At The Seventh Level (v1.0) by Unknown Author

Author:Unknown Author
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

It was almost dark when be woke up again, miserable, aching, half-starved, and with a bursting bladder. The sound of a movement on the river below had wakened him, as he had known it would; now it was time.

He gathered his thought carefully and headed it out in the general direction of the sound, not too powerfully, and not for long. Ibis was harder, actually, than blasting a crowd of people Into doing what he wanted, because he had to be so careful. Just enough and not too much, and unless they had set a constant telepathic watch on him, someone good to whom distance was irrelevant, he could be reasonably sure of getting away with it.

THERE IS SOMEONE IN THE BUILDING WHO NEEDS HELP, he projected carefully. THERE IS SOMEONE IN THE BUILDING WHO NEEDS HELP.

The sound outside, the sound that bad been a steady, rhythmic interruption of the water, suddenly stopped.

THERE IS SOMEONE IN THE BUILDING. WHO NEEDS HELP, Coyote repeated, adding to himself, “You thick-headed ass.” How long was it going to take him?

He felt the hut shudder violently, and then the failing light from the window was cut off altogether as someone peered through the opening at him.

“Hello, there?” said a voice uncertainly. “May the Light shine upon you? Is someone there?”

“Only me,” said Coyote, amazed at how tired he was. “Only me and the ropes I’m tied up with.”

“What can I do?” asked Someone. “There’s no door to this thing…you’re tied up…I don’t know how to get you out”

“Do you have a knife with you? Something to cut with?”

“I have a fishing knife.”

“Then throw it over to me—no, wait. If you throw too hard it may go somewhere where I can’t get to it. Tie something to it, a piece of string, your sash, whatever, a piece of fishing-line. Then throw it.”

Almost at once there was the clatter of metal on the bare floor of the hut, and Coyote swore.

“I meant,” he said carefully, “for you to hold the other end of the line you tied it to, friend. The point was that you could then pull it back and throw it again, if necessary.”

“I’m sorry. I’m very sorry,” said the Someone. “I didn’t think. I am a plain man. I have never done anything like this before.”

“Never mind,” said Coyote. “You did fine, actually.‘The knife landed an inch from my throat and I can reach it easily.”

“Oh. I am sorry.”

“And I,” said Coyote, cutting the last cord, “am honored.”

“You are honored?” The voice was full of wonder, and Coyote left it that way.

“How are you staying at the window like that? he asked. “Can you fly?”

“No. no. There’s a ladder here. Awfully shaky, but a ladder. It goes right up to the window.”

“And below? Do you have a boat down there?”

“Yes, Citizen. A small boat, but it will bear our weight.”

Coyote let out his breath slowly. This was going to be easy after all. Only one man, and a small boat “Look here,” he

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