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"I realize that-you would go, and endeavor to help and protect me in every way possible"

"Yet did sae fer him"

"Of course I aer tracing s walk ter na braithrean wi'hout yer"

He nodded, and gloried a second tio back to them, at the other end of the whorl?"

"'Tis me h'only kin"

"Mercenaries You were a htin' ter ae, bucky Paid ter Moss-trooper, ter, an' there was nae better"

"Perhaps you'll find so A woman who loves you Or friends who like you as much as I do"

"Found yer h'already, bucky"

"Yes," he said sadly "You have And if I could take you back to New Viron with me, I would do so in an instant The probleoing to a town very far froo"

"Di They want e compromises for them There are , and many more in which no cohed "I cannot give them all that they hope for, and their disappointment is certain to turn to violence in time, unless I can escape the awa'?"

Solemnly, he nodded "I would I will-if I can I've proo with hie it to the best of my poor ability But not that I'll remain there indefinitely I will keep my prooing home I've been halfway around Blue already, and ho then, bucky"

He sighed again "No doubt I will, but I won't have you In the first place, Hari Mau and his friends will learn where I am very quickly-if not today, certainly tomorrow They'll hold me to my promise then, and insist we leave You must have expert care for months Your flesh s that can be done should that occur, but they are difficult things and require an expert physician

"In the second, you would be er, a focus for the discontents of every ainst I said that you will require eon told me, and what they tell me here If you were to co in Pig's face had changed He said, "And in the third, Horn?"

"Patera!"

Oreb whistled shrilly

"I would be a positive danger to you," Pig said "Strength and a stout heart are hazardous qualities where they cannot prevail"

"Yes" He wiped his eyes

Naked and subtly altered, the face was still Pig's; Silk's wellremembered voice issued from its lips "Still, you would take me if you could"

"Yes Yes, I would If we reached New Viron, I would not have failed Or even if you reached it alone"

"You do not wish to fail" Pig's big hand tightened on his

He said, "I would give my life not to fail," and meant it

"You already have"

"You must he here, on this acceleration couch" Hari Mau bent over hih it is essential"

"I know, I've been on them before I'm worried about Oreb"

Hari Mau's shter one is, the less strain Oreb is very light" A wide strap snapped closed, pressing the azoth into the tense muscles under it "For yourself you are not afraid, Rajan Silk?"

If they wished to call hi to stare, he looked fro that had replaced-what? He tried to reht hi rows of crude brown couches, the craalley that had fed the, the twisted steel grip of Sinew's knife protruding frootten

Hari Mau repeated, "For yourself you are not afraid?"

"Of dying?" He shook his head "No, not of that In a way it would be a relief, a ation of failure May I confide in you?"

"Of course! I a fear I am afraid I'll screaht cotton for his ears, and he stuffed it in the, Oreb, and pretend you are going to sleep Keep out as much of the noise as you can"

"No hear?"

"Yes," he said firmly "No hear," and watched with approval as Oreb tucked his head beneath his wing

He had wanted a couch near the others, perhaps next to Hari Mau's, but Han Mau had hustled him away, farther down, nearer the front of the lander, nearer the strange place to which Silk had once gone from which one could-while still in the whorl-see the stars He was

He craned his neck in a vain effort to see behind him

Two or three rows farther down Three rows at least, he decided, and more likely four At least this lander was not jammed like the one in which he and Nettle had coine her and what she was doing, but found that he could only picture astools I aht tremor shook the lander Under such circu, woven of the split stems of some tropical plant It would be warm in Gaon He shivered

Someone had ripped open the very walls to steal wire If he and Hari Mau and all the rest were lucky, that someone would have left the insulation strewn about so it could be replaced and confined behind the one and had been replaced with sohtered cattle or so of the sort

No, they did not eat their cattle in Gaon Hari Mau had said so Cattle were theEchidna, just like snakes Snakes were understandable, of course It was that way in Viron, too, to soh cattle were associated with both Echidna and Pas, now that he thought of it Rain fro Rain, the intercourse of the gods

In Gaon, Hari Mau had said, cattle were offered to Echidna, but never eaten The entire ani about the size of altars in Gaon, and the supply of wood as well, surely

The ht, nearly huh blurred about the mouth "We'll cast off for the planet called Blue in thirty seconds Your couch is secured"

"Yes," he said unnecessarily "Yes, I think so" He wanted to ask whether they would get there, whether they would arrive and whether they would , but did not