Andre Norton by Eye of the Monster

Author:Eye of the Monster
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-02-18T19:33:17+00:00

V

As Rees guided the roller toward the eastern heights his thoughts continued to play with the wonder as to why they had not met the Crocs once more. The natives had struck the mission and post with vicious ruthlessness. Then, they had seemingly, vanished into thin air—or the jungle. Croc hunters were expert trackers, tireless on any trail. How had the fugitive off-worlder been able to avoid them so far? Rees’ efforts at concealment would have been easy for them to spot. And he did not believe that the natives had been so sated with bloodshed that they would willingly allow the escape of aliens.

Maybe time had something to do with this lull which made him so uneasy. The First Fasts: normally this was the season of native withdrawal to the inner sanctuaries of the High Trees, a district of which the off-worlders had heard but where no non-Ishkurian had ever penetrated. Because this was a period of intense Ishkurian preoccupation with their own affairs had been the very reason the withdrawal of the last Patrol policing force had been scheduled for this date, when most of the natives would be out of contact. Had the massacre on the fringes of stellar civilization been only an isolated gesture before the Crocs began their annual pilgrimage? Rees hoped so, but he could not be sure.

There was a stir beside him. Isiga slid fluidly across the barrier between the driver’s seat and the storage space to join the Terran.

“The children sleep,” she reported, “Also, it is well with Zannah.”

“Why didn’t you traders leave when the red alert came from Nagassara?” Rees asked. Mission and trading post had had little contact. But he knew something of the Salariki temperament. Sakfor’s stubborn remaining past a warning was a puzzle; the aliens of the trader’s species were noted for prudence and wariness.

A small sound came through the dark a hiss of feline anger. “Lord Sakfor was made a promise from the lips of the High Tree Ishgil. Traders were needed, so it was said. There would be nothing for us to fear.”

“Apparently that was not true.” Rees kept his eyes on the dials before him. In the dark he had to depend much upon the auto-pilot.

“So someone shall learn the result of such split tongue talk!” The cold confidence in that was a threat, or rather another kind of promise. Salariki civilization was based on a feudal organization. Such a tragedy as this which had struck down Sakfor’s household would, on the trader’s home world, instigate a blood-feud to be taken up by his kinsmen of all degrees. But there would be none to answer such a rallying on Ishkur.

“You think,” she was indeed reading his thoughts now, “that one female of a household can not draw a knife and call for the rightful deaths of the enemy. For the moment, no. But the time will come. I am now Name-Head.”

She was right! Rees was startled. Under certain conditions, which seldom materialize except in extreme

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