Read Online The Gandalara Cycle I by Randall Garrett & Vicki Ann Heydron - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Randall Garrett & Vicki Ann Heydron
Tags: Sci Fi & Fantasy
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give you protection."
"Keeshah needs food," I told her. As Keeshah had been telling me during the entire conversation. "I'll get a side of glith for him, then I'll go straight home." The look she gave me was unreadable. "I promise," I added.
"You can't take Keeshah in a meat shop! And you can't leave him out here!"
"I know," I covered rapidly. "I was going to ask you to go in and get it for me, if you would."
I had another reason for asking; I hadn't the least idea of how much glith meat was worth, nor how much the coins in my purse were worth. I handed her the pouch. She looked impatient, but she glanced over at Keeshah and finally agreed.
"Oh, all right. If it will get you off the streets sooner. You want a whole side? Wait here and I'll have the meatmonger bring it. I'll be right back." She went into the meat shop.
I stood quietly, scratching Keeshah's ear and trying to digest this new, gratuitous information. There was plenty of it, and I didn't like it.
ONE: Markasset apparently was engaged to marry this talkative wench - but we (Markasset and Ricardo) couldn't remember her name.
TWO: A certain Zaddorn, who seemed to be the equivalent of the Chief of Police, was also (?) in love with her and was jealous of Markasset. And maybe not above using his position to ace out a rival.
THREE: Worfit - now that name rang a loud bell. A moneylender of the shadier kind, unhandsome, powerful, dangerous. Little Caesar with fat teeth. Markasset owed him a rather large sum of money - I didn't know exactly how much, but I had an impression that it was a gambling debt, and not his first.
FOUR: If Zaddorn had been telling the girl the truth, Markasset might really be suspected as a jewel thief.
None of this spoke well for Markasset. I had the feeling that he – I - had not been the most reputable of young men-about-town.
Keeshah rubbed his cheek against my chest, reminding me that I had stopped rubbing behind his ear.
I had to laugh at this huge, dangerous cat that wanted to be petted like a kitten.
*I guess if you liked Markasset, Keeshah,* I told him, *he can't be as bad as all that. *
Chapter 7
I was distracted suddenly from my own problems. Two monsters were walking down the street.
Part of my mind told me that they were only a couple of working vineh. Nothing remarkable. Nothing to worry about. But I couldn't help feeling like the lead idiot in a Friday night Creature Feature - who hadn't had a chance yet to read the script.
At first, I thought they were blond gorillas. They were taller and wider than I, but on closer inspection I could see that their legs were longer and their arms shorter than those of Gorilla gorilla , and they held themselves more naturally erect.
Their faces were definitely apelike. The head sloped back steeply from the supraorbital ridge, leaving little room for prefrontal lobes. The lower jaw was massive and muscular, and the great canines made my own look ridiculously small. Their faces and bodies were covered with short, curly flee as though they had grown pubic hair all over. It was a light tan in color, not much darker than Keeshah's fur. But where Keeshah carried his pale bulk with grace, these lumbering brutes were even uglier for their pallor.
To add to their grotesqueness, they were wearing gray- brown shorts and were wielding push-brooms. And as I watched, a third one followed them from the crowd; he was pushing a wheelbarrow-like cart.
No one else was in the least disturbed by their presence or their appearance. Shoppers stepped out of their way automatically as they passed. Apparently they were a normal sight on the streets of Raithskar, a simple street-cleaning detail, sweeping up sand and leaves, and leftovers from passing vleks.
Then one of the broom-pushers caught the cart-pusher in the side with the end of the broom handle. It was purely accidental, a miscalculated backstroke. But Cart-pusher roared, spun the cart out of his way and cuffed Broom-pusher on the side of the
"Keeshah needs food," I told her. As Keeshah had been telling me during the entire conversation. "I'll get a side of glith for him, then I'll go straight home." The look she gave me was unreadable. "I promise," I added.
"You can't take Keeshah in a meat shop! And you can't leave him out here!"
"I know," I covered rapidly. "I was going to ask you to go in and get it for me, if you would."
I had another reason for asking; I hadn't the least idea of how much glith meat was worth, nor how much the coins in my purse were worth. I handed her the pouch. She looked impatient, but she glanced over at Keeshah and finally agreed.
"Oh, all right. If it will get you off the streets sooner. You want a whole side? Wait here and I'll have the meatmonger bring it. I'll be right back." She went into the meat shop.
I stood quietly, scratching Keeshah's ear and trying to digest this new, gratuitous information. There was plenty of it, and I didn't like it.
ONE: Markasset apparently was engaged to marry this talkative wench - but we (Markasset and Ricardo) couldn't remember her name.
TWO: A certain Zaddorn, who seemed to be the equivalent of the Chief of Police, was also (?) in love with her and was jealous of Markasset. And maybe not above using his position to ace out a rival.
THREE: Worfit - now that name rang a loud bell. A moneylender of the shadier kind, unhandsome, powerful, dangerous. Little Caesar with fat teeth. Markasset owed him a rather large sum of money - I didn't know exactly how much, but I had an impression that it was a gambling debt, and not his first.
FOUR: If Zaddorn had been telling the girl the truth, Markasset might really be suspected as a jewel thief.
None of this spoke well for Markasset. I had the feeling that he – I - had not been the most reputable of young men-about-town.
Keeshah rubbed his cheek against my chest, reminding me that I had stopped rubbing behind his ear.
I had to laugh at this huge, dangerous cat that wanted to be petted like a kitten.
*I guess if you liked Markasset, Keeshah,* I told him, *he can't be as bad as all that. *
Chapter 7
I was distracted suddenly from my own problems. Two monsters were walking down the street.
Part of my mind told me that they were only a couple of working vineh. Nothing remarkable. Nothing to worry about. But I couldn't help feeling like the lead idiot in a Friday night Creature Feature - who hadn't had a chance yet to read the script.
At first, I thought they were blond gorillas. They were taller and wider than I, but on closer inspection I could see that their legs were longer and their arms shorter than those of Gorilla gorilla , and they held themselves more naturally erect.
Their faces were definitely apelike. The head sloped back steeply from the supraorbital ridge, leaving little room for prefrontal lobes. The lower jaw was massive and muscular, and the great canines made my own look ridiculously small. Their faces and bodies were covered with short, curly flee as though they had grown pubic hair all over. It was a light tan in color, not much darker than Keeshah's fur. But where Keeshah carried his pale bulk with grace, these lumbering brutes were even uglier for their pallor.
To add to their grotesqueness, they were wearing gray- brown shorts and were wielding push-brooms. And as I watched, a third one followed them from the crowd; he was pushing a wheelbarrow-like cart.
No one else was in the least disturbed by their presence or their appearance. Shoppers stepped out of their way automatically as they passed. Apparently they were a normal sight on the streets of Raithskar, a simple street-cleaning detail, sweeping up sand and leaves, and leftovers from passing vleks.
Then one of the broom-pushers caught the cart-pusher in the side with the end of the broom handle. It was purely accidental, a miscalculated backstroke. But Cart-pusher roared, spun the cart out of his way and cuffed Broom-pusher on the side of the
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