Jeffrey Lord Blade 03 Jewel of Tharn

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watched to understand.
I have never seen coi performed before. Nor has any other neuter. Normally
curiosity about coi is not instilled in us during our decanter period. I, of
course, am different. I find coi interesting and puzzling.
What did you call it in this place from which you claim to come?" During his
stay in the Gorge-Tower
Blade and the neuter had had several long discussions. Blade had been candid
about himself and his
background. He had seen little point in being otherwise.
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Now he found that he was enjoying baiting Honcho. "We call it sex," he said.
"It is an emotional thing, one that a neuter cannot be expected to understand.
It is also a very powerful physical drive, a hunger.
Perhaps the most powerful in all the world."
He saw Honcho nod in the soft light. The creature's voice was calm and it
appeared pleased.
"I saw that. I was watching very closely. I noted your reflexive convulsions,
and your face. I saw something more than physical. Something that I do not
really understand yet, though I will. It appeared to me that, in this act of
coi with the Maiduke woman, you were in her power for a little time. This is
so?"
Blade was instantly wary. He warned himself again not to underestimate
this-this thing? In that moment he began to think of Honcho as He, not as it.
In a way it was a victory for Honcho, though Blade had no intention of letting
him know it.
So he was curt. "I enjoyed it. It was pleasure while it lasted. I was not in
her power."
"I think otherwise," said Honcho. "I cannot express it, because we do not have
the words in Tharnian.
But it is there."
He was cunning. Blade admitted the loss of another round and was not surprised
when Honcho said:
"You will now care what becomes of Zulekia? You would wish, perhaps to save
her from the punishment that has been decreed?"
Blade raged inwardly. There might not be words in Tharnian for love, or
tenderness, or even for casual human affection, but Honcho had seen the point
readily enough.
"I would not like to see her harmed," he admitted. "If it is possible to save
her I would do so. What is her punishment to be?"
Honcho laughed and the sound was cruel. "To be given to the ceboids, of
course. To all of them, even to the lowest. They are very fond of homid women.
Then she will be given to the ceboid females, who will tear her to bits and
toss the pieces into the Gorge."
Blade, who was not an easy or a soft man, did not like to think of that. "I
would not have this happen,"
he said.
Honcho said: "I did not think so. It is in my power to prevent it. I will
prevent it, as long as you obey my orders and try no treachery against me.
Understand that well, Blade. I have placed the woman in a new place, a very
secret place, under guard of my most trusted ceboids. She remains safe so long
as you are my man, my Mazda, my HE WHO COMES TO THEY." And Honcho laughed
again.
Blade did not answer. The man was a ferret. A cunning and damnable ferret who,
without even understanding it, had sought out a weakness in Blade.
The tunnel widened now. The dancing light stopped and hovered over a dark
circular hole in the floor.
Blade noted again that the Tharnians knew and used the circle concept, though
they had long ago discontinued use of the wheel as inefficient.
Four ceboid soldiers were guarding the shaft. They bowed obsequiously as
Honcho approached. They
wore armor, carried swords, and were equipped with the teksin air guns. Honcho
spoke briefly to them in their own language and they stepped aside, watching
Blade with bloodshot animal eyes.
Honcho adjusted the belt he wore by turning a dial on it. He told Blade to do
the same. The big man did so, understanding now that the belts were some sort
of antigravity mechanism. It was perfectly reasonable that the Tharnians, who
could harness magnetism and magnetic flux, could also control gravity.
The neuter stepped into the hole and began to float downward. Blade did the
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same. It was a pleasant sensation, like descending in a very slow elevator.
Very slowly, side by side, they floated down and down into the darkness. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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