Read Online The Five Gold Bands by Jack Vance - Free Book Online Page A

females with greens and blues, all wearing the same black-brown sheath of fabric that covered their bony bodies from breast to knee, the same flat shoes.
    “Tourists,” whispered Fay. “We’ll have to wait till they leave.”
    “Naturally,” said Paddy.
    For twenty minutes they waited, looking out over the vast spread of view, eyeing the Eagles sidelong.
    A voice spoke at their elbow. An Eagle had stepped up beside them unnoticed. Paddy’s Adam’s apple twitched. The Eagle wore the official medallion of the Pherasic government.
    “Tourists?” asked the Eagle.
    “We’re loving every minute of it,” said Fay enthusiastically. “The view is marvelous! The city is beautiful…”
    The Eagle nodded. “It is indeed. This is one of our finest spectacles. Even the Revered Son of Langtry himself ascends from time to time to take the north airs.”
    Fay glanced at Paddy significantly. Paddy raised one eyebrow. Evidently the death of the five Sons had not been announced to the universe at large. The Eagle was saying, “And when you get down to Sugksu be sure to take the deep-sea tour and see the strange sights under the gas. Have you been on the planet long?”
    “Not too long. But we’ve lost track of time,” she added coyly. “You see, we’re on our honeymoon. But we couldn’t resist coming to see Alpheratz A.”
    The Eagle nodded sagely. “Wise—very wise. We have a world from which much may be learned.” And he stalked on.
    Paddy spat. “Damned meddlers. It’s hard to know when their curiosity is official and when it’s just curiosity.”
    “Sh,” said Fay. “They’re leaving.”
    Three minutes later the top of the peak was bare to the sweep of the wind.
    “Now,” said Fay. “A Sacred Sign—where is it? And how do we know it’s sacred when we see it?”
    Paddy vaulted up on the base of the trestle, glanced appraisingly up at the spinning vanes of orange and blue and red. “That whirlymagig must be it.”
    He scrambled up like a monkey until he came under the sweeping blades. He reached up, wrenched down the whole tangle of fiber, metal and feathers.
    Fay yelled, “You fool! They can see that from below!”
    Paddy said, “I had to if I wanted to see what was under.”
    “Well—what is under?”
    “Nothing,” Paddy said uncomfortably.
    “Get down then for heavens sake. The riot squad will be here in five minutes.”
    They walked briskly down the slope. Hardly had they gone a hundred yards when Fay put out her hand. “Listen!”
    A fierce anxious sound, still faint— Sweeee—eeeeee-eeeee . Far below a pair of motorcycles turned into the road, started up the grade. The sound grew louder, keening, whining. It stopped short. A moment later two Eagles, each with official medallion on his uniform, roared to a halt beside them.
    One alighted. “Who caused the destruction? He who is guilty will receive the severest of treatments.”
    Fay said in a worried voice, “We’re not guilty. It was a party of Kotons and they went down the other way, I think.”
    “There is no other way.”
    “Ah, but they were wearing sky-skates,” said Paddy hopefully.
    “They were drunk, the scoundrels,” said Fay.
    The Eagle officials inspected them skeptically. Paddy sighed, cracked his knuckles behind his back. He speculated about the Pherasic jails. Were they more comfortable, he wondered, than the old brick fort at Akhabats?
    The chief of the Eagles said to the subordinate, “I’ll continue to the top. You wait here. We will presume them guilty until I find otherwise.”
    He twisted power on his motorcycle, continued up the hill.
    “We’re in the soup, Paddy,” said Fay in Earth-talk. “I’ll distract his attention. We want that motor-bike.”
    Paddy stared at her, aghast. “It’s a long chance.”
    “Of course it is,” she snapped. “It’s our only change. We’ve got to get away. If they arrest us, march us in, check our psychographs…”
    Paddy grimaced. “Very well.”
    Fay stepped around