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lurched, and skidded askew. Thinking that the Savanti taking a
monster back would need help, I ran across.
At that moment the graint I hunted bounded from a low
hillock and charged the airboat.
Aboard the airboat were three dead men clad in strange
coarse garments of some yellow stuff, hooded, and girdled with a
scarlet rope with tassels. Their feet were sandaled. There was also a
girl, who cried out in terror.
She was blindfolded.
Her hands were bound behind her and she struggled in a
silvery tissue gown. Her hair was of the auburn-tinged brown I
have always found attractive. I had no time to look further at her
for the graint was clearly intent on eating her for his dinner. I
shouted, high and hard, and leaped forward.
Somehow, by continuous struggling, the girl had managed to
slide the blindfold down from her eyes. As I charged I cast her a
single swift glance. Her large brown eyes were terrified; but as soon
as she saw me an entirely different expression filled them. She
stopped her screaming at once. She shouted something in a fierce
excited tone, a word that sounded like: Jikai!
I did not understand; but her meaning was plain.
The graint was a large fellow, a good eight feet tall as he
reared back on his hind two pairs of legs and pawed at me with the
upper two pairs. His long crocodilian snout gaped and the teeth
looked extraordinarily hard and sharp.
I might be playing a game; but he was not, and he was hungry,
and the soft flesh of the girl represented a nice juicy dinner to him.
I darted in and instantly leaped back so that his responding
blow sliced the air where my head had been. I thrust quickly; but he
turned and I had to dive forward and roll over as his other paws
clapped together in an attempt to imprison my body. I scrambled
up and faced him again. He grunted and snuffled, put all his paws
to the ground, and charged at me. I skipped aside at the last
moment and slashed down as he passed. The blow would, had the
Savanti sword not been charged with its miraculous powers, have
lopped off his forequarter. As it was the stun lost him the use of
that paw. It was erroneous to call his parts quarters, they were
eighths; but my father s horse-training died hard. A damned sight
harder than this pesky graint. I jumped in again, ducked the gaping
fangs, and thrust. This time his other foreleg went out of action.
He roared. He swiped at me and I met the blow with a parry; the
edge did not cut into him but again that stunning power drained
the strength from that limb.
But I had been slow. His fourth upper limb raked down my
side and I felt the blood spurting down my flesh. I also felt the
pain; but that had to be pushed aside.
Jikai! shouted the girl again.
A blow had to be landed on his head. I had scorned to use the
superior leaping ability the slightly lessened gravity of Kregen
afforded my Earthly muscles as unsporting. These beasts were only
doing what was in their nature. But now this girl s life was at stake.
I had no choice. As the graint charged in again I leaped up, a good
ten feet, and slashed him across the eyes and snout. He went down
as though a thirty-two pounder had caught him between wind and
water. He rolled over and stuck his eight clawed paws in the air. I
felt rather sorry for him.
Jikai! the girl said again, and now I realized that the three
times she had used the word had been with a different inflection. It
was a Kregish word, I was sure, yet, for some reason, it had not
been dissolved into my neural net along with all the other words of
Kregish I had acquired.
Now Maspero and our friends ran up. They looked
concerned.
You are unharmed, Dray?
Of course. But let us see to the girl she is bound
As we untied her Maspero grumbled away to himself sotto
voce. The others of the Savanti looked with as much ill will as that
people ever could look at the bodies of the three men clad in the
yellow gowns.
They will try, Maspero said, helping the girl up. They
believe it, and it is true; but they will take such risks.
I stared at the girl. She was a cripple. Her left leg was twisted
and bent, and she walked with an effort, gasping at each painful
hobble. I stepped forward and took her up in my arms, cradling her
against my naked chest.
I will carry you, I said.
I cannot thank you, warrior, for I hate anyone who despises
me for my crippling. But I can thank you for my life Hai, Jikai!
Maspero looked remarkably distressed.
She was remarkably beautiful. Her body was warm and firm
in my arms. Her long silky brown hair with that enraging tint of
auburn hung down like a smoky waterfall. I could plunge over that
waterfall with great joy. Her brown eyes regarded me with gravity.
Her lips were soft, yet firm and beautifully molded, and of such a
scarlet as must, have existed only in the Garden of Eden.
Of her nose I can only say that its pertness demanded from
me the utmost exertion not to lean down and kiss it.
I could not dare to dream of kissing those red lips; for I knew
that were I to do so I would drown and sink and succumb and I
would not answer for what would happen then.
An airboat flew out from the city. It was a pure white, which
surprised me, for all the airboats used to carry the animals back
through the passes were brown or red or black. Savanti came from
the flier and gently took the girl from me.
Happy Swinging, I said, unthinking.
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