Page 4 (2/2)

The Door appeared to the left and above where it should be and darkened ust of stale salt seawind, if that e Winds I could tell - and I had been bracing ot inky and there was a flicker of gray fur whips and a flash of copper flesh and gilt and so a stun gun across his left forearm, and then the Door had vanished like that and a tentacled silvery Lunan and a Venusian satyr were co a pile of clothes and weapons The satyr was helping a aisted wo a short skirt and high-collared bolero jacket of leather so dark brown it was almost black She had a two-horned petsofa hairdress and she was boldly gilded here and there and wore sandals and copper anklets and wristlets - one of them a copper-plated Caller - and fro a short-handled double-headed ax She was dark-complexioned and her forehead and chin receded, but the effect was anything but weak; she had a face like a beautiful arrowhead - and a faolly!

But before I could say, "Kabysia Labrys," Maud shrilly beat me to it with, "It&039;s Kaby with two friends Break out a couple of Ghostgirls"

And then I saw it really was old-honized my Lunan boy friend Ilhilihis, and in theI was getting so I could tell the personality of one silver-furred muzzle from another

They reached the control divan and Illy dugered but shook off the two ETs when they started to support her, and she looked daggers at Sid when he tried to do the sah she&039;s his "sweet Keftian friend" he&039;d ht-ar breaths so deep that the ridges of her spine showed through her brown-skinned waist, and then she threw up her head and co it, Sid tried to take her hand again, saying, "Sweetling, I&039;d never heard you call before and knew not this pretty little first," but she ripped out, "Save your comfort for the Luau," and I looked and saw - Hey, Zeus! - that one of Ilhilihis&039; six tentacles was lopped off halfway

That was forto hihs fifty pounds for all he&039;s seven feet high; he doesn&039;t like low sounds or to be grabbed; the two legs aren&039;t tentacles and don&039;t act the sa walks, tentacles for leaps; uses tentacles for close vision too and for manipulation, of course; extended, they uard or nervous; sharply retracted, disgusted; greeting - "

Just then, one of the feather duster and I said, "Illy, ers across hishily for his lopped tentacle, but he wafted it away from hty, naughty Papa will fix his little old self Greta girl, ever bandaged even a Terra octopus?"

I had, an intelligent one from around a quarter billion AD, but I didn&039;t tell him so I stood and let him talk to the palm of my hand with one of his tenacles - I don&039;t savvy feather-talk but it feels good, though I&039;ve often wondered who taught hilish - and watched him use a couple others to whisk a sort of Lunan band-aid out of his pouch and cap his wound with it

Meanwhile, the satyr knelt over the bronze chest, which was decorated with little death&039;s heads and crosses with hoops at the top and swastikas, but looking much older than Nazi, and the satyr said to Sid, "Quick thinldn, Gov, when ya saw the Door coravty unner it, but cud I hay suot very light and my stomach did a ifip-flop while the satyr piled on the chest the clothes and weapons that Illy had been carrying and pranced off with it and carefully put it down at the end of the bar I decided the satyr&039;s English instructor, must have been quite a character, too Wish I&039;d met him - her - it

Sid thought to ask fly if he wanted Moon-nor such a lightweight, Earth-norravity doesn&039;t bother hiravity bother a beetle, Greta girl?"

I asked Illy about the satyr and he squeaked that his name was Sevensee and that he&039;d never met him before this operation I knew the satyrs were from a billion years in the future, just as the Loonies were froht - Kreesed us! - but it ency-like operation to have the Spiders using those two for it, with two billion year between theives you a feeling of awe for a second, you know

I started to ask Illy about it, but just then Beau ca redand-black earthenware goblet of wine - we try to keep a variety of drlnking tools in stock so folks will feel rabbed it from him and drained most of it in one s and then sh Sid&039;s tried to teach her better Then she stared at what she was thinking about until the whites showed all around her eyes and her lips pulled way back from her teeth and she looked a lot less human than the two ETs, just like a fury Only a tis of them some of the ancients can look

My hair stood up at the screech she let out She smashed a fist into the divan and cried, "Goddess! Must I see Crete destroyed, revived, and now destroyed again? It is too ht she could stand anything

There was a rush of questions at what she said about Crete - I asked one of thehtened ht for silence and took a deep breath and began

"In the balance hung the battle Rowing like black centipedes, the Dorian hulls bore down on our outnuht beach, un, ready to give the black hulls silent wounds Beside us was Ilhilihis, suited as a sea monster But thenthen "

Then I saw she wasn&039;t altogether the iron babe, for her voice broke and she started to shake and to sob rackingly, although her face was still a e, and she threw up the wine Sid stepped in andto do all along