: She pressed her head against my shoulder and whispered race,
2:10:40
Speaker 1: take me with you. For answer, I only picked up
2:10:43
Speaker 1: her narrow wrists and turned them over on my palm.
2:10:46
Speaker 1: The jeweled bracelets were clasped again around the thinly boned joints,
2:10:49
Speaker 1: and on some self punishing impulse, she had shortened the
2:10:52
Speaker 1: chains so that she could not even put her arms
2:10:55
Speaker 1: around me. I lifted the punished wrists to my mouth
2:10:58
Speaker 1: and kissed them gently. You want to leave, Dollisa. I
2:11:02
Speaker 1: was desperately sorry for her. She would go down with
2:11:04
Speaker 1: her dying world, proud and cold and with no place
2:11:07
Speaker 1: in the new one. She kissed me and I tasted blood,
2:11:10
Speaker 1: her thin, fettered body straining wildly against me, shaken with tearing,
2:11:14
Speaker 1: convulsive sobs. Then she turned and fled back into the
2:11:17
Speaker 1: shadow of the great dark house. I never saw her again.
2:11:24
Speaker 1: End of chapter nine, Chapter ten. A few days later,
2:11:29
Speaker 1: I found myself nearing the end of the trail. It
2:11:31
Speaker 1: was twilight in Charin, hot and reeking, with a gipsy
2:11:34
Speaker 1: glare of fires which burned smoking at the far end
2:11:37
Speaker 1: of the street of the Sick Shepherds. I crouched in
2:11:39
Speaker 1: the shadow of a wall, waiting, my skin itched from
2:11:43
Speaker 1: the dirty shirt cloak I hadn't changed in days. Shabbiness
2:11:46
Speaker 1: is wise in non human parts, and dry towners think
2:11:49
Speaker 1: too much of water to waste much of it in
2:11:51
Speaker 1: superfluous washing. Anyhow, I scratched unobtrusively and glanced cautiously down
2:11:56
Speaker 1: the street. It seemed empty except for a few saws
2:12:00
Speaker 1: and derelic sprawled in doorways. The street of the Six
2:12:03
Speaker 1: Shepherds is a filthy slum, but I made sure my
2:12:06
Speaker 1: skin was loose. Charin is not a particularly safe town,
2:12:10
Speaker 1: even for dry towners, and especially not for earthmen at
2:12:14
Speaker 1: any time. Even with what Dallis had told me, the
2:12:17
Speaker 1: search had been difficult. Charin is not shan saw in Charin,
2:12:21
Speaker 1: where human and non human live closer together than anywhere
2:12:24
Speaker 1: else on the planet. Information about such men, as recall
2:12:27
Speaker 1: can be bought, but the policy is to let the
2:12:29
Speaker 1: buyer beware. That's fair enough, because the life of the
2:12:33
Speaker 1: cellar has a way of not being worth much afterward. Either.
2:12:37
Speaker 1: A dirty, dust laden wind was blowing up along the street,
2:12:40
Speaker 1: heavy with strange smells. The pungent reek of incense from
2:12:43
Speaker 1: a street shrine was in the smells, the heavy acrid
2:12:45
Speaker 1: odor that made my skin crawl. In the hills behind Charin,
2:12:49
Speaker 1: the ghost wind was rising. Born on this wind, the
2:12:53
Speaker 1: yamen would sweep down from the mountains, and everything human
2:12:56
Speaker 1: or nearly human, would scatter in their path. They would
2:12:58
Speaker 1: range through the quarter all night, and in the morning
2:13:01
Speaker 1: they would melt away until the ghost wind blew again.
2:13:05
Speaker 1: At any other time I would already have taken cover.
2:13:08
Speaker 1: I fancied that I could hear borne on the wind,
2:13:10
Speaker 1: the far away yelping, and envision the plumed, taloned figures
2:13:14
Speaker 1: which would come leaping down the street. In that moment,
2:13:18
Speaker 1: the quiet of the street split asunder. From somewhere, a
2:13:21
Speaker 1: girl's voice screamed in shrill, pain or panic. Then I
2:13:24
Speaker 1: saw her, dodging between two of the chinked pebble houses.
2:13:26
Speaker 1: She was a child, thin and barefoot, a long tangle
2:13:29
Speaker 1: of black hair flying loose as she darted and twisted
2:13:31
Speaker 1: to elude the lumbering fellow at her heels, his outstretched
2:13:34
Speaker 1: paw jerked cruelly at her slim wrist. The little girl
2:13:38
Speaker 1: screamed and wrenched herself free, and threw herself straight on me,
2:13:40
Speaker 1: wrapping herself around my neck with the violence of a
2:13:42
Speaker 1: storm wind. Her hair got in my mouth, and her
2:13:45
Speaker 1: small hands gripped at my neck like a cat's flexed claws.
2:13:48
Speaker 1: Oh help me, she gasped between sobs. Don't let him
2:13:51
Speaker 1: get me, don't. And even in the broken plea, I
2:13:54
Speaker 1: took it in that the little ragamuffin did not speak
2:13:57
Speaker 1: the jargon of that slum, but the pure speech of
2:13:59
Speaker 1: Shane saw. What I did then was as automatic as
2:14:01
Speaker 1: if it had been Julie. I pulled the kid loose,
2:14:04
Speaker 1: shoved her behind me, and scowled at the brute, who
2:14:06
Speaker 1: lurched towards us. Make yourself scarce, I advised, we don't
2:14:10
Speaker 1: chase little girls where I come from. Haul off now.
2:14:13
Speaker 1: The man reeled. I smelled the rankness of his rags
2:14:16
Speaker 1: as he thrust one grimy paw at the girl. I
2:14:18
Speaker 1: never was the hero type, but I'd started something which
2:14:21
Speaker 1: I had to carry through. I thrust myself between them
2:14:23
Speaker 1: and put my hand on the skein again. Hugh, you
2:14:27
Speaker 1: dry towner. The man set up a tipsy howl, and
2:14:30
Speaker 1: I sucked in my breath. Now I was in for it.
2:14:32
Speaker 1: Unless I got out of there damned fast, I'd lose
2:14:34
Speaker 1: what I'd come all the way to Charon to find.
2:14:36
Speaker 1: I felt like handing the girl over. For all I
2:14:39
Speaker 1: knew the bully could be her father, and she was
2:14:41
Speaker 1: properly in line for a spanking. This wasn't any of
2:14:44
Speaker 1: my business. My business lay at the end of the street,
2:14:46
Speaker 1: where Rakhal was waiting at the fires. He wouldn't be
2:14:49
Speaker 1: there long already. The smell of the ghost wind was
2:14:52
Speaker 1: heavy and harsh, and little flurries of sand went racing
2:14:55
Speaker 1: along the street, lifting the flaps of the doorways. But
2:14:58
Speaker 1: I did nothing so sensible. The big lunk made a
2:15:01
Speaker 1: grab at the girl, and I whipped out my skin
2:15:02
Speaker 1: and pantomimed, get going, dry towner. He spat out the
2:15:07
Speaker 1: word like philth, his pig eyes narrowing to slits. Sudden
2:15:10
Speaker 1: the ape earthman to run in. Some one took up
2:15:13
Speaker 1: the howl. There was a stir, a rustle all along
2:15:16
Speaker 1: the street that had seemed empty, and from nowhere it
2:15:19
Speaker 1: seemed the space in front of me was crowded with
2:15:21
Speaker 1: shadowy forms, human and otherwise Earthman. I felt the muscles
2:15:27
Speaker 1: across my belly nodding into a band of ice. I
2:15:30
Speaker 1: didn't believe I'd given myself away as an earth Man.
2:15:32
Speaker 1: The bully was using this time dishonored tactic of stirring
2:15:35
Speaker 1: up a riot in a hurry, but just the same,
2:15:37
Speaker 1: I looked quickly round, hunting a path of escape. Put
2:15:40
Speaker 1: your skin in his gut, Spilker, grab him Hi, Earthman Hi.
2:15:45
Speaker 1: It was the last cry that made me panic. Through
2:15:47
Speaker 1: the sultry glare at the end of the street, I
2:15:49
Speaker 1: could see the plumed, taloned figures of the Yawman gliding
2:15:52
Speaker 1: through the banters of smoke. The crowd melted open. I
2:15:55
Speaker 1: didn't stop to reflect on the fact, suddenly very obvious,
2:15:58
Speaker 1: that Recall couldn't have been at the fires at all,
2:16:01
Speaker 1: and that my informant had led me into an open trap,
2:16:03
Speaker 1: a nest of yeamen already inside charin. The crowd edged
2:16:06
Speaker 1: back and muttered, and suddenly I made my choice. I whirled,
2:16:10
Speaker 1: snatched up the girl in my arms, and ran straight
2:16:12
Speaker 1: toward the advancing figures of the Yamen. Nobody followed me.
2:16:15
Speaker 1: I even heard a choked shout that sounded like a warning.
2:16:17
Speaker 1: I heard the yelping shrieks of the Yeomen grow to
2:16:19
Speaker 1: a wild howl, and at the last minute, when their stiff,
2:16:22
Speaker 1: rustling plumes loomed only a few yards away, I dived
2:16:25
Speaker 1: sideways into an alley, stumbled on some rubbish, and spilled
2:16:28
Speaker 1: the girl down. Run kid. She shook herself like a
2:16:31
Speaker 1: puppy climbing out of the water. Her small fingers closed
2:16:34
Speaker 1: like a steel trap on my wrist. This way, she
2:16:37
Speaker 1: urged in a hasty whisper, and I found myself plunging
2:16:39
Speaker 1: out the far end of the alley and into the
2:16:41
Speaker 1: shelter of a street shrine. The sour stink of incense
2:16:43
Speaker 1: smarted in my nostrils, and I could hear the yelping
2:16:46
Speaker 1: of the Yeomen as they leaped and rustled down the alley,
2:16:49
Speaker 1: their cold and poisonous eyes searching out the recesses where
2:16:51
Speaker 1: I crouched with the girl. Here, she panted, stand close
2:16:55
Speaker 1: to me on the stone. I drew back, startled. Oh,
2:16:58
Speaker 1: don't stop to argue, she whimpered, come here, hi, earth
2:17:03
Speaker 1: Man warious. The girl's arms flung round me again. I
2:17:07
Speaker 1: felt her slight, hard body pressing on mine, and she
2:17:10
Speaker 1: literally hauled me toward the pattern of stones in the
2:17:12
Speaker 1: center of the shrine. I wouldn't have been human if
2:17:14
Speaker 1: I hadn't caught her closer. Yet the world reeled, The
2:17:17
Speaker 1: street disappeared in a cone of spinning lights, stars danced crazily,
2:17:21
Speaker 1: and I plunged down through a widening gulf of empty space.
2:17:24
Speaker 1: Locked in the girl's arms, I fell spun plunged head
2:17:27
Speaker 1: over heels through tilting lights and shadows that flung us
2:17:30
Speaker 1: through the eternities of free fall. The yelping of the
2:17:33
Speaker 1: Yeomen whirled away in unimaginable distances, and for a second
2:17:36
Speaker 1: I felt the unmerciful blackout of a power dive, with
2:17:39
Speaker 1: blood breaking from my nostrils and filling my mouth. End
2:17:44
Speaker 1: of chapter ten, Chapter eleven, lights flared in my eyes.
2:17:49
Speaker 1: I was standing solidly on my feet in the street shrine,
2:17:52
Speaker 1: but the street was gone. Coils of incense still smudged
2:17:55
Speaker 1: the air. The god squatted toadlike in his recess. The
2:17:58
Speaker 1: girl was hanging limp in my clenched arms as the
2:18:01
Speaker 1: floor straightened under my feet. I staggered, thrown off balance
2:18:04
Speaker 1: by the sudden return of the girl's weight, and grabbed
2:18:06
Speaker 1: blindly for support. Give her to me, said a voice,
2:18:10
Speaker 1: and the girl's sagging body was lifted from my arms.
2:18:13
Speaker 1: A strong hand grasped my elbow. I found a chair
2:18:15
Speaker 1: beneath my knees and sank gratefully into it. The transmission
2:18:19
Speaker 1: isn't smooth yet between such distant terminals, the voice remarked,
2:18:22
Speaker 1: I see Milen has fainted again. A weakling the girl,
2:18:26
Speaker 1: but useful. I spat blood, trying to get the room
2:18:29
Speaker 1: in focus. For I was inside a room, a room
2:18:31
Speaker 1: of some translucent substance, windowless, a skylight high above me,
2:18:35
Speaker 1: through which pink daylight streamed daylight. And it had been
2:18:39
Speaker 1: midnight in Charin. I had come half way round the planet.
2:18:42
Speaker 1: In a few seconds. From somewhere, I heard the sound
2:18:45
Speaker 1: of hammering, tiny bell like hammering, the chiming of a
2:18:48
Speaker 1: fairy anvil. I looked up and saw a man, a
2:18:52
Speaker 1: man watching me on wolf. You see all kinds of human,
2:18:56
Speaker 1: half human, and non human life, And I considered myself
2:18:59
Speaker 1: something of an expert on all three. But I had
2:19:01
Speaker 1: never seen anyone or anything who so closely resembled the human,
2:19:05
Speaker 1: and so obviously wasn't he or it. Was tall and lean,
2:19:10
Speaker 1: man shaped, but oddly muscled, a vague suggestion of something
2:19:14
Speaker 1: less than human in the lean hunch of his posture. Manlike.
2:19:17
Speaker 1: He wore green, tight fitting trunks and a shirt of
2:19:19
Speaker 1: green fur that revealed bulging biceps where they shouldn't be,
2:19:23
Speaker 1: and angular planes where there should have been swelling muscles.
2:19:26
Speaker 1: The shoulders were high, the neck unpleasantly sinuous, and the
2:19:29
Speaker 1: face a little narrower than human. Was handsomely arrogant, with
2:19:33
Speaker 1: a kind of wary, alert mischief that was the least
2:19:36
Speaker 1: human thing about him. He bent, tilted the girl's inert
2:19:39
Speaker 1: body on a divan of some sort, and turned his
2:19:41
Speaker 1: back on her, lifting his hand in an impatient and
2:19:44
Speaker 1: unpleasantly reminiscent gesture. The tinkling of the little hammers stopped,
2:19:48
Speaker 1: as if a switch had been disconnected. Now, said the
2:19:52
Speaker 1: non human, we can talk like the waif he spoke,
2:19:56
Speaker 1: Shane saw, and spoke it with a better accent than
2:19:58
Speaker 1: any non human. I'd ever so well that I looked
2:20:01
Speaker 1: again to be certain I wasn't two days to answer
2:20:04
Speaker 1: in the same tongue, but I couldn't keep back a
2:20:06
Speaker 1: spate of questions. What happened? Who are you? What is
2:20:10
Speaker 1: this place? The non human waited, crossing his hands, quite
2:20:14
Speaker 1: passable hands if he didn't look too closely at what
2:20:16
Speaker 1: should have been nails, and bent forward in a sketchy gesture.
2:20:20
Speaker 1: Do not blame Mielyyn. She acted under orders. It was
2:20:24
Speaker 1: imperative you'd be brought here tonight, and we had reason
2:20:27
Speaker 1: to believe you might ignore an ordinary summons. You were
2:20:30
Speaker 1: clever at evading our surveillance for a time, but there
2:20:33
Speaker 1: would not be too dry towners in Charin tonight. Who
2:20:35
Speaker 1: would dare the ghost wind your reputation? Does you justice?
2:20:39
Speaker 1: Recall Censar, Recall Censar once again, Recall shaken. I pulled
2:20:44
Speaker 1: a rag from my pocket and wiped blood from my mouth.
2:20:47
Speaker 1: I'd figured out in Shain, saw why the mistake was logical,
2:20:50
Speaker 1: and here in Charin, I'd been hanging around in recalls
2:20:52
Speaker 1: old haunts, covering his old trails. Once again, mistaken identity
2:20:56
Speaker 1: was natural, natural or not, I wasn't going to deny it.
2:21:00
Speaker 1: If these were Recall's enemies, my real identity should be
2:21:03
Speaker 1: kept as an ace in reserve, which might just might
2:21:06
Speaker 1: get me out alive again. If they were his friends, well,
2:21:10
Speaker 1: I could only hope that no one who knew him
2:21:11
Speaker 1: well by sight would walk in on me. We knew
2:21:15
Speaker 1: the non human continued that if you remained where you were,
2:21:18
Speaker 1: the Tehran and Cargyl would have made his arrest. We
2:21:21
Speaker 1: know about your quarrel with Cargol, among other things, but
2:21:25
Speaker 1: we did not consider it necessary that you should fall
2:21:27
Speaker 1: into his hands. At present, I was puzzled. I still
2:21:32
Speaker 1: don't understand exactly where am I. This is the master
2:21:36
Speaker 1: shrine of Nebron Nebron. The stray pieces of the puzzle
2:21:40
Speaker 1: suddenly jolted into place. Kirral had warned me, not knowing
2:21:44
Speaker 1: he was doing it. I hastily imitated the gesture Kiral
2:21:47
Speaker 1: had made, gabbling a few words of an archaic charm.
2:21:50
Speaker 1: Like every earth man who's lived on Wolf more than
2:21:52
Speaker 1: a tourist season, I'd seen faces go blank and impassive
2:21:55
Speaker 1: at the mention of the toad. God Rumor made his
2:21:57
Speaker 1: spies omnipresent, his priests omnis, his anger all powerful. I
2:22:02
Speaker 1: had believed about a tenth of what I had heard,
2:22:05
Speaker 1: or less. The Terran Empire has little to say to
2:22:08
Speaker 1: planetary religions, and Nebrin's cult is a remarkably obscure one,
2:22:11
Speaker 1: despite the street shrines on every corner. Now I was
2:22:14
Speaker 1: in his master's shrine, and the device which had brought
2:22:17
Speaker 1: me here was, beyond doubt, a working model of a
2:22:19
Speaker 1: matter transmitter, A matter transmitter, a working model. The words
2:22:25
Speaker 1: triggered memory recall was after it? And who? I asked? Slowly?
2:22:31
Speaker 1: Are you? Lord? The green clad creature hunched thin shoulders
2:22:35
Speaker 1: again in a ceremonious gesture. I am called Evarin, humble
2:22:40
Speaker 1: servant of Nebron and yourself, he added, but there was
2:22:44
Speaker 1: no humility in his manner. I am called the toy
2:22:47
Speaker 1: maker Evarin. That was another name given weight by rumor.
2:22:51
Speaker 1: A breath of gossip in a thieves market, a scrawled
2:22:54
Speaker 1: word on smudged paper, a blank folder in terran intelligence.
2:22:58
Speaker 1: Another puzzle piece snapped into place, toy maker. The girl
2:23:02
Speaker 1: on the divan sat up, suddenly, passing slim hands over
2:23:05
Speaker 1: her disheveled hair. Did I thank Devarn? I had to
2:23:08
Speaker 1: fight to get him into the stone, and the patterns
2:23:10
Speaker 1: were not set straight in that terminal. You must send
2:23:13
Speaker 1: one of the little ones to set them to rights,
2:23:15
Speaker 1: toy maker, are you listening to me? Stop chattering? Miellyn said,
2:23:20
Speaker 1: everin indifferently. You brought him here, and that is all
2:23:23
Speaker 1: that matters. You aren't hurt. Miellyn pouted and looked ruefully
2:23:27
Speaker 1: at her bare, bruised feet, patted the wrinkles of her
2:23:30
Speaker 1: ragged frock with fastidious fingers. My poor feet, she mourned,
2:23:35
Speaker 1: They are black and blue with the cobbles, and my
2:23:37
Speaker 1: hair is filled with sand and tangles. Toy maker, what
2:23:40
Speaker 1: way was this to send me to entice a man?
2:23:42
Speaker 1: Any man would have come quickly, quickly if he had
2:23:44
Speaker 1: seen me looking lovely. But you you send me in rags?
2:23:48
Speaker 1: She stamped, a small bare foot. She was not nearly
2:23:51
Speaker 1: as young as she looked in the street. Though immature
2:23:53
Speaker 1: and underdeveloped by Terrance standards, she had a fair figure
2:23:56
Speaker 1: for a dry town woman. Her rags fell now in
2:23:59
Speaker 1: graceful forlk. Her hair was spun black glass. And I
2:24:03
Speaker 1: saw with the rags and the confusion in the filthy
2:24:05
Speaker 1: street had kept me from seeing before it was the
2:24:08
Speaker 1: girl of the Spaceport Cafe, the girl who had appeared
2:24:11
Speaker 1: and vanished in the eerie streets of canarsa Evarin was
2:24:14
Speaker 1: regarding her with what in a human might have been
2:24:17
Speaker 1: rueful impatience. He said, you know you enjoyed yourself as always, Miellyn,
2:24:23
Speaker 1: run along and make yourself beautiful again, little nuisance. The
2:24:26
Speaker 1: girl danced out of the room, and I was just
2:24:28
Speaker 1: as glad to see her go. The toy maker motioned
2:24:31
Speaker 1: to me this way, he directed, and led me through
2:24:35
Speaker 1: a different door. The off stage hammering I had heard
2:24:37
Speaker 1: tiny bell tones like a fairy xylophone began again as
2:24:41
Speaker 1: the door opened, and we passed into a work room,
2:24:43
Speaker 1: which made me remember nursery tales from a half forgotten
2:24:46
Speaker 1: childhood on Tera. For the workers were tiny gnarled trolls.
2:24:51
Speaker 1: They were chalks, chalks from the polar mountains, dwarfed and
2:24:55
Speaker 1: furred and half human, with witch like faces and great
2:24:58
Speaker 1: golden eyes. And I had the curious feeling that if
2:25:00
Speaker 1: I looked hard enough, I would see the little toy
2:25:02
Speaker 1: cellar that had hunted out of the CARSA. I didn't look.
2:25:05
Speaker 1: I figured I was in enough trouble already. Tiny hammers
2:25:09
Speaker 1: pattered on miniature anvils in a tinkling, jingling chorus of
2:25:12
Speaker 1: musical clinks and taps, Golden eyes focused like lenses over
2:25:16
Speaker 1: winking jewels, and gimcracks, busy elves makers of toys. Evren
2:25:22
Speaker 1: jerked his shoulders with an imperative gesture. I followed him
2:25:25
Speaker 1: through a fairy workroom, but could not refrain from casting
2:25:28
Speaker 1: a lingering look at the work tables. A withered leprechaun
2:25:31
Speaker 1: set eyes into the head of a mannequin hound. Furred
2:25:33
Speaker 1: fingers worked precious metals into invisible filigree for the collarpiece
2:25:37
Speaker 1: of a dancing doll. Metallic feathers were thrust with clockwork precision,
2:25:41
Speaker 1: into the wings of a skeleton bird no longer than
2:25:43
Speaker 1: my fingernail. The nose of the hound wabbled and sniffed.
2:25:46
Speaker 1: The bird's wings quivered. The eyes of the little dancer
2:25:49
Speaker 1: followed my footsteps. Toys this way, Evarin rapped, and a
2:25:55
Speaker 1: door slid shut behind us. The clinks and taps grew faint, fainter,
2:25:59
Speaker 1: but never ceased. My face must have betrayed more than
2:26:02
Speaker 1: conventional impassivity for ever and smiled. Now you know. Recall
2:26:06
Speaker 1: why I am called the toy maker? Is it not strange?
2:26:10
Speaker 1: The Master Priest of Nebron, a maker of toys and
2:26:13
Speaker 1: the shrine of the Toad God a workshop for children's playthings.
2:26:17
Speaker 1: Evern paused suggestively. They were obviously not children's playthings, and
2:26:21
Speaker 1: this was my cue to say so. But I avoided
2:26:24
Speaker 1: the trap Everin opened a sliding panel and took out
2:26:27
Speaker 1: a doll. She was perhaps the length of my longest finger,
2:26:31
Speaker 1: molded to the precise proportions of a woman, and costumed
2:26:34
Speaker 1: after the bizarre fashion of the art kron dancing girls.
2:26:37
Speaker 1: Evarin touched no button or key that I could see,
2:26:40
Speaker 1: but when he set the figure on its feet, it
2:26:42
Speaker 1: executed a whirling, arm tossing dance in a fast, tricky tempo.
2:26:46
Speaker 1: I am, in a sense benevolent, Evarin murmured. He snapped
2:26:50
Speaker 1: his fingers, and the doll sank to her knees and
2:26:52
Speaker 1: poised there silent. Moreover, I have the means, and let
2:26:57
Speaker 1: us say, the ability, to indulge my small face. The
2:27:01
Speaker 1: little daughter of the President of the Federation of Trade
2:27:04
Speaker 1: Cities on Samora was sent such a doll recently. What
2:27:07
Speaker 1: a pity that Paolo Eremanngo was so suddenly impeached and banished.
2:27:12
Speaker 1: The twymaker clucked his teeth commiseratingly. Perhaps this small companion
2:27:17
Speaker 1: will compensate the little Carmela for her adjustment to her
2:27:20
Speaker 1: new position. He replaced the dancer and pulled down something
2:27:24
Speaker 1: like a whirligig. This might interest you, he mused, and
2:27:29
Speaker 1: said it spinning. I stared at the pattern of lights
2:27:32
Speaker 1: that flowed and disappeared, melting in and out of visible shadows.
2:27:38
Speaker 1: Suddenly I realized what the thing was doing. I rested
2:27:41
Speaker 1: my eyes away with an effort. Had there been a
2:27:42
Speaker 1: lapse of seconds or minutes? Had ever un spoken? Evarin
2:27:46
Speaker 1: arrested the compelling motion with one finger. Several of these
2:27:49
Speaker 1: pretty playthings are available to the children of important men,
2:27:53
Speaker 1: he said, absently, an import of value for our exploited
2:27:58
Speaker 1: and impoverished world on Fortunately, they are perhaps a little
2:28:02
Speaker 1: uh obvious. The incident of nervous breakdowns is interfering with
2:28:08
Speaker 1: their sale. The children, of course, are unaffected and loved them.
2:28:13
Speaker 1: Everen set the hypnotic wheel moving again, glanced sideways at me,
2:28:16
Speaker 1: and set it carefully back.
2:28:19
Speaker 2: Now.
2:28:20
Speaker 1: Everan's voice, hard with the silkiness of a cat's snarl,
2:28:23
Speaker 1: clawed the silence. We'll talk business. I turned, composing my face.
2:28:31
Speaker 1: Everin had something concealed in one hand, but I didn't
2:28:34
Speaker 1: think it was a weapon, and if I'd known, I'd
2:28:36
Speaker 1: have had to ignore it. Anyway. Perhaps you wonder how
2:28:39
Speaker 1: we recognized and found you. A panel cleared in the
2:28:43
Speaker 1: wall and became translucent. Confused flickers moved dropped into focus,
2:28:47
Speaker 1: and I realized that the panel was an ordinary television screen,
2:28:50
Speaker 1: and I was looking into the well known interior of
2:28:53
Speaker 1: the Cafe of Three Rainbows in the trade city of Charin.
2:28:56
Speaker 1: By this time, I was running low on curiosity and
2:28:58
Speaker 1: didn't wonder till much much late how televised pictures were
2:29:01
Speaker 1: transmitted around the curve of a planet. Everin sharpened the
2:29:04
Speaker 1: focus down on the long earth tight bar where a
2:29:07
Speaker 1: tall man in karen clothes was talking to a pale
2:29:09
Speaker 1: haired girl. Avarin said, by now, Rays Cargill has decided
2:29:14
Speaker 1: no doubt that you fell into his trap and into
2:29:16
Speaker 1: the hands of the Yamen. He is off guard now,
2:29:20
Speaker 1: And suddenly the whole thing seemed so unbearably illogically funny
2:29:24
Speaker 1: that my shoulders shook with the effort to keep back
2:29:26
Speaker 1: dangerous laughter. Since I'd landed in Charin, I'd taken great
2:29:29
Speaker 1: pains to avoid the trade city or anyone who might
2:29:32
Speaker 1: have associated me with it, and recall, somehow aware of this,
2:29:36
Speaker 1: had conveniently filled in the gap by posing as me.
2:29:40
Speaker 1: It wasn't nearly as difficult as it sounded. I had
2:29:42
Speaker 1: found that out in Shainsaw Charin is a long long
2:29:46
Speaker 1: way from the major trade city near the Haarsa. I
2:29:48
Speaker 1: hadn't a single intimate friend there or within hundreds of
2:29:51
Speaker 1: miles to see through the imposture. At most, there were
2:29:54
Speaker 1: half a dozen of the staff that I'd once met
2:29:57
Speaker 1: or had a drink with, eight or ten years ago.
2:30:00
Speaker 1: Rakhal could speak perfect standard when he chose if he
2:30:02
Speaker 1: lapsed into drytown idiom, that too was in my known character.
2:30:06
Speaker 1: I had no doubt he was making a great success
2:30:08
Speaker 1: of it all, probably doing much better with my identity
2:30:11
Speaker 1: than I could ever have done with his. Evarin rasped,
2:30:14
Speaker 1: Cargol meant to leave the planet. What stopped him? You
2:30:18
Speaker 1: could be of use to us, recall, But not with
2:30:21
Speaker 1: this blood feud unsettled, that needed no elucidation. No wolf
2:30:26
Speaker 1: in his right mind will bargain with a dry towner
2:30:28
Speaker 1: carrying an unresolved blood feud. By law and custom, declared
2:30:32
Speaker 1: blood feud takes precedent over any other business public or private,
2:30:36
Speaker 1: and is sufficient excuse for broken promises, neglected duties, theft,
2:30:41
Speaker 1: even murder. We want it settled once and for all.
2:30:45
Speaker 1: Everan's voice was low and unhurried, and we aren't above
2:30:48
Speaker 1: waiting the scales. This Cargol can and has posed as
2:30:53
Speaker 1: a dry towner undetected. We don't like earth men who
2:30:56
Speaker 1: can do that. In settling your feud, you will be
2:30:59
Speaker 1: aiding and removing a danger. We would be grateful. He
2:31:05
Speaker 1: opened his closed hand, displaying something small, curled inert. Every
2:31:10
Speaker 1: living thing emits a characteristic pattern of electrical nerve impulses.
2:31:15
Speaker 1: We have ways of recording those impulses, and we have
2:31:18
Speaker 1: had you and Cargol under observation for a long time.
2:31:22
Speaker 1: We've had plenty of opportunity to key this toy to
2:31:25
Speaker 1: Cargo's pattern. On his palm, the curled thing stirred, spread wings.
2:31:29
Speaker 1: A fledgling bird lay there, small soft body, throbbing, slightly,
2:31:33
Speaker 1: half hidden in a ruff of metallic feathers. I glimpsed
2:31:36
Speaker 1: a grimly elongated beak. The pinions were feathered with delicate down,
2:31:40
Speaker 1: less than a quarter of an inch long. They beat
2:31:42
Speaker 1: with delicate insistence against the toymaker's prisoning fingers. This is
2:31:46
Speaker 1: not dangerous to you. Press here, he showed me. And
2:31:51
Speaker 1: if race cargole is within a certain distance, and it
2:31:54
Speaker 1: is up to you to be within that distance, it
2:31:56
Speaker 1: will find him and kill him. Unerring me inescapably, untraceably.
2:32:04
Speaker 1: We will not tell you the critical distance, and we
2:32:07
Speaker 1: will give you three days. He checked my startled exclamation
2:32:11
Speaker 1: with a gesture. Of course, this is a test. Within
2:32:14
Speaker 1: the hour cargo will receive a warning. We want no
2:32:17
Speaker 1: incompetence who must be helped too much, Nor do we
2:32:20
Speaker 1: want cowards if you fail or release the bird at
2:32:24
Speaker 1: a distance too great, or evade the test. The green
2:32:27
Speaker 1: inhuman malice in his eyes made me sweat. We have
2:32:30
Speaker 1: made another bird. By now my brain was swimming, But
2:32:35
Speaker 1: I thought I understood the complex inhuman logic involved. The
2:32:40
Speaker 1: other bird is keyed to me with slow contempt. Evarin
2:32:44
Speaker 1: shook his head. You you are used to danger and
2:32:48
Speaker 1: fond of a gambol. Nothing so simple. We have given
2:32:52
Speaker 1: you three days. If within that time the bird you
2:32:55
Speaker 1: carried has not killed, the other bird will fly and
2:32:59
Speaker 1: it will kill Rakhal. You have a wife, yes, Racall
2:33:05
Speaker 1: had a wife. They could threaten Racall's wife, and his
2:33:09
Speaker 1: wife was my sister Julie. Everything after that was anticlimax.
2:33:14
Speaker 1: Of course, I had to drink with Avrin, the elaborate
2:33:17
Speaker 1: formal ritual without which no bargain on wolf is concluded.
2:33:20
Speaker 1: He entertained me with gory and technical descriptions of the
2:33:23
Speaker 1: ways in which the birds and other of his hellish
2:33:26
Speaker 1: toys did their killing and worse tasks. Maeland danced into
2:33:31
Speaker 1: the room and upset the exquisite solemnity of the wine
2:33:33
Speaker 1: ritual by perching on my knee, stealing a sip from
2:33:36
Speaker 1: my cup, and pouting prettily when I paid her less
2:33:38
Speaker 1: attention than she thought she merited. I didn't dare pay
2:33:41
Speaker 1: much attention, even when she whispered with the deliberate and
2:33:44
Speaker 1: thorough wantonness of a dry town woman of high cast
2:33:47
Speaker 1: who has flung aside her fetters, something about a rendezvous
2:33:50
Speaker 1: at the three Rainbows. But eventually it was over, and
2:33:54
Speaker 1: I stepped through a door that twisted with a giddy blankness,
2:33:57
Speaker 1: and found myself outside a bare windowless wall and chair,
2:34:00
Speaker 1: wherein again the night sky starred and cold. The acrid
2:34:03
Speaker 1: smell of the ghost wind was thinning in the streets,
2:34:05
Speaker 1: but I had to crouch in a cranny of the wall.
2:34:07
Speaker 1: When a final rustling horde of Yamen, the last of
2:34:10
Speaker 1: their receding tide, rustled down the street. I found my
2:34:14
Speaker 1: way to my lodging in a filthy chalk hostel, and
2:34:16
Speaker 1: threw myself down on the verminous bed. Believe it or not,
2:34:20
Speaker 1: I slept. End of chapter eleven, Chapter twelve. An hour
2:34:28
Speaker 1: before dawn, there was a noise in my room. I
2:34:31
Speaker 1: roused my hand on my skin. Someone or something was
2:34:34
Speaker 1: fumbling under the mattress where I had thrust Evarin's bird.
2:34:37
Speaker 1: I struck out, encountered something warm and breathing, and grappled
2:34:41
Speaker 1: with it in the darkness. A foul smelling something gripped
2:34:44
Speaker 1: over my mouth. I tore it away and struck hard
2:34:46
Speaker 1: with the skein. There was a high shrilling. The gripping
2:34:50
Speaker 1: filth loosened and fell away, and something died on the floor.
2:34:54
Speaker 1: I struck a light, wretching in revulsion. It hadn't been human.
2:34:59
Speaker 1: There wouldn't have been that much blood from a human,
2:35:01
Speaker 1: not that color either. The chalk who ran the place
2:35:05
Speaker 1: came and gibbered at me. Chocks have a horror of blood,
2:35:08
Speaker 1: and this one gave me to understand that my lease
2:35:11
Speaker 1: was up then and there no arguments, no refunds. He
2:35:15
Speaker 1: wouldn't even let me go into his stone outbuilding to
2:35:17
Speaker 1: wash the foul stuff from my shirt cloak. I gave
2:35:20
Speaker 1: up and fished under the mattress for Evan's toy. The
2:35:24
Speaker 1: chalk got a glimpse of the embroideries on the silk
2:35:26
Speaker 1: in which it was wrapped, and stood back, his loose,
2:35:28
Speaker 1: furry lips hanging open, while I gathered my few belongings
2:35:31
Speaker 1: together and strode out of the room. He would not
2:35:34
Speaker 1: touch the coins I offered. I laid them on a chest,
2:35:37
Speaker 1: and he let them lie there, And as I went
2:35:39
Speaker 1: into the reddening morning, they came flying after me into
2:35:43
Speaker 1: the street. I pulled the silk from the toy and
2:35:46
Speaker 1: tried to make some sense for my predicament. The little
2:35:49
Speaker 1: thing lay innocent and silent in my palm. It wouldn't
2:35:52
Speaker 1: tell me whether it had been keyed to me the
2:35:54
Speaker 1: real cargo some time in the past, or to recall
2:35:58
Speaker 1: using my name and reputation in the Terear and colony
2:36:00
Speaker 1: here at Charin. If I pressed the stud it might
2:36:03
Speaker 1: play out this comedy of errors by hunting down Recall,
2:36:06
Speaker 1: and all my troubles would be over for a while,
2:36:09
Speaker 1: at least until Evarin found out what had happened. I
2:36:12
Speaker 1: didn't deceive myself that I could carry the impersonation through
2:36:15
Speaker 1: another meeting. On the other hand, if I pressed the stud,
2:36:19
Speaker 1: the bird might turn on me, and then all my
2:36:21
Speaker 1: troubles would be over for good. If I delayed past
2:36:24
Speaker 1: Evan's deadline and did nothing, the other bird in his
2:36:27
Speaker 1: keeping would hunt down Julie and give her a swift
2:36:29
Speaker 1: and not too painless death. I spent most of the
2:36:33
Speaker 1: day in a chalk dive, juggling plans, toys, innocent and
2:36:36
Speaker 1: sinister spies, messengers, toys which killed horribly, toys which could
2:36:42
Speaker 1: be controlled, perhaps by the pliant mind of a child.
2:36:45
Speaker 1: And every child hates its parents now and again. Even
2:36:49
Speaker 1: in the Terran colony, who was safe in Max's very home,
2:36:52
Speaker 1: one of the Magnuson youngsters had a shiny thing which
2:36:55
Speaker 1: might or might not be one of Evren's hellish toys.
2:36:59
Speaker 1: Or was I beginning to think like a superstitious dry towner.
2:37:03
Speaker 1: Damn it, Evarin couldn't be infallible. He hadn't even recognized
2:37:06
Speaker 1: me as race cargle, or suddenly the sweat broke out
2:37:09
Speaker 1: again on my forehead, or had he had the whole
2:37:12
Speaker 1: thing been one of those sinister, deadly and incomprehensible non
2:37:15
Speaker 1: human jokes. I kept coming to the same conclusion. Julie
2:37:19
Speaker 1: was in danger, but she was half a world away. Recall,
2:37:23
Speaker 1: was here in Charin. There was a child involved, Julie's child.
2:37:27
Speaker 1: The first step was to get inside the Terran colony
2:37:29
Speaker 1: and see how the land lay. Charin is a city
2:37:32
Speaker 1: shaped like a crescent moon, encircling the small trade city,
2:37:36
Speaker 1: a miniature spaceport, a miniature skyscraper h Q, and clustered
2:37:39
Speaker 1: dwellings of the Terrans who worked there and those who
2:37:41
Speaker 1: lived with them and supplied them with necessities, services, and luxuries.
2:37:46
Speaker 1: Entry from one to the other is through a guarded gateway,
2:37:48
Speaker 1: since this is hostile territory and Charin lies far beyond
2:37:52
Speaker 1: the impress of ordinary Terran law. But the gate stood
2:37:55
Speaker 1: open wide, and the guards looked lax and bored. They
2:37:59
Speaker 1: had shockers, but they didn't look as if they'd used
2:38:01
Speaker 1: them lately. One raised an eyebrow to his companion. As
2:38:04
Speaker 1: I shambled up, I could pretty well guess the impression
2:38:06
Speaker 1: I made, dirty, unkempt, and stained with non human blood.
2:38:10
Speaker 1: I asked permission to go into the terran zone. They
2:38:13
Speaker 1: asked me my name and business, and I toyed with
2:38:15
Speaker 1: the notion of giving them the name of the man
2:38:17
Speaker 1: I was inadvertently impersonating. Then I decided that if Rakhal
2:38:20
Speaker 1: had passed himself off as race Cargole, he'd expect exactly that,
2:38:24
Speaker 1: and he was also capable of the master stroke of
2:38:26
Speaker 1: impudence putting out a pick up order through Space Force
2:38:29
Speaker 1: for his own name. So I gave them the name
2:38:31
Speaker 1: we'd used from shan Saw to Charin and tacked one
2:38:34
Speaker 1: of the secret service passwords on the end of it.
2:38:36
Speaker 1: They each looked at each other again, and one said, Rascara,
2:38:39
Speaker 1: this is the guy, all right. He took me into
2:38:42
Speaker 1: the little booth by the gate, while the other used
2:38:44
Speaker 1: an intercom device. Presently, they took me along to the
2:38:46
Speaker 1: h Q building and into an office that said Leggett.
2:38:50
Speaker 1: I tried not to panic, but it wasn't easy. Evidently
2:38:52
Speaker 1: I had walked square into another trap. One guard asked me,
2:38:55
Speaker 1: all right, now, what exactly is your business in the
2:38:58
Speaker 1: trade city. I'd hoped to o's kate recall first. Now
2:39:01
Speaker 1: I knew I'd have no chance, and at all costs,
2:39:03
Speaker 1: I must straighten out this matter of identity before it
2:39:05
Speaker 1: went any further. Put me straight through to Magnuson's office,
2:39:09
Speaker 1: Level thirty eight at Central h Q, by VISI, I demanded.
2:39:13
Speaker 1: I was trying to remember if Mack had ever even
2:39:15
Speaker 1: heard the name we used in SHAINSA. I decided I
2:39:18
Speaker 1: couldn't risk it, name of Race cargl. The guard grinned
2:39:22
Speaker 1: without moving. He said to his partner, that's the one,
2:39:25
Speaker 1: all right. He put his hand on my shoulder, spinning
2:39:28
Speaker 1: me around. Haul off, man, shake your boots. There were
2:39:31
Speaker 1: two of them, and Space Force guards aren't picked for
2:39:33
Speaker 1: their good looks. Just the same. I gave a pretty
2:39:36
Speaker 1: good account of myself until the inner door opened and
2:39:38
Speaker 1: a man came storming out, What the devil is all
2:39:41
Speaker 1: this racket? One guard got a hammer lock on me.
2:39:44
Speaker 1: This dry towner Baum tried to talk us into making
2:39:46
Speaker 1: a priority call to Magnuson, the chief at Central. He
2:39:49
Speaker 1: knew a couple of the S S passwords. That's what's
2:39:51
Speaker 1: got him through the gate. Remember, Cargo passed the word
2:39:54
Speaker 1: that somebody would turn up trying to impersonate him. I
2:39:57
Speaker 1: remember the strange man's eyes were worrying. You damned fools,
2:40:02
Speaker 1: I snarled, magnuson will identify me. Can't you realize you're
2:40:05
Speaker 1: dealing with an impostor. One of the guards said to
2:40:08
Speaker 1: the Legate in an undertone, maybe we alto hold him
2:40:11
Speaker 1: as a suspicious character, but the Legate shook his head.
2:40:15
Speaker 1: Not worth the trouble, Cargo said, it was a private affair.
2:40:19
Speaker 1: You might search him, make sure he's not concealing contraband weapons,
2:40:22
Speaker 1: he added, and talked softly to the wide eyed clerk
2:40:24
Speaker 1: in the background while the guards went through my shirt,
2:40:26
Speaker 1: cloak and pockets. When they started to unwrap the silk
2:40:29
Speaker 1: shrouded toy, I yelled, if the thing got set off accidentally,
2:40:32
Speaker 1: there'd be trouble. The Legate turned and rebuked, can't you
2:40:35
Speaker 1: see it's embroidered with the toad god. It's a religious
2:40:38
Speaker 1: ambulance of some sort. Let it alone, they grumbled, but
2:40:41
Speaker 1: gave it back to me, and the Legate commanded, don't
2:40:43
Speaker 1: mess him up any more. Give him back his knife
2:40:45
Speaker 1: and take him to the gates, but make sure he
2:40:47
Speaker 1: doesn't come back. I found myself seized and frog marched
2:40:51
Speaker 1: to the gate. One guard pushed my skin back into
2:40:53
Speaker 1: its clasp. The other shoved me hard, and I stumbled
2:40:56
Speaker 1: fell sprawling in the dust of the cobbled street, to
2:40:58
Speaker 1: the accompaniment of a profane statement about what I could
2:41:01
Speaker 1: expect if I came back. A chorus of jeers from
2:41:03
Speaker 1: a cluster of chalk children and veiled women broke across me.
2:41:07
Speaker 1: I picked myself up, glowered so fiercely at the giggling
2:41:10
Speaker 1: spectators that the laughter drained away into silence, and clenched
2:41:13
Speaker 1: my fists, half inclined to turn back and bowl my
2:41:16
Speaker 1: way through. Then I subsided first round to recall. He
2:41:21
Speaker 1: had sprung the trap on me very neatly. The street
2:41:25
Speaker 1: was narrow and crooked, winding between doubled rows of pebble houses,
2:41:28
Speaker 1: and full of dark shadows. Even in the crimson noon,
2:41:32
Speaker 1: I walked aimlessly, favoring the arm the guard had crushed.
2:41:35
Speaker 1: I was no closer to settling things with recall, and
2:41:38
Speaker 1: I had slammed at least one gait behind me. Why
2:41:41
Speaker 1: hadn't I had sense enough to walk up and demand
2:41:44
Speaker 1: to see race carkele. Why hadn't I insisted on a
2:41:47
Speaker 1: fingerprint check? I could prove my identity and recall using
2:41:50
Speaker 1: my name in my absence to those who didn't know
2:41:52
Speaker 1: me by sight. Couldn't. I could at least have made
2:41:54
Speaker 1: him try, but he had maneuvered it very cleverly, so
2:41:58
Speaker 1: I never had a chance to insist. Done proofs. I
2:42:02
Speaker 1: turned into a wine shop and ordered a dram of
2:42:04
Speaker 1: greenish mountain berry liquor, sipping it slowly and fingering the
2:42:07
Speaker 1: few bills and coins in my pockets. I'd better forget
2:42:10
Speaker 1: about warning Julie. I couldn't vise her from Charin except
2:42:13
Speaker 1: in the Terran zone. I had neither the money nor
2:42:16
Speaker 1: the time to make the trip in person, even if
2:42:18
Speaker 1: I could get passage on a Terran dominated airline. After today,
2:42:22
Speaker 1: mae Lynn, she had flirted with me, and like Dallisa,
2:42:26
Speaker 1: she might prove vulnerable. It might be another trap, but
2:42:29
Speaker 1: I'd take the chance. At least I could get hints
2:42:31
Speaker 1: about Evarin, and I needed information. I wasn't used to
2:42:35
Speaker 1: this kind of intrigue anymore. The smell of danger was
2:42:37
Speaker 1: foreign to me now, and I found it unpleasant. The
2:42:41
Speaker 1: small lump of the bird in my pocket tantalized me.
2:42:43
Speaker 1: I took it out again. It was a temptation to
2:42:46
Speaker 1: press the stud and let it settle things, or at
2:42:48
Speaker 1: least start them going. Then and there after a while
2:42:52
Speaker 1: I noticed the proprietors of the shop staring at the
2:42:54
Speaker 1: silk of the wrappings. They backed off, apprehensive. I held
2:42:58
Speaker 1: out a coin and they shook their heads. You are
2:43:01
Speaker 1: welcome to the drink, one of them said. All we
2:43:04
Speaker 1: have is at your service, only please go, go quickly.
2:43:08
Speaker 1: They would not touch the coins I offered. I thrust
2:43:11
Speaker 1: the bird in my pocket, swore, and went. It was
2:43:14
Speaker 1: my second experience with being somehow taboo, and I didn't
2:43:17
Speaker 1: like it. It was dusk when I realized I was
2:43:20
Speaker 1: being followed. At first, it was a glimpse out of
2:43:23
Speaker 1: the corner of my eye, a head seen too frequently
2:43:26
Speaker 1: for coincidence. It developed into a too persistent footstep in
2:43:30
Speaker 1: uneven rhythm, tap tap, tap, tap tap tap. I had
2:43:35
Speaker 1: my skin handy, but I had a hunch this wasn't
2:43:37
Speaker 1: anything I could settle with a skin. I ducked into
2:43:40
Speaker 1: a side street and waited nothing. I went on laughing
2:43:46
Speaker 1: at my imagined fears, and then after a time, the soft,
2:43:50
Speaker 1: persistent footfall thudded behind me again. I cut across a
2:43:54
Speaker 1: thieves market, dodging from stall to stall, cursed by old
2:43:57
Speaker 1: women selling hot fried goldfish, women in striped railing at
2:44:00
Speaker 1: me in their chiming talk. When I brushed their rolled
2:44:03
Speaker 1: rugs with hasty feet. Far behind, I heard the familiar
2:44:06
Speaker 1: uneven hurry, tap tap tap, tap tap tap. I fled
2:44:12
Speaker 1: down a street where women sat on flower decked balconies,
2:44:14
Speaker 1: their open lanterns flowing with fountains and rivulets of gold
2:44:17
Speaker 1: and orange fire. I raced through quiet streets where furred
2:44:21
Speaker 1: children crept to doors and watched me pass with great
2:44:23
Speaker 1: golden eyes that shone in the dark. I dodged into
2:44:26
Speaker 1: an alley and lay there, breathing hard. Someone not two
2:44:29
Speaker 1: inches away said, are you one of us? Brother? I
2:44:33
Speaker 1: muttered something surly in his dialect, and a hand reassuringly
2:44:36
Speaker 1: human closed on my elbow this way. Out of breath
2:44:40
Speaker 1: with long running I let him lead me, meaning to
2:44:42
Speaker 1: break away after a few steps, apologize for mistaken identity,
2:44:45
Speaker 1: and vanish. When a sound at the end of the
2:44:47
Speaker 1: street made me jerk stiff and listen. Tap tap tap,
2:44:52
Speaker 1: tap tap tap. I let my arm relax. In the
2:44:55
Speaker 1: hand that guided me flung a fold of my shirt
2:44:58
Speaker 1: cloak over my face and went along with my unknown guide.
2:45:03
Speaker 1: End of chapter twelve.
2:45:05
Speaker 2: Chapter thirteen. I stumbled over steps, took a jolting stride downward,
2:45:12
Speaker 2: and found myself in a dim room jammed with dark figures,
2:45:16
Speaker 2: human and non human. The figures swayed in the darkness,
2:45:21
Speaker 2: chanting in a dialect not altogether familiar to me, a
2:45:24
Speaker 2: monotonous wailing chant with a single recurrent phrase, Camaina kamas ena.
2:45:32
Speaker 2: He began on a high note, descending in weird chromatics
2:45:36
Speaker 2: to the lowest tone the human ear could resolve. The
2:45:40
Speaker 2: sound made me draw back. Even the dry towners shunned
2:45:44
Speaker 2: the augiastic rituals of Camayina. Earth Men have a reputation
2:45:49
Speaker 2: for getting rid of the more objectionable customs by human
2:45:53
Speaker 2: standards on any planet where they live, but they don't
2:45:57
Speaker 2: touch religions, and Camaina on the surface, anyhow, was a religion.
2:46:03
Speaker 2: I started to turn round and leave, as if I
2:46:06
Speaker 2: had inadvertently walked through the wrong door, but my conduct
2:46:09
Speaker 2: a hold on my arm, and I was wedged in
2:46:12
Speaker 2: too tight by now to risk a rough house. Trying
2:46:15
Speaker 2: to force my way out would only have called attention
2:46:17
Speaker 2: to me, and the first of the secret surface maxims is,
2:46:21
Speaker 2: when in doubt, go along, keep quiet, and watch the
2:46:26
Speaker 2: other guy. As my eyes adapted to the dim light,
2:46:31
Speaker 2: I saw that most of the crowd were Charon, plainsmen,
2:46:33
Speaker 2: or checks. One or two wore dry town shirt cloaks,
2:46:38
Speaker 2: and I even thought I saw an earth Man in
2:46:39
Speaker 2: the crowd, though I was never sure, and I fervently
2:46:43
Speaker 2: hoped not. They were squatting around small crescent shaped tables,
2:46:48
Speaker 2: and all intently gazing at a flickery spot of light
2:46:51
Speaker 2: at the front of the cellar. I saw an empty
2:46:54
Speaker 2: place at one table, and dropped there, finding the floor soft,
2:46:58
Speaker 2: as if cushioned. On each table, small smudging pastilles were burning,
2:47:05
Speaker 2: and from these cones of ash tipped fire came the steamy,
2:47:08
Speaker 2: swimmy smoke that filled the darkness with strange colors. Beside me,
2:47:13
Speaker 2: an immature chat girl was kneeling, her fetied hands strained
2:47:18
Speaker 2: tightly back at her sides, her naked breasts pierced for
2:47:21
Speaker 2: jeweled rings beneath the pallid fur around her pointed ears.
2:47:27
Speaker 2: The exquisite animal face was quite mad, she whispered to me,
2:47:32
Speaker 2: but her dialect was so thick that I could follow
2:47:35
Speaker 2: only a few words, and would just as soon not
2:47:38
Speaker 2: have heard those few. An older chack grunted for silence,
2:47:42
Speaker 2: and she subsided, swaying and crooning. There were cups and
2:47:48
Speaker 2: decanters on all the tables, and a woman tilted pale
2:47:52
Speaker 2: phosphorescent fluid into a cup and offered it to me.
2:47:56
Speaker 2: I took one sip, then another. It was cold and
2:48:00
Speaker 2: pleasantly tart, and not until the second swallow turned sweet
2:48:04
Speaker 2: on my tongue did I know what I tasted. I
2:48:07
Speaker 2: pretended to swallow while the woman's eyes were fixed on me,
2:48:10
Speaker 2: then somehow contrived to spill the filthy stuff down my shirt.
2:48:14
Speaker 2: I was weary, even of the fumes, but there was
2:48:18
Speaker 2: nothing else I could do. The stuff was Chalavan, outlawed
2:48:22
Speaker 2: on every planet in the Terran Empire and every half
2:48:25
Speaker 2: way decent planet outside it. More and more figures, men
2:48:30
Speaker 2: and creatures kept crowding into the cellar, which was not
2:48:33
Speaker 2: very large. The place looked like the worst nightmare of
2:48:37
Speaker 2: a drug dreamer, ablaze, with the colors of the smoking incense,
2:48:41
Speaker 2: the swaying crowd, and their monotonous cries. Quite suddenly there
2:48:46
Speaker 2: was a blaze of purple light, and some one screamed
2:48:48
Speaker 2: in a raving ecstasy. Nakina ni'ebran Nahai Camaina, Camaina shrilled
2:48:56
Speaker 2: the tranced mob. An old man jumped up and stopped
2:49:00
Speaker 2: haranguing the crowd. I could just follow his dialect. He
2:49:04
Speaker 2: was talking about terror, he was talking about riots. He
2:49:07
Speaker 2: was jabbering mystical gibberish which I couldn't understand and didn't
2:49:11
Speaker 2: want to understand, and rabble rousing anti Terran propaganda, which
2:49:15
Speaker 2: I understood much too well. Another blaze of lights and
2:49:20
Speaker 2: a long scream in chorus. Canaena Evarin stood in the
2:49:25
Speaker 2: blaze of many colored light. The toy maker, as I
2:49:29
Speaker 2: had seen him last, cat's smooth, gracefully alien, shrouded in
2:49:34
Speaker 2: a ripple of giddy Crimsons. Behind him was a blackness.
2:49:40
Speaker 2: I waited till the painful blaze of lights abated, then,
2:49:43
Speaker 2: straining my eyes to see past him, I got my
2:49:46
Speaker 2: worst shock. A woman stood there, naked to the waist,
2:49:51
Speaker 2: her hands ritually fettered with little chains that stirred and
2:49:54
Speaker 2: clashed musically as she moved, stiff legged in a frozen dream.
2:50:00
Speaker 1: Like.
2:50:00
Speaker 2: Black grass banded her brow and naked shoulders, and her
2:50:04
Speaker 2: eyes were crimson and the eyes lived in the dread
2:50:08
Speaker 2: dreaming face. They lived, and they were mad with terror,
2:50:12
Speaker 2: although the lips curved in a gently tranced smile. Miellyn
2:50:18
Speaker 2: Evarin was speaking in that dialect. I barely understood. His
2:50:22
Speaker 2: arms were flung high, and his cloak went spilling away
2:50:25
Speaker 2: from them, rippling like something alive. The jammed humans and
2:50:30
Speaker 2: non humans swayed and chanted, and he swayed above them
2:50:34
Speaker 2: like an iridescent bug, weaving arms rippling back and forth,
2:50:38
Speaker 2: back and forth. I strained to catch his words. Our world,
2:50:44
Speaker 2: an old world, Camayena, whimpered, the shrill chorus. Humans, humans,
2:50:52
Speaker 2: all humans would make slaves of us, all all save
2:50:55
Speaker 2: the children of the Ape. I lost thread for a moment. True,
2:51:00
Speaker 2: the Terran Empire has one small blind spot in otherwise
2:51:03
Speaker 2: sane policy, ignoring that non human and human have lived
2:51:08
Speaker 2: placidly here for millennia. They placidly assume that humans were
2:51:13
Speaker 2: everywhere the dominant race, as on Earth itself. The toy
2:51:18
Speaker 2: maker's weaving arms went on spinning, spinning. I rubbed my
2:51:22
Speaker 2: eyes to clear them of chalavan and incense. I hoped
2:51:27
Speaker 2: that what I saw was an illusion of the drug, something,
2:51:31
Speaker 2: something huge and dark was hovering over the girl. She
2:51:35
Speaker 2: stood placidly, hands clasped on her chains, but her eyes
2:51:40
Speaker 2: writhed in the frozen calm of her face. Then something
2:51:45
Speaker 2: I can only call it a sixth sense, bore it
2:51:47
Speaker 2: on me that there was some one outside the door.
2:51:50
Speaker 2: I was perhaps the only creature there except for Evarin,
2:51:54
Speaker 2: not drugged with Chalavan. And perhaps that's all it was.
2:51:58
Speaker 2: But during the days in the secret, Sir, I had
2:52:00
Speaker 2: had to develop some extra senses. Five just weren't enough
2:52:04
Speaker 2: for survival. I knew somebody was fixing the break down
2:52:08
Speaker 2: that door, and I had a good idea why. I
2:52:10
Speaker 2: had been followed by the legate's orders and tracking me here,
2:52:13
Speaker 2: had gone away and brought back reinforcements. Someone struck a
2:52:17
Speaker 2: blow on the door, and a stentorian voice bawled, open
2:52:20
Speaker 2: up there in the name of the Empire. The chanting
2:52:23
Speaker 2: broke in ragged quavers. Evarin stopped somewhere, a woman screamed.
2:52:28
Speaker 2: The lights abruptly went out, and a stampede started in
2:52:31
Speaker 2: the room. Women struck me with chains, men kicked. There
2:52:35
Speaker 2: were shrieks and howls. I thrust my way forward, butting
2:52:38
Speaker 2: with elbows and knees and shoulders. A dusky emptiness yawned,
2:52:43
Speaker 2: and I got a glimpse of sunlight and open sky,
2:52:45
Speaker 2: and knew that Evarin had stepped through into somewhere and
2:52:49
Speaker 2: was gone. The banging on the door sounded like a
2:52:52
Speaker 2: whole regiment of space force out there. I dived toward
2:52:55
Speaker 2: the shimmer of little stars which marked Miellyn's tiara in
2:52:58
Speaker 2: the darkness, braving the black horror hovering above her, and
2:53:02
Speaker 2: touched rigid girl flesh cold as death. I grabbed her
2:53:07
Speaker 2: and ducked sideways. This time it wasn't intuition nine times
2:53:11
Speaker 2: out of ten, anyway. Intuition is just a mental short
2:53:14
Speaker 2: cut which adds up all the things which your sub
2:53:17
Speaker 2: conscious has noticed while you were busy thinking about something else.
2:53:21
Speaker 2: Every native building on Wolf had concealed entrances and exits,
2:53:25
Speaker 2: and I knew where to look for them. This one
2:53:28
Speaker 2: was exactly where I expected. I pushed at it and
2:53:31
Speaker 2: found myself in a long, dim corridor. The head of
2:53:36
Speaker 2: a woman peered from an opening door. She saw Miellyn's
2:53:39
Speaker 2: limp body hanging on my arm, and her mouth widened
2:53:41
Speaker 2: in a silent scream. Then the head popped back out
2:53:44
Speaker 2: of sight, and a door slammed. I heard the bolt slide.
2:53:48
Speaker 2: I ran for the end of the hall, the girl
2:53:50
Speaker 2: in my arms, thinking that this was where I came in.
2:53:52
Speaker 2: As far as Miellyn was concerned and wondering why I bothered.
2:53:57
Speaker 2: The door opened on a dark, peaceful street. One lonely
2:54:01
Speaker 2: moon was setting beyond the roof tops. I set Miellyn
2:54:04
Speaker 2: on her feet, but she moaned and crumbled against me.
2:54:07
Speaker 2: I put my shirt cloak round her bare shoulders. Judging
2:54:11
Speaker 2: by the noises and yells, we'd gotten out just in time.
2:54:14
Speaker 2: No one came out the exit behind us. Either the
2:54:17
Speaker 2: Space Force had plugged it, or more likely every one
2:54:21
Speaker 2: else in the cellar had been too muddled by drugs
2:54:23
Speaker 2: to know what was going on. But it was only
2:54:26
Speaker 2: a few minutes I knew before Space Force would check
2:54:29
Speaker 2: the whole building for concealed escape holes. Suddenly, and irrelevantly,
2:54:33
Speaker 2: I found myself thinking of a day not too long ago,
2:54:37
Speaker 2: when had stood up in front of a unit in
2:54:38
Speaker 2: training of Space Force, introduced to them as an intelligence
2:54:42
Speaker 2: expert on Native towns, and solemnly warned them about concealed
2:54:46
Speaker 2: exits and entrances. I wondered for half a minute if
2:54:50
Speaker 2: it might not be simpler just to wait here and
2:54:53
Speaker 2: let them pick me up. Then I hoisted Miellyn across
2:54:56
Speaker 2: my shoulders. She was heavier than she looked, and I
2:55:00
Speaker 2: for a minute half conscious. She began to struggle and moan.
2:55:04
Speaker 2: There was a check run cook shop down the street,
2:55:06
Speaker 2: a place I'd once known well, with an evil reputation
2:55:09
Speaker 2: and worse food. But it was quiet and stayed open
2:55:12
Speaker 2: all night. I turned in at the door, bending at
2:55:15
Speaker 2: the low lintel. The place was smoke filled and foul smelling.
2:55:20
Speaker 2: I dumped me in on a couch and sent the
2:55:22
Speaker 2: frowsy waiter for two bowls of noodles and coffee, handed
2:55:25
Speaker 2: him a few extra coins, and told him to leave
2:55:28
Speaker 2: us alone. He probably drew the worst possible inference. I
2:55:32
Speaker 2: saw his muzzled twitch at the smell of schalivan, but
2:55:35
Speaker 2: it was that kind of place anyhow. He drew down
2:55:37
Speaker 2: the shutters and went I stared at the unconscious girl,
2:55:44
Speaker 2: then shrugged and started on the noodles. My own head
2:55:48
Speaker 2: was still swimmy with the fumes, incense and drug, and
2:55:51
Speaker 2: I wanted it clear. I wasn't sure what I was
2:55:55
Speaker 2: going to do, but I had Evarin's right hand girl,
2:55:58
Speaker 2: and I was going to use her. The noodles were
2:56:01
Speaker 2: greasy and had a curious taste, but they were hot,
2:56:05
Speaker 2: and he ate all of one bowl before Miellyn stirred
2:56:07
Speaker 2: and whimpered and put up one hand with a little
2:56:10
Speaker 2: clinking of chains to her hair. The gesture was indefinably
2:56:14
Speaker 2: reminiscent of Dallisa, and for the first time I saw
2:56:18
Speaker 2: the likeness between them. It made me weary and yet
2:56:22
Speaker 2: curiously softened. Finding she could not move freely, she rolled over,
2:56:28
Speaker 2: sat up, and stared around in growing bewilderment and dismay.
2:56:33
Speaker 2: There was a sort of riot. I said, I got
2:56:35
Speaker 2: you out, ever inditched you, and you can quit thinking
2:56:39
Speaker 2: what you're thinking. I put my shirt clerk on you
2:56:41
Speaker 2: because you were bare to the waist, and it didn't
2:56:43
Speaker 2: look so good. I stopped to think that over and amended.
2:56:48
Speaker 2: I mean, I couldn't hauld you round the streets that way.
2:56:51
Speaker 2: It looked good enough. To my surprise, she gave a
2:56:54
Speaker 2: shaky little giggle and held out her fettered hands. Will you.
2:56:59
Speaker 2: I broke her lynx and freed her. She rubbed her
2:57:03
Speaker 2: wrists as if they hurt her, then drew up her draperies,
2:57:07
Speaker 2: pinned them so that she was decently covered, and tossed
2:57:10
Speaker 2: back my shirt cloak. Her eyes were wide and soft
2:57:14
Speaker 2: in the light of a flickering stub of candle. Oh Rakhal,
2:57:18
Speaker 2: she sighed. When I saw you there, She sat up,
2:57:22
Speaker 2: clasping her hands together, and when she continued, her voice
2:57:26
Speaker 2: was curiously cold and controlled. For any one so childish,
2:57:30
Speaker 2: it was almost as cold as Dulsus. If you've come
2:57:34
Speaker 2: from Kiral, I'm not going back. I'll never go back,
2:57:37
Speaker 2: and you may as well know it. I don't come
2:57:40
Speaker 2: from Kyral, and I don't care where you go. I
2:57:43
Speaker 2: don't care what you do. I suddenly realized that the
2:57:47
Speaker 2: last statement was wholly untrue, and to cover my confusion,
2:57:51
Speaker 2: I shoved the remaining bowl of noodles at her eat.
2:57:55
Speaker 2: She wrinkled her nose in fastidious disgust. I'm not hungry
2:58:00
Speaker 2: eat it anyway. You're still half doped, and the food
2:58:04
Speaker 2: will lay your head. I picked up one mug of
2:58:07
Speaker 2: the coffee and drained it at a single swallow. What
2:58:11
Speaker 2: were you doing in that disgusting den? Without warning, she
2:58:15
Speaker 2: flung herself across the table at me, throwing her arms
2:58:18
Speaker 2: round my neck. Startled. I let her cling a moment,
2:58:21
Speaker 2: then reached up and firmly unfastened her hands. None of
2:58:25
Speaker 2: that now, I fell for at once, and it landed
2:58:28
Speaker 2: me in the middle of the mud pie. But her
2:58:31
Speaker 2: fingers bit my shoulder. Rakhal, Rakhal. I tried to get
2:58:34
Speaker 2: away and find you. Have you still got the bird?
2:58:38
Speaker 2: You haven't set it off yet. Oh don't, don't, don't, Rakhal.
2:58:42
Speaker 2: You don't know whatever it is. You don't know what
2:58:44
Speaker 2: he's doing. The words spilled out of her like floodwaters.
2:58:50
Speaker 2: He's won so many of you. Don't let him. Have
2:58:52
Speaker 2: you too, Rakhal. They call you an honest man. You
2:58:56
Speaker 2: worked once for terror. The Terrans would believe you if
2:58:58
Speaker 2: you went to them and told them what he Rakhal.
2:59:01
Speaker 2: Take me to the Terran zone. Take me there, Take
2:59:03
Speaker 2: me where they'll protect me from Evarin. At first I
2:59:07
Speaker 2: tried to stop her, question her, then waited and let
2:59:11
Speaker 2: the torrent of entreaty run on and on. At last,
2:59:15
Speaker 2: exhausted and breathless, she lay quietly against my shoulder, her
2:59:19
Speaker 2: head fallen forward. The musty reek of Chalivan mingled with
2:59:23
Speaker 2: the flower scent of her hair. Kid I said heavily.
2:59:27
Speaker 2: At last, you and your toy maker have both got
2:59:30
Speaker 2: me wrong. I'm not rakhal sensar, y're not. She drew back,
2:59:37
Speaker 2: regarding me in dismay. Her eyes searched every inch of me,
2:59:41
Speaker 2: from the gray streak across my forehead to the scar
2:59:43
Speaker 2: running down into my collar. Then hoot raced Cargill tarran intelligence.
2:59:49
Speaker 2: She stared her mouth wide like a child's. Then she laughed.
2:59:54
Speaker 2: She laughed. At first I thought she was hysterical. I
2:59:59
Speaker 2: stared at her in consternation. Then as her wide eyes
3:00:03
Speaker 2: met mine with all the mischief of the non human
3:00:06
Speaker 2: which was mingled into the human here, all the circular
3:00:09
Speaker 2: complexities of wolf logic behind the woman in them, I
3:00:12
Speaker 2: started to laugh too. I threw back my head and roared,
3:00:17
Speaker 2: until we were clinging together and gasping with mirth, like
3:00:20
Speaker 2: a pair of raving fools. The check waiter came to
3:00:23
Speaker 2: the door and stared at us, and I roared, get
3:00:25
Speaker 2: the hell out between spasms of crazy laughter. Then she
3:00:31
Speaker 2: was wiping her face, tears of mirth still dripping down
3:00:34
Speaker 2: her cheeks, and I was frowning bleakly into the empty bowls.
3:00:39
Speaker 2: Cargill she said, hesitantly, you can take me to the
3:00:42
Speaker 2: terreens where Rakhal Hell's bells, I exploded. I can't take
3:00:47
Speaker 2: you anywhere, girl, I've got to find Rakhal. I stopped
3:00:50
Speaker 2: in mid sentence and looked at her clearly for the
3:00:54
Speaker 2: first time. Child. I'll see that you're protected if I can.
3:00:59
Speaker 2: But I'm afraid you've walked from the trap to the
3:01:01
Speaker 2: cook pot. There isn't a house in Charin that will
3:01:04
Speaker 2: hold me. Been thrown out twice a day. She nodded.
3:01:08
Speaker 2: I don't know how the word spreads, but it happens
3:01:11
Speaker 2: in nonhuman parts. I think they can see trouble written
3:01:14
Speaker 2: in a human face, or smell it in the wind.
3:01:17
Speaker 2: She fell silent, her face propped sleepily between her hands,
3:01:22
Speaker 2: her hair falling in tangles. I took one of her
3:01:25
Speaker 2: hands in mine and turned it over. It was a
3:01:29
Speaker 2: fine hand, with bird like bones and soft rose tinted nails,
3:01:34
Speaker 2: but the lines and hardened places around the knuckles reminded
3:01:37
Speaker 2: me that she too came from the cold austerity of
3:01:40
Speaker 2: the salt dry towns. After a moment, she flushed and
3:01:44
Speaker 2: drew her hand from mine. What are you thinking, Cargill,
3:01:48
Speaker 2: she asked, and for the first time I heard her
3:01:51
Speaker 2: voice sobered without the cockettery, which must, after all, have
3:01:55
Speaker 2: been a very thin veneer. I answered her simply and literally,
3:02:00
Speaker 2: I am thinking of Dallisa. I thought you were very different,
3:02:03
Speaker 2: and yet I see that you are very like her.
3:02:08
Speaker 2: I thought she would question what I knew of her sister,
3:02:10
Speaker 2: but she let it pass in silence. After a time,
3:02:14
Speaker 2: she said, yes, we were twins. Then, after a long silence,
3:02:20
Speaker 2: she added, but she was always much the older, and
3:02:25
Speaker 2: that was all I ever knew of whatever obscure pressures
3:02:28
Speaker 2: had shaped Dalliser into an asture and tragic Clytemnestra and
3:02:32
Speaker 2: Miellyn into a pixie runaway. Outside the drawn shutters, dawn
3:02:37
Speaker 2: was brightening. Miellyn shivered, drawing her thin draperies round her
3:02:42
Speaker 2: bare throat. I glanced at the little rim of jewels
3:02:45
Speaker 2: that starred her hair and said, you'd better take those
3:02:48
Speaker 2: off and hide them. They alone would be enough to
3:02:51
Speaker 2: have you hauled into an alley and strangled. In this
3:02:53
Speaker 2: part of Charon, I hauled the bird toy from my
3:02:56
Speaker 2: pocket and slapped it on the greasy table, still wrapped
3:02:59
Speaker 2: in its I don't suppose you know which of us
3:03:02
Speaker 2: this thing is set to kill. I know nothing about
3:03:05
Speaker 2: the toys. You seem to know plenty about the toy maker.
3:03:10
Speaker 2: I thought so until last night. I looked at the rigid,
3:03:14
Speaker 2: clamped mouth and thought that if she were really as
3:03:17
Speaker 2: soft and as delicate as she looked, she would have wept.
3:03:21
Speaker 2: Then she struck her small hand on the tabletop and
3:03:23
Speaker 2: burst out. It's not a religion. Tisn't even an honest
3:03:26
Speaker 2: movement for freedom. It's a a front for smuggling and
3:03:30
Speaker 2: drugs and every other filthy thing, believe it or not.
3:03:35
Speaker 2: When I left Shansar, I thought Nebron was the answer
3:03:38
Speaker 2: to the way the Terrans were strangling us. Now I
3:03:40
Speaker 2: know there are worse things on Wolf than the Terran Empire.
3:03:44
Speaker 2: I've heard of Rakhal, Sensar, and whatever you may think
3:03:47
Speaker 2: of Rakhal, he's too decent to be mixed up in
3:03:49
Speaker 2: anything like this. Suppose you tell me what's really going on,
3:03:53
Speaker 2: I suggested. She couldn't add much to what I knew already,
3:03:58
Speaker 2: but the last fragments of the pattern beginning to settle
3:04:00
Speaker 2: into place. Rakhal seeking the matter transmitter and some key
3:04:05
Speaker 2: to the non human sciences of Wolf. I knew now
3:04:09
Speaker 2: what the city of the Silent Ones had reminded me
3:04:11
Speaker 2: of had somehow crossed the path of the toy maker.
3:04:15
Speaker 2: Everin's words now made sense. You were clever at evading
3:04:19
Speaker 2: our surveillance for a while, possibly though I'd never know.
3:04:24
Speaker 2: Quinn had been keeping one foot in each camp, working
3:04:27
Speaker 2: for Kyral and for Everin. The toy Maker, knowing of
3:04:30
Speaker 2: Rakhal's anti Terran activities, had believed he would make a
3:04:34
Speaker 2: valuable ally and had taken steps to secure his help.
3:04:38
Speaker 2: Julie herself had given me the clue he smashed Rindy's toys.
3:04:42
Speaker 2: Out of the context, it sounded like the work of
3:04:44
Speaker 2: a madman. Now having encountered Evarin's workshop, it made plain
3:04:50
Speaker 2: good sense. And I think I had known all along
3:04:54
Speaker 2: that Rakhal could not have been playing Everind's game. He
3:04:58
Speaker 2: might have turned against terror, though now I was beginning
3:05:02
Speaker 2: to even doubt that, And certainly he'd have killed me
3:05:05
Speaker 2: if he found me, But he would have done it himself,
3:05:08
Speaker 2: and without malice. Killed without malice. That doesn't make sense
3:05:13
Speaker 2: in any of the languages of terror, but it made
3:05:16
Speaker 2: sense to me. Miellyn had finished her brief recitation and
3:05:20
Speaker 2: was drowsing, her head pillowed on the table. The reddish
3:05:25
Speaker 2: light was growing, and I realized that I was waiting
3:05:28
Speaker 2: for dawn. As days ago I had waited for sunset
3:05:32
Speaker 2: in Shinsa, with every nerve stretched to the breaking point.
3:05:36
Speaker 2: It was dawn of the third morning, and this bird
3:05:39
Speaker 2: lying on the table before me must fly, or far
3:05:42
Speaker 2: away in the Khasa another would fly at Julie. I said,
3:05:46
Speaker 2: there's some distance limitation on this one. I understand, since
3:05:49
Speaker 2: I have to be fairly near its object. If I
3:05:52
Speaker 2: lock it in a steel box and drop it in
3:05:54
Speaker 2: the desert, I'll guarantee it won't bother anybody. I don't
3:05:57
Speaker 2: suppose you'd have a shot at stealing the other one
3:05:59
Speaker 2: for me. She raised her head, eyes flashing. Why should
3:06:04
Speaker 2: you worry about Rakhal's wife? She fled, and for no
3:06:07
Speaker 2: good reason. It occurred to me that she was jealous.
3:06:11
Speaker 2: I might have known Evarin wouldn't shoot in the dark.
3:06:14
Speaker 2: Rakhal's wife, that earth woman, What do you care for her?
3:06:18
Speaker 2: It seemed important to set her straight. I explained that
3:06:22
Speaker 2: Julie was my sister, and saw a little of the
3:06:25
Speaker 2: tension fade from her face, but not all. Remembering the
3:06:29
Speaker 2: custom of the dry towns, I was not wholly surprised
3:06:32
Speaker 2: when she added jealously. When I heard of your feud,
3:06:37
Speaker 2: I guessed it was over that woman, but not in
3:06:40
Speaker 2: the way you think. I said. Julie had been part
3:06:43
Speaker 2: of it. Certainly, even then I had not wanted her
3:06:47
Speaker 2: to turn her back on her world. But if Rakhal
3:06:50
Speaker 2: had remained with Terror, I would have accepted his marriage
3:06:53
Speaker 2: to Julie, accepted it, I'd have rejoiced. God knows we'd
3:06:58
Speaker 2: been closer than brothers though years in the dry towns,
3:07:02
Speaker 2: and then before Miellyn's flashing eyes, I suddenly faced my
3:07:07
Speaker 2: secret hate, my secret fear. No, the quarrel had not
3:07:12
Speaker 2: been all Rakhal's doing. He had not turned his back
3:07:16
Speaker 2: unexplained on Terror in some unrecognized fashion. I had done
3:07:22
Speaker 2: my best to drive him away, and when he had gone,
3:07:26
Speaker 2: I had banished a part of myself as well, and
3:07:29
Speaker 2: thought I could end the struggle by saying it didn't exist.
3:07:32
Speaker 2: And now, facing what I had done to all of us,
3:07:36
Speaker 2: I knew that my revenge, so long sought, so dearly cherished,
3:07:40
Speaker 2: must be abandoned. We still have to deal with a bird.
3:07:45
Speaker 2: I said, it's a gambol with all the cards wild,
3:07:49
Speaker 2: I could dismantle it and trust to Luck that wolf.
3:07:52
Speaker 2: I logic didn't include a tamper mechanism, but that didn't
3:07:55
Speaker 2: seem worth a risk. First, I've got to find Rakhal.
3:08:00
Speaker 2: If I set the bird free and it killed him,
3:08:02
Speaker 2: it wouldn't settle anything. For I could not kill Rakhal.
3:08:07
Speaker 2: Not now because I knew life would be your worse
3:08:10
Speaker 2: punishment than death, but because if I knew it now,
3:08:17
Speaker 2: if Rakhal died, Julie would die too. And if I
3:08:21
Speaker 2: killed him, I'd be killing the best part of myself. Somehow,
3:08:26
Speaker 2: Rakhal and I must strike a balance between our two
3:08:29
Speaker 2: worlds and try to build a new one from them.
3:08:33
Speaker 2: And I can't sit here and talk any longer. I
3:08:35
Speaker 2: haven't time to take you. I stopped, remembering the Spaceport
3:08:38
Speaker 2: cafe at the edge of the Khasa. There was a
3:08:41
Speaker 2: street shrine or matter transmitter right there, across the street
3:08:45
Speaker 2: from the terran h Q. All these years, you know
3:08:49
Speaker 2: your way in the transmitters. You can go there in
3:08:51
Speaker 2: a second or two. She could warn Julie, tell Magneson.
3:08:56
Speaker 2: But when I suggested this, giving her a password that
3:08:58
Speaker 2: would take us straight to the top, she turned white.
3:09:02
Speaker 2: All jumps have to be made through the master shrine.
3:09:06
Speaker 2: I stopped and thought about that. Where is Evarin likely
3:09:10
Speaker 2: to be? Right now? She gave a nervous shudder. He's everywhere, rubbish,
3:09:17
Speaker 2: he's not omniscient. Quite a little fool. He didn't even
3:09:19
Speaker 2: recognize me. He thought I was Rakhal. I wasn't too
3:09:24
Speaker 2: sure myself, but Miellyn needed reassurance. Or take me to
3:09:28
Speaker 2: the master shrine. I can find Rakhal in that scanning
3:09:31
Speaker 2: device of Evarin's. I saw refusal in her face and
3:09:35
Speaker 2: pushed on. If Evarin's there, I'll prove he is fallible
3:09:39
Speaker 2: enough with the skein in his throat. And here I
3:09:42
Speaker 2: thrust the toy into her hand. Hang on to this,
3:09:44
Speaker 2: will you? She put it matter of factly into her draperies.
3:09:49
Speaker 2: I don't mind that, but to the shrine. Her voice quivered,
3:09:53
Speaker 2: and I stood up and pushed at the table. Let's
3:09:56
Speaker 2: get going. Where's the nearest street shrine? No? No, oh,
3:10:01
Speaker 2: I don't dare. You've got to. I saw the chack
3:10:04
Speaker 2: who owned the place edging round the door again and said,
3:10:07
Speaker 2: there's no use arguing Miellyn. When she had readjusted her
3:10:11
Speaker 2: robes a little while ago, she had pinned them so
3:10:13
Speaker 2: that the flat sprawl of the Neborn embroideries were over
3:10:16
Speaker 2: her breasts. I put a finger against them, not in
3:10:20
Speaker 2: a sensuous gesture, and said, the minute they see these,
3:10:23
Speaker 2: they'll throw us out of here too. If you knew
3:10:27
Speaker 2: what I know of Nebron, you wouldn't want me to
3:10:29
Speaker 2: go near the master shrine.
3:10:30
Speaker 1: Again.
3:10:32
Speaker 2: There was that faint coquettishness in her sideways smile, and
3:10:36
Speaker 2: suddenly I realized that I didn't want her to. But
3:10:40
Speaker 2: she was not Dallisa, and she could not sit in
3:10:42
Speaker 2: cold dignity while her world fell into ruin. Miellyn must
3:10:46
Speaker 2: fight for the one she wanted. And then some of
3:10:50
Speaker 2: that primitive male hostility which lives in every man came
3:10:53
Speaker 2: to the surface, and I gripped her arm until she whimpered.
3:10:56
Speaker 2: Then I said, in the shane sand which still comes
3:10:58
Speaker 2: to my tongue when moved or angry, damn it you're going.
3:11:02
Speaker 2: Have you forgotten that if it weren't for me, you'd
3:11:03
Speaker 2: have been torn to pieces by that raving mob or
3:11:06
Speaker 2: something worse that did it. She pulled away, and I
3:11:10
Speaker 2: saw again, beneath the veneer of petulant coquetry, that fierce
3:11:14
Speaker 2: and untamable insolence of the dry tonner, the more fierce
3:11:18
Speaker 2: and arrogant in this girl. Because she had burst her
3:11:21
Speaker 2: fettered hands free and shaken off the ruin of the past,
3:11:25
Speaker 2: I was seized with a wildly inappropriate desire to seize her,
3:11:29
Speaker 2: crushed her in my arms. Taste the red honey of
3:11:31
Speaker 2: that teasing mouth. The effort of mastering the impulse made
3:11:34
Speaker 2: me rough. I shoved at her and said, come on,
3:11:38
Speaker 2: let's get there before ever d us end of chapter thirteen,
3:11:45
Speaker 2: Chapter fourteen. Outside in the streets, it was full day,
3:11:51
Speaker 2: and the color and life of Charon had subsided into
3:11:54
Speaker 2: listlessness again, a dim morning, dullness and silence. Only a
3:11:59
Speaker 2: few you men lounge wearily in the streets, as if
3:12:02
Speaker 2: the sun had sapped their energy. And always the pale,
3:12:06
Speaker 2: fleecy haired children, human and furred non human, played their
3:12:10
Speaker 2: mysterious games on the curbs and gutters and staring at
3:12:14
Speaker 2: us with neither curiosity nor malice. Miellyn was shaking when
3:12:18
Speaker 2: she set her feet into the patterned stones of the
3:12:20
Speaker 2: street shrine. Scared Miellyn, I know, Evarin, you don't, but
3:12:26
Speaker 2: her mouth twitched in a painful attempt at the old mischief.
3:12:31
Speaker 2: When I'm with a great and valorous earthman. Cut it out,
3:12:34
Speaker 2: I growled, and she giggled. You'll have to stand closer
3:12:37
Speaker 2: to me. The transmitters are meant only for one person.
3:12:41
Speaker 2: I stooped and put my arms round her like this,
3:12:45
Speaker 2: Like this, she whispered, pressing herself against me. A staggering
3:12:50
Speaker 2: whirl of dizzy darkness swung around my head. The street vanished.
3:12:55
Speaker 2: After an instant, the floor steadied, and we stepped into
3:12:58
Speaker 2: the terminal room, in the mastershrine, under a skylight dim
3:13:01
Speaker 2: with the last red slant of sunset. Distant hammering noises
3:13:06
Speaker 2: rang in my ears. Miellyn whispered. Evarin's not here, but
3:13:11
Speaker 2: he might jump through at any second. I wasn't listening.
3:13:15
Speaker 2: Where is this place, Miellyn? Where on the planet No
3:13:19
Speaker 2: one knows, but Evarn. I think there are no doors.
3:13:23
Speaker 2: Any One who goes in or out jumps through the transmitter.
3:13:26
Speaker 2: She pointed. The scanning device is in there. We'll have
3:13:30
Speaker 2: to go through the workroom. She was patting her cushioned
3:13:34
Speaker 2: robes into place, smoothing her hair with fastidious fingers. I
3:13:38
Speaker 2: don't suppose you have a comb. I've no time to
3:13:40
Speaker 2: go to my own I'd known, she was a vain
3:13:43
Speaker 2: and pampered brat. But this passed all reason, and I
3:13:46
Speaker 2: said so, exploding at her. She looked at me as
3:13:50
Speaker 2: if I wasn't quite intelligent. Little ones, my friend, notice things.
3:13:55
Speaker 2: You are quite enough of a redneck. But I Nebran's
3:13:58
Speaker 2: priestess walk through the workroom, all blown out and looking
3:14:01
Speaker 2: like the tag end of an orgy, and ad Karen abashed.
3:14:05
Speaker 2: I fished in my pocket and offered her a somewhat
3:14:07
Speaker 2: battered pocket comb. She looked at it distastefully, but used
3:14:12
Speaker 2: it to good purpose, smoothing her hair swiftly rearranging her
3:14:16
Speaker 2: loose pinned robe so that the worst of the tears
3:14:19
Speaker 2: and stains were covered, giving me meanwhile an artless and
3:14:22
Speaker 2: rather tempting view of some delicious curvature. She replaced the
3:14:27
Speaker 2: starred tiara on her ringlets, and finally opened the door
3:14:30
Speaker 2: of the workroom, and we walked through. Not for years
3:14:36
Speaker 2: had I known that particular sensation. Thousands of eyes boring
3:14:39
Speaker 2: holes in the center of my back. Somewhere there were eyes,
3:14:44
Speaker 2: the round in human orbs of the dwarf chacks, the
3:14:47
Speaker 2: faceted stare of the prism, eyes of the toys, the
3:14:51
Speaker 2: workroom wasn't a hundred feet long, but it felt longer
3:14:54
Speaker 2: than a good many miles. I'd walked here and there
3:14:57
Speaker 2: The dwarfs murmured and obsequious greeting Miellyn, and she made
3:15:01
Speaker 2: some lighthearted answer. She had warned me to walk as
3:15:04
Speaker 2: if I had every right to be there, and I
3:15:06
Speaker 2: strode after her as if we were simply going to
3:15:08
Speaker 2: an agreed on meeting in the next room. But I
3:15:12
Speaker 2: was drenched with cold sweat before the further door finally closed,
3:15:15
Speaker 2: safe and blessedly opaque behind us. Miellyn too was shaking
3:15:20
Speaker 2: with fright and put a hand on her arm. Steady, kid,
3:15:25
Speaker 2: where's the scanner? She touched the panel i'd seen. I'm
3:15:29
Speaker 2: not sure if I can focus it accurately. Evarin never
3:15:32
Speaker 2: let me touch it. It was a fine time to
3:15:35
Speaker 2: tell me that. How does it work. It's an adaptation
3:15:39
Speaker 2: of the transmitter principle. It lets you see anywhere, but
3:15:42
Speaker 2: without jumping. It uses a tracer mechanism like the one
3:15:46
Speaker 2: in the toys. If Rakhal's electrical impulse pattern were on file.
3:15:51
Speaker 2: Just a minute, she fished out the bird toy and
3:15:54
Speaker 2: unwrapped it. Here's how we find out which of you
3:15:56
Speaker 2: this is keyed to? I looked at the fledgling bird
3:16:00
Speaker 2: lying innocently in her palm as she pushed aside the feathers,
3:16:03
Speaker 2: exposing a tiny crystal. If it's keyed to you, you'll
3:16:06
Speaker 2: see yourself in this, as if the screen were a mirror.
3:16:10
Speaker 2: If it's keyed to Rakhal, she touched the crystal to
3:16:13
Speaker 2: the surface of the screen. Little flickers of snow wavered
3:16:17
Speaker 2: and danced. Then abruptly, we were looking down from a
3:16:20
Speaker 2: height at the lean back of a man in a
3:16:22
Speaker 2: leather jacket. Slowly he turned. I saw the familiar set
3:16:27
Speaker 2: of his shoulders, saw the back of his head come
3:16:30
Speaker 2: into an aquiline profile, and the profile turned slowly into
3:16:34
Speaker 2: a scarred, seared mask, more hideously clawmuked and disfigured than
3:16:38
Speaker 2: my own. Rakhal, I muttered, shift the focus. If you can, Miellyn,
3:16:44
Speaker 2: get a look out of the window or something. Charon's
3:16:47
Speaker 2: a big city. If we could get a good look
3:16:49
Speaker 2: at a landmark. Rakhal was talking soundlessly, his lips moving
3:16:53
Speaker 2: as he spoke to some one out of sight range
3:16:55
Speaker 2: of the scanning device. Abruptly, Miellyn said, there she had
3:17:01
Speaker 2: caught a window in the sight field of the pane,
3:17:04
Speaker 2: I could see a high pylon and two or three
3:17:06
Speaker 2: uprights that looked like a bridge just outside. I said,
3:17:10
Speaker 2: it's the bridge of Summer snows. I know where he is.
3:17:13
Speaker 2: Now turn it off, Miellyn, we can find him. I
3:17:16
Speaker 2: was turning away when Miellyn screamed, Look. Rakhal had turned
3:17:21
Speaker 2: his back on the scanner, and for the first time
3:17:24
Speaker 2: I could see who he was talking to. A hunched,
3:17:27
Speaker 2: catlike shoulder, twisted, a sinuous neck, high held head that
3:17:32
Speaker 2: was not quite human Evarin. I swore, that does it.
3:17:37
Speaker 2: He knows now that I'm not Rakhal if he didn't
3:17:39
Speaker 2: know it all along, Come on, girl, we're getting out
3:17:41
Speaker 2: of here. This time. There was no pretense of normality
3:17:45
Speaker 2: as we dashed through the workroom. Fingers dropped from half
3:17:49
Speaker 2: completed toys as they stared after us toys. I wanted
3:17:53
Speaker 2: to stop and smash them all, but if we hurried,
3:17:56
Speaker 2: we might find Rakhal, and with luck, we would find
3:17:59
Speaker 2: Evarin with him, and then I was going to bang
3:18:02
Speaker 2: their heads together. I'd reached a saturation point on adventure.
3:18:06
Speaker 2: I'd had all I wanted. I realized that I'd been
3:18:09
Speaker 2: up all night, that I was exhausted, I wanted to
3:18:12
Speaker 2: murder and smash and wanted to fall down somewhere and
3:18:15
Speaker 2: go to sleep, all at once. We banged the workroom
3:18:18
Speaker 2: door shut, and I took time to shove a heavy
3:18:21
Speaker 2: divan against it, blockading it. Miellyn stared, the little ones
3:18:26
Speaker 2: wouldn't harm me. She began, I'm sacrosanct. I wasn't sure.
3:18:31
Speaker 2: I had a notion her status had changed plenty, beginning
3:18:34
Speaker 2: when I saw her chained and drugged and standing under
3:18:37
Speaker 2: the hovering horror. But I didn't say so. Maybe, but
3:18:42
Speaker 2: there's nothing sacred about me. She was already inside the
3:18:45
Speaker 2: recess where the toad god swatted. There is a street
3:18:48
Speaker 2: shrine just beyond the bridge of summer snows. We can
3:18:51
Speaker 2: jump directly there. Abruptly, she froze in my arms with
3:18:55
Speaker 2: a convulsive shudder. Evarin, I'll be tight. He's jumping in
3:18:59
Speaker 2: quick space, reeled around us. And then can you split
3:19:04
Speaker 2: instantaneousness into fragments? It didn't make sense, but so help me,
3:19:09
Speaker 2: that's what happened. And everything that happened occurred within less
3:19:13
Speaker 2: than a second. We landed in the street shrine. I
3:19:16
Speaker 2: could see the pylon and the bridge and the rising
3:19:19
Speaker 2: sun of Charin. Then there was a giddy internal wrenching.
3:19:23
Speaker 2: A blast of icy air whistled round us, and we
3:19:25
Speaker 2: were gazing out at the polar mountains ringed in their
3:19:28
Speaker 2: eternal snow. Miellyn clutched at me. Pray, pray to the
3:19:32
Speaker 2: gods of terror, if there are any. She clung so
3:19:36
Speaker 2: violently that it felt as if her small body were
3:19:38
Speaker 2: trying to push through me and come out the other side.
3:19:41
Speaker 2: I hung on tight. Miellyn knew what she was doing
3:19:44
Speaker 2: in the transmitter. I was just along for the ride,
3:19:46
Speaker 2: and I didn't relish the thought of being dropped off
3:19:48
Speaker 2: somewhere in that black limbo which traversed. We jumped again,
3:19:53
Speaker 2: the sickness of disorientation forcing a moan from the girl,
3:19:56
Speaker 2: and darkness shivered round us. I looked on an unfamiliar
3:20:00
Speaker 2: street of black night and dust bleared stars. She whimpered,
3:20:04
Speaker 2: Evarin knows what I'm doing. He's jumping us all over
3:20:07
Speaker 2: the planet. He can work the controls with his mind psychokinetics.
3:20:12
Speaker 2: I can do it a little, but I never dared. Oh,
3:20:15
Speaker 2: hang on tight. Then began one of the most amazing
3:20:18
Speaker 2: duels ever fought. Miellyn would make some tiny movement, and
3:20:22
Speaker 2: we would be falling, blind and dizzy through blackness. Half
3:20:26
Speaker 2: Way through the giddiness, a new direction would wrench us,
3:20:29
Speaker 2: and we would be thrust elsewhere and look out into
3:20:32
Speaker 2: a new street. One instant I smelled hot coffee from
3:20:36
Speaker 2: the Spaceport cafe near the Kharsa. An instant later, it
3:20:40
Speaker 2: was blinding noon, with crimson fronds waving above us and
3:20:44
Speaker 2: a dazzle of water. We flicked in and out of
3:20:47
Speaker 2: the salty air of Shainsar, glimpsed flowers and a dailon street.
3:20:51
Speaker 2: Moonlight noon red twilight flickered and went shot through with
3:20:55
Speaker 2: the terrible giddiness of hyperspace. Then suddenly I caught a
3:20:59
Speaker 2: second glimpse of the bridge and the pylon. A moment's
3:21:02
Speaker 2: oversight had landed us for an instant in Sharin. The
3:21:05
Speaker 2: blackness started to reel down, But my reflexes are fast,
3:21:08
Speaker 2: and I made one swift, scrabbling step forward. We lurched, sprawled,
3:21:13
Speaker 2: locked together on the stones of the bridge of summer snows,
3:21:16
Speaker 2: battered and bruised and bloody. We were still alive and
3:21:20
Speaker 2: where we wanted to be. I lifted Miellyn to her feet,
3:21:26
Speaker 2: her eyes were dazed with pain. The ground swayed and
3:21:29
Speaker 2: rocked under our feet as we fled along the bridge.
3:21:33
Speaker 2: At the far end, I looked up at the pylon.
3:21:35
Speaker 2: Judging from its angle, we couldn't be more than a
3:21:37
Speaker 2: hundred feet from the window through which I'd seen that
3:21:40
Speaker 2: landmark in the scanner. In this street there was a
3:21:44
Speaker 2: wine shop, a silk market, and a small private house.
3:21:48
Speaker 2: I walked up and banged on the door. Silence. I
3:21:52
Speaker 2: knocked again, and had time to wonder if we'd find
3:21:55
Speaker 2: ourselves explaining things to some uninvolved stranger. Then I heard
3:21:59
Speaker 2: a child's high voice and a deep, familiar voice hushing it.
3:22:04
Speaker 2: The door opened just a crack to reveal part of
3:22:07
Speaker 2: a scarred face. It drew into a hideous grin, then relaxed.
3:22:14
Speaker 2: I thought it might be you, Cargill. You've taken at
3:22:17
Speaker 2: least three days longer than I figured getting here. Come
3:22:20
Speaker 2: on in, said Rakhal Sensar, end of Chapter fourteen, Chapter fifteen.
3:22:32
Speaker 2: He hadn't changed much in six years. His face was
3:22:35
Speaker 2: worse than mine. He hadn't had the plastic surgeons of
3:22:39
Speaker 2: Terran Intelligence doing their best for him. His mouth, I thought, fleetingly,
3:22:44
Speaker 2: must hurt like hell when he drew it up into
3:22:46
Speaker 2: the kind of grin he was grinning now. His eyebrows,
3:22:50
Speaker 2: thick and fierce with gray in them, went up as
3:22:53
Speaker 2: he saw Miellyn, but he backed away to let us
3:22:56
Speaker 2: enter and shut The door behind us. Room was bare,
3:23:01
Speaker 2: and I didn't look as if it had been lived
3:23:02
Speaker 2: in much. The floor was stone rough laid, a single
3:23:07
Speaker 2: fur rug lay before a brazier. A little girl was
3:23:11
Speaker 2: sitting on the rug, drinking from a big, double handled mug,
3:23:14
Speaker 2: but she scrambled to her feet as we came in
3:23:17
Speaker 2: and backed against the wall, looking at us with wide eyes.
3:23:21
Speaker 2: She had pale red hair like Julie's, cut straight in
3:23:24
Speaker 2: a fringe across her forehead, and she was dressed in
3:23:27
Speaker 2: a smock of dyed red fur that almost matched her hair.
3:23:31
Speaker 2: A little smear of milk like a white mustache clung
3:23:33
Speaker 2: to her upper lip, where she had forgotten to wipe
3:23:35
Speaker 2: her mouth. She was about five years old, with deep set,
3:23:40
Speaker 2: dark eyes like Julie's that watched me gravely without surprise
3:23:44
Speaker 2: or fear. She evidently knew who I was. Rindy Rakhal said, quietly,
3:23:51
Speaker 2: not taking his eyes from me. Go into the other room.
3:23:56
Speaker 2: Rindy didn't move, still staring at me. Then she moved
3:24:00
Speaker 2: towards Miellyn, looking up intently, not at the woman, but
3:24:04
Speaker 2: at the pattern of embroideries across her dress. It was
3:24:09
Speaker 2: very quiet until Rakhal added, in a gentle and curiously
3:24:14
Speaker 2: moderate voice, do you still carry a skeen race? And
3:24:19
Speaker 2: I shook my head as an ancient proverb on terror
3:24:23
Speaker 2: about blood being thicker than water. Rakhal, that's Julie's daughter.
3:24:27
Speaker 2: I'm not going to kill her father right before her eyes.
3:24:31
Speaker 2: My rage spilled over then, and I bellowed, to hell
3:24:33
Speaker 2: with your damn dry town feuds and your filthy toad
3:24:37
Speaker 2: god and all the rest of it, Rakhal said harshly. Rindy,
3:24:40
Speaker 2: I told you to get out. She needn't go. I
3:24:45
Speaker 2: took a step towards the little girl, a wary eye
3:24:47
Speaker 2: on Rakhal. I don't know quite what you're up to,
3:24:51
Speaker 2: but it's nothing for a child to be mixed up in.
3:24:54
Speaker 2: Do what you damn please. I can settle with you
3:24:56
Speaker 2: any time. The first thing to get Rindy out of here.
3:25:01
Speaker 2: She belongs with Julie, and damn it, that's where she's going.
3:25:05
Speaker 2: I held up my arms to the little girl and
3:25:07
Speaker 2: said it's over, Rindy. Whatever he's done to you, your
3:25:10
Speaker 2: mother sent me to find you. Don't you want to
3:25:12
Speaker 2: go to your mother? Rakhal made a menacing gesture and
3:25:16
Speaker 2: warned I wouldn't. Miellyn darted swiftly between us and caught
3:25:20
Speaker 2: up the child in her arms. Rindy began to struggle noiselessly,
3:25:24
Speaker 2: kicking and whimpering, but Miellyn took two quick steps and
3:25:28
Speaker 2: flung an inner door open. Rakhal took a stride towards her.
3:25:32
Speaker 2: She whirled on him, fighting to control the furious little girl,
3:25:35
Speaker 2: and gasped, settle it between you without the baby. Watching
3:25:38
Speaker 2: through the open door, I briefly saw a bed a
3:25:41
Speaker 2: child's small dresses hanging on a hook, before Miellyn kicked
3:25:44
Speaker 2: the door shut, and I heard a latch being fastened
3:25:48
Speaker 2: behind the closed door. Rindy broke into angry screams, but
3:25:51
Speaker 2: I put my back against the door. She's right, we'll
3:25:55
Speaker 2: settle it between the two of us. What have you
3:25:58
Speaker 2: done to the child? If you thought, Rakhal stopped himself
3:26:01
Speaker 2: in mid sentence and stood watching me without moving for
3:26:05
Speaker 2: a minute. Then he laughed, you're as stupid as ever.
3:26:09
Speaker 2: Race Are you fool? I knew Julie would run straight
3:26:12
Speaker 2: to you if she was scared enough. I knew it
3:26:15
Speaker 2: would bring you out of hiding. Why you damn fool?
3:26:17
Speaker 2: He stood mocking me, but there was a strained fury,
3:26:21
Speaker 2: almost a frenzy of contempt behind the laughter. You filthy coward,
3:26:25
Speaker 2: race six years hiding in the terran zone. Six years,
3:26:29
Speaker 2: and I gave you six months if you'd had the
3:26:32
Speaker 2: guts to walk out after me. After I rigged that
3:26:35
Speaker 2: final deal to give you the chance, we could have
3:26:37
Speaker 2: gone after the biggest thing on wolf, and we could
3:26:40
Speaker 2: have brought it off together inspeed of spending years spying
3:26:43
Speaker 2: and dodging and hunting. And now, when I finally get
3:26:46
Speaker 2: you out of hiding, all you want to do is
3:26:48
Speaker 2: run back where you'll be safe. I thought you had
3:26:50
Speaker 2: more guts, not for Everin's dirty work. Grakhal swore hideously, Evarin.
3:26:58
Speaker 2: Do you really believe I might have known he'd get
3:27:01
Speaker 2: to you too, that girl? And you managed to recall?
3:27:05
Speaker 2: I did there too. Suddenly, so swiftly my eyes could
3:27:09
Speaker 2: hardly follow. He whipped out his skein and came at me.
3:27:12
Speaker 2: Get away from that door. I stood my ground you'll
3:27:15
Speaker 2: have to kill me first, and I won't fight you, Rakhal.
3:27:18
Speaker 2: We'll settle this, but we'll do it my way. For once,
3:27:20
Speaker 2: like Earthmin, son of the Ape, get your skein out,
3:27:23
Speaker 2: your stinking coward, I won't do it, Rakhal. I stood
3:27:27
Speaker 2: and defied him. I had outmaneuvered dright howners in a
3:27:31
Speaker 2: shaggery bed. I knew Rakhal, and I knew he would
3:27:34
Speaker 2: not knife an unarmed man. We fought once with the kiffer,
3:27:39
Speaker 2: and it didn't settle anything. This time, we'll do it
3:27:41
Speaker 2: my way. I threw my skin away before I came here.
3:27:44
Speaker 2: I won't fight. He thrust at me. Even I could
3:27:48
Speaker 2: see that the blow was a faint, and I had
3:27:50
Speaker 2: a flashing instantaneous memory of Dalis's threat to drive the
3:27:53
Speaker 2: knife through my palms. But even while I commanded myself
3:27:57
Speaker 2: to stand steady, sheer reflex threw me for grabbing at
3:28:01
Speaker 2: his wrist and the knife between my grappling hand. He twisted,
3:28:05
Speaker 2: and I felt the skein drive home, ripped through my
3:28:08
Speaker 2: jacket with a tearing sound, felt the thin fine line
3:28:11
Speaker 2: of touch, not pain yet as it sliced flesh. The
3:28:16
Speaker 2: pain burned through my ribs, and I felt hot blood,
3:28:19
Speaker 2: and I wanted to kill Rakhal, wanted to get my
3:28:21
Speaker 2: hands round his throat and kill him with them. At
3:28:24
Speaker 2: the same time, I was raging because I didn't want
3:28:27
Speaker 2: to fight the crazy fool. I wasn't even mad at him.
3:28:31
Speaker 2: Miellyn flung the door open, shrieking, and suddenly the toy
3:28:35
Speaker 2: released was darting a small, whirring, droning horror, straight at
3:28:39
Speaker 2: Rakhal's eyes. I yelled, but there was no time to
3:28:42
Speaker 2: warn him. I bent and butted him in the stomach.
3:28:45
Speaker 2: He grunted, doubled up in agony, and fell out of
3:28:48
Speaker 2: the path of the diving toy. It whirred in frustration, hovered,
3:28:53
Speaker 2: he writhed in agony, drawing up his knees, clawing at
3:28:57
Speaker 2: his shirt, while I turned on Miellen in immense fury
3:28:59
Speaker 2: and stopped hers. Had been a move of desperation, an
3:29:03
Speaker 2: instinctive act to restore the balance between a weaponless man
3:29:06
Speaker 2: and one who had a knife. Rakhal gasped in a
3:29:09
Speaker 2: hoarse voice, with all the breath gone from it. Did
3:29:12
Speaker 2: what to use rather fight? Clean? Then he opened his
3:29:15
Speaker 2: closed fist, and suddenly there were two of the little
3:29:18
Speaker 2: whirring droning horror in the room, and this one was
3:29:21
Speaker 2: diving at me, And as I threw myself headlong to
3:29:24
Speaker 2: the floor, the last puzzle piece fell into place. Evarin
3:29:28
Speaker 2: had made the same bargain with Rakhal as with me.
3:29:32
Speaker 2: I rolled over, dodging behind me. In the room, there
3:29:35
Speaker 2: was a child's shrill scream, Daddy, Daddy, And abruptly the
3:29:39
Speaker 2: birds collapsed in mid air and went limp. They fell
3:29:43
Speaker 2: to the floor like dropping stones, and lay there quivering.
3:29:47
Speaker 2: Brindy dashed across the room, her small skirts flying, and
3:29:50
Speaker 2: grabbed up one of the terrible vicious things in either hand.
3:29:53
Speaker 2: Brindy apillowed no. She stood, shaking, tears pouring down her
3:29:57
Speaker 2: round cheeks. A toy squeezed height in either hand. Dark
3:30:02
Speaker 2: veins stood out almost black on her fair temples. Break them, daddy,
3:30:06
Speaker 2: she implored, in a little thread of a voice, break
3:30:09
Speaker 2: them quick. I can't hang on. Rakhal staggered to his
3:30:13
Speaker 2: feet like a drunken man, and snatched one of the toys,
3:30:16
Speaker 2: grinding it under his heel. He made a grab at
3:30:19
Speaker 2: the second, reeled and drew in an anguished breath. He
3:30:22
Speaker 2: crumpled up, clutching at his belly where I butted him.
3:30:26
Speaker 2: The bird screamed like a living thing. Breaking the paralysis
3:30:29
Speaker 2: of horror, I leapt up ran across the room, heedless
3:30:32
Speaker 2: of the searing pain along my side. I snatched the
3:30:35
Speaker 2: bird from rindy as it screamed and shrilled and died
3:30:38
Speaker 2: as my foot crunched the tiny feathers. I stamped the
3:30:41
Speaker 2: still moving thing into an amorphous mess, and kept on
3:30:44
Speaker 2: stamping and smashing until it was only a heap of powder.
3:30:49
Speaker 2: Rakhal I finally managed to haul himself upright again. His
3:30:54
Speaker 2: face was so pale that the scars stood out like
3:30:56
Speaker 2: fresh burns. That was a foul blow. Race, But I
3:31:02
Speaker 2: I know why you did it. He stopped and breathed
3:31:05
Speaker 2: for a minute. Then he muttered, you saved my life,
3:31:11
Speaker 2: you know? Did you know you were doing it when
3:31:13
Speaker 2: you did it? Still breathing hard, I nodded, done knowingly
3:31:19
Speaker 2: in to bent an end of blood feud, however we
3:31:23
Speaker 2: had wronged each other. Whatever the pledge is, I spoke
3:31:26
Speaker 2: the words that confirmed it and ended it. Finally and forever,
3:31:30
Speaker 2: there is a life between us. Let it stand for
3:31:33
Speaker 2: a death. Miellyn was standing in the doorway, her hands
3:31:38
Speaker 2: pressed to her mouth, her eyes wide, She said shakily,
3:31:43
Speaker 2: you're walking round with a knife in your ribs, you
3:31:44
Speaker 2: full Rakhal whirled with a quick jerk, he pulled the
3:31:48
Speaker 2: skin loose. It had simply been caught in my shirt
3:31:51
Speaker 2: cloak in a fold of the rough cloth. He pulled
3:31:54
Speaker 2: it away, glanced at the red tip, then relaxed, not
3:31:58
Speaker 2: more than an inch deep, he said, then angrily defending himself,
3:32:02
Speaker 2: You did yourself, you ape. I was trying to get
3:32:05
Speaker 2: rid of the knife when you jumped me. But I
3:32:08
Speaker 2: knew that, and he knew I knew it. He turned
3:32:13
Speaker 2: and scooped up Rindy, who was sobbing noisily. She dug
3:32:16
Speaker 2: her head into his shoulder, and I made out her
3:32:18
Speaker 2: strangled words, The other toys hurt you when I was
3:32:22
Speaker 2: mad at you, She sobbed, rubbing her fists against smeared cheeks.
3:32:26
Speaker 2: I I wasn't that mad at you. I wasn't that
3:32:30
Speaker 2: mad at anybody, not even him. Grakhal pressed his hand
3:32:35
Speaker 2: against his daughter's fleecy hair and said, looking at me
3:32:38
Speaker 2: over her head, the toys activate a child's subconscious resentments
3:32:43
Speaker 2: against his parents. I have found out that much. That
3:32:47
Speaker 2: also means a child can control them. For a few seconds.
3:32:51
Speaker 2: No adult can. A stranger would have seen no change
3:32:55
Speaker 2: in his expression, but I knew him and saw Juley
3:33:00
Speaker 2: said you threatened Rindy. He chuckled and set the child
3:33:04
Speaker 2: on her feet. What else could I say? They would
3:33:06
Speaker 2: have scared Dulyie enough to send her running to you.
3:33:10
Speaker 2: Julie's proud, almost as proud as you are, Yer Stiff,
3:33:13
Speaker 2: next son of the ape. The insult did not sting me. Now,
3:33:18
Speaker 2: come on, sit down and let's decide what to do
3:33:21
Speaker 2: now we've finished up the old business. He looked remotely
3:33:25
Speaker 2: at Miellyn and said, you must be Dallasa's sister. I
3:33:29
Speaker 2: don't suppose your talents include knowing how to make coffee.
3:33:33
Speaker 2: They didn't, but with Rindy's help, Miellyn managed, and while
3:33:37
Speaker 2: they were out of the room, Rakhal explained briefly, Rindy
3:33:42
Speaker 2: has rudimentary e s P. I've never had it myself,
3:33:46
Speaker 2: but I could teach her something, nor much about how
3:33:49
Speaker 2: to use it. I've been on Evarin's track ever since
3:33:53
Speaker 2: that business of the lists. I'd have got it sooner
3:33:57
Speaker 2: if you were still working with me, But I couldn't
3:33:59
Speaker 2: do anything as a Terran agent, and I had to
3:34:02
Speaker 2: be kicked out so thoroughly that the others wouldn't be afraid.
3:34:05
Speaker 2: I was still working secretly for Terror for a long time.
3:34:09
Speaker 2: I was just chasing rumors. But when Rindy got big
3:34:12
Speaker 2: enough to look in the crystals of Nebrun and I
3:34:15
Speaker 2: started making some progress. I was afraid to tell Julie.
3:34:20
Speaker 2: Her best safety was the fact that she didn't know anything.
3:34:23
Speaker 2: She's always been a stranger in the dry towns. He paused,
3:34:28
Speaker 2: and then said, with honest self evaluation, since I left
3:34:32
Speaker 2: the Secret Service, I've been a stranger there myself. I asked,
3:34:36
Speaker 2: what about Dallisa. Twins have some e s p to
3:34:40
Speaker 2: each other. I knew Miellyn had gone to the toy maker.
3:34:44
Speaker 2: I tried to get Dallisa to find out where Miellyn
3:34:46
Speaker 2: had gone learn more about it. Dallisa wouldn't risk it,
3:34:51
Speaker 2: but Kiraal saw me with Dallisa and thought it was
3:34:53
Speaker 2: Miellyn that put him on my tale too, and I
3:34:57
Speaker 2: had to leave Shinsar. I was afraid of Kiral, he added, soberly,
3:35:03
Speaker 2: afraid of what he'd do. I couldn't do anything without Rindy,
3:35:07
Speaker 2: and I knew if I told Julie what I was doing.
3:35:10
Speaker 2: She'd take Rindy away into the Terran zone and I
3:35:13
Speaker 2: be as good as dead. As he talked, I began
3:35:17
Speaker 2: to realize how vast a web Evarin and the underground
3:35:20
Speaker 2: organization of Nebrun had spread for us. Evarin was here
3:35:24
Speaker 2: to day. What for, Rakhal laughed mirthlessly. He's been trying
3:35:29
Speaker 2: to get us to kill each other off. That would
3:35:32
Speaker 2: get rid of us both. He wants to turn over
3:35:35
Speaker 2: Wolf to the non humans entirely. I think he's sincere enough,
3:35:40
Speaker 2: but he spread his hands helplessly. I can't sit by
3:35:43
Speaker 2: and see it, I asked, point blank. Are you working
3:35:48
Speaker 2: for Terror or for the Dry Towns or any of
3:35:51
Speaker 2: the anti Terran movements. I'm working for me, he said
3:35:55
Speaker 2: with a shrug. I don't think much of the Terran Empire.
3:35:59
Speaker 2: But while planet can't fight a galaxy race, I want
3:36:04
Speaker 2: just one thing. I want the Dry Towns and the
3:36:07
Speaker 2: rest of Wolf to have a voice in their own government.
3:36:11
Speaker 2: Any planet which makes a substantial contribution to galactic science,
3:36:16
Speaker 2: by the laws of the Terran Empire, is automatically given
3:36:19
Speaker 2: the status of an independent commonwealth. If a man from
3:36:24
Speaker 2: the Dry Towns discovers something like a matter transmitter. Wolf
3:36:28
Speaker 2: gets dominion status, but Evarin and his gang want to
3:36:33
Speaker 2: keep it secret, keep it away from Terror, keep it
3:36:36
Speaker 2: locked up in places like Canasa. Somebody has to get
3:36:40
Speaker 2: it away from them, and if I do it, I
3:36:43
Speaker 2: get a nice fat bonus and an official position. I
3:36:48
Speaker 2: believe that where I would have suspected too much protestation
3:36:52
Speaker 2: of altruism, Grakhal tossed it aside. You've got Miellyn to
3:36:57
Speaker 2: take you through the transmitters. Go back to the mastershrine
3:37:00
Speaker 2: and tell Evarin that raced Cargill is dead in the
3:37:03
Speaker 2: trade city. They think I'm Cargill and I can get
3:37:05
Speaker 2: in and out as I choose. Sorry if it costs
3:37:08
Speaker 2: you trouble, but it was the safest thing I could
3:37:10
Speaker 2: think of. And our v eyes Magnuson and have him
3:37:13
Speaker 2: send soldiers to guard the street shrines. Evarin might try
3:37:17
Speaker 2: to escape through one of them. I shook my head.
3:37:20
Speaker 2: Terror hasn't enough men on all Wolf to cover the
3:37:22
Speaker 2: street shrines in Charin alone. But I can't go back
3:37:26
Speaker 2: with Miellyn, I explained. Rakhal pursed his lips and whistled
3:37:31
Speaker 2: when I described the fight in the transmitter. You have
3:37:34
Speaker 2: all the luck Cargill. I've never been near enough even
3:37:37
Speaker 2: to be sure how they work, and I'll bet you
3:37:39
Speaker 2: didn't begin to understand. We'll have to do it the
3:37:42
Speaker 2: hard way. Then it won't be the first time we've
3:37:44
Speaker 2: bulled our way through a tight place. We'll face Evarin
3:37:47
Speaker 2: in his own hideout. If Rindy's with us, we needn't worry.
3:37:51
Speaker 2: I was willing to let him assume command, but I protested,
3:37:54
Speaker 2: you take a child into that that what else can
3:37:57
Speaker 2: we do? Rindy can control the toy, and neither you
3:38:01
Speaker 2: nor I can do that. If Evarin should decide to
3:38:03
Speaker 2: throw his whole arsenal at us, he called Rndy and
3:38:06
Speaker 2: spoke softly to her. She looked from her father to me,
3:38:10
Speaker 2: and back again to her father, then smiled and stretched
3:38:14
Speaker 2: out her hand to me. Before we ventured into the street,
3:38:19
Speaker 2: Rakhal scowled at the sprawled embroideries on Miellyn's robe. He said,
3:38:23
Speaker 2: in those things you show up like a snowfall in Chinsaire.
3:38:27
Speaker 2: If you go out in them, you could be mobbed.
3:38:29
Speaker 2: Hadn't you better get rid of them?
3:38:30
Speaker 1: Now?
3:38:31
Speaker 2: I can't, She protested, they're the keys to the transmitter.
3:38:36
Speaker 2: Rakhal looked at the conventionalized idols with curiosity, but said,
3:38:40
Speaker 2: only calf them up in the street. Then, Rindy find
3:38:44
Speaker 2: us something to put over her dress. When we reached
3:38:47
Speaker 2: the street, shine, Miellyn admonished, stand close together on the stones.
3:38:52
Speaker 2: I'm not sure we can all make the jump at once,
3:38:54
Speaker 2: but we'll have to try. Rakhal picked up Ryndy and
3:38:57
Speaker 2: hoisted her to his shoulder. Miellyn dropped the cloak she
3:39:01
Speaker 2: had draped over the pattern of the neighboring embroideries, and
3:39:04
Speaker 2: we crowded close together. The street swayed and vanished, and
3:39:09
Speaker 2: I felt the now familiar dip and swirl of blackness
3:39:11
Speaker 2: before the world straightened out again. Grindy was whimpering, dabbing
3:39:16
Speaker 2: smeary fists at her face. Daddy, my nose is bleeding.
3:39:21
Speaker 2: Miellyn hastily bent and wipes the blood from the snubby nose.
3:39:24
Speaker 2: Rakhal gestured impatiently, the workroom wreck everything you see, Rindy.
3:39:31
Speaker 2: If anything starts to come at us, you stop it,
3:39:33
Speaker 2: Stop it quick, and he bent and took the little
3:39:36
Speaker 2: face between his hands. Gee A, remember they're not toys,
3:39:40
Speaker 2: no matter how pretty they are. Her grave gray eyes blinked,
3:39:44
Speaker 2: and she nodded. Rakhal flung open the door of the
3:39:48
Speaker 2: elves workshop with a shout. The ringing of the anvils
3:39:51
Speaker 2: shattered into a thousand dissonances. As I kicked over a
3:39:54
Speaker 2: work bench and had half finished toys crashed in confusion
3:39:58
Speaker 2: on the floor, the dwarfs scattered like rabbits before our
3:40:02
Speaker 2: assault of destruction. I smashed tools, filigreed jewels, stamping everything
3:40:07
Speaker 2: with my heavy boots. I shattered glass, caught up a
3:40:10
Speaker 2: hammer and smashed crystals. There was a wild exhilaration to it.
3:40:15
Speaker 2: A tiny doll, proportioned like a woman, dashed towards me,
3:40:18
Speaker 2: shrilling in her supersonic shriek. I put my foot on
3:40:21
Speaker 2: her and ground the life out of her, and she
3:40:23
Speaker 2: screamed like a living woman. As she came apart, her
3:40:25
Speaker 2: blue eyes rolled from her head and lay on the
3:40:27
Speaker 2: floor watching me. I crushed the blue jewels under my heel.
3:40:32
Speaker 2: Rakhal swung a tiny hound by the tail. Its head
3:40:36
Speaker 2: shattered into debris of almost invisible gears and wheels. I
3:40:39
Speaker 2: caught up a chair and wrecked glass, cabinet of parts
3:40:42
Speaker 2: with it, swinging furiously a berserk madness of smashing and
3:40:47
Speaker 2: breaking had laid hold of me. I was drunk with
3:40:50
Speaker 2: crushing and shattering and ruining when I heard Miellyn's scream
3:40:52
Speaker 2: a warning and turned to see Evarin standing in the doorway.
3:40:56
Speaker 2: His green cat eyes blazed with rage. Then he raised
3:41:00
Speaker 2: both hands in a sudden sardonic gesture, and with a
3:41:03
Speaker 2: loping inhuman glide, raced for the transmitter. Prindy Rakhal panted,
3:41:08
Speaker 2: can you block the transmitter instead? Rindy shrieked, We've got
3:41:12
Speaker 2: to get out. The roof is falling down. The house
3:41:16
Speaker 2: is going to fall down on us the roof. Look
3:41:18
Speaker 2: at the roof. I looked up, transfixed by horror. I
3:41:22
Speaker 2: saw a wide rift open, saw the skylight shatter and break,
3:41:26
Speaker 2: and daylight pouring through the cracking walls. Rakhal snatched Rindy up,
3:41:30
Speaker 2: protecting her from the falling dabris with his head and shoulders.
3:41:33
Speaker 2: I grabbed Miellin round the waist and we ran for
3:41:35
Speaker 2: the rift in the buckling wall. We shoved through just
3:41:39
Speaker 2: before the roof caved in and the walls collapsed, and
3:41:42
Speaker 2: we found ourselves standing on a bare grassy hillside, looking
3:41:45
Speaker 2: down in shock and horror as below us. Section after
3:41:49
Speaker 2: section of what had been apparently bare hill and rock
3:41:52
Speaker 2: caved in and collapsed into dusty rubble. Miellyn screamed hoarsely, Run, run, hurry.
3:42:00
Speaker 2: I didn't understand, but I ran. I ran my sides,
3:42:03
Speaker 2: aching blood streaming from the forgotten flesh wound in my side.
3:42:08
Speaker 2: Miellyn raced beside me, and Rakhal stumbled along, carrying Rindy.
3:42:12
Speaker 2: Then the shock of a great explosion rocked to the ground,
3:42:15
Speaker 2: hurling me down full length, Miellyn falling on top of me.
3:42:19
Speaker 2: Rakhal went down on his knees. Rindy was crying loudly.
3:42:23
Speaker 2: When I could see straight again, I looked down at
3:42:26
Speaker 2: the hillside. There was nothing left of Evarin's hideaway or
3:42:30
Speaker 2: the master Shrine of Nebrun, except a great gaping hole,
3:42:34
Speaker 2: still oozing smoke and thick black dust. Miellyn said aloud, dazed.
3:42:40
Speaker 2: So that's what he was going to do. It fitted
3:42:44
Speaker 2: the peculiar non human logic of the toy maker. He
3:42:47
Speaker 2: covered the traces, destroyed. Rakhal raged all destroyed, the work crumbs,
3:42:54
Speaker 2: the science of the toys, the matter transmitter. The minute
3:42:58
Speaker 2: we find it, it's destroyed. He beat his fists furiously.
3:43:02
Speaker 2: Our one chance to learn. We were lucky to get
3:43:05
Speaker 2: out alive, said Miellyn quietly. Where on the planet are we?
3:43:10
Speaker 2: I wonder? I looked down the hillside and stared in amazement.
3:43:16
Speaker 2: Spread Out on the hillside below us lay the Hassa,
3:43:19
Speaker 2: topped by the white sky scraper of the HQ. I'll
3:43:22
Speaker 2: be damned, I said, right here, we're home, Rakhal. You
3:43:27
Speaker 2: can go down and make your peace with the Terrans,
3:43:29
Speaker 2: and Julie and you Miellyn before the others. I could
3:43:34
Speaker 2: not say what I was thinking, but I put my
3:43:36
Speaker 2: hand on her shoulder and kept it there. She smiled shakily,
3:43:41
Speaker 2: with a hint of her old mischief. I can't go
3:43:43
Speaker 2: into the Terran zone looking like this. Can I give
3:43:46
Speaker 2: me that comb again, Rakhal? Give me your shirt cloak?
3:43:50
Speaker 2: My robes are torn. You vaint stupid female worrying about
3:43:54
Speaker 2: a thing like that at a time like this. Rakhal's
3:43:57
Speaker 2: look was like murder. I put my comb in her hand,
3:44:00
Speaker 2: then suddenly saw something in the symbols across her breasts.
3:44:04
Speaker 2: Before this I had seen only the conventionalized and intricate
3:44:07
Speaker 2: glyph of the toad god. But now I reached out
3:44:11
Speaker 2: and ripped the cloth away cargill, she protested angrily, crimsoning,
3:44:16
Speaker 2: covering her bare breasts with both hands. Is this the
3:44:19
Speaker 2: place before a child too? I hardly heard, look, I exclaimed, Racount.
3:44:25
Speaker 2: Look at the symbols embroidered into the gliph of the god.
3:44:29
Speaker 2: You can read the old non human glyphs. You did
3:44:31
Speaker 2: it in the City of the Lists. Mae Lynn said
3:44:35
Speaker 2: they were the key to the transmitters. I'll bet the
3:44:38
Speaker 2: formula is written out there for any one to read.
3:44:42
Speaker 2: Any one that is, who can read it. I can't,
3:44:45
Speaker 2: but I'll bet the formula equations for the transmitters are
3:44:48
Speaker 2: carved on every toad god glyph on wolf racal. It
3:44:52
Speaker 2: makes sense. There are two ways of hiding something. Either
3:44:57
Speaker 2: keep it locked away or hide it right out in
3:44:59
Speaker 2: play in sight. Whoever bothers even to look at a
3:45:03
Speaker 2: conventionalized toad god. There are so many billions of them.
3:45:08
Speaker 2: He bent his head over the embroideries, and when he
3:45:10
Speaker 2: looked up, his face was flushed. I believe by the
3:45:15
Speaker 2: chains of Sharer, I believe you have it.
3:45:17
Speaker 1: Race.
3:45:18
Speaker 2: He may take years to work out the cliffs, but
3:45:21
Speaker 2: I'll do it or die trying. His scarred and hideous
3:45:24
Speaker 2: face looked almost handsome in exultation, and I grinned at him.
3:45:29
Speaker 2: If Julie leaves enough of you once she finds out
3:45:31
Speaker 2: how you were new, fored her look? Grindy's fallen asleep
3:45:35
Speaker 2: on the grass there, poor kid. We'd better get it
3:45:39
Speaker 2: down to our mother, right. Rakhaal thrust the precious embroidery
3:45:44
Speaker 2: into his shirt cloak, then cradled his sleeping daughter in
3:45:47
Speaker 2: his arms. I watched him with a curious emotion. I
3:45:51
Speaker 2: could not identify. It seemed to pinpoint some great change,
3:45:56
Speaker 2: either in Rakhal or myself. It's not difficult to visualize
3:45:59
Speaker 2: one's sister with children, but there was something, some strange
3:46:03
Speaker 2: incongruity in the sight of Rakhal carrying the little girl,
3:46:06
Speaker 2: carefully tucking her up in a fold of his cloak
3:46:09
Speaker 2: to keep the sharp breeze off her face. Miellyn was
3:46:13
Speaker 2: limping in her thin sandals, and she shivered. I asked, cold, no,
3:46:20
Speaker 2: but I don't believe Evarin is dead. I'm afraid he
3:46:24
Speaker 2: got away. For a minute, the thought dimmed the luster
3:46:28
Speaker 2: of the morning. Then I shrugged. He is probably buried
3:46:32
Speaker 2: in that big hole up there, but I knew I
3:46:34
Speaker 2: would never be sure. We walked abreast my arm round
3:46:39
Speaker 2: the weary stumbling woman, and Rakhal said softly, at last,
3:46:43
Speaker 2: like old times, It wasn't old times. I knew he
3:46:49
Speaker 2: would know it too, once his exultation sobered. I had
3:46:53
Speaker 2: outgrown my love for intrigue, and I had the feeling
3:46:56
Speaker 2: this was Rakhle's last adventure. It was going to take him,
3:47:00
Speaker 2: as he said, years to work out the equations for
3:47:03
Speaker 2: the transmitter. And I had a feeling my own solid,
3:47:07
Speaker 2: ordinary desk was going to look good to me in
3:47:10
Speaker 2: the morning. But I knew now that I'd never run
3:47:14
Speaker 2: away from Wolf again. It was my own beloved sun
3:47:17
Speaker 2: that was rising. My sister was waiting for me down below,
3:47:21
Speaker 2: and I was bringing back her child. My best friend
3:47:25
Speaker 2: was walking at my side. What more could a man want?
3:47:30
Speaker 2: If the memory of dark poisonerry eyes was to haunt
3:47:33
Speaker 2: me in nightmares, they did not come into the waking world.
3:47:37
Speaker 2: I looked at Miellyn, took her slender unmanacled hand in mine,
3:47:42
Speaker 2: and smiled as we walked through the gates of the city. Now,
3:47:48
Speaker 2: after all my years on Wolf, I understood the desire
3:47:51
Speaker 2: to keep their women under lock and key. That was
3:47:53
Speaker 2: its ancient custom. I vowed to myself as we went,
3:47:58
Speaker 2: that I would waste no time finding a fetter shop,
3:48:01
Speaker 2: and having forged therein the perfect steel chains that should
3:48:04
Speaker 2: bind my love's wrists to my key for ever. End
3:48:10
Speaker 2: of Chapter fifteen.