Read Online Sanctuary in The Sky by John Brunner - Free Book Online Page B

called Lang, who is out of eye-range?”
    “I heard he was here,” said the half-woman, adjusting the set of her fish-tail. “I didn’t see him yet—and it’s beyond hope that he’d patronize my dull little concession.” She swung round and disappeared into the coral grotto behind her, adding, “And in any case, it usually takes people a day or two to pluck up courage to come into the Ocean after their arrival.”
    There was sense in that. Vykor looked around through the Ocean for signs of a rise, and spotted a mound of glowing shells that seemed to pierce the surface. He scaled it, and found that he could raise his head into air if he balanced on top of the mound; it fell short of the surface by his height to his shoulders.
    There were the Mountains yonder; probably the Caves were beyond them at the moment. It was hard to be sure where any part of the tourist circuit was in relation to any other part; the relationships changed, slowly, but significantly over the course of a day or two.
    And in the other direction there was the City, which was invariably the best bet. At any one time, more than half the visitors and off-duty staff would be in the City if they were anywhere in the tourist circuit. But that would mean he must equip himself first.
    He plunged back into the Ocean and walked determinedly through the viscous fluid it contained until he could walk on to shore not far from the City limits. There were more people here, sure enough: a party of Glaithe children, aged less than ten years old, being instructed how to breathe the Ocean— and most of them too frightened to try although they saw that it was safe; four off-duty members of the Pag staff, exercising nonchalantly under eyes they knew to be admiring, their naked red-brown bodies glistening with oil, their muscles making their skin ripple sleekly as they took turns to lift each other one-armed over their heads; a wealthy Cathrodyne family arguing over its next choice of sights—the youth in his teens wanting to go to the Caves, his mother wishing to visit the Plains and relax, her husband virtuously and patriotically trying to keep himself from staring at the naked Pags, and failing.
    There were concessions in booths and on stalls all along here—some covered by tents, some open and merely offering wares of various kinds. Vykor stopped at a costume seller’s establishment and purchased a blue gown to conceal his clothes and a blue mask with fiery red eyes to conceal his face. He asked the costume seller in passing, as he presented his scrip to be punched, “Have you seen anything of this stranger from out of eye-range?”
    “The one supposed to have come in yesterday?” The costume seller shook his head made fantastic with a vast crown of feathers and baubles. “No, I have not.”
    Vykor thanked him and passed on. The edge of the City which faced the shore of the Ocean at the moment was mostly lined with cafes, dancing floors and acrobatic spectacles; there was a Lubarrian team performing that was so good he paused to watch it for a moment. Here too he asked for news of Lang. A head-shake. He passed on.
    From behind him, there was a faint rumble. Across in the Mountains, the other side of the Ocean at the moment, there was a storm in progress. When he glanced, around he could see shafts of lightning like tiny white-hot needles breaking between the peaks.
    He came eventually to a park near near the center of the City, without having had success in his search for Lang. Everyone knew he was here; everyone thought they would recognize him from descriptions, or from the pet animal he carried. But no one had seen him.
    Rather wearily, Vykor dropped on to a bench under a huge bush bearing sweet-smelling pink and white flowers. He frowned behind his mask.
    Then his thoughtful mood was interrupted. From the farside of the bush overhanging his bench, he could hear a familiar voice in conversation with one that was totally strange to him. But it was this