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

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Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen. I stumbled over steps, took a jolting stride downward,
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Speaker 1: and found myself in a dim room jammed with dark figures,
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Speaker 1: human and non human. The figures swayed in the darkness,
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Speaker 1: chanting in a dialect not altogether familiar to me, a
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Speaker 1: monotonous wailing chant with a single recurrent phrase, camaina clamas ena.
0:27
Speaker 1: It began on a high note, descending in weird chromatics
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Speaker 1: to the lowest tone the human ear could resolve. The
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Speaker 1: sound made me draw back. Even the dry towners shunned
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Speaker 1: the augiastic rituals of Camayina. Earth Men have a reputation
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Speaker 1: for getting rid of the more objectionable customs by human
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Speaker 1: standards on any planet where they live, but they don't
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Speaker 1: touch religions, and Camayina, on the surface, anyhow, was a religion.
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Speaker 1: I started to turn round and leave, as if I
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Speaker 1: had inadvertently walked through the wrong door, but my conduct
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Speaker 1: a hauled on my arm and I was wedged in
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Speaker 1: too tight by now to risk a rough house Trying
1:09
Speaker 1: to force my way out would only have called attention
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Speaker 1: to me. And the first of the Secret Service maxims is,
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Speaker 1: when in doubt, go along, keep quiet, and watch the
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Speaker 1: other guy. As my eyes adapted to the dim light,
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Speaker 1: I saw that most of the crowd were charon, plainsmen,
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Speaker 1: or checks. One or two wore dry town shirt cloaks,
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Speaker 1: and I even thought I saw an earth Man in
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Speaker 1: the crowd, though I was never sure, and I fervently
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Speaker 1: hoped not. They were squatting around small crescent shaped tables,
1:42
Speaker 1: and all intently gazing at a flickery spot of light
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Speaker 1: at the front of the cellar. I saw an empty
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Speaker 1: place at one table, and dropped there, finding the floor soft,
1:53
Speaker 1: as if cushioned. On each table, small smudging pastiles were burning,
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Speaker 1: and from these cones of ash tipped fire came the steamy,
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Speaker 1: swimmy smoke that filled the darkness with strange colors. Beside me,
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Speaker 1: an immature chat girl was kneeling, her fetied hands strained
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Speaker 1: tightly back at her sides, her naked breasts pierced for
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Speaker 1: jeweled rings beneath the pallid fur around her pointed ears.
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Speaker 1: The exquisite animal face was quite mad, she whispered to me,
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Speaker 1: but her dialect was so thick that I could follow
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Speaker 1: only a few words, and would just as soon not
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Speaker 1: have heard those few. An older Chack grunted for silence,
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Speaker 1: and she subsided, swaying and crooning. There were cups and
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Speaker 1: decanters on all the tables, and a woman tilted pale
2:46
Speaker 1: phosphorescent fluid into a cup and offered it to me.
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Speaker 1: I took one sip, then another. It was cold and
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Speaker 1: pleasantly tart, and not until the second swallow turned sweet
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Speaker 1: on my tongue did I know what I tasted. I
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Speaker 1: pretended to swallow while the woman's eyes were fixed on me,
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Speaker 1: then somehow contrived to spill the filthy stuff down my shirt.
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Speaker 1: I was weary, even of the fumes, but there was
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Speaker 1: nothing else I could do. The stuff was Schalavan, outlawed
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Speaker 1: on every planet in the Terran Empire and every half
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Speaker 1: way decent planet outside it. More and more figures, men
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Speaker 1: and creatures kept crowding into the cellar, which was not
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Speaker 1: very large. The place looked like the worst nightmare of
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Speaker 1: a drug dreamer, ablaze, with the colors of the smoking incense,
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Speaker 1: the swaying crowd, and their monotonous cries. Quite suddenly there
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Speaker 1: was a blaze of purple light, and some one screamed
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Speaker 1: in a raving ecstasy. Nakina ni'ebran Nahai Camaina Camaina shrilled
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Speaker 1: the tranced mob. An old man jumped up and started
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Speaker 1: haranguing the crowd. I could just follow his dialect. He
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Speaker 1: was talking about terror, he was talking about ryots. He
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Speaker 1: was jabbering mystical gibberish which I couldn't understand and didn't
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Speaker 1: want to understand, and rabble rousing anti Terran propaganda, which
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Speaker 1: I understood much too well. Another blaze of lights and
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Speaker 1: a long scream in chorus, Camaena Evarin stood in the
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Speaker 1: blaze of many colored light. The toy maker, as I
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Speaker 1: had seen him last, cat's smooth, gracefully alien, shrouded in
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Speaker 1: a ripple of giddy crimsons. Behind him was a blackness.
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Speaker 1: I waited till the painful blaze of lights abated, then,
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Speaker 1: straining my eyes to see past him, I got my
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Speaker 1: worst shock. A woman stood there, naked to the waist,
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Speaker 1: her hands ritually fettered with little chains that stirred and
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Speaker 1: clashed musically as she moved stiff legged in a frozen dream.
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Speaker 1: Hair like black grass banded her brow and naked shoulders,
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Speaker 1: and her eyes were crimson, and the eyes lived in
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Speaker 1: the dread dreaming face they lived, and they were mad
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Speaker 1: with terror. Although the lips curved in a gently tranced smile.
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Speaker 1: Miellyn Evarin was speaking in that dialect. I barely understood.
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Speaker 1: His arms were flung high, and his cloak went spilling
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Speaker 1: away from them, rippling like something alive. The jammed humans
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Speaker 1: and non humans swayed and chanted, and he swayed above
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Speaker 1: them like an iridescent bug, weaving arms rippling back and forth,
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Speaker 1: back and forth. I strained to catch his words. Our world,
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Speaker 1: an old world, Camayena, whimpered, the shrill chorus. Humans, humans,
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Speaker 1: all humans would make slaves of us, all all save
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Speaker 1: the children of the Ape. I lost thread for a moment. True,
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Speaker 1: the Terran Empire has one small blind spot. In otherwise
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Speaker 1: sane policy ignored that non human and human have lived
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Speaker 1: placidly here for millennia. They placidly assume that humans were everywhere,
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Speaker 1: the dominant race, as on Earth itself. The toy maker's
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Speaker 1: weaving arms went on spinning, spinning. I rubbed my eyes
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Speaker 1: to clear them of chalavan and incense. I hoped that
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Speaker 1: what I saw was an illusion of the drug. Something,
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Speaker 1: something huge and dark, was hovering over the girl. She
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Speaker 1: stood placidly hands clasped on her chains, but her eyes
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Speaker 1: writhed in the frozen calm of her face. Then something
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Speaker 1: I can only call it a sixth sense, bore it
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Speaker 1: on me that there was some one outside the door.
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Speaker 1: I was perhaps the only creature there except for Evarin,
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Speaker 1: not drugged with Chalavan. And perhaps that's all it was.
6:52
Speaker 1: But during the days in the Secret Service, I'd had
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Speaker 1: to develop some extra senses. Five just weren't enough for survival.
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Speaker 1: I knew somebody was fixing to break down that door,
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Speaker 1: and I had a good idea why. I had been
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Speaker 1: followed by the legate's orders and tracking me here, had
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Speaker 1: gone away and brought back reinforcements. Someone struck a blow
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Speaker 1: on the door, and a stentorian voice bawled, open up
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Speaker 1: there in the name of the Empire. The chanting broke
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Speaker 1: in ragged quavers. Evarin stopped somewhere, a woman screamed. The
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Speaker 1: lights abruptly went out, and a stampede started in the room.
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Speaker 1: Women struck me with chains, men kicked. There were shrieks
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Speaker 1: and howls. I thrust my way forward, butting with elbows
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Speaker 1: and knees and shoulders. A dusky emptiness yawned, and I
7:37
Speaker 1: got a glimpse of sunlight and open sky, and knew
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Speaker 1: that Evarin had stepped through into somewhere and was gone.
7:45
Speaker 1: The banging on the door sounded like a whole regiment
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Speaker 1: of space force out there. I dived toward the shimmer
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Speaker 1: of little stars which marked Miellyn's tiara in the darkness,
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Speaker 1: braving the black horror hovering above her, and touched rigid
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Speaker 1: girl flesh cold as death. I grabbed her and ducked sideways.
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Speaker 1: This time it wasn't intuition nine times out of ten, anyway.
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Speaker 1: Intuition is just a mental short cut which adds up
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Speaker 1: all the things which your subconscious has noticed while you
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Speaker 1: were busy thinking about something else. Every native building on
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Speaker 1: Wolf had concealed entrances and exits, and I knew where
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Speaker 1: to look for them. This one was exactly where I expected.
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Speaker 1: I pushed at it and found myself in a long,
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Speaker 1: dim corridor. The head of a woman peered from an
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Speaker 1: opening door. She saw Miellyn's limp body hanging on my arm,
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Speaker 1: and her mouth widened in a silent scream. Then the
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Speaker 1: head popped back out of sight and a door slammed.
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Speaker 1: I heard the bolt slide. I ran for the end
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Speaker 1: of the hall, the girl in my arms, thinking that
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Speaker 1: this was where I came in, as far as Miellyn
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Speaker 1: was concerned, and wondering why I bothered, The door opened
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Speaker 1: on a dark, peaceful street. One lonely moon was setting
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Speaker 1: beyond the rooftops. I set Miellyn on her feet, but
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Speaker 1: she moaned and crumpled against me. I put my shirt
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Speaker 1: cloak round her bare shoulders. Judging by the noises and yells,
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Speaker 1: we'd gotten out just in time. No one came out
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Speaker 1: the exit behind us, either the Space Force had plugged it,
9:13
Speaker 1: or more likely everyone else in the cellar had been
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Speaker 1: too muddled by drugs to know what was going on.
9:20
Speaker 1: But it was only a few minutes I knew, before
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Speaker 1: Space Force would check the whole building for concealed escape holes. Suddenly,
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Speaker 1: and irrelevantly, I found myself thinking of a day not
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Speaker 1: too long ago, when I had stood up in front
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Speaker 1: of a unit in training of Space Force, introduced to
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Speaker 1: them as an intelligence expert on Native towns, and solemnly
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Speaker 1: warned them about concealed exits and entrances. I wondered for
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Speaker 1: half a minute if it might not be simpler just
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Speaker 1: to wait here and let them pick me up. Then
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Speaker 1: I hoisted Miellyn across my shoulders. She was heavier than
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Speaker 1: she looked, and after a minute, half conscious, she began
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Speaker 1: to struggle and moan. There was a check run cook
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Speaker 1: shop down the street, a place I had once known well,
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Speaker 1: with an evil reputation and worse food. But it was
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Speaker 1: quiet and stayed open all night. I turned in at
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Speaker 1: the door, bending at the low lintel. The place was
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Speaker 1: smoke filled and foul smelling. I dumped me in on
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Speaker 1: a couch and sent the frowsy waiter for two bowls
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Speaker 1: of noodles and coffee. Hadded him a few extra coins
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Speaker 1: and told him to leave us alone. He probably drew
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Speaker 1: the worst possible inference. I saw his muzzled twitch at
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Speaker 1: the smell of chalivan, but it was that kind of
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Speaker 1: place anyhow. He drew down the shutters and went I
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Speaker 1: stared at the unconscious girl, then shrugged and started on
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Speaker 1: the noodles. My own head was still swimming with the fumes,
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Speaker 1: incense and drug, and I wanted it clear. I wasn't
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Speaker 1: sure what I was going to do, but I had
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Speaker 1: Evarin's right hand girl, and I was going to use her.
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Speaker 1: The noodles were greasy and had a curious taste, but
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Speaker 1: they were hot, and they ate all of one bowl
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Speaker 1: before Miellyn stirred and whimpered and put up one hand
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Speaker 1: with a little clinking of chains to her hair. The
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Speaker 1: gesture was indefinably reminiscent of Dallisa, and for the first
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Speaker 1: time I saw the likeness between them. It made me
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Speaker 1: wary and yet curiously softened. Finding she could not move freely,
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Speaker 1: she rolled over, sat up, and stared around in growing
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Speaker 1: bewilderment and dismay. There was a sort of riot. I said,
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Speaker 1: I got you out, ever inditched you, and you can
11:33
Speaker 1: quit thinking what you're thinking. I put my shirt look
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Speaker 1: on you, because you were bare to the waist, and
11:37
Speaker 1: it didn't look so good. I stopped to think that
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Speaker 1: over and amended. I mean, I couldn't hauld you round
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Speaker 1: the streets that way. It looked good enough. To my surprise,
11:48
Speaker 1: she gave a shaky little giggle and held out her
11:51
Speaker 1: fettered hands. Will you. I broke her links and freed her.
11:57
Speaker 1: She rubbed her wrists as if they hurt her, then
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Speaker 1: drew up her draperies, pinned them so that she was
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Speaker 1: decently covered, and tossed back my shirt cloak. Her eyes
12:07
Speaker 1: were wide and soft in the light of a flickering
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Speaker 1: stub of candle. Oh Rakhal, she sighed. When I saw
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Speaker 1: you there, She sat up, clasping her hands together, and
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Speaker 1: when she continued, her voice was curiously cold and controlled.
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Speaker 1: For any one so childish, it was almost as cold
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Speaker 1: as dullesus. If you've come from Kirral, I'm not going back.
12:31
Speaker 1: I'll never go back, and you may as well know it.
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Speaker 1: I don't come from Kyral, and I don't care where
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Speaker 1: you go. I don't care what you do. I suddenly
12:41
Speaker 1: realized that the last statement was wholly untrue, and to
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Speaker 1: cover my confusion, I shoved the remaining bowl of noodles
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Speaker 1: at her eat. She wrinkled her nose in fastidious disgust.
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Speaker 1: I'm not hungry. Eat it anyway, you're still half doped,
12:58
Speaker 1: and the food will clear your head. I picked up
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Speaker 1: one mug of the coffee and drained it at a
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Speaker 1: single swallow. What were you doing in that disgusting den?
13:09
Speaker 1: Without warning, she flung herself across the table at me,
13:12
Speaker 1: throwing her arms round my neck. Startled. I let her
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Speaker 1: cling a moment, then reached up and firmly unfastened her hands.
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Speaker 1: None of that now, I fell for at once, and
13:22
Speaker 1: it landed me in the middle of the mud pie.
13:25
Speaker 1: But her fingers bit my shoulder. Rakhal, Rakhal, I tried
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Speaker 1: to get away and find you. Have you still got
13:31
Speaker 1: the bird? You haven't set it off yet. Oh don't, don't, don't, Rakhal.
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Speaker 1: You don't know what Evarin is. You don't know what
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Speaker 1: he's doing. The words spilled out of her like floodwaters.
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Speaker 1: He's won so many of you. Don't let him have
13:46
Speaker 1: you too, Rakhal. They call you an honest man. You
13:50
Speaker 1: worked once for terror. The Terrans would believe you if
13:53
Speaker 1: you went to them and told them what he Rakhal.
13:55
Speaker 1: Take me to the Terran zone. Take me there, Take
13:58
Speaker 1: me where they'll protect me from Evarin. At first I
14:01
Speaker 1: tried to stop her, questioned her, then waited and let
14:05
Speaker 1: the torrent of entreaty run on and on. At last,
14:09
Speaker 1: exhausted and breathless, she lay quietly against my shoulder, her
14:13
Speaker 1: head fallen forward. The musty wreak of Chalivan mingled with
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Speaker 1: the flower scent of her hair. Kid I said heavily.
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Speaker 1: At last, you and your toy maker have both got
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Speaker 1: me wrong. I'm not Rakhal Sensar, Y're not. She drew back,
14:31
Speaker 1: regarding me in dismay. Her eyes searched every inch of me,
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Speaker 1: from the gray streak across my forehead to the scar
14:38
Speaker 1: running down into my collar. Then hoot raced Cargill terran intelligence.
14:44
Speaker 1: She stared her mouth wide like a child's. Then she laughed.
14:49
Speaker 1: She laughed. At first I thought she was hysterical. I
14:54
Speaker 1: stared at her in consternation. Then as her wide eyes
14:58
Speaker 1: met mine, with all the mischief of the non human
15:00
Speaker 1: which was mingled into the human here, all the circular
15:04
Speaker 1: complexities of wolf logic behind the woman in them, I
15:07
Speaker 1: started to laugh too. I threw back my head and roared,
15:11
Speaker 1: until we were clinging together and gasping with mirth, like
15:14
Speaker 1: a pair of raving fools. The chack waiter came to
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Speaker 1: the door and stared at us, and I roared, get
15:20
Speaker 1: the hell out between spasms of crazy laughter. Then she
15:25
Speaker 1: was wiping her face, tears of mirth still dripping down
15:28
Speaker 1: her cheeks, and I was frowning bleakly into the empty bowls. Cargill.
15:34
Speaker 1: She said, hesitantly, you can take me to the terreens
15:37
Speaker 1: where Rakhal Hell's bells I exploded, I can't take you anywhere, girl,
15:43
Speaker 1: I've got to find Rakhal. I stopped in mid sentence
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Speaker 1: and looked at her clearly for the first time. Child.
15:51
Speaker 1: I'll see that you're protected if I can. But I'm
15:54
Speaker 1: afraid you've walked from the trap to the cook pot.
15:57
Speaker 1: There isn't a house in Charin that will hold me.
16:00
Speaker 1: Been thrown out twice a day. She nodded. I don't
16:03
Speaker 1: know how the word spreads, but it happens in nonhuman parts.
16:07
Speaker 1: I think they can see trouble written in a human face,
16:10
Speaker 1: or smell it in the wind. She fell silent, her
16:14
Speaker 1: face propped sleepily between her hands, her hair falling in tangles.
16:19
Speaker 1: I took one of her hands in mine and turned
16:20
Speaker 1: it over. It was a fine hand, with birdlike bones
16:25
Speaker 1: and soft rose tinted nails, but the lines and hardened
16:30
Speaker 1: places around the knuckles reminded me that she too came
16:33
Speaker 1: from the cold austerity of the salt dry towns. After
16:37
Speaker 1: a moment, she flushed and drew her hand from mine.
16:41
Speaker 1: What are you thinking, Cargill, she asked, and for the
16:44
Speaker 1: first time I heard her voice sobered, without the cockettery,
16:48
Speaker 1: which must, after all, have been a very thin veneer.
16:51
Speaker 1: I answered her simply and literally, I am thinking of Dallisa.
16:56
Speaker 1: I thought you were very different, and yet I see
16:59
Speaker 1: that you are very like her. I thought she would
17:03
Speaker 1: question what I knew of her sister, but she let
17:05
Speaker 1: it pass in silence. After a time, she said, yes,
17:11
Speaker 1: we were twins. Then, after a long silence, she added,
17:16
Speaker 1: but she was always much the older, And that was
17:20
Speaker 1: all I ever knew of whatever obscure pressures had shaped
17:23
Speaker 1: Dallisa into an asture and tragic Clytemnestra and Miellyn into
17:27
Speaker 1: a pixie runaway. Outside the drawn shutters, dawn was brightening.
17:33
Speaker 1: Miellyn shivered, drawing her thin draperies round her bare throat.
17:38
Speaker 1: I glanced at the little rim of jewels that starred
17:40
Speaker 1: her hair and said, you'd better take those off and
17:43
Speaker 1: hide them. They alone would be enough to have you
17:46
Speaker 1: hauled into an alley and strangled. In this part of Charon,
17:49
Speaker 1: I hauled the bird toy from my pocket and slapped
17:52
Speaker 1: it on the greasy table, still wrapped in its silk.
17:55
Speaker 1: I don't suppose you know which of us this thing
17:57
Speaker 1: is set to kill. Nothing about the toys you seem
18:02
Speaker 1: to know plenty about the toy maker. I thought so
18:06
Speaker 1: until last night. I looked at the rigid, clamped mouth
18:10
Speaker 1: and thought that if she were really as soft and
18:12
Speaker 1: as delicate as she looked, she would have wept. Then
18:16
Speaker 1: she struck her small hand on the tabletop and burst out.
18:18
Speaker 1: It's not a religion. Tisn't even an honest movement for freedom.
18:22
Speaker 1: It's a a front for smuggling and drugs and every
18:27
Speaker 1: other filthy thing, believe it or not. When I left Shansar,
18:31
Speaker 1: I thought Nebron was the answer to the way the
18:33
Speaker 1: Terrans were strangling us. Now I know there are worse
18:36
Speaker 1: things on Wolf than the Terran Empire. I've heard of Rakhal, Sensar,
18:40
Speaker 1: and whatever you may think of Rakhal, he's too decent
18:43
Speaker 1: to be mixed up in anything like this. Suppose you
18:46
Speaker 1: tell me what's really going on, I suggested. She couldn't
18:50
Speaker 1: add much to what I knew already, But the last
18:53
Speaker 1: fragments of the pattern were beginning to settle into place.
18:57
Speaker 1: Rakhal seeking the matter transmitter and some key to the
19:00
Speaker 1: non human sciences of Wolf. I knew now what the
19:03
Speaker 1: city of the Silent Ones had reminded me of, had
19:06
Speaker 1: somehow crossed the path of the toy maker. Everin's words
19:11
Speaker 1: now made sense. You were clever at evading our surveillance
19:14
Speaker 1: for a while, possibly, though I'd never know, Quinn had
19:19
Speaker 1: been keeping one foot in each camp, working for Kyral
19:22
Speaker 1: and for Everin. The toy Maker, knowing of Rakhal's anti
19:26
Speaker 1: Terran activities, had believed he would make a valuable ally
19:30
Speaker 1: and had taken steps to secure his help. Julie herself
19:33
Speaker 1: had given me the clue he smashed Rindy's toys. Out
19:37
Speaker 1: of the context, it sounded like the work of a madman.
19:40
Speaker 1: Now having encountered Evarin's workshop, it made plain good sense.
19:47
Speaker 1: And I think I had known all along that Rakhal
19:49
Speaker 1: could not have been playing Everind's game. He might have
19:53
Speaker 1: turned against terror, though now I was beginning to even
19:57
Speaker 1: doubt that, And certainly he'd have killed me if he
20:01
Speaker 1: but he would have done it himself, and without malice,
20:05
Speaker 1: killed without malice. That doesn't make sense in any of
20:08
Speaker 1: the languages of terror, but it made sense to me.
20:13
Speaker 1: Miellyn had finished her brief recitation and was drowsing, her
20:16
Speaker 1: head pillowed on the table. The reddish light was growing,
20:21
Speaker 1: and I realized that I was waiting for dawn. As
20:24
Speaker 1: days ago, I had waited for sunset in Shinsa, with
20:27
Speaker 1: every nerve stretched to the breaking point. It was dawn
20:32
Speaker 1: of the third morning, and this bird lying on the
20:34
Speaker 1: table before me must fly, or far away in the
20:37
Speaker 1: Khasa another would fly at Julie. I said, there's some
20:41
Speaker 1: distance limitation on this one. I understand, since I have
20:44
Speaker 1: to be fairly near its object. If I lock it
20:47
Speaker 1: in a steel box and drop it in the desert,
20:49
Speaker 1: I'll guarantee it won't bother anybody. I don't suppose you'd
20:53
Speaker 1: have a shot at stealing the other one for me.
20:55
Speaker 1: She raised her head, eyes flashing. Why should you worry
20:59
Speaker 1: about Rakhal's wife? She fled, and for no good reason.
21:02
Speaker 1: It occurred to me that she was jealous. I might
21:06
Speaker 1: have known Evarin wouldn't shoot in the dark. Rakhal's wife,
21:09
Speaker 1: that earth woman, What do you care for her? It
21:13
Speaker 1: seemed important to set her straight. I explained that Julie
21:17
Speaker 1: was my sister, and saw a little of the tension
21:20
Speaker 1: fade from her face, but not all. Remembering the custom
21:24
Speaker 1: of the dry towns, I was not wholly surprised when
21:27
Speaker 1: she added, jealously, when I heard of your feud, I
21:31
Speaker 1: guessed it was over that woman, but not in the
21:35
Speaker 1: way you think. I said. Julie had been part of it. Certainly,
21:40
Speaker 1: even then I had not wanted her to turn her
21:42
Speaker 1: back on her world. But if Rakhal had remained with Terror,
21:46
Speaker 1: I would have accepted his marriage to Julie, accepted it,
21:50
Speaker 1: I'd have rejoiced. God knows we'd been closer than brothers
21:54
Speaker 1: those years in the dry towns. And then before Miellyn's
21:58
Speaker 1: flashing eyes, I suddenly faced my secret hate, my secret fear. No,
22:06
Speaker 1: the quarrel had not been all Rakhal's doing. He had
22:10
Speaker 1: not turned his back unexplained on Terror in some unrecognized fashion.
22:16
Speaker 1: I had done my best to drive him away, and
22:19
Speaker 1: when he had gone, I had banished a part of
22:21
Speaker 1: myself as well, and thought I could end the struggle
22:24
Speaker 1: by saying it didn't exist. And now, facing what I
22:29
Speaker 1: had done to all of us, I knew that my revenge,
22:32
Speaker 1: so long sought, so dearly cherished, must be abandoned. We
22:38
Speaker 1: still have to deal with a bird. I said, it's
22:41
Speaker 1: a gambol. With all the cards wild, I could dismantle
22:45
Speaker 1: it and trust to luck that wolf illogic didn't include
22:48
Speaker 1: a tamper mechanism, but that didn't seem worth a risk. First,
22:53
Speaker 1: I've got to find Rakhal. If I set the bird
22:56
Speaker 1: free and it killed him, it wouldn't settle anything. For
23:00
Speaker 1: I could not kill Rakhal. Not now because I knew
23:04
Speaker 1: life would be your worse punishment than death, but because
23:09
Speaker 1: if I knew it now, if Rakhal died, Julie would
23:14
Speaker 1: die too. And if I killed him, I'd be killing
23:17
Speaker 1: the best part of myself. Somehow, Rakhal and I must
23:22
Speaker 1: strike a balance between our two worlds and try to
23:25
Speaker 1: build a new one from them. And I can't sit
23:28
Speaker 1: here and talk any longer. I haven't time to take you.
23:30
Speaker 1: I stopped, remembering the Spaceport cafe at the edge of
23:34
Speaker 1: the Khasa. There was a street shrine or matter transmitter
23:38
Speaker 1: right there, across the street from the terran h qu
23:41
Speaker 1: all these years, you know your way in the transmitters.
23:45
Speaker 1: You can go there in a second or two. She
23:48
Speaker 1: could warn Julie, tell Magneson. But when I suggested this,
23:52
Speaker 1: giving her a password that would take hers straight to
23:54
Speaker 1: the top, she turned white. All jumps have to be
23:58
Speaker 1: made through the master shrine. I stopped and thought about that.
24:03
Speaker 1: Where is Evarin likely to be right now. She gave
24:07
Speaker 1: a nervous shudder. He's everywhere rubbish, He's not omniscient. Quite
24:13
Speaker 1: a little fool. He didn't even recognize me. He thought
24:15
Speaker 1: I was Rakhal. I wasn't too sure myself, but Miellyn
24:20
Speaker 1: needed reassurance. Or take me to the master shrine. I
24:24
Speaker 1: can find Rakhal in that scanning device of Evarin's. I
24:28
Speaker 1: saw refusal in her face and pushed on. If Evarin's there,
24:32
Speaker 1: i'll prove he's fallible enough with the skein in his throat.
24:35
Speaker 1: And here I thrust the toy into her hand. Hang
24:38
Speaker 1: on to this, will you? She put it matter of
24:42
Speaker 1: factly into her draperies. I don't mind that, but to
24:45
Speaker 1: the shrine. Her voice quivered, and I stood up and
24:49
Speaker 1: pushed at the table. Let's get going. Where's the nearest
24:52
Speaker 1: street shrine? No, no, oh, I don't dare. You've got to.
24:58
Speaker 1: I saw the chack who owned the place ding round
25:00
Speaker 1: the door again and said, there's no use arguing Miellyn.
25:04
Speaker 1: When she had readjusted her robes a little while ago,
25:07
Speaker 1: she had pinned them so that the flat sprawl of
25:09
Speaker 1: the neborn embroideries were over her breasts. I put a
25:12
Speaker 1: finger against them, not in a sensuous gesture, and said,
25:17
Speaker 1: the minute they see these, they'll throw us out of
25:19
Speaker 1: here too. If you knew what I know of Nebron,
25:23
Speaker 1: you wouldn't want me to go near the muster shrine. Again.
25:26
Speaker 1: There was that faint coquettishness in her sideways smile, and
25:31
Speaker 1: suddenly I realized that I didn't want her to. But
25:34
Speaker 1: she was not Dallisa, and she could not sit in
25:37
Speaker 1: cold dignity while her world fell into ruin. Miellyn must
25:40
Speaker 1: fight for the one she wanted. And then some of
25:45
Speaker 1: that primitive male hostility which lives in every man came
25:47
Speaker 1: to the surface, and I gripped her arm until she whimpered.
25:51
Speaker 1: Then I said, in the shane sand which still comes
25:53
Speaker 1: to my tongue when moved, or angry, damn it, you're going.
25:56
Speaker 1: Have you forgotten that if it weren't for me, you'd
25:58
Speaker 1: have been torn to pieces by that raceaving mob or
26:00
Speaker 1: something worse that did it. She pulled away, and I
26:04
Speaker 1: saw again beneath the veneer of petulant coquetry, that fierce
26:08
Speaker 1: and untamable insolence of the dry towner. The more fierce
26:12
Speaker 1: and arrogant in this girl, because she had burst her
26:15
Speaker 1: fettered hands free and shaken off the ruin of the past.
26:20
Speaker 1: I was seized with a wildly inappropriate desire to seize her,
26:23
Speaker 1: crush her in my arms, taste the red honey of
26:26
Speaker 1: that teasing mouth. The effort of mastering the impulse made
26:29
Speaker 1: me rough. I shoved at her and said, come on,
26:32
Speaker 1: let's get there before ever end us end of chapter thirteen.