Var The Stick by Piers Anthony

Author:Piers Anthony [Anthony, Piers]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi., Science Fiction
Publisher: Corgi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

He whirled, grabbing for his new set of sticks. Then he relaxed. “Soil!”

“I saw you run from the hostel So I came, too. Var, what happened?”

“The Master” Var was stopped by an misery.

“He Wasn’t he happy that you won?”

“The Bob reniged.”

“Oh.” She took his hand solicitously. “So it was for nothing. No wonder the Weaponless is mad. But that isn’t your fault, is it?”

“He says he’ll kill me.”

“Kill you? The Nameless One? Why?’

“I don’t know.” It was as though she were the inquiring adult, he the child.

“But he’s nice. Underneath. He wouldn’t do that. Not just because it didn’t work.”

Var shrugged. He had seen the Master run amuck. He believed.

“What are you going to do, Var?”

“Leave. He’s giving me a day and a night.”

“But what will I do? I can’t go back to the mountain now. Bob would kill me and he’d kill Sol and Sosa too. For losing. He told me he’d kill them both if I didn’t fight, and if he finds out”

Var stood there having no answer.

“We weren’t very smart, I guess,” Soil said, beginning to cry.

He put his arm around her, feeling the same.

“I don’t know enough about the nomads,” she said. “I don’t like being alone.”

“Neither do I,” Var said, realizing that it was exile he faced. Once he had been a loner and satisfied, but he had changed.

“Let’s go together,” Soli said.

Var though about that, and it seemed good.

“Come on!” she cried, suddenly jubilant. “We can raid some other hostel for traveling gear, and and run right out of the country! Just you and me! And we can fight in the circle!”

“I don’t want to fight you any more,” he said. “Silly! Not each other! Other people! And we can make a big tribe with all the ones we capture, and then come back and”

“No! I won’t fight the Master!”

“But if he’s chasing you”

“I’ll keep running.”

“But, Var!”

“No!” He shook her off.

Soli began to cry, as she always did when thwarted, and he was immediately sorry. But as usual he didn’t know what to say.

“I guess it’s like fighting your father,” she said after a bit. That seemed to be the end of it.

“But we can still do everything else?” she asked wistfully, after a bit more.

He smiled. “Everything!”

Reconciled, they began their flight.

By dusk they were ensconced in an unoccupied hostel twenty miles distant. “This is almost like home,” Soli said. “Except that it’s round. And everything’s here I guess the nomads haven’t raided it this week.”

Var shrugged. He was not at home in a hostel, but this had seemed better than foraging outside for supper. Alone, he would have stayed in deep forest; but with Soli “I can fix us a real underworld meal,” she said. “Uh, you do known how to use knives and forks? I saw how the cooks did it. Sosa says I should always be able to do for myself, ‘cause sometime I might have to. Let’s see, this is a ‘lectric range, and this button makes it hot”

One word stuck in his mind as he watched her busily hauling out utensils and supplies.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.