Read Online Neveryona by Samuel R. Delany - Free Book Online

the handsome young man suddenly lunged, ringed hand open and falling toward her face –
    The woman flinched.
    Then something very complicated happened.
    The hand stopped.
    One thing making it complicated was that, unlike you and me, Pryn had been watching the woman (who was about Pryn’s age and Pryn’s size). What had first seemed a kind of apathetic paralysis in her, Pryn saw, was actually an intense concentration – and Pryn remembered a moment when, bridling her dragon, the wings had suddenly flapped among the bushes, and for a moment she’dthought she would completely lose control of it; and all she could do was hang on as hard as possible and look as calm as possible, trying to keep her feet from being jerked off the mossy rocks; for Pryn it had worked …
    Another thing making it complicated was that Pryn had
not
been watching the man she was with.
    And he had not been watching the encounter.
    We’ve spoken of a center the encounter had created. The big man’s course took them within a meter of it. He had not stopped walking; and because Pryn had not been watching him, she had not stopped walking either.
    As they came within the handsome young man’s ken, his hand had halted.
    His head jerked about, his face for a moment truly, excitingly ugly. ‘All right!’ he demanded. (Now they did stop.) ‘What is it, then? You want to be the Liberator of every piece of camel dung on this overground sewer?’
    The woman with the beaded hair did not look at Pryn’s companion, but suddenly stalked off, arms folded across her breasts in what might have been anger, might have been embarrassment. Five other women, waiting outside the circles within circles, closed about her, one holding her shoulder, one leaping to see over the others’ if she were all right – as though they had not seen them either.
    The handsome young man took a step after them, then glanced back at the giant, as if unsure whether he had permission to follow. Apparently he didn’t, for he spat again and, making a bright fist by one hip and a soiled one by the other, turned his bleeding breast away and walked off in the other direction.
    People looked away, turned away, walked away; and there were three, half a dozen, a dozen, and then no centers to the crowd. Pryn looked at her companion.
    Examining his knuckles, the giant moved his gnawing on to another nail. Once more they began to walk.
    As they passed more onlookers, Pryn demanded, ‘Who
was
he …’
    ‘Nynx …’ the giant said pensively, ‘I
think
someone told me that was his name.’ He put his hand to his belly, scratching the hair there with broad nubs. ‘He manages – or, better, terrorizes – some of the younger women too frightened to work here by themselves
    ‘You must have beaten him up in a fight, once!’ Pryn declared; she had heard of such encounters between men in her town. ‘You beat him up, and now he’s afraid you might beat him up again …?’
    ‘No’ The giant sighed. ‘I’ve never touched him. Oh, I suppose if it came to a fight, though he’s less than half my age, I’d probably kill him. But I think he’s been able to figure that out too.’ He gave a snort that ended in the scarred, broken-toothed smile. ‘Myself, I go my way and do what I want. Nynx – if that
is
his name – reads my passings as he will. But from the way he reads them, I suspect I will not
have
to kill him. Someone else will do it for me, and within the year I’ll wager. I’ve seen too many of him.’ He gave another snort. ‘Such readings are among the finer things civilized life teaches. You say you can read and write. You’ll learn such readings soon enough if you stay around here.’
    ‘What did he want with me, before?’ Pryn asked.
    ‘Probably the same thing he wanted from the girl. There used to be a prostitutes’ guild when I was a youngster – lasted up until a few years ago, in fact. It retained its own physicians, set prices, kept a few strong-armed fellows under