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10 - The Door Through Space - Marion Zimmer Bradley · Classic Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter ten. A few days later, I found myself nearing
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  Speaker 1: the end of the trail. It was twilight in Charin,
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  Speaker 1: hot and reeking, with a gipsy glare of fires which
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  Speaker 1: burned smoking. At the far end of the street of
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  Speaker 1: the Six Shepherds. I crouched in the shadow of a wall, waiting,
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  Speaker 1: my skin itched from the dirty shirt cloak I hadn't
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  Speaker 1: changed in days. Shabbiness is wise in non human parts,
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  Speaker 1: and dry towners think too much of water to waste
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  Speaker 1: much of it in superfluous washing. Anyhow, I scratched unobtrusively
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  Speaker 1: and glanced cautiously down the street. It seemed empty except
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  Speaker 1: for a few sodden derelict sprawled in doorways. The Street
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  Speaker 1: of the Six Shepherds is a filthy slum, but I
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  Speaker 1: made sure my skin was loose. Charin is not a
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  Speaker 1: particularly safe town, even for dry towners, and especially not
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  Speaker 1: for earthmen at any time. Even with what Dallis had
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  Speaker 1: told me, the search had been difficult. Charin is not
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  Speaker 1: Shainsaw in Charin, where human and non human live closer
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  Speaker 1: together than anywhere else on the planet. Information about such men,
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  Speaker 1: as recall can be bought, but the policy is to
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  Speaker 1: let the buyer. Beware that's fair enough, because the life
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  Speaker 1: of the cellar has a way of not being worth
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  Speaker 1: much afterward. Either. A dirty, dust laden wind was blowing
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  Speaker 1: up along the street, heavy with strange smells. The pungent
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  Speaker 1: reek of incense from a street shrine was in the smells,
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  Speaker 1: the heavy acrid odor that made my skin crawl. In
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  Speaker 1: the hills behind Charin, the ghost wind was rising. Born
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  Speaker 1: on this wind, the yamen would sweep down from the mountains,
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  Speaker 1: and everything human or nearly human, would scatter in their path.
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  Speaker 1: They would range through the quarter all night, and in
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  Speaker 1: the morning they would melt away until the ghost wind
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  Speaker 1: blew again. At any other time I would already have
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  Speaker 1: taken cover. I fancied that I could hear borne on
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  Speaker 1: the wind, the far away yelping, and envision the plumed,
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  Speaker 1: taloned figures which would come leaping down the street. In
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  Speaker 1: that moment, the quiet of the street split asunder. From somewhere,
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  Speaker 1: a girl's voice screamed in shrill, pain or panic. Then
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  Speaker 1: I saw her, dodging between two of the chinked pebble.
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  Speaker 1: She was a child, thin and barefoot, a long tangle
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  Speaker 1: of black hair flying loose as she darted and twisted
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  Speaker 1: to elude the lumbering fellow at her heels, his outstretched
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  Speaker 1: paw jerked cruelly at her slim wrist. The little girl
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  Speaker 1: screamed and wrenched herself free, and threw herself straight on me,
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  Speaker 1: wrapping herself around my neck with the violence of a
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  Speaker 1: storm wind. Her hair got in my mouth, and her
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  Speaker 1: small hands gripped at my neck like a cat's flexed claws.
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  Speaker 1: Oh help me, she gasped between sobs. Don't let him
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  Speaker 1: get me, don't, And even in the broken plea, I
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  Speaker 1: took it in that the little ragamuffin did not speak
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  Speaker 1: the jargon of that slum, but the pure speech of
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  Speaker 1: Shane saw. What I did then was as automatic as
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  Speaker 1: if it had been Julie. I pulled the kid loose,
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  Speaker 1: shoved her behind me, and scowled at the brute, who
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  Speaker 1: lurched towards us. Make yourself scarce, I advised, we don't
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  Speaker 1: chase little girls where I come from. Haul off now.
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  Speaker 1: The man reeled. I smelled the rankness of his rags
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  Speaker 1: as he thrust one grimy paw at the girl. I
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  Speaker 1: never was the hero type, but I'd started something which
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  Speaker 1: I had to carry through. I thrust myself between them
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  Speaker 1: and put my hand on the skin again, you dry towner.
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  Speaker 1: The man set up a tipsy howl, and I sucked
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  Speaker 1: in my breath. Now I was in for it. Unless
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  Speaker 1: I got out of there damned fast, i'd lose what
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  Speaker 1: had come all the way to Charon to find. I
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  Speaker 1: felt like handing the girl over. For all I knew
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  Speaker 1: the bully could be her father, and she was properly
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  Speaker 1: in line for spanking. This wasn't any of my business.
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  Speaker 1: My business lay at the end of the street, where
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  Speaker 1: Rakhal was waiting at the fires. He wouldn't be there
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  Speaker 1: long already. The smell of the ghost wind was heavy
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  Speaker 1: and harsh, and little flurries of sand went racing along
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  Speaker 1: the street, lifting the flaps of the doorways. But I
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  Speaker 1: did nothing so sensible. The big lunk made a grab
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  Speaker 1: at the girl, and I whipped out my skin and
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  Speaker 1: pantomimed get going, dry towner. He spat out the word
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  Speaker 1: like philth, his pig eyes narrowing to slits. Some of
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  Speaker 1: the ape earth man trun in. Someone took up the howl.
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  Speaker 1: There was a stir, a rustle all along the street
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  Speaker 1: that had seemed empty, and from nowhere. It seemed the
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  Speaker 1: space in front of me was crowded with shadowy forms,
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  Speaker 1: human and otherwise earth man. I felt the muscles across
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  Speaker 1: my belly nodding into a band of ice. I didn't
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  Speaker 1: believe I'd given myself away as an earth Man. The
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  Speaker 1: bully was using this time dishonored tactic of stirring up
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  Speaker 1: a riot in a hurry, but just the same, I
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  Speaker 1: looked quickly round, hunting a path of escape. Put your
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  Speaker 1: skin and his gut, Spilker, grab him Hi, Earthman Hi.
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  Speaker 1: It was the last cry that made me panic. Through
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  Speaker 1: the sultry glare at the end of the street, I
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  Speaker 1: could see the plumed, taloned figures of the Yeomen gliding
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  Speaker 1: through the banners of smoke. The crowd melted open. I
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  Speaker 1: didn't stop to reflect on the fact, suddenly very obvious,
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  Speaker 1: that Recall couldn't have been at the fires at all,
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  Speaker 1: and that my informant had led me into an open trap,
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  Speaker 1: a nest of Yeomen already inside charin. The crowd edged
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  Speaker 1: back and muttered, and suddenly I made my choice. I whirled,
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  Speaker 1: snatched up the girl in my arms, and ran straight
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  Speaker 1: toward the advancing figures of the Yeomen. Nobody followed me.
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  Speaker 1: I even heard a choked shout that sounded like a warning.
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  Speaker 1: I heard the yelping shrieks of the Yeoman grow to
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  Speaker 1: a wild howl, And at the last minute, when their stiff,
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  Speaker 1: rustling plumes loomed only a few yards away, I dived
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  Speaker 1: sidewa into an alley, stumbled on some rubbish, and spilled
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  Speaker 1: the girl down. Run kid. She shook herself like a
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  Speaker 1: puppy climbing out of the water. Her small fingers closed
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  Speaker 1: like a steel trap on my wrist. This way, she
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  Speaker 1: urged in a hasty whisper, and I found myself plunging
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  Speaker 1: out the far end of the alley and into the
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  Speaker 1: shelter of a street shrine. The sour stink of incense
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  Speaker 1: smarted in my nostrils, and I could hear the yelping
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  Speaker 1: of the Yeoman as they leaped and rustled down the alley,
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  Speaker 1: their cold and poisonous eyes searching out the recesses where
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  Speaker 1: I crouched with the girl. Here, she panted, stand close
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  Speaker 1: to me on the stone. I drew back, startled. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: don't stop to argue, she whimpered, Come here, high earth man,
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  Speaker 1: there is the girl's arms flung round me again. I
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  Speaker 1: felt her slight, hard body pressing on mine, and she
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  Speaker 1: literally hauled me toward the pattern of stones in the
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  Speaker 1: center of the shrine. I wouldn't have been human if
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  Speaker 1: I hadn't caught her closer. Yet the world reeled, the
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  Speaker 1: street disappeared in a cone of spinning lights, stars danced crazily,
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  Speaker 1: and I plunged down through a widening gulf of empty space.
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  Speaker 1: Locked in the girl's arms, spun plunged head over heels
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  Speaker 1: through tilting lights and shadows that flung us through the
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  Speaker 1: eternities of free fall. The yelping of the Yeomen whirled
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  Speaker 1: away in unimaginable distances, and for a second I felt
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  Speaker 1: the unmerciful blackout of a power dive, with blood breaking
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  Speaker 1: from my nostrils and filling my mouth. End of Chapter ten.