Read Online The Gandalara Cycle I by Randall Garrett & Vicki Ann Heydron - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Randall Garrett & Vicki Ann Heydron
Tags: Sci Fi & Fantasy
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thronging pedestrians were polite and cautious, avoiding collisions with studied care, laughing and smiling. As Keeshah and I threaded our way through them, I felt my spirits lifting. The touch of light mist on my face, the gay color all around me, people who were happy and ordinary, though they might not be human - and an unforced feeling of having come home.
We moved out of the busiest area of the marketplace, where the out-of-town merchants conducted business under their temporary shelters, and into the city's own trade district. Neat, stone-walled buildings crowded together and narrowed the street slightly, offering for sale those things which the townsfolk would regularly need. From the aromas here, as richly confused as the colors of the bazaar, I guessed we were in the food-selling district.
Keeshah and I stopped at the same time. We were outside a meat shop which was a cross between a delicatessen and a butcher shop, and featured both cooked and fresh meat. The roast had stopped me; the raw had stopped Keeshah.
*Eat?* the quasi-question hung in his mind, and it echoed through mine.
"Markasset!"
I turned toward the high-pitched, slightly breathless voice. A woman was hurrying toward me.
Though there were not consistent or obvious style differences between what I had seen men and women wearing as I walked through the marketplace, the sexual dimorphism in this race was more pronounced, and I had been having no trouble differentiating the sexes. Nor did I now. There was no doubt in my mind that this was a woman. Or that she knew me.
I tried to keep my expression pleasant but noncommittal. I had a faint memory of having met her before, but no name would come to mind. She rushed up to me, smiling eagerly, golden, fur-like hair, no longer than mine, coated with mist and winking in the sun. Her canine teeth were as well- developed as mine. Somehow, they looked even better on her.
"What are you doing back in town?" she asked a little breathlessly. I could hear concern in her voice. "You told me you'd taken a job with Gharlas the merchant!"
I opened my mouth to say something - damned if I knew what. Luckily I didn't get a chance.
"Darling," she rushed on, "once you were gone, you should have stayed gone! Worfit is furious because you left town still owing him money, and he probably already knows you're back. Why didn't you leave Keeshah outside the city, so fewer people would recognize you?"
"Well, I ..."
"Did you hear that the Ra'ira has been stolen ? And Zaddorn has been asking me questions about you." She stopped for breath, looked around almost furtively, stepped closer and lowered her voice. Like most of the women I had seen, she was small and delicately boned; I had to bend my head to her to catch her words.
"I told him that what's between you and me is none of his business, but he says that the Chief of Peace and Security has the right to ask anyone questions in a case like this. What with Worfit and Zaddorn both looking for you darling, coming home right now was terrible timing!"
I was trying to put together what I had learned from her with what I had overheard from the police squad on the road the night before. I didn't much like what I came up with.
"Do you mean," I asked, "that somebody thinks I stole the – uh - Ra'ira?"
"Oh, you know Zaddorn - he's always been jealous of you. He thinks if he could discredit you, I would turn to him. It hasn't even been officially announced that the Ra'ira is gone, but there are rumors everywhere. I don't know if he really thinks you did it, or is just trying to make me think you did. I don't. I know you'd never do such a thing, especially when it was in your father's care."
"Thanks," I said, but I couldn't help wondering about the "especially" qualification. What sort of man was Markasset?
"You'd better get home fast," she was saying. She was looking around again as though she expected to be caught at any moment. "Before Zaddorn hears you're back. Your father can
We moved out of the busiest area of the marketplace, where the out-of-town merchants conducted business under their temporary shelters, and into the city's own trade district. Neat, stone-walled buildings crowded together and narrowed the street slightly, offering for sale those things which the townsfolk would regularly need. From the aromas here, as richly confused as the colors of the bazaar, I guessed we were in the food-selling district.
Keeshah and I stopped at the same time. We were outside a meat shop which was a cross between a delicatessen and a butcher shop, and featured both cooked and fresh meat. The roast had stopped me; the raw had stopped Keeshah.
*Eat?* the quasi-question hung in his mind, and it echoed through mine.
"Markasset!"
I turned toward the high-pitched, slightly breathless voice. A woman was hurrying toward me.
Though there were not consistent or obvious style differences between what I had seen men and women wearing as I walked through the marketplace, the sexual dimorphism in this race was more pronounced, and I had been having no trouble differentiating the sexes. Nor did I now. There was no doubt in my mind that this was a woman. Or that she knew me.
I tried to keep my expression pleasant but noncommittal. I had a faint memory of having met her before, but no name would come to mind. She rushed up to me, smiling eagerly, golden, fur-like hair, no longer than mine, coated with mist and winking in the sun. Her canine teeth were as well- developed as mine. Somehow, they looked even better on her.
"What are you doing back in town?" she asked a little breathlessly. I could hear concern in her voice. "You told me you'd taken a job with Gharlas the merchant!"
I opened my mouth to say something - damned if I knew what. Luckily I didn't get a chance.
"Darling," she rushed on, "once you were gone, you should have stayed gone! Worfit is furious because you left town still owing him money, and he probably already knows you're back. Why didn't you leave Keeshah outside the city, so fewer people would recognize you?"
"Well, I ..."
"Did you hear that the Ra'ira has been stolen ? And Zaddorn has been asking me questions about you." She stopped for breath, looked around almost furtively, stepped closer and lowered her voice. Like most of the women I had seen, she was small and delicately boned; I had to bend my head to her to catch her words.
"I told him that what's between you and me is none of his business, but he says that the Chief of Peace and Security has the right to ask anyone questions in a case like this. What with Worfit and Zaddorn both looking for you darling, coming home right now was terrible timing!"
I was trying to put together what I had learned from her with what I had overheard from the police squad on the road the night before. I didn't much like what I came up with.
"Do you mean," I asked, "that somebody thinks I stole the – uh - Ra'ira?"
"Oh, you know Zaddorn - he's always been jealous of you. He thinks if he could discredit you, I would turn to him. It hasn't even been officially announced that the Ra'ira is gone, but there are rumors everywhere. I don't know if he really thinks you did it, or is just trying to make me think you did. I don't. I know you'd never do such a thing, especially when it was in your father's care."
"Thanks," I said, but I couldn't help wondering about the "especially" qualification. What sort of man was Markasset?
"You'd better get home fast," she was saying. She was looking around again as though she expected to be caught at any moment. "Before Zaddorn hears you're back. Your father can
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