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

0:00
Speaker 1: Chapter five. It was getting dark when I slipped through
0:04
Speaker 1: the side gate, shabby and inconspicuous, into the Spaceport Square
0:08
Speaker 1: beyond the yellow lamps. I knew that the old city
0:11
Speaker 1: was beginning to take on life with the falling night.
0:13
Speaker 1: Out of the chinked pebble houses, men and women, human
0:16
Speaker 1: and non human, came forth into the moonlit streets. If
0:20
Speaker 1: anyone noticed me cross the square, which I doubted, they
0:23
Speaker 1: took me for just another dry town vagabond, curious about
0:26
Speaker 1: the world of the strangers from beyond the stars, and
0:28
Speaker 1: who curiosity satisfied, was drifting back where he belonged. I
0:33
Speaker 1: turned down one of the dark alleys that led away,
0:36
Speaker 1: and soon was walking in the dark. The Carsa was
0:39
Speaker 1: not unfamiliar to me as a Terran, but for the
0:41
Speaker 1: last six years I had seen only its daytime face.
0:45
Speaker 1: I doubted if there were a dozen earth Men in
0:47
Speaker 1: the old town tonight, though I saw one in the bazaar,
0:50
Speaker 1: dirty and lurching, drunk, one of those who run renegade
0:53
Speaker 1: and homeless between worlds, belonging to neither. This was what
0:57
Speaker 1: I had nearly become. I went further up the hill
1:00
Speaker 1: with the rising streets. Once I turned and saw below
1:03
Speaker 1: me the bright lighted spaceport, the black, many windowed loom
1:07
Speaker 1: of the skyscraper like a patch of alien shadow in
1:09
Speaker 1: the red violet moonlight. I turned my back on them
1:13
Speaker 1: and walked on. At the fringe of the thieves Market,
1:16
Speaker 1: I paused outside a wine shop where dry towners were
1:19
Speaker 1: made welcome. A golden non human child murmured something as
1:22
Speaker 1: she pattered by me in the street, and I stopped,
1:25
Speaker 1: gripped by a spasm of stage fright. Had the dialect
1:28
Speaker 1: of shine Saw grown rusty on my tongue, spies were
1:30
Speaker 1: given short shrift on wolf, and a mile from the spaceport,
1:33
Speaker 1: I might as well have been on one of those moons.
1:36
Speaker 1: There were no spaceport shockers at my back now, and
1:39
Speaker 1: some one might remember the tail of an earth man
1:41
Speaker 1: with a scarred face who had gone to shine Saw
1:43
Speaker 1: in disguise. I shrugged the shirt cloak around my shoulders,
1:47
Speaker 1: pushing the door, and went in. I had remembered that
1:49
Speaker 1: Racal was waiting for me, not beyond this door, but
1:53
Speaker 1: at the end of the trail, behind some other door somewhere.
1:56
Speaker 1: And we have a byword in chainsaw. A trail without
1:59
Speaker 1: beginning has no Right there, I stopped thinking about Julie Rindy,
2:04
Speaker 1: the Terran Empire, or what Recall, who knew too many
2:06
Speaker 1: of Terra's secrets, might do if he had turned renegade.
2:10
Speaker 1: My fingers went up and stroked musingly the ridge of
2:12
Speaker 1: the scar tissue along my mouth. At that moment, I
2:16
Speaker 1: was thinking only of Recall, of an unsettled blood feud,
2:19
Speaker 1: and of my revenge. Red lamps were burning inside the
2:23
Speaker 1: wine shop, where men reclined on frowsy couches. I stumbled
2:27
Speaker 1: over to one of them, found an empty place, and
2:29
Speaker 1: let myself sink down on it, arranging myself automatically in
2:32
Speaker 1: the sprawl of drytowners indoors in public, they stood rigid
2:37
Speaker 1: and formal, even to eat and drink among themselves. Anything
2:41
Speaker 1: less than a loose limbed sprawl betrayed insulting watchfulness. Only
2:46
Speaker 1: a man who fears secret murder keeps himself on guard.
2:50
Speaker 1: A girl with a tangled rope of hair down her
2:51
Speaker 1: back came toward me. Her hands were unchained, meaning she
2:55
Speaker 1: was a woman of the lowest class, not worth safeguarding.
2:58
Speaker 1: Her first smock was shabby and matted with filth. I
3:01
Speaker 1: sent her for wine When it came, it was surprisingly good,
3:05
Speaker 1: the sweet and treacherous wine of art Koran. I sipped
3:08
Speaker 1: it slowly, looking round. If a caravan of Shainsaw were
3:12
Speaker 1: leaving tomorrow, it would be known here. A word dropped
3:15
Speaker 1: that I was returning. There would bring me by iron
3:18
Speaker 1: bound custom and invitation to travel in their company. When
3:22
Speaker 1: I sent the woman for wine a second time, a
3:24
Speaker 1: man on a nearby couch got up and walked over
3:26
Speaker 1: to me. He was tall, even for a dry towner,
3:29
Speaker 1: and there was something vaguely familiar about him. He was
3:32
Speaker 1: no riff raff of the Karsa either, for his shirt
3:35
Speaker 1: cloak was of rich silk, interwoven with metallic threads and
3:38
Speaker 1: crusted with heavy embroideries. The hilt of his skin was
3:42
Speaker 1: carved from a single green gem. He stood looking down
3:45
Speaker 1: at me for some time before he spoke, I never
3:48
Speaker 1: forget a voice. Although I cannot bring your face to mind,
3:51
Speaker 1: have I a duty toward you? I had spoken a
3:53
Speaker 1: jargon to the girl, but he addressed me in the
3:55
Speaker 1: lilting sing song speech of Shainsaw. I made no answer,
3:59
Speaker 1: gesturing him to me seated on wolf. Formal courtesy requires
4:03
Speaker 1: a series of polite non sequitters. And while a direct
4:06
Speaker 1: question merely borders U rudeness, a direct answer is the
4:09
Speaker 1: mark of a simpleton. A drink. I joined you, unasked,
4:14
Speaker 1: he retorted, and summoned the tangle headed girl bring us
4:17
Speaker 1: better wine than this swill. With that word and gesture,
4:20
Speaker 1: I recognized him, and my teeth clamped hard on my lip.
4:24
Speaker 1: This was the loud mouth who had sworn fight in
4:26
Speaker 1: the Spaceport cafe and run away before the dark girl
4:29
Speaker 1: with the sign of Nebrin scrawled on her breast. But
4:32
Speaker 1: in this poor light, he had not recognized me. I
4:35
Speaker 1: moved deliberately into the full red glow. If he did
4:38
Speaker 1: not know me, For the terran he had challenged last
4:40
Speaker 1: night in the Spaceport cafe, it was unlikely that any
4:42
Speaker 1: one else would. He stared at me for some minutes,
4:46
Speaker 1: but in the end he only shrugged and poured wine
4:48
Speaker 1: from the bottle he had ordered. Three drinks. Later, I
4:51
Speaker 1: knew that his name was Keral, and that he was
4:53
Speaker 1: a trader in wire and fine steel tools through the
4:55
Speaker 1: non human towns, and I had given him the name
4:58
Speaker 1: I had chosen, Rascal. He asked, are you thinking of
5:02
Speaker 1: returning to Shane saw worry of a trap. I hesitated,
5:06
Speaker 1: but the question seemed harmless, so I only countered, have
5:09
Speaker 1: you been long in the carsa several weeks? Trading No?
5:14
Speaker 1: He applied himself to the wine again. I was searching
5:17
Speaker 1: for a member of my family. Did you find him? Her?
5:22
Speaker 1: Said carral In ceremoniously spat no, I didn't find her.
5:26
Speaker 1: What is your business in Shane, saw I chuckled briefly.
5:29
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I am searching for a
5:31
Speaker 1: member of my family. He narrowed his eyelids, as if
5:35
Speaker 1: he suspected me of mocking him. But personal privacy is
5:37
Speaker 1: the most rigid convention of the dry towns, and such
5:40
Speaker 1: mockery showed a sensible disregard for prying questions if I
5:44
Speaker 1: did not choose to answer them, he questioned. No. Further,
5:48
Speaker 1: I can use an extra man to handle the loads.
5:50
Speaker 1: Are you good with pack animals? If so, you are
5:53
Speaker 1: welcome to travel under the protection of my caravan. I agreed, then,
5:57
Speaker 1: reflecting that Julian recall must after be known in Shaine,
6:01
Speaker 1: saw I asked, do you know a traitor who calls
6:03
Speaker 1: himself censar? He stared slightly. I saw his eyes move
6:07
Speaker 1: along my scars, then reserve, like a lowered curtain, shut
6:11
Speaker 1: itself over his face, concealing a brief, satisfied glimmer. No,
6:15
Speaker 1: he lied and stood up. We leave at first daylight.
6:19
Speaker 1: Have your gear ready. He flipped something at me and
6:21
Speaker 1: I caught it in mid air. It was a stone
6:24
Speaker 1: insized with Karral's name and the idiographs of Shane Saw.
6:27
Speaker 1: You can sleep with the caravan if you care to
6:29
Speaker 1: show that token to Quin. Kirral's caravan was encamped in
6:33
Speaker 1: a barred field past the furthest gates of the Karsa.
6:36
Speaker 1: About a dozen men were busy loading the pack animals
6:39
Speaker 1: horses shipped in from dark Over mostly. I asked the
6:42
Speaker 1: first man I met for Quinn. He pointed out a
6:45
Speaker 1: burly fellow in a shiny red shirtcloak who was busy
6:47
Speaker 1: chewing out one of the young men for the way
6:49
Speaker 1: he'd put a pack saddle on his beast. Shane Saw
6:52
Speaker 1: is a good language for cursing, but Quinn had a
6:54
Speaker 1: special talent at it. I blinked in admiration while I
6:57
Speaker 1: waited for him to get his breast so I could
6:58
Speaker 1: hand him Kirrl's toke. In the light of the fire,
7:01
Speaker 1: I saw what I'd half expected. He was the second
7:04
Speaker 1: of the dry towners who tried to rough me up
7:06
Speaker 1: in the spaceport cafe. Quinn barely glanced at the cut
7:09
Speaker 1: stone and tossed it back, pointing out one of the
7:11
Speaker 1: pack horses. Load your personal gear on that one. Then
7:14
Speaker 1: get busy and show this mush headed wearer of sandals
7:17
Speaker 1: an insult carrying particularly filthy implications in chainsaw how to
7:21
Speaker 1: fasten a pack strap. He drew a breath and began
7:23
Speaker 1: to swear at the luckless youngster again, and I relaxed.
7:26
Speaker 1: He evidently hadn't recognized me either. I took the strap
7:29
Speaker 1: in my hand, guiding it through the saddle loop like that,
7:33
Speaker 1: I told the kid, and Quinn stopped swearing long enough
7:35
Speaker 1: to give me a curt nod of acknowledgment and point
7:37
Speaker 1: out a heap of boxed and crated objects. Help him
7:40
Speaker 1: load up. We want to get clear of the city
7:42
Speaker 1: by daybreak, he ordered, and went off to swear at
7:44
Speaker 1: someone else. Kiral turned up at dawn, and a few
7:48
Speaker 1: minutes later the camp had vanished into a small scattering
7:50
Speaker 1: of litter, and we were on our way. Kirral's caravan
7:54
Speaker 1: in spite of Quinn's cursing was well managed and well handled.
7:57
Speaker 1: The men were dried haunters, eleven of them and capable,
8:01
Speaker 1: and most of them very young. They were cheerful on
8:04
Speaker 1: the trail, handling pack animals competently during the day, and
8:07
Speaker 1: spent most of the nights grouped around the fire, gambling
8:09
Speaker 1: silently and the fall of the cut crystal prisms they
8:12
Speaker 1: used for dice. Three days at Akarsa, I began to
8:16
Speaker 1: worry about Quinn. It was, of course, a spectacular piece
8:20
Speaker 1: of bad luck to find all three of the men
8:22
Speaker 1: from the Spaceport Cafe in Karral's caravan. Karl had obviously
8:26
Speaker 1: not known me, and even by daylight he paid no
8:28
Speaker 1: attention to me, except to give an occasional order. The
8:31
Speaker 1: second of the three was a gangling kid who probably
8:34
Speaker 1: never gave me a second look, let alone a third.
8:36
Speaker 1: But Quinn was another matter. He was a man my
8:39
Speaker 1: own age, and his fierce eyes had a shrewdness in
8:42
Speaker 1: them that I did not trust. More than once I
8:44
Speaker 1: caught him watching me, and on the two or three
8:46
Speaker 1: occasions when he drew me into conversation, I found his
8:48
Speaker 1: questions more direct than dry town good manners aloud I
8:52
Speaker 1: weighed the possibility that I might have to kill him
8:55
Speaker 1: before we reached Shinsa. We crossed the foothills and began
8:59
Speaker 1: to climb up toward the mountains. The first few days
9:02
Speaker 1: I found myself short of breath as we worked upward
9:04
Speaker 1: into thinner air. Then my acclimatization returned and I began
9:08
Speaker 1: to fall into the pattern of the days and nights
9:09
Speaker 1: on the trail. The trade city was still a beacon
9:12
Speaker 1: in the night, but its glow on the horizon grew
9:14
Speaker 1: dimmer with each day's march. We climbed higher along dangerous
9:19
Speaker 1: trails where men had to dismount and let the pack
9:21
Speaker 1: animals pick their way foot by foot. Here in these altitudes,
9:24
Speaker 1: the sun at noonday blazed redder and brighter, and the
9:27
Speaker 1: dry towners who came from the parched lands and the
9:30
Speaker 1: sea bottoms were burned and blistered by the fierce light.
9:33
Speaker 1: I had grown up under the blazing sun of Terra,
9:35
Speaker 1: and a red sun like wolf, even at its hottest,
9:38
Speaker 1: caused me no discomfort. This alone would have made me suspect.
9:41
Speaker 1: Once again, I found Quinn's fierce eyes watching me as
9:45
Speaker 1: we crossed the passes and began to descend the long
9:48
Speaker 1: trail through the thick forests, we got into non human country.
9:52
Speaker 1: Racing against the ghost wind, we skirted the country around
9:54
Speaker 1: Charin and the woods inhabited by the terrible yeamen bird
9:57
Speaker 1: like creatures who turned cannibal when the ghost wind blew. Later,
10:01
Speaker 1: the trail wound through thicker forests of indigo trees and
10:04
Speaker 1: grayish purple brushwood, and at night we heard the howls
10:07
Speaker 1: of the catmen of these latitudes. At night we set
10:11
Speaker 1: guards about the caravan, and the dark spaces and shadows
10:14
Speaker 1: were filled with noises and queer smells and rustlings. Nevertheless,
10:19
Speaker 1: the days marches and the night watches passed without event
10:22
Speaker 1: until the night I shared guard with Quinn. I had
10:25
Speaker 1: posted myself at the edge of the camp, the fire
10:27
Speaker 1: behind me. The men were sleeping, rolls of snores huddled
10:31
Speaker 1: close around the fire. The animals hobbled with double ropes
10:34
Speaker 1: front feet to hind feet, shifted uneasily and let out
10:37
Speaker 1: uncanny wines. I heard Quinn pacing behind me. I heard
10:42
Speaker 1: a rustle at the edge of the forest, astir and
10:44
Speaker 1: whisper beyond the trees, and turned to speak to him,
10:47
Speaker 1: then saw him slipping away. Toward the outskirts of the clearing.
10:51
Speaker 1: For a moment I thought nothing of it, thinking that
10:53
Speaker 1: he was taking a few steps toward the gap in
10:55
Speaker 1: the trees where he had disappeared. I suppose I had
10:58
Speaker 1: the idea that he had slipped away to invest gate
11:00
Speaker 1: some noise or shadow, and that I should be at hand.
11:03
Speaker 1: Then I saw the flicker of lights beyond the trees,
11:06
Speaker 1: light from the lantern Quinn had been carrying in his hand.
11:09
Speaker 1: He was signaling. I slipped the safety class from the
11:12
Speaker 1: hilt of my skin and went after him. In the
11:14
Speaker 1: dimming glow of the fire, I fancied, I saw luminous
11:16
Speaker 1: eyes watching me, and the skin on my back crawled.
11:19
Speaker 1: I crept up behind him and leaped. We went down
11:22
Speaker 1: in a tangle of flailing legs and arms, and in
11:24
Speaker 1: less than a second he had his skeen out, and
11:25
Speaker 1: I was gripping his wrist, trying desperately to force the
11:28
Speaker 1: blade away from my throat. I gasped, don't be a
11:30
Speaker 1: fool one yell in. The whole camp will be awake.
11:32
Speaker 1: Who are you signaling? In the light of the fallen lantern,
11:36
Speaker 1: lips drawn back in a snarl, he looked almost inhuman.
11:39
Speaker 1: He strained at the knife for a moment, then dropped it.
11:42
Speaker 1: Let me up, he said. I got up and kicked
11:44
Speaker 1: the fallen skein toward him. Put that away. What the
11:47
Speaker 1: hell were you doing trying to bring the catmen down
11:49
Speaker 1: on us? For a moment he looked taken aback. Then
11:52
Speaker 1: his fierce face closed down again, and he said, wrathfully,
11:55
Speaker 1: can't a man walk away from the camp without being
11:57
Speaker 1: half strangled? I glared at it, but realized I really
12:01
Speaker 1: had nothing to go by. He might have been answering
12:03
Speaker 1: a call of nature and the movement of the lantern accidental,
12:06
Speaker 1: and if someone had jumped me from behind, I might
12:08
Speaker 1: have pulled a knife on him myself, So I only said,
12:11
Speaker 1: don't do it again. We're all too jumpy. There were
12:15
Speaker 1: no other incidents that night or the next. The night after,
12:18
Speaker 1: while I lay huddled in my shirt, cloak and blanket
12:21
Speaker 1: by the fire, I saw Quinn slip out of his
12:23
Speaker 1: bed roll and steal away. A moment later there was
12:25
Speaker 1: a gleam in the darkness. But before I could summon
12:28
Speaker 1: the resolve to get up and face it out with him,
12:30
Speaker 1: he turned, looking cautiously at the snoring men and crawled
12:33
Speaker 1: back into his blankets. While we were unpacking at the
12:37
Speaker 1: next camp, Carroll halted beside me. Heard anything queer lately?
12:41
Speaker 1: I've got the notion where being trailed. We'll be out
12:43
Speaker 1: of these forests tomorrow, and after that it's clear road
12:46
Speaker 1: all the way to Shane's Saw. If anything's going to happen,
12:48
Speaker 1: it will happen tonight. I debated, speaking to him about
12:51
Speaker 1: Quinn's signals. No, I had my own business waiting for
12:55
Speaker 1: me in shane Saw. Why mix myself up with some
12:57
Speaker 1: other private intrigue, He said, I'm putting you and Quinn
13:01
Speaker 1: on watch again. The old men doze off and the
13:03
Speaker 1: young fellows get to day dreaming or fooling around. That's
13:06
Speaker 1: all right most of the time, but I want someone
13:08
Speaker 1: who'll keep his eyes open tonight. Did you ever know
13:10
Speaker 1: Quinn before this? Never set eyes on him? Funny, I
13:15
Speaker 1: had the notion. He shrugged, turned away, then stopped. Don't
13:19
Speaker 1: think twice about rousing the camp. If there's any disturbance,
13:21
Speaker 1: better a false alarm than an ambush that catches us
13:24
Speaker 1: all in our blankets. If it came to a fight,
13:26
Speaker 1: we might be in a bad way. We all carry
13:28
Speaker 1: skeins but I don't think there's a shocker in the
13:30
Speaker 1: whole group, let alone a gun. You don't have one
13:33
Speaker 1: by any chance. After the men had turned in, Quinn,
13:36
Speaker 1: patrolling the camp, halted a minute beside me and cocked
13:39
Speaker 1: his head toward the rustling forest. What's going on in there?
13:43
Speaker 1: Who knows? Catman on the prowl, probably thinking the horses
13:46
Speaker 1: would make a good meal, or maybe that we would
13:49
Speaker 1: think it will come to a fight. I wouldn't know.
13:52
Speaker 1: He surveyed me for a moment, without speaking, and if
13:55
Speaker 1: it did, we'd fight. Then I sucked in my breath,
13:58
Speaker 1: for Quinn had spoken Terran standard, and I, without thinking,
14:02
Speaker 1: had answered in the same language. He grinned, showing white
14:05
Speaker 1: teeth filed to a point, I thought, so. I seized
14:09
Speaker 1: his shoulder and demanded, roughly, and what are you going
14:11
Speaker 1: to do about it? That depends on you? He answered,
14:14
Speaker 1: and what you want in chainsaw? Tell me the truth?
14:17
Speaker 1: What were you doing in the Terran zone. He gave
14:19
Speaker 1: me no chance to answer. You know who Karl is?
14:22
Speaker 1: Don't you a trader? I said? Who pays my wages
14:26
Speaker 1: and minds his own affairs? I moved backward, hand on
14:29
Speaker 1: my skein braced for a sudden rush. He made no
14:31
Speaker 1: aggressive motion. However, Kiral told me you'd been asking questions
14:35
Speaker 1: about Recall cince our, he said, clever. Now, I, for one,
14:39
Speaker 1: could have told you that he'd never set eyes on Recall.
14:42
Speaker 1: I he broke off, hearing a noise in the forest,
14:44
Speaker 1: a long, eerie howl. I muttered, if you've brought them
14:47
Speaker 1: down on us. He shook his head urgently. I had
14:50
Speaker 1: to take that chance to get word to the others.
14:53
Speaker 1: It won't work. Where's the girl? I hardly heard him.
14:56
Speaker 1: I was hearing twig snap and silently sneaking feet. I
14:59
Speaker 1: turned for a yell that would rouse the camp, and
15:01
Speaker 1: Quinn grabbed my hand hard, saying insistently, quick, where's the girl?
15:05
Speaker 1: Go back and tell her it won't work. If Corral suspected.
15:08
Speaker 1: He never finished the sentence. Just behind us came another
15:11
Speaker 1: of the long, eerie howls. I knocked Quinn away, and
15:14
Speaker 1: suddenly the night was filled with crouching forms that came
15:16
Speaker 1: down on us like a whirlwind. I shouted madly as
15:19
Speaker 1: the camp came alive, with men struggling out of blankets,
15:21
Speaker 1: fighting for life itself. I ran hard, still shouting for
15:24
Speaker 1: the enclosure where we had tied the horses. A catman,
15:27
Speaker 1: slim and black furred, was crouched and cutting the hobble
15:30
Speaker 1: strings of the nearest animal. I hurled myself on him.
15:32
Speaker 1: He exploded, clawing, raking my shoulder with talons that ripped
15:36
Speaker 1: through rough cloth like paper. I whipped out my skin
15:38
Speaker 1: and slashed upward. The talons contracted on my shoulder, and
15:41
Speaker 1: I gasped with pain. Then the thing howled and fell away,
15:45
Speaker 1: clawing at the air. It twitched and lay still, fore
15:48
Speaker 1: shots and rapid succession cracked in the clearing care all.
15:51
Speaker 1: To the contrary, someone must have had a pistol. I
15:54
Speaker 1: heard one of the cat things wail a hoarse, drying rattle.
15:57
Speaker 1: Something dark clawed my arm, and I slashed with the knife,
16:00
Speaker 1: going down as another set of talons fastened on my back.
16:02
Speaker 1: Rolling and clutching, I managed to get the thing's forelimbs
16:05
Speaker 1: wedged under my elbow, my knee, and its spine. I
16:08
Speaker 1: heaved bent it backward, backward till it screamed a high wail.
16:11
Speaker 1: Then I felt the spine snap, and the dead thing
16:14
Speaker 1: muled once just air, escaping from collapsing lungs, and slid
16:17
Speaker 1: limp from my thigh erect. It had not been over
16:20
Speaker 1: four feet tall, and in the light of the dying fire,
16:22
Speaker 1: it might have been a dead lynx rascar hem. I
16:26
Speaker 1: heard a gasp, a groan. I whirled and saw Kiral
16:29
Speaker 1: go down, struggling, drowning in half a dozen or more
16:32
Speaker 1: of the fierce half humans. I leaped at the smother
16:34
Speaker 1: of bodies, ripped one away with a stranglehold, slashed at
16:37
Speaker 1: its throat. They were easy to kill. I heard a high,
16:40
Speaker 1: urgent scream in their mewing tongue. Then the furred black
16:43
Speaker 1: things seemed to melt into the forest as silently as
16:46
Speaker 1: they had come. Kirral dazed, his forehead running blood, his
16:49
Speaker 1: arms slashed to the bone, was sitting on the ground,
16:51
Speaker 1: still stunned. Somebody had to take charge. I bellowed, lights,
16:56
Speaker 1: get lights. They won't come back if we have enough light.
16:59
Speaker 1: They can only see what in the dark. Someone stirred
17:02
Speaker 1: the fire. It blazed up as they piled on dead branches,
17:04
Speaker 1: and I roughly commanded one of the kids to fill
17:06
Speaker 1: every lantern he could find and get them burning. Four
17:09
Speaker 1: of the dead things were lying in the clearing. The
17:11
Speaker 1: youngsterride helped loading horses the first day. Gazed down at
17:14
Speaker 1: one of the catmen, half disemboweled by somebody's skin, and
17:17
Speaker 1: suddenly bolted for the bushes, where I heard him wretching.
17:20
Speaker 1: I set the others with stronger stomachs to dragging the
17:23
Speaker 1: bodies away from the clearing, and went back to see
17:25
Speaker 1: how badly Kiral was hurt. He had the rip in
17:27
Speaker 1: his arm and his face was covered with blood from
17:29
Speaker 1: a shallow scalp wound, but he insisted on getting up
17:31
Speaker 1: to inspect the hurts of the others. There was no
17:34
Speaker 1: one without a claw wound in leg or back or shoulder,
17:37
Speaker 1: but none were serious, and we were all feeling fairly
17:40
Speaker 1: cheerful when someone demanded where's Quinn. He didn't seem to
17:43
Speaker 1: be anywhere. Kirall staggered slightly, insisting on searching, but I
17:47
Speaker 1: felt we wouldn't find him. He probably went off with
17:50
Speaker 1: his friends. I snorted and told about the signaling. Kirall
17:53
Speaker 1: looked grave. You should have told me, he began, but
17:57
Speaker 1: shouts from the far end of the clearing sent us
17:58
Speaker 1: racing there nearly stumbled over a single, solitary, motionless form,
18:03
Speaker 1: outstretched and lifeless, blind eyes staring upward at the moon's
18:07
Speaker 1: It was Quinn, and his throat had been torn completely
18:10
Speaker 1: out end of chapter five,