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"This Shai Khe is some nice fellow," Chaz observed. "Kills anybody...
Caracene. Where did that woman get to?"
"I think Odehnal getting got got her moving," Greystone said. He indicated the
exit door. It stood open a crack.
"Su-Cha," Rider said. "You follow her. I'll keep in touch through the web."
"Thought you had heron the web," Chaz said. "Not anymore. She figured she was
marked and negated it. Su-Cha."
"Yes sir, boss, sir." The imp dived out the window. This time he did not howl
on the way down.
Rider moved back to Kralj Odehnal. In a moment he found the lethal dart. "The
bodies pile up. And still we make no progress."
"At least they aren't our bodies," Chaz said. "That thing could have gotten
one of us as easily as it got Odehnal."
"A point we were meant to take, I'm sure," Rider observed. "A bit more caution
from now on, friends. Omar. I want you to fix that window. Soon."
"What do we do now?" Preacher asked.
"We find a place called Polybos House and something called the Devil's Eyes.
We stay in touch with the web. And we wait for something to happen."
In the other room the dead eyes of Jehrke Victorious seemed to gleam with
approval.
XIV
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Su-Cha returned soon after daybreak. He wore a chagrined look. "She shook me
in the Protte rookery. I figured she'd cross to Henchelside, so I staked out
King's Ferry. She never showed."
Soup snickered. Spud said, "We'll hear from her again. How can she resist that
great chunk of beef?" He indicated Chaz, snoring in a chair.
Rider returned from setting Preacher and Greystone to searching land titles
for a place called Polybos House. "Soup, you and Omar head down to the Golden
Crescent. Look at ships recently in from the east. Find ships that carried
unusual cargoes or passengers."
"Why?" Soup asked.
"Shai Khe's airship is a small one. He may have brought more men and equipment
than it could have carried. He strikes me as careful and methodical. He would
not have come unprepared for a difficult campaign."
Soup and Spud departed. They returned that evening with nothing to report.
Preacher and Greystone had no luck either. Greystone said, "If a Polybos House
exists it has to be outside the Wall." By that he meant outside the legal
corporate limits. The city wall proper lay well inside those, and had been in
decay for a century.
"Try again tomorrow," Rider said.
"What're you doing?" Preacher asked.
"Trying to analyze the poison on these darts. It's eluded me so far. Looks
like something drawn from an insect, though."
Spud said, "The jungles of Maijan fester with poisonous bugs. And lizards and
snakes and bats."
"I'll remember that next time I'm in the far east," Chaz grumbled. He was in a
sour mood. He had spent the day washing alembics and retorts under the dead,
cold eyes of Jehrke.
"Patience, friend," Rider chided. "Our turn will come."
"Soon, I hope." Chaz tested the window Spud had installed, for the hundredth
time. "My nerves are getting me."
Soon did not come for four days.
It began with Soup and Spud. They had, at last, found a vessel whose origins
and crew were suspect. After watching the ship, and noting the presence of men
of both Emerald's and Shai Khe's races, they decided to contact Rider.
But their persistent presence over several days had betrayed them.
The attack was sudden and bold, initiated by a seaman who stepped into their
path and shouted, "At last my brother's daughter's honor will be avenged!"
Another half dozen seamen joined him, a wild, scruffy gang of cutthroats.
Spud and Soup were not fooled. The easterner pointed a finger, declared, "You
have the wrong men, friend."
The sailor collapsed.
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Spud pointed at another man. He went down too.
Blades came out. A howl went up. More sailors materialized.
Soup, meantime, dipped a hand into his pocket and crushed a crystal. That sent
a screaming shock through the web. Then he activated an amulet which Rider
could track. Then he scattered fistfuls of what looked like gold coins.
Attackers and onlookers alike dived for the money.
Spud dropped another two men with his pointed finger, ducked inside a clumsy
cutlass, buried a fist in a fat belly.
Soup's coins started an independent brawl. Then they exploded in the hands or
pockets of those who had seized them.
Spud pushed away from the man he had punched. "Let's get out of here!" he
yelled.
In the confusion that was not difficult. But...
Soup laughed. "The idiots! Hoist by their own greed!"
"Oh-oh," Spud said.
"Yeah."
They had slipped into a breezeway to make their getaway. Their path, suddenly, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]