Latest / Daily Classic Sci Fi Books / 08 - The Door Through Space - Marion Zimmer Bradley

Transcript

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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter eight. I slept little that night. There is a
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: tale told in Dlaon of the Chugri, where a challenger
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: was left in a room alone, where he was blindfolded
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: and told to await the beginning of the torment. Somewhere
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: in those dark hours of waiting between the unknown and
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the unexpected, the hours of telling over to himself the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: horrors of past chagri, the torture of anticipation alone became unbearable.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: A little past noon, he collapsed in screams of horror
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and died, raving, unmarred, untouched. Daybreak came slowly, and with
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: the first streamers of light came Dallisa, with the white chalk,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: maliciously uninvolved, sniffing his way through the shabby poverty of
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: the Great Hall. They took me to a lower dungeon,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: where the slant of the sunlight was less visible. Dalisa said,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: the sun has risen. I said nothing. Any word may
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: be interpreted as a confession of defeat. I resolved to
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: give them no excuse. But my skin crawled, and I
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: had that peculiar prickling sensation where the hair on my
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: forearms was bristling, erect with tension and fear, Dalisa said
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: to the chalk, his gear was not searched. See that
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: he has swallowed no anesthetic drugs. Briefly, I gave her
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: credit for thoroughness, even while I wondered in a split
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: second why I had not thought of this. Drugs could
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: blur consciousness at least or suspend reality. The white non
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: human sprang forward and pinioned my arms with one strong,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: spring steel forearm. With his other hand, he forced my
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: jaws open. I felt the furred fingers at the back
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: of my throat, gagged, struggled briefly, and doubled up in
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: uncontrollable wretching. Dalisa's poison berry eyes regarded me levily as
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: I struggled upright, fighting off the dizzy sickness of disgust.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Something about her impassive face stopped me cold. I had
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: been momentarily raging with fury and humiliation. Now I realized
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: that this had been a calculated, careful gesture to make
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: me lose my temper and thus sap my resistance. If
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: she could set me to fighting, if she could make
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: me spend my strength and rage, my own imagination would
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: fight on her side to make me lose control. Before
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: the end. Swimming in the glare of her eyes, I
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: realized she had never thought for a moment that I
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: had taken any drug. Acting on Carrel's hint that I
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: was a Terran, she was taking advantage of the well
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: known Terran revulsion for the non human blindfold him. Dalisa commanded,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: then instantly countermanded that no strip him first. The chalk
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: ripped off shirt, cloak, shirt, shoes, breeches, and I had
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: my first triumph when the wheeled claw marks on my shoulders, worse,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: if possible, than those which disfigured my face, were laid bare.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: The chalk screwed up his muzzle in fastidious horror, and
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Alisa looked shaken. I could almost read her thoughts, if
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: he endured this, what hope have I to make him
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: cry mercy? Briefly I remembered the months I lay feverish
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: and half dead, waiting for the wounds Recall had inflicted
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: to heal, those months when I had believed that nothing
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: would ever hurt me again, that I had known the
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: worst of all suffering. But I had been younger then.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Dalisa had picked up two small, sharp knives. She weighed
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: them briefly, gesturing to the chalk. Without resisting, I let
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: myself be man handled backward, spread eaglet against the wall.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Dalisa commanded, drive the knives through his palms to the wall.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: My hands twitched convulsively anticipating the slash of steel, and
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: my throat closed in spasmodic dread. This was breaking the compact,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: bound as they were not to inflict physical damage. I
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: opened my lips to protest this breaking of the bond
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: of honor and met her dark, blazing stare, and suddenly
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: the sweat broke out on my forehead. I had placed
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: myself wholly in her hands, and as Karl had said,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: they were in no way bound by honor to respect
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: a pledge to a terran. Then, as my hands clenched
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: into fists, I forced myself to relax. This was a bluff,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: a mental trick to needle me into breaking the pact
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: and pleading for mercy. I set my lips, spread my
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: palms wide against the wall, and waited impassively. She said,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: in her lilting voice, take care not to sever the tendons,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: or his hands would be paralyzed, and he may claim
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: we have broken our compact. The points of the steel
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: razor sharp touched my palms, and I felt blood run
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: down my head, and before the pain, with an effort
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: that turned my face white, I did not pull away
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: from the point the knives drove deeper Dallisa's gestured to
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: the chalk. The knives dropped two pinpricks a quarter of
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: an inch deep, stung in my palm. I had outbluffed her,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: had I if I had expected her to betray disappointment,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: and I had I was disappointed abruptly, as if the
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: game had wearied her already. She gestured, and I could
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: not hold back a gasp as my arms were hauled
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: up over my head, twisted violently around one another, and
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: trussed with thin cords that bit deep into the flesh.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Then the rough upward pull almost jerked my shoulders from
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: their sockets, and I heard the giant chalk grunt with
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: effort as I was hauled upward until my feet, barely
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: on tiptoe, touched the floor. Blindfold him, said Dalisa, languidly,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: so that he cannot watch the ascent of the sun
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: or its descent, or know what is to come. A
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: dark softness muffled my eyes. After a little I heard
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: her steps retreating. My arms, wrenched overhead and numbed with
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: the bite of the cords, were beginning to hurt badly now,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: But it wasn't too bad. Surely she did not mean
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: that this should be all Sternly, I controlled my imagination,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: taking a tight rein on my thoughts. There was only
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: one way to meet this hanging blind and racked in space,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: my toes barely scrambling at the floor, and that was
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: to take each thing as it came, and not look
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: ahead for an instant. First of all, I tried to
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: get my feet under me, and discovered that by arching
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: upwards to my fullest height, I could bear my weight
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: on tiptoe and ease a little the dislocating ache in
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: my armpits by slackening the overhead rope. But after a
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: little a cramping pain began to flare through the arches
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: of my feet, and it became impossible to support my
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: weight on tiptoe. I jarred down with violent strain on
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: my wrists and wrenched shoulders again, and for a moment
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: the shooting agony was so intense that I nearly screamed.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: I thought I heard a soft breath near me. After
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: a little it subsided to a sharp ache, then to
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: a dull ache, and then to the violent cramping again,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: and once more I struggled to get my toes under me.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: I realized that by allowing my toes barely to touch
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: the floor, they had doubled and tripled the pain. By
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: the tantalized hope of, if not momentary relief, at least
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: the alteration of one pain for another. I haven't the
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: faintest idea even now. How long I repeated that agonizing cycle,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: struggle for a toe hold on rough stone, scraping my
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: bare feet, raw arch upward with all my strength to
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: release for a few moments, the strain on my wrenched shoulders,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: the momentary illusion of relief as I found my balance
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: and the pressure lightened on my wrists, Then the slow
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: creeping first of an ache, then of a pain, then
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: of a violent agony in the arches of my feet
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: and calves, and delayed to the last endurable moment, that
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: final terrible anguish, when the drop of my full weight
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: pulled shoulder and wrist and elbow joints with that bone
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: shattering jerk. I start at once to estimate how much
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: time had passed, how many hours had crawled by then
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: checked myself, for that was imminent madness. But once the
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: process had begun, my brain would not abandon, and I
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: found myself with compulsive precision, counting off the seconds and
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: the minutes in each cycle. Stretch upward, release the pressure
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: on the arms, the beginning of pain in the calves
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: and our and toes, the creeping of pain up the
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: ribs and loins and shoulders, the sudden jarring drop on
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: the arms. Again, my throat was intolerably dry. Under other circumstances,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: I might have estimated the time by the growing hunger
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: and thirst, but the rough treatment I had received made
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: this impossible. There were other unmentionable, humiliating pains. After a
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: time to bolster my flagging courage, I found myself thinking
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: of all the ways it might have been worse. I
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: have heard of a chagrin exposed to the bite of
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: poisonous not fatal, but painfully poisonous insects, and to the
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: worrying of the small gnawing rodents which can be trained
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: to bite and tear. Or I might have been branded.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I banished the memory with the powerful exorcism the man
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: in de Loonn whose anticipation a loan of a torture
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: which never came, had broken his mind. There was only
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: one way to conquer this, and that was to act
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: as if the present moment was the only one, and
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: never for a moment to forget that the strongest of
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: compacts bound them not to harm me, that the end
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: of this was fixed by sunset. Gradually, however, all all
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: such rational thoughts blurred in the semi delirium of thirst
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: and pain, narrowing to a red blaze of agony across
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: my shoulder blades. I eased up on my toes again.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: White hot pain blazed through my feet. The rough stone
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: on which my toes sank had been covered with metal,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: and I smelled scorching flesh, jerking up my feet with
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: a wordless snarl of rage and fury, hanging in agony
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: by my shoulders alone. And then I lost consciousness, at
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: least for several moments. For when I became aware again
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: through the nightmare of pain, my toes were resting lightly
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: and securely on cold stone. The smell of burned flesh remained,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: and the painful stinging in my toes mingled with that
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: smell was a drift of perfume close by. Dallisa murmured,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: I do not wish to break our bargain by damaging
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: your feet. It's only a little touch of fire to
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: keep you from too much security in resting them. I
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: felt the taste of blood mingle in my mouth with
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: a sour taste of vomit. I felt delirious, light headed,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: after another eternity. I wondered if I had really heard
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: De Lisa's lilting croon, or whether it was a nightmare
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: born of feverish pain. Plead with me a word, only
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: a word, and I will release you, strong man, scarred man.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Perhaps I shall demand only a little space in your arms.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Would not such doom be light upon you? Perhaps I
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: shall set you free to seek Rakal, if only to
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: plague Carral. A word only a word from you, A
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: word only a word from you. It died into an
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: endlessly echoing whisper. Swaying blindly, I wondered why I endured.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: I drew a dry tongue over lips, salty and bloody,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: and nightmarishly considered yielding, winning my way somehow around Alissa,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: or knocking her suddenly senseless, and escaping I who need
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: not be bound by Wolf's codes. Either I fumbled with
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: a stiff shape of words, and a breath saved me,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: a soft, released breath of anticipation. It was another trick.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: I swayed limp and ract I was not race cargole.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Now I was a dead man, hanging in chains, swinging
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: filthy vultures pecking at my dangling feet. The sounds of
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: boots rang on the stone. In Carral's voice, low and bitter, demanded,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: somewhere behind me, what have you done with him? She
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: did not answer, but I heard her chains clash lightly,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: and imagined her gesture. Kiral muttered, women have no genius
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: at any torture. Except his voice faded out into great distances.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Their words came to me over a sort of windy ringing,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: like the howling of lost men dying in the snowfast
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: passes of the mountains. Speak up, you fool. He can't
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: hear you now. If you have let him faint, you
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: are clumsy. You talk of clumsiness. Dalesa's voice, even thinned
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: by the nightmare, ringing in my head held concentrated scorn.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Perhaps I shall release him to find recall when you failed.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: The Terrans have a price on Recall's head too, And
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: at least this man will not confuse himself with his prey.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: If you think I would let you bargain with a Tarannin,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Dalesa cried passionately, You trade with the Terrans. How would
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: you stop me? Then? I trade with him because I must,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: but for a matter involving the honor of the great House,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: the great house whose steps you would never have climbed
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: except for Recall. Dalesa sounded as if she were chewing
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: her words in little pieces and spitting them at carral Oh,
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: you were clever to take us both as your consorts.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: You did not know what was Recalls doing. Did you
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: hate the Terreens? Then she spat an obscenity at him.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Enjoy your hate, wallow in hating, and in the end
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: all Shane thu will fall prey to the toy maker,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: like Miellyn. If you speak that name again, said Kiral
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: very low, I will kill you like Miellyn. Miellyn Miellyn,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Dallisa repeated deliberately, You fool, Recall knew nothing of Miellyn.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: He was seen with me, You fool with me. You
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: cannot tell twin from twin. Racol came to me to
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: ask news of her. Kiral cried out hoarsely, like a
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: man in anguish. Why didn't you tell me? You don't
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: really have to ask, do you krawl? You bitch, said Karral,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: You filthy bitch. I heard the sound of a blow.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: The next moment, Kiral ripped the blindfold from my eyes,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: and I blinked in the blaze of light. My arms
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: were wholly numb, now twisted above my head, but the
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: jar of his touch sent fresh pain racing through me.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Carral's face swam out of the blaze of hell. If
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: that is true, then this is a damnable farce. Elysa,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: you have lost our chance of learning what he knows
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: of Miellyn. What he knows? De Lisa lowered her hand
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: from her face, where a bruise was already dark. Milyn
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: has twice appeared when I was with him. Loose him,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: De Lisa, and bargain with him what we know of
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Recall for what he knows of Milyn. If you think
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: I would let you bargain with Tarannin, she mocked, weakling,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: this quarrel is mine, you fool. The others in the
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: caravan will give me news if you will not. Where
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: is Quinn? From a million miles away, Carrol laughed, you've
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: slipped the wrong hawk De Lisa. The CapMan killed him,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: his skin flicked loose. He climbed to a perch near
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: the rope at my wrists. Bargain with me, Rascar. I coughed,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: unable to speak, and Carroll insisted, will you bargain? End
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: this damned woman's farce, which makes a mock of Shagri.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: The slant of sun told me there was light left.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: I found a shred of voice, not knowing what I
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: was going to say until I had said it irrevocably.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: This is between Dalsa and me. Kirall glared at me
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: in mounting rage. With four strides. He was out of
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: the room, flinging back a harsh furious I hope you
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: kill each other, and the door slammed. Dalesa's face swam
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: red and again, as before, I knew the battle which
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: was joined between us would be fought to a dreadful end.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: She touched my chest lightly, but the touch jolted excruciating
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: pain through my shoulders. Did you kill Quinn? I wondered
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: wearily what this presaged? Did you in a passion. She cried, Answer,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: did you kill him? She struck me hard, and where
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: the touch had been pained, the blow was a blaze
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: of white agony. I fainted. Answer. She struck me again,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: and the white blaze jolted me back to consciousness. Answer me, Answer,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Each cry brought a blow until I gasped. Finally, he signaled,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: set catman on us. No. She stood staring at me,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: and her white face was a death mask in which
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: the eyes lived. She screamed wildly, and the huge chalk
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: came running. Cut him down, Cut him down, cut him down.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: A knife slashed the rope, and I slumped, falling in
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: a bone breaking huddle to the floor. My arms were
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: still twisted over my head. The chalk cut the ropes apart,
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: pulled my arms roughly back into place, and I gagged
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: with the pain as the blood began flowing painfully through
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: the chafed and swollen hands. And then I lost consciousness,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: more or less permanently this time. End of chapter eight