Read Online Jack Vance - Gaean Reach 01 by Gray Prince - Free Book Online Page B

subtle and sympathetic, then naïve, then caught up in some emotion beyond his knowing. Beyond question she was brave and kind and cheerful. He could well imagine passing the rest of his life in her company…At Morningswake? He was not so sure. Would she agree to live elsewhere? He was not sure of this either…Three days more of this arduous marching. He wished he could in some manner help Kelse. Perhaps in the morning he’d inconspicuously take part of Kelse’s backpack and hang it on his own.
     
    In the morning Elvo Glissam put his plan into effect. Kelse noticed and protested, but Elvo Glissam said: “This is just simple common sense. You’re already working twice as hard as I am, and it’s in everybody’s interest that you stay healthy.”
    Gerd Jemasze said, “Glissam’s right, Kelse. I’d rather carry your pack than carry you.”
    Kelse said no more; the group set forth and an hour later reached the base of the South Rim. By a dry gulch they ascended five hundred feet, then toiled another hundred feet up a face of rotting conglomerate and finally stood at the lip. Behind spread the Retent, melting into the southern haze; ahead the ground fell away to a pleasant valley grown with green-gum, dragon-eye, slender black-green gadroon, and copses of orange vandalia. A mile to the north the sunlight glinted on a shallow pond. “Morningswake!” cried Schaine huskily. “We’re home.”
    “With about sixty miles to go,” said Kelse.
    Jemasze looked back over the Retent. “We’re past the worst of it. The going should be easier.”
     
    There was a day of silent trudging across the south prairie; another day was spent toiling up and down the Tourmaline Hills. Kelse now moved in awkward hops and lurches. There was a long sweaty morning in the marsh north of Skyflower Lake. At noon the party struggled through a thicket of coarse vines to reach solid terrain. They halted to rest. Kelse looked ahead. “Fourteen more miles…We’ll never make it tonight. Perhaps you’d better go on to the house and send a wagon back for me.”
    “I’ll wait here with you,” said Schaine. “It’s a good idea.”
    Gerd Jemasze said: “It would be a good idea—except that we’re being kept under observation.” He pointed toward the sky. “Three times in the last two days I’ve seen a sky-shark hanging in the clouds.”
    All stared toward the sky. “I don’t see anything,” said Schaine.
    “Right now he’s in the fold of that cumulus cloud.”
    “But what could he want? If he’s hostile, why doesn’t he try to shoot us?”
    “I would guess that he wants to take us alive. Or some of us alive. If we separated, the chances would be much improved. There might even be another party of Hunge on the way to intercept us before we reach Morningswake.”
    Schaine said in a hushed voice: “Would they dare come in so far from the Retent? Our Aos would kill them.”
    “The sky-shark would observe the Aos and provide warning.”
    Elvo Glissam licked his lips. “I wouldn’t care to be captured now. Or even killed.”
    Kelse struggled to his feet. “Let’s get started.”
    Twenty minutes later Gerd Jemasze once more searched the landscape. Looking to the northwest he became still. He lowered the binoculars and pointed. “Uldras. About twenty.”
    Schaine peered wearily through the pink dust-haze. More fighting, more killing; and in this region of thickets and clumps of vandalia there was small hope—in fact, no hope—of beating off an attack. Fourteen miles to Morningswake. So near and so far.
    Elvo Glissam had arrived at the same conclusion. His face became pinched and gray; a husky sound forced its way up his throat.
    Gerd Jemasze looked through the binoculars again. “They’re riding criptids.”
    Schaine released her pent breath. “They’re Aos!”
    Gerd Jemasze nodded. “I can make out their headdress. White plumes. They’re Ao.”
    Schaine’s breath came in a rasping guttural sob. Elvo Glissam asked in a soft