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that. I realized, however, that it was a frantic series of glances even for so
impressive a power. He was holding off all that concentrated firepower by
sheer force of will, aided, probably, by some very effective body-worn
neutralizers, but they couldn't withstand that sort of concentrated power very
long and he knew it.
Suddenly he seemed to grow and expand, becoming in an instant a huge, three-
headed dragonlike monster rising up, up, out of an invisible cavity in the air
just above the smoldering pit. It was a fearsome, terrifying sight as the
thing grew and grew until it towered over the entire square and bathed the
scene in its shadow.
The firing wavered, but then picked up again and, with a defiant howl and hiss
from all three heads, the terrible creature shot from sight as fast as a
shuttle and quickly disappeared into the sky.
The firing stopped, leaving only a scene of incredible carnage and a vast,
bubbling caldron where once the square had been. Some of the people who had
been knocked out by the stun rays had been caught, inevitably, in the firing,
but very
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Charon: A Dragon at the Gate few -most had drawn back during the excitement.
I had to admit I was stunned almost beyond thought, and had to call on all my
training and experience to put myself back together. Things had happened very
fast, and few of them were expected. First Zala the fact that she was, perhaps
had been all along, part of the opposition here and neither told me nor
betrayed it in any way. And, of course, there was her transformation into
someone quite different almost before my very eyes. Then the tables being
turned on Morah, followed by his own incredible transformation into the
terrifying three-headed dragon.
And now? I was acutely aware of how very alone I was at the moment and how
much on the outside of where I wanted to be in.
I looked out into the square and listened carefully. No weapons, no sonics, no
rays. It was over, whatever it was.
They would come in and take their own out, now marked with the horns, and
shift to new and unknown places and bases. Either I got left behind to rot or
I got out there and tried to get inside.
I opened the door and walked cautiously into the street, being careful to keep
close to the wall and exercising all my training and experience to make as
small and difficult a target as I could for anybody who might get nervous. I
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admitted to myself that I would have felt much more confident with a laser
pistol of my own.
Still, I had to be out here if only to make my contacts. I wondered where Zala
was. If she were in this up to her neck, as it now appeared, she would be very
handy I needed some friend to bridge the gap.
For a few minutes nothing moved except a couple of the poor devils shot but
not killed by the troopers near the street intersection. Obviously the ray
hadn't gotten that far. The troopers themselves were mostly ugly messes,
smeared over the nicely whitewashed walls.
But then, carefully, shapes began moving into the square or what was left of
it starting with two nasty-looking things that flew down from the rooftops.
Strange creatures covered with what appeared to be both fur and feathers of
gold and brown. Their batlike wings did not fold into their bodies but instead
semi-
accordioned on their backs. Their heads were nasty, somewhat birdlike with
large eyes and beaks but capable of an almost humanlike expression. They were
horrors, and for a moment I feared they were some new kind of Charonese
creature come to feed on carrion. But the deliberateness of their moves and
their
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Charon: A Dragon at the Gate very human manner in going through and checking
the unconscious and the dead showed them to be changelings. I was not really
surprised at the changeling involvement, but to see two of them that looked
like the same creature was more than interesting.
Huge, clawlike hands gestured beyond my line of sight, and from all four main
streets they entered a nightmarish parade of creatures that had never evolved
except in the human mind. Shaggy, apelike things, things that crawled, things
on four legs, walkers, hoppers, amphibians the collection of human horrors
seemed endless and terrible, all the more so because you could see in their
movements and gestures, and sometimes in their features, the humanity that lay
deep within them.
But they were not all repulsive some were quite beautiful and graceful,
exotic creatures out of mankind's myths and imagination, as well as its
nightmares.
I looked around for some sign of Zala or, perhaps, Tully Kokul, but neither
were anywhere to be seen. I was suddenly acutely aware of the fact that I was
very much alone in that square, the only whole and conscious human being and
not marked by the spell as a friend or ally. I began to think better of the
idea and edged back along the wall toward the door once more, whereupon a
couple of creatures, one tentacled and snakelike, the other a gray thing like
a crude stone carving noticed me and pointed. I froze, and some of the others
turned in my direction. There seemed little I could do they had the guns so I
just stood up straight, walked away from the wall, and put my hands up.
"Wait! Don't shoot!" I called to them. "I'm not a bad guy. I'm Zala's husband!
You know Zala. One of your people!"
A creature that looked something like a walking tree turned to the tentacled,
snakelike thing and said something I couldn't catch. The tentacled creature
said something back. I saw some shrugs and indecision from several of the more
humanoid ones around as they stopped for a moment from their task of
identifying those with horns and carrying them off.
The frog-man came up to them and said, clearly, "He's the T.A. the government
man here. Get rid of him!"
One of the winged creatures nodded, pulled its pistol, and aimed it at me.
"Hey! Wait a minute!" I yelled, but then something hit me real hard and I lost
consciousness.
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Charon: A Dragon at the Gate
CHAPTER NINE
Changeling
I came to, slightly, but felt dizzy, weak, and my head hurt as it never had
before. I
know I groaned, but I was only semi-conscious and still not really thinking. I
was aware, though, that I was on a stretcher or litter of some land and that I
was being carried someplace very fast. I managed to open my eyes and was
shocked to see that it was dark. How long had I been out?
I heard a sharp command and the stretcher bearers slowed, then stopped and put [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]