CHAPTER TEN
A few days later I found myself nearing the end of the trail.
It was twilight in Charin, hot and reeking with the gypsy glare of fireswhich burned, smoking, at the far end of the Street of the SixShepherds. I crouched in the shadow of a wall, waiting.
My skin itched from the dirty shirtcloak I hadn't changed in days.Shabbiness is wise in nonhuman parts, and Dry-towners think too much ofwater to waste much of it in superfluous washing anyhow. I scratchedunobtrusively and glanced cautiously down the street.
It seemed empty, except for a few sodden derelicts sprawled indoorways--the Street of the Six Shepherds is a filthy slum--but I madesure my skean was loose. Charin is not a particularly safe town, evenfor Dry-towners, and especially not for Earthmen, at any time.
Even with what Dallisa had told me, the search had been difficult.Charin is not Shainsa. In Charin, where human and nonhuman live closertogether than anywhere else on the planet, information about such men asRakhal can be bought, but the policy is to let the buyer beware. That'sfair enough, because the life of the seller has a way of not being worthmuch afterward, either.
A dirty, dust-laden wind was blowing up along the street, heavy withstrange smells. The pungent reek of incense from a street-shrine was inthe smells. The heavy, acrid odor that made my skin crawl. In the hillsbehind Charin, the Ghost Wind was rising.
Borne on this wind, the Ya-men would sweep down from the mountains, andeverything human or nearly human would scatter in their path. They wouldrange through the quarter all night, and in the morning they would meltaway, until the Ghost Wind blew again. At any other time, I wouldalready have taken cover. I fancied that I could hear, borne on thewind, the faraway yelping, and envision the plumed, taloned figureswhich would come leaping down the street.
In that moment, the quiet of the street split asunder.
From somewhere a girl's voice screamed in shrill pain or panic. Then Isaw her, dodging between two of the chinked pebble-houses. She was achild, thin and barefoot, a long tangle of black hair flying loose asshe darted and twisted to elude the lumbering fellow at her heels. Hisoutstretched paw jerked cruelly at her slim wrist.
The little girl screamed and wrenched herself free and threw herselfstraight on me, wrapping herself around my neck with the violence of astorm wind. Her hair got in my mouth and her small hands gripped at myback like a cat's flexed claws.
"Oh, help me," she gasped between sobs. "Don't let him get me, don't."And even in that broken plea I took it in that the little ragamuffin didnot speak the jargon of that slum, but the pure speech of Shainsa.
What I did then was as automatic as if it had been Juli. I pulled thekid loose, shoved her behind me, and scowled at the brute who lurchedtoward us.
"Make yourself scarce," I advised. "We don't chase little girls where Icome from. Haul off, now."
The man reeled. I smelled the rankness of his rags as he thrust onegrimy paw at the girl. I never was the hero type, but I'd startedsomething which I had to carry through. I thrust myself between them andput my hand on the skean again.
"You--you Dry-towner." The man set up a tipsy howl, and I sucked in mybreath. Now I was in for it. Unless I got out of there damned fast, I'dlose what I'd come all the way to Charin to find.
I felt like handing the girl over. For all I knew, the bully could beher father and she was properly in line for a spanking. This wasn't anyof my business. My business lay at the end of the street, where Rakhalwas waiting at the fires. He wouldn't be there long. Already the smellof the Ghost Wind was heavy and harsh, and little flurries of sand wentracing along the street, lifting the flaps of the doorways.
But I did nothing so sensible. The big lunk made a grab at the girl, andI whipped out my skean and pantomimed.
"Get going!"
"Dry-towner!" He spat out the word like filth, his pig-eyes narrowing toslits. "Son of the Ape! _Earthman!_"
"_Terranan!_" Someone took up the howl. There was a stir, a rustle, allalong the street that had seemed empty, and from nowhere, it seemed, thespace in front of me was crowded with shadowy forms, human andotherwise.
"Earthman!"
I felt the muscles across my belly knotting into a band of ice. I didn'tbelieve I'd given myself away as an Earthman. The bully was using thetime-dishonored tactic of stirring up a riot in a hurry, but just thesame I looked quickly round, hunting a path of escape.
"Put your skean in his guts, Spilkar! Grab him!"
"Hai-ai! Earthman! _Hai-ai!_"
It was the last cry that made me panic. Through the sultry glare at theend of the street, I could see the plumed, taloned figures of theYa-men, gliding through the banners of smoke. The crowd melted open.
I didn't stop to reflect on the fact--suddenly very obvious--that Rakhalcouldn't have been at the fires at all, and that my informant had led meinto an open trap, a nest of Ya-men already inside Charin. The crowdedged back and muttered, and suddenly I made my choice. I whirled,snatched up the girl in my arms and ran straight toward the advancingfigures of the Ya-men.
Nobody followed me. I even heard a choked shout that sounded like awarning. I heard the yelping shrieks of the Ya-men grow to a wild howl,and at the last minute, when their stiff rustling plumes loomed only afew yards away, I dived sidewise into an alley, stumbled on some rubbishand spilled the girl down.
"Run, kid!"
She shook herself like a puppy climbing out of water. Her small fingersclosed like a steel trap on my wrist. "This way," she urged in a hastywhisper, and I found myself plunging out the far end of the alley andinto the shelter of a street-shrine. The sour stink of incense smartedin my nostrils, and I could hear the yelping of the Ya-men as theyleaped and rustled down the alley, their cold and poisonous eyessearching out the recess where I crouched with the girl.
"Here," she panted, "stand close to me on the stone--" I drew back,startled.
"Oh, don't stop to argue," she whimpered. "Come _here_!"
"_Hai-ai!_ Earthman! There he is!"
The girl's arms flung round me again. I felt her slight, hard bodypressing on mine and she literally hauled me toward the pattern ofstones at the center of the shrine. I wouldn't have been human if Ihadn't caught her closer yet.
The world reeled. The street disappeared in a cone of spinning lights,stars danced crazily, and I plunged down through a widening gulf ofempty space, locked in the girl's arms. I fell, spun, plunged head overheels through tilting lights and shadows that flung us througheternities of freefall. The yelping of the Ya-men whirled away inunimaginable distances, and for a second I felt the unmerciful blackoutof a power dive, with blood breaking from my nostrils and filling mymouth.
The Door Through Space Page 10