Inferno Read Online Free PDF Page B

that much length should have toppled him, and how could such length of tail, flexible tail, be strong enough to stay almost straight? But ignore that, and tell me where there was room for tens of miles of tail to be coiled inside his body?
    His feet weren’t anchored; I watched until I saw them both move. The tail wasn’t stored in the floor, then.
    “Are you all right?” Benito asked.
    My vision was graying out; my whole body had a buzzing foot’s-asleep feeling. I said, “I’m going to faint.”
    “You can’t faint here. Hold fast.” His hand gripped my shoulder.
    A dark-haired woman, quite pretty, was encoiled in the tail until she nearly vanished, lifted, and sent spinning off down the bowl. A man in a cabbie’s uniform was next. Three loops of tail and out he went into space. And another, and another—
    There were thousands here. We’d starve before we reached our turn.
    But I didn’t feel hungry, and hadn’t felt hungry since I left the bottle, and that was hours ago. Also, something was wrong with time. “Minos” was in no hurry. Quite the opposite. He took plenty of time to deal with each case, and there were plenty of cases; yet the crowd thinned out much faster than it should have.
    Where were they going? I never saw anyone leave the room, but there had to be other audience chambers, people slipping off into side passages. There must have been hundreds, perhaps thousands, of copies of “Minos.”
    Ridiculous mummery. But the tail, Carpentier! Hidden in hyperspace, or snaking out of an alternate time track? If the Builders have that kind of technology, how long were you dead? Ten thousand years? A million?
    It was our turn. We approached together. Not many had come up in pairs.
    “Sodomites, huh?” Minos said. “Seventh Circle, Third Level. Or have you got something worse to confess?”
    I said, “I refuse to answer on grounds that my—”
    He looked a lot like an angry bull when he frowned, and nothing at all like a machine. He turned to Benito. “You’ve been here before. Why have you left your proper place?”
    “Is that your affair? You see I roam freely through Hell.”
    “Yes. How?”
    “It has been willed that I may do so. You have no right to interfere.”
    Minos waved at me. “And this one?”
    “He has come from the Vestibule,” Benito said. “You will note that he comes of his own accord. You may not judge him.”
    “Lawyers.” Minos laughed. “I have problems with lawyers. There are so many places appropriate to that breed. Where are you two going, then?”
    “Down.”
    “Back to the First Circle.”
    We’d spoken simultaneously. Minos laughed. “Back you will not go. Are you sure you don’t want me to judge you, Allen Carpenter? My judgment is just and fair. You could choose worse for yourself than justice.”
    “Cease!” Benito commanded. I jumped. He was a changed man. Power seemed to gather around him as he struck a pose, massive chin jutting out in defiance, his face both calm and stern. Once upon a time he had been used to obedience.
    “I am permitted to judge . . .” Suddenly Minos sounded petulant.
    “You have already judged me. What other power have you? And this man is not under your jurisdiction. Leave us alone to go in peace.”
    “Not back up.”
    “No. Down.”
    Minos laughed. He waved toward the steps leading down into the bowl from his throne. “Depart. Thou art sent!” He was still laughing as we started down those steps, the mocking laughter in our ears until we lost sight of the palace.

6
    W
    e were all right as long as the steps continued. Unfortunately they soon trailed away into a broken slope that still dropped at forty-five degrees or so. At the same time a wind began to rise. Benito and I turned to face the slope and backed down on toes and knees and hands.
    In fact, the hurricane in my head (Where does the Minos-thing keep its tail? What is Benito, that he gives orders to an inhuman that judges all others who come before it? Is