[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

sounded just like Lorna's.
She paused at the door, looking at me sharply. It took her a few seconds to
identify me. It took a few more seconds for her to get her ideas about me sorted
out. What was in this for Lorna Maxwell?
You could see her doing simple sums inside her head, very fast. Then she made
up her mind. She flung both arms wide, the silver sleeves flailing. She tipped her
lovely head back, gave a panting breath and cried out in a truly silvery lilt, "Eddie!
Eddie, darling!" And with a rush of glittering robes and a sweep of shining
perfumed hair she was all over me.
There was a confused moment after that. Lorna is heavier than she looks and she
literally flung herself into my arms. It would have been more romantic if we'd
rehearsed it better.
I tripped over the silver robe trying to get my balance and we almost sprawled at
the Hierarch's feet. Lorna had a tight grip around my neck and was sobbing in my
ear some lines from a play I dimly remembered, something about love and
reunion and bitter heartbreak.
When I got her at arms' length so I could see her face I
noticed she was keeping an eye on the Hierarch as she went through her act, just
to make sure all this was being appreciated. Lorna is, of course, one of those
persons who never really enjoy an emotion that isn't fully public.
"All right, Clia," the Hierarch rumbled patiently, after a moment. "I take it you
know this man. He tells me he's come to take you back to New York."
Lorna eyed me without turning her head. I realized she had her better profile
turned toward the Hierarch and didn't want to spoil the pose, though for all the
good it did her she needn't have bothered. The Hierarch at least was not
entrapped by the fatal charms his priesthood had bestowed on the visitors from
Paradise.
After a certain amount of thought had passed rapidly through her mind Lorna
gave a sudden squeal and swung around to give me personally the benefit of a
really dazzling three-quarter view. It was wasted on me too, but I could see what
an effect she might have on those who didn't know her.
"Eddie, you didn't!" she cried. "Really, did you come all mis way just to take me
home? Oh, Eddie, I've missed you terribly. I "
I gave her a shake.
"This is Eddie Burton, remember?" I said. "I'm not a Hollywood scout. I'm just
good old Eddie. Do you really want to go back?" I spoke in English and the
Hierarch scowled at us.
"I certainly do," Lorna assured me, smiling a glistening smile that revealed every
tooth in her head. It was clear that they'd cured her of her phobia about the
machine, at any rate.
"Tired of being an angel?" I inquired curiously.
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
"Bored to death. Oh, it's been fun, but they never let me out of the Temple. I want
to go back and show myself off. Oh, Eddie, didn't they make me beautiful?"
"They certainly did. You ought to get a Hollywood contract out of this, once
you're back. How does it feel to be beautiful?"
She smiled at me with sudden unexpected humility, a sudden look of clumsiness
and uncertainty, like a girl dressed up in finery she knows isn't her own. Dimly
Lorna knew this face was too good for her, and she felt self-conscious about it.
Unexpectedly, I was sorry for her, seeing the old Lorna under this lovely facade,
uncertain, noisy, burning with am-
bition, terrified of failure and starving for success. Well, this time she ought to get
it.
"We're on our way back right now," I told her rather grandly, and in Malescan for
the Hierarch's benefit. I hoped it was the truth. It worried me that I seemed to be
getting away so easily with my bluff, but I didn't dare relax for an instant.
It was ominous in a way that no questions had been asked about how I got
through into Malesco, what I'd been doing in that room at the Baths, how it
happened that I spoke Malescan intelligibly if not perfectly, above all how I'd
managed to call up that crowd and why.
The Hierarch stood there, looking at me, with Lorna striking attitudes in my
arms. He puffed out his slablike cheeks a couple of times, sighed and said, "You
think so, do you?"
There was the soft sound of finger-snapping and right then I stopped worrying
about one thing: getting away with my bluff so easily.
I stopped worrying because there was a sudden downward blur past my eyes and
a tight, silky noose closed violently around my chest and arms. I felt the slam
against my spine of a fist tightening the knot at my back.
At the same moment something equally tight around my ankles almost threw me
off my balance. My worry about getting away with anything ceased abruptly. I
wasn't getting away with a thing not any more.
Lorna's great luminous blue eyes grew very wide. I could see the whites all round
them for a moment as she stared over my shoulder. I turned my head and found
myself looking upward into a face about a foot above my own. An enormous
priest was holding the rope around my arms.
Slightly behind him stood another giant with a rope-end in his hands. The other
end trailed downward to my ankles. A slight pull would throw me flat. I didn't see [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]