Earthblood by Keith Laumer, Rosel George Brown Read Free Book Online Page B

against a wall, and then . . .
    He had to get closer. He raised his head and looked along the broken wall, following its great arc to the far side where it loomed black against the luminous amber twilight. He could jump down easily enough, but not without landing on a bad-tempered gracyl or a wide-jawed Yill. He rose and moved off, stepping carefully among the rubble. It was almost full dark now. Ahead, he made out the heavy sagging line of an anchor cable, its end secured to a massive iron capstan set in the stone coping. He clambered up, followed the cable with his eye as it dipped, then rose up to meet a slender tower. This was almost too easy: the base of the tower was hidden in shadow behind a cluster of polyarcs. No one would notice if he walked across and slipped down there . . .
    He stepped out on the taut cable; it was much easier than the branch had been; it was only as big as his finger, but it was steady. No one looked up from below; he was above the polyarcs, invisible against their glare. He walked out across the crowd, reached the tower, swung quickly down—
    A hand like an iron clamp locked on his ankle. He looked down. A face like a worn-out shoe blinked up at him. Gill flaps at either side of the wide head quivered.
    "Come down, come down," a curious double voice said. "Caught you—ought—you good—ood."
    Roan held on and pulled; it was like trying to uproot an anvil tree.
    "Let go," he said, trying to make his voice sound as though it were used to being obeyed by beings with old-shoe faces and hands like ship grapples.
    "You're—re—going to see—ee the boss-oss." The iron hand—which was bright green, Roan noticed, and had three fingers—tugged, just gently, and Roan felt his joints creak. He held on.
    "Want me—ant me to pull—ull your leg—eg off—off?" the hollow voice echoed.
    "All right," Roan said. He lowered himself carefully until his other foot was on a level with his captor's hand. Then he swung his free leg back and kicked the creature in the eye.
    The grip was gone from his ankle, and he leaped clear, landed in dust, turned to duck away—
    And slammed against a wide, armored body that gathered him in with arms like the roots of the grizzlywood tree.
    It was dark inside the big tent, and hot, and there were odors of seaweed and smoke. Roan stood straight, trying not to think about the way his hands were numb from the grip on his wrists. Beside him, the shoe-faced creature flapped its gills, blinking its swollen eye. "Ow—ow," it said, over and over. "Ow—ow."
    The being behind the big, scarred, black-brown desk blinked large brown eyes at him from points eight inches apart in a head the size of a washtub mounted on a body like a hundred gallon bag of water. Immense hands with too many fingers reached for a box, extracted a thick brown cigar, peeled it carefully, thrust it into a gaping mouth that opened unexpectedly just above the brown eyes.
    "Some kind of Terry, aren't you?" a bass voice said from somewhere near the floor.
    Roan swallowed. "Terry stock," he said, trying to sound as though he were proud of it. "Genuine Terrestrial strain," he added. The big head waggled. "I saw you on the wire. Never saw a Terry walk a wire like that before." The voice seemed to come from under the desk. Roan peered, caught a glimpse of coiled purplish tentacles. He looked up to catch a brown eye upon him; the other was rolled toward the gilled creature.
    "You shouldn't have hurt Ithc," the deep voice rumbled. "Be quiet, Ithc." The wandering eye turned back to Roan. "Take off your tunic."
    "Why?"
    "I want to see what kind of wings you've got."
    "I don't have any wings," Roan said, sounding as though he didn't care.
    "Terries don't have wings; not real original Terrestrial stock, anyway."
    "Let's see your hands."
    "He's holding them."
    "Let him go, Ithc." The brown eyes looked at Roan's hands as he opened and closed them to get the blood going again.
    "The feet," the basso voice said. Roan kicked