The Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz Read Free Book Online

"You're leaving —"
    "Now, now!" murmured the captain, touched and surprised by the lovely child's grief. He patted her shoulders soothingly. "I'll be back," he said rashly.
    "Oh, yes, do come back!" cried Maleen. She hesitated and added, "I become marriageable two years from now—Karres time."
    "Well, well," said the captain, dazed. "Well, now— "
    He set off down the path a few minutes later, a strange melody tinkling in his head. Around the first curve, it changed abruptly to a shrill keening which seemed to originate from a spot some two hundred feet before him. Around the next curve, he entered a small, rocky clearing full of pale, misty, early-morning sunlight and what looked like a slow motion fountain of gleaming rainbow globes. These turned out to be clusters of large, varihued soap bubbles which floated up steadily from a wooden tub full of hot water, soap, and the Leewit. Toll was bent over the tub; and the Leewit was objecting to a morning bath with only that minimum of interruptions required to keep her lungs pumped full of a fresh supply of air.
    As the captain paused beside the little family group, her red, wrathful face came up over the rim of the tub and looked at him.
    "Well, Ugly," she squealed, in a renewed outburst of rage, "who are you staring at?" Then a sudden determination came into her eyes. She pursed her lips. Toll upended her promptly and smacked her bottom.
    "She was going to make some sort of a whistle at you," she explained hurriedly. "Perhaps you'd better get out of range while I can keep her head under... And good luck . Captain!"
    Karres seemed even more deserted than usual this morning. Of course it was quite early. Great banks of fog lay here and there among the huge dark trees and the small bright houses. A breeze sighed sadly far overhead. Faint, mournful bird-cries came from still higher up—it might have been swan hawks reproaching him for the omelet.
    Somewhere in the distance somebody tootled on a wood instrument, very gently. He had gone halfway up the path to the landing field when something buzzed past him like an enormous wasp and went CLUNK! into the bole of a tree just before him. It was a long, thin, wicked-looking arrow. On its shaft was a white card, and on the card was printed in red letters:
    STOP, MAN OF NIKKELDEPAIN!
    The captain stopped and looked around cautiously. There was no one in sight. What did it mean?
    He had a sudden feeling as if all of Karres were rising up silently in one stupendous cool, foggy trap about him. His skin began to crawl. What was going to happen?
    "Ha-ha!" said Goth, suddenly visible on a rock twelve feet to his left and eight feet above him. "You did stop!"
    The captain let his breath out slowly. "What did you think I'd do?" he inquired. He felt a little faint.
    She slid down from the rock like a lizard and stood before him. "Wanted to say goodbye!" she told him. Thin and brown, in jacket, breeches, boots, and cap of grey-green rock lichen colour, Goth looked ve r y much in her element. The brown eyes looked up at him steadily; the mouth smiled faintly; but there was no real expression on her face at all. There was a quiver full of those enormous arrows slung over her shoulder and some arrow-shooting device—not a bow—in her left hand. She followed his glance.
    "Bollem hunting up the mountain," she explained. "The wild ones. They're better meat."
    The captain reflected a moment. That's right, he recalled; they kept the tame Bollem herds mostly for milk, butter, and cheese. He'd learned a lot of impor tant things about Karres, all right! "Well," he said, "goodbye Goth!" They shook hands gravely. Goth was the real Witch of Karres, he decided. More so than her sisters, more so even than Toll. But he hadn't actually learned a single thing about any of them. Peculiar people! He walked on, rather glumly.
    "Captain!" Goth called after him. He turned. "Better watch those take-offs," Goth called, "or you'll kill yourself yet!"
    The captain