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Mulrooney kept coming, slowly, crouching. Litra sprang forward and Mulrooney
was thrown to the floor, one knife sailing across the room, the Bali-Song
still in Fanny's left hand. Litra's right hand locked on Mulrooney's left
wrist as they rolled across the floor, Mulrooney's head snapping back as Litra
punched her across the jaw, Mulrooney's body going limp for an instant, the
Bali-Song falling from her fingers. Litra hauled Mulrooney up into her arms,
then over her head, balancing Mulrooney over her head in a straight-armed lift
like a wrestler. She spun, hurling Mulrooney across the room. She landed
across Culhane's legs.
"The gun, Fanny! Get the gun!"
But Litra lunged as Mulrooney, still dazed, rolled onto her back. Then Litra
was on her, Culhane's legs feeling as though they would break. Mulrooney's
right knee smashed up into Litra's stomach, and Litra rolled back, Mulrooney
on top of her for an instant. Culhane's left foot was beside Litra's head, and
he twisted his toes into her hair, kicking at her abdomen with his right foot.
Mulrooney gave Litra a right cross, the Amazon princess's head snapping back,
Culhane knotting his toes tighter into her hair, hammering his right heel down
into her midsection.
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Mulrooney tore at the thin gold chain around Litra's waist, breaking it. "I
got the key!"
Litra's left hand flashed up, punching Mulrooney in the throat, then she
snapped a backhand slap across Mulrooney's face, sending Fanny reeling back to
the floor, the key falling from Fanny's left hand.
Clumps of Litra's hair pulled out as she snapped her legs out and down,
standing. She grabbed the key from the floor, but Mulrooney was up, throwing
herself against the Amazon like a high-school freshman charging a tackling
dummy. Litra was thrown off-balance for an instant, the key falling from her
grasp to the bed.
Litra wheeled, backhanding Mulrooney across the face. Mulrooney slid along the
floor and came to a stop against the far wall, a table overturning, a bowl of
fruit spilling to the floor.
Litra started toward her, fingers flexing, muscles rippling along her naked
body.
Culhane could see the key on the far right of the bed. He tried reaching for
it, but it was inches beyond the farthest extension of his right hand. His
hands were still shackled and separated by only eighteen inches of chain.
Mulrooney was on her knees, hurling pieces of fruit from the floor at Litra, a
pear smashing as it struck Litra's face.
Litra stopped in midstride. Her right hand reached to her left wrist. Litra
flicked away the bracelet that was there, then her left hand moved to the
right bracelet. "Fanny! Get outta here! Now!"
The right bracelet was thrown to the floor.
Culhane blinked. There was no physical change except perhaps for a tightening
of the musculature, a shift in balance. But Culhane could feel it, sense it.
Litra crouched now, almost on all fours, a loud hissing issuing from her
throat, her lips drawn back, her teeth bared, snapping as she advanced on
Fanny Mulrooney. A furious she-cat.
"Culhane! Do something!"
Culhane swung the eighteen inches of chain toward the key and missed.
Litra, her nails like claws at the tips of her fingers, poised to rip and
tear, lunged. Mulrooney sprang to her feet and threw herself to the left.
Litra landed like a cat on all fours, wheeling toward her, hissing, spitting,
slashing the air with her claws, her teeth snapping.
"Fanny! Get the hell outta here! Do it, dammit!"
"No not without you!"
Litra was getting ready to spring. Culhane swung the chain and it looped the
key. Slowly so he would not lose it, he started dragging the key toward him.
Another few inches....
He looked up for an instant. Mulrooney had the spear again, thrusting toward
Litra, Litra recoiling, swiping at it with her claws, swatting at it.
Mulrooney grasped it now like a bar between both hands, her arms upraised.
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Culhane had the key. He dropped it onto his chest. He snatched at it, tearing
some of the hair from his chest that had caught in the slender gold chain.
Litra sprang into the air and crashed down, both feet against the spear shaft,
snapping it, Mulrooney falling to the floor.
Culhane had one manacle opened.
Mulrooney inched back. The second manacle.
"Culhane!"
Culhane's hands were free. He reached to the collar around his neck and
twisted the key into the lock hole. Then he undid the shackles around his
ankles.
Free, at last, Culhane sat up, the little revolver in his right fist.
Litra sprang and Culhane was about to shoot, but Mulrooney dodged between him
and his target.
He lowered the hammer and dropped the revolver to the bed, crossing the room
in three strides, grabbing Fanny by the arms and throwing her aside. Litra
leaped toward him now, Culhane bunching both fists together as though he held
an invisible baseball bat in a death grip. As Litra's body hurtled toward him,
his bunched-together fists slammed into the left side of her face at the
jawline, the head snapping around. Culhane hauled both fists back across his
left shoulder and hammered them out again against the tip of Litra's chin and
up, her head snapping back, her body back-flipping through the doors into her
changing room, crashing down upon a couchlike piece of furniture, the long,
low settee smashing under her force and her weight, blood trickling from the
left side of her mouth as her head lolled back against the wall.
She didn't move.
Culhane wheeled toward the doors leading to the long balcony, stepping through
the doorway. Fred was still battling the Amazon guard. Culhane reached out,
grabbing the guard by her hair, dragging her head back with his left hand, his
right fist punching forward, straight-arming her in the jaw, his own body
shuddering with the impact, the Amazon's legs buckling under her. She started
to reach for him as she fell, but Culhane's left hand was still knotted into
her hair. He jerked her head back, backhanding his right across the Amazon's
face, hammering her down.
She lay unconscious at his feet.
He turned around and ran back into Litra's apartment, Fred right behind him.
M.F. Mulrooney was picking herself up off the floor. She smiled. "Hey talk
about finding your boyfriend in a compromising position, huh?"
Culhane, naked and streaming sweat, folded her into his arms. Even if she
didn't fill the Amazon armor very much at all, she was woman enough for him.
"I love you," he whispered.
Chapter Thirty-Four
If he lived a thousand years, Culhane thought, he would never understand Fanny
Mulrooney. Despite what Litra had tried doing to him, despite what Litra had
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tried doing to her, Mulrooney had carefully replaced the Amazon princess's
bracelets on her wrists, explaining to Culhane as he shackled Litra onto her
own bed, "Without these, she would be in a wild rage until she exhausted
herself and died."
"It's psychological that's all it is. The bracelets symbolize self-control,
and when she removes them, she lets herself go into the rage."
"Whatever," Mulrooney answered.
Culhane posted Fred outside the doorway, having dragged in the two unconscious
Amazon guards. He tied one of them with Litra's whip. "You didn't bring me any
pants, did you?"
"I didn't think you'd be naked in bed with some princess when I got here. I
mean, I saw the wedding ceremony. You made a beautiful groom." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]