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his job though he kept one steady eye on the vase.
I joined the line, looking back. Through the open arch leading into the great
hall I could see the moving throngs, but I couldn't see Dio now. That didn't
mean anything. I felt very very anxious to get on the other side of the temple
wall. What I would do there I didn't know yet but...
There were a dozen priests ahead of me, moving forward slowly. I heard the
clink of coins. How much should I contribute? Why had Dio given me the grain?
Most of all, who i was he? How much did he know and what was his game? I
Someone pushed me roughly from behind. I started to swing I around and
one of the flaps of my headdress swung across my " face so that I was
momentarily blinded. In that second of darkness. I
heard Falvi's familiar voice say, "Keep moving, will you?"
I turned my head back again toward the front, faster than I'd turned it toward
Falvi. He was standing right behind me. I hurriedly moved forward, closing the
gap between me and the next priest. I heard Falvi's feet scuffle behind me.
Fine wonderful! Of course it was a lucky break that I hadn't lost Falvi after
all, that I could still depend on him to lead me to Lorna. But my back felt
singularly unprotected. I could feel rings being drawn concentrically on the
back of my robe, with a bull's-eye just in the center, where a knife would be
most effective. Inevitably I was moving closer to the splash of light by the
cashier.
There were six priests ahead of me... five... four. I looked rigidly ahead,
the coins clutched in my hot little palm. Automatically, I noted the size and
shape of the "grain" being tossed into the vase. Automatically, I
opened my hand and selected a coin that seemed identical. Then there were two
men ahead of me... one...
nobody at all.
I bent my head forward, so that the flaps fell forward too, and hoped my
profile wouldn't be visible to
Falvi. I dropped a coin in the vase. The cashier glanced at me sharply, ran
his eyes down toward my legs
my shoes and trousers!
"Wait a bit!" he said, meeting my eyes again. "You're out of uniform." That
wasn't his exact phrase, but the meaning was identical.
And then Falvi yelled in my ear, "Blast it, Vesto, keep your nose clean! I'm
in a hurry! Step it up, step it up."
He shoved me through the gate and as I hastily moved to one side, I heard a
violent altercation begin between Vesto and Falvi. It ended in a perfect
scream of rage from Falvi, and the next thing I knew he was through the gate
too and hurrying into the shadows.
Vesto appeared briefly and swore after him. I moved away in the opposite
direction. When Vesto retreated
I circled and began to trail Falvi, being doubly careful till we were both
Page 18
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
past the huge brightly lit open square that faced the temple.
Chapter VI
IT S
' no more difficult than a Chicago man suddenly finding himself in Bombay, or
Lhasa, or Moscow, dressed in the appropriate local costume. But the boy from
State Street has seen newsreels of those places, he's read about them and he
knows there are French and English in Bombay. And, anyway, there's not much
basic difference between a rickshaw and a Dynaflow.
All the same he'll get a queer picture of Bombay, just as I did of this
Malescan city. One reason was that I
was afraid to try anything new that might unmask me by revealing my ignorance.
A Martian might follow the crowds down a B.M.T. subway entrance and he'd get
along fine till he ran up against the coin-operated turnstile. Then he'd start
frantically wondering what peculiar ritual was required.
He might figure out how the change booths worked; but unless he had some U.S.
currency, he'd be sunk.
Even if he spoke English there'd still be trouble, since nobody in one of
those New York subway change booths has ever been known to speak in human
tongues, I certainly couldn't make much of the coins Dio had loaned me. I took
them out and examined them as I
went along. They all bore Roman numerals I, II, V, XX as well as puzzling
symbols like those I had seen on the doors in the Temple. But none was of a
recent enough mintage for me to make out details.
They all had ornamental curlicues on the edges, like our own milled edges, so
I guessed that Malesco had
its coin shavers too.
Malesco oh, it was a rose-red city, all right. But some of the walls had
graffiti scrawled on them -
words my uncle hadn't listed in his vocabulary, though it was easy to figure
some of them out and the streets weren't especially clean. The city wasn't
crowded, though. I didn't see any throngs except once. A
gang of people had got a man in gray coveralls backed up against a building
and were yelling at him. That should have been my cue to spring to the
victim's aid. He could have been the prince of some neighboring country and
have been suitably grateful for my help.
But when an air-car swooped down and grounded gently not far away, I hastily
joined the crowd and yelled with them. Men in uniform were getting out of the
air-car, which was built like a chariot, ornately decorated with scrolls and
gilded curlicues.
The police dragged their victim away and, from what I overheard, I decided the
"prince" was a pickpocket who'd been caught. So that was all right.
Falvi seemed to know where he was going. I never lost sight of that hurrying
figure with its flapping headdress. I had a sense of immediate urgency for I
remembered Dio very clearly. He knew who I was. Or did he?
I didn't form a complete picture of the city as I trailed Falvi. All I got
were flashes, like the way a moving light slipped along one of the overhead
causeways, the luminous jewelry some of the people wore, men and women both,
and a flutter of confetti that blew past me down the street. One coil wrapped
itself around my neck and as I pulled it free I saw lettering on me paper.
COME
To
THE BATH OF THE DIVINE
WATER
, it said in Malescan.
Well, that was what I meant to do if I could find the place.
A few aspects of the city stood out even above my preoccupation: one was the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]