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Maiden, Nymph, and Mother are the eternal royal Trinity of the island, and the Goddess, who is worshipped there in each of these aspects, as New Moon, Full Moon, and Old Moon, is the sovereign Deity
- Graves
CRETE CIRCA 1300 BC
Kaby pushed back at Sid some seconds of bread and olives, and, when he raised his bushy eyebrows, gave hi She stood up and sort of took a position AB the talk quieted down fast, even Bruce&039;s and Lili&039;s Kaby&039;s face and voice weren&039;t strained now, but they weren&039;t relaxed either
"Woe to Spider! Woe to Cretan! Heavy is the news I bring you Bear it bravely, like strong woun unlimbered, I heard seaweed fry and crackle We three leaped behind the rock wall, saw our gun grohite as sunlight in a heat-ray of the Serpents! Natch, we feared ere outnumbered and I called upon my Caller"
I don&039;t kno she does it, but she does - in English too That is, when she figures she&039;s got so iet ready
Beau claihts into measured lines as naturally as we pick a word that will do, but I&039;e departs like that when I&039;ve got Kaby spouting the stuff right in front of me, I don&039;t know
"But I didn&039;t die there, kiddos I still hoped to hurt the Greek ships, un So I quick tried to outflank them My two comrades crawled beside me - they are e Soon we spied the ambushsetters They were Snakes and they were nant e War has its code, the Soldiers tellan Entertainer, I don&039;t have to say what I think
"They had seen usthe volley Heatand knife-rays struck about us in a stor for Crete&039;s Triple Goddess So we dodged behind a sand bill, steered our flight back toward the water It ful,there; Crete&039;s brave ships all sunk or sinking, blue sky sullied by their death-sain the Greeks had licked us! - aided by the filthy Serpents
"Round our wrecks, their black ships scurried, like black beetles, filth their diet, yet this day they dine on heroes On the quiet sun-lit beach there, I could feel a Change Gale blowing, working changes deep inside er&039;s Half my memories were doubled, half my lifeline crooked and twisted, three new moles upon my swordhand Goddess, Goddess, Tripple Goddess - "
Her voice wavered and Sid reached out a hand, but she straightened her back
"Triple Goddess, givethat happened We ran down into the water, hoping to escape by diving We had hardly gotten under when the heat-rays hit above us, turning all the cool green surface to a roaring white inferno But as I believe I told you, I was calling on my Caller, and a Door now opened to us, deep below the deadly steahtened o&039;s Gold Coast, Dave once gave ot a flash of Kaby&039;s Door in the dark depths
"For a moment all was chaos Then the Door slammed shut behind us We&039;d been picked up in time&039;s nick by - an Express Roo two feet deep in water, much ician, an old coot named Benson-Carter He dispelled the water quickly and reported on his Caller We&039;d got dry, were feeling human, Illy here had shed his swiing, ! And when Benson-Carter touched it, he fell backward - death was in hian to darken, narrow, shrink and close around us, so I called upontime, let me tell you!
"We can&039;t say for sure as it slowly squeezed that sweet Express Room, but we fear the dirty Snakes have found a way to find our Places and attack outside the cosmos! - found the Spiderweb that links us in the Void&039;s gray less-than-nothing"
No enuine; we&039;d been hit where we lived and I could see everybody was scared as sick as I was Exceptgently I decided they were the kind that love ives ," Kaby continued "This thing scared the pants off of us If we could have, we&039;d have even Introverted the Maintainer, broken all the ties that bind us, chanced it inco red-hot puddle filled with bubbles big as handballs We sat tight and watched the Void close I kept calling on my Caller"
I squeezed my eyes shut, but thatdown on the? Yes, Bibi Miria dying, also thought the Snakes had done it And he knew that death was in hi me precise instructions: how to press the seven death&039;s hands, starting lockside counterclockwise, one, three, five, six, two, four, seven, then you have a half an hour; after you have pressed the seven, do not et out fast and don&039;t stopthis part and I couldn&039;t see that anyone else was, though Bruce hispering to Lili I reraved on the bronze chest I looked at Illy and he nodded a tentacle and spread two to say, I guessed, that yes, Benson-Carter had said so like that, but no, Illy didn&039;t know s and asps of his life-force, telling all his secret orders - for he&039;d not been sent to get us, he was on a separate mission, when he heard my SOSs Sid, it&039;s you he was to contact, as the first leg of his mission, pick up fro Soldiers, then to wait until the Places next match rhythm with the cosmos - matter of two mealtiypt in the age of the last Caesar, in the year the Rome&039;s swift downfall, there to start on operation in a battle near a city nae the course of battle, blow sky-high the stinking Serpents, all their agents, all their Zouided one and left nal We&039;ve found Sid&039;s Place, that&039;s the first leg, and I see the three black hussars, and we&039;ve brought with us the weapon and the Parthian disguises, salvaged from the doomed Express Room when your Door appeared in ti spewed us through before it vanished with the corpse of Benson-Carter Triple Goddess, draw the milk now from the woeance now upon the Serpants, vengeance sweet in northern Egypt, for your island, Crete, Goddess! - and a victory for the Spiders! Goddess, Goddess, we can swing it!"
The roar that made me try to stop my ears with my shoulders didn&039;t come from Kaby - she&039;d spoken her piece - but froh to h blood pressure just as easy in the Change World
"Dump me with ops! &039;Sblood, I&039;ll not endure it! froest it And what&039;s this prattle of locks, clocks, and death&039;s heads, buttons and o, this hocus-pocus! And where&039;s the weapon you prate of? In that whoreson bronze casket, I suppose"
She nodded, looking blank and almost a little shy as poetic possession faded fro last echo
"It is nothing but a tiny tactical atomic bomb"