[Kelvin 03] - Chimaera's Copper (with Robert E. Margroff) by Piers Anthony Read Free Book Online Page A

fumbled some more. Off he went, first to the east and then to the west, and finally smack into a prickly tree. While hanging there, not seriously hurt or alarmed, the aeronaut moved the lever at the side of the belt forward and back. The result was that the creature worked itself deeper into the prickly branches.

    The big froogear stepped over to John and nudged him with a webbed toe. "Get him down!"

    "I'm tied," John said, reasonably.

    "Tell how. Get down." John considered briefly. "Press red button. Move lever to middle position. Climb down tree."

    The big froogear turned his face treeward and croaked an evident translation. Almost immediately the adventurer was visible sliding and scrambling among the branches. He fell partway, landed in greenish mud, and got up laughing. A quick roll in a pile of red sand and he approached the leader and held out the soiled but unharmed belt.

    "Did we win one, Father?" Kelvin asked. "Are they going to think twice before croaking us in some form of sacrifice?"

    "I'd like to think so, Son. These aren't flopears. Maybe they've got something like our dragons, and maybe something like the serpents the flopears sacrificed to. But if they've got the brains of a fleouse they'll be impressed."

    The impression seemed to relate only to John Knight. The leader and his followers acted almost as if levitation belts weren't really strange. What was with these creatures, anyway?

    After a suitable interval, during which all their gear was examined and reexamined, the leader gave orders. The prisoners were lifted and carried on slippery smooth froogear shoulders. The creatures might look clumsy, but they were quite strong. Behind them, Kelvin managed to discern, other green shoulders carried everything they had brought that was not presently attached to them, including all weapons.

    Well, now. If they had any chance to escape, they could grab one of the weapons and make it good. Evidently the froogears didn't really understand the nature of those devices.

    Then most of the stuff, including the weapons, was deposited in a hollow tree, and left behind. Kelvin's hope sank; so much for having their things handy!

    They were carried an interminable distance. Through vast expanses of swamp. Between prickly tree trunks that looked like something that ought to be growing in a desert. Past huge piles of reddish sand sometimes shading to an orange the color of the sky of this world. Through brush growing in greenish water and up from patches of semiliquid land. Swamp creatures like allidiles splashed out of their way, snapping great toothy snouts, slapping broad tails that made muddy waves.

    "Father, do you think one of those?" Kelvin asked, nodding his head at one of the toothy horrors. "Their god?" The thought was revolting, but had to be considered. Allidiles fed most nastily, and these scaled reptilians were the same except bigger.

    "Let's just try to wait and be surprised," John said. "And be alert, both of you! Don't give up hope. There just may be--" He broke off to curse as a froogear snatched a wriggling orange serpent from his chest. The snake hissed, bared dripping fangs, and snapped at the face of the froogear--but immediately lost its head in the crunching jaws of the froogear. John's rescuer chewed, spat, then raised the still squirming body and directed the squirting blood into its wide, open mouth.

    "Gross!" Kian said, using one of the expressions his father had taught him. "That's worse than anything I've seen on two worlds."

    "Or three worlds, for me," John agreed. "Ugh! What must their god be like?"

    Kelvin didn't say anything. He was trying not to vomit on himself and his carrier. Some hero, he thought again. Some legendary hero to upchuck just at the sight of blood.

    The froogear squeezed its very fresh lunch. Now other juices escaped through ruptured tissues and mixed with the blood. Yellow, brown, black, and mixtures.

    Kelvin lost his battle of the gorge. With no transition at