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"We have guests arriving."
Lakesh's eyes went wide in surprise, then narrowed with a wary skepticism.
"How can you possibly know that?"
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James Axler - Outlanders - Devil in the Moon
"A trans-comm call came in a little while ago," she replied. "Farrell received
it. He woke me up to tell me he couldn't find you."
"A trans-comm call?" Lakesh echoed incredu-lously. "From whom?"
"Sky Dog."
Lakesh nodded in understanding. Sky Dog's band of Sioux and Cheyenne were the
Cerberus redoubt's nearest neighbors its only neighbors, for that matter. Not
'so much a chief as a shaman, a warrior priest, Sky Dog was Cobaltville-bred
like they were. Unlike them, he had been exiled from the ville while still a
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youth due to his Lakota ancestry. He joined a band of Cheyenne and Sioux
living in the foothills of the
Bitterroot Range and eventually earned a position of high authority and
respect among them.
Kane, on one of his visits, had entrusted the man with one of the trans-comm
units. Though its range was limited to a couple of miles, it was better than
no means of communication at all.
"So when Sky Dog made the call," Lakesh said, "he was already in sight of our
front door."
"Yeah."
"Why is he coming here at such an ungodly hour?"
"He's bringing& " Domi paused as if groping for the proper term. "Something
that belongs to Kane."
Lakesh frowned, becoming annoyed at the vague information Domi was supplying.
"Something he left in the village during one of his trips down there? That
makes no sense. Whatever it was, it couldn't have been that important."
Domi turned to favor him with an intense stare he found discomfiting. "No,
Lakesh," she said softly. "It's not something he left in the village. It's
some-thing Kane never talked about with anybody here. He never talked about it
with me, either, but that's be-cause I already knew about it. Or I knew the
possi-bility this day might come."
A chill caused Lakesh to shiver, but it wasn't due to the temperature. Fingers
of dread knotted in his stomach. "This involves your captivity in Area 51,
doesn't it?"
She nodded once, a short jerk of her white-haired head, and she fell silent.
Lakesh waited for her to say more, and when she didn't he was on the verge of
demanding further explanation when the steady clop-
clop of hooves on asphalt reached his ears.
Domi tensed, watching the point where the plateau narrowed down into the road.
The sound grew louder and Lakesh realized two horses were approaching, coming
up the incline. Silhouetted against the rising sun, two figures mounted on
horseback appeared at the edge of the plateau.
"Sky Dog," Domi murmured.
Lakesh had never met the shaman, permitting Kane to act as both ambassador and
liaison. He squinted at the second figure astride a pony. Even in the
uncertain light, he could see the figure was very slight of build, almost
childlike. A blanket lay draped over the head and shoulders.
"Who is that other one?" Lakesh asked^
Domi didn't answer. She strode quickly forward to meet them. Sky Dog reined
his horse to a halt and gestured to her. "
Hou, mita cola
, Domi. It's been a while."
Domi acknowledged the comment with a jittery smile. She moved swiftly to the
other mounted person and spoke in such low murmurs, Lakesh couldn't catch a
single word. He glanced up at Sky Dog. The man's face was lean and sharply
planed with wide cheekbones and narrow eyes the color of obsidian.
Shiny black hair plaited in two braids fell almost to his waist. Behind his
right ear, a single white eagle
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James Axler - Outlanders - Devil in the Moon feather dangled.
"I'm Sky Dog," he said pleasantly. "I don't be-lieve I've had the pleasure."
Lakesh stepped forward, extending a hand. "My name is Lakesh. I've heard a lot
about you, sir."
Sky Dog's eyes flashed with surprise. "Same here, Lakesh. I have to confess
you don't look anything like the man I expected."
He clasped Lakesh's hand tightly. Lakesh winced a bit at the strength of the
man's grip and replied, "I've had what used to be called a makeover. What
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brings you here?''
Sky Dog's face registered surprise a second time. "You mean you don't know?"
He jerked his head toward the blanket-swathed fig-ure who Domi was helping
dismount. "She showed up in my village two days ago, begging to be brought
here. She claimed she knew all of you, particularly
Kane. She said it was a matter of life and death."
Lakesh gazed suspiciously at the figure. "Whose life?"
When the blanket dropped, his suspicious gaze be-come a gape of goggle-eyed
shock. The hybrid female was small, smaller even than Domi. Her huge,
up-slanting eyes of a clear crystal blue gave Lakesh a silent appraisal. They
looked haunted. White hair the texture of silk threads fell from her
domed-skull and curled inward at her slender shoulders.
Her compact, tiny-breasted form was encased in a silvery-gray, skintight
bodysuit. It only accentuated the distended condition of her belly. Lakesh's
expe-rience with pregnant women was exceptionally slight, but he guessed she
was at least six months along.
Holding her belly with both long-fingered hands, she said in a high, almost
childlike voice, "
This life. My name is Quavell, and I have traveled a very long way in order to
save it." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]