Mutiny in Space Read Online Free PDF

else. Jory followed them. There … lying on the ground … that shining thing she had so fiercely — he did not doubt, proudly, too — waved above her head in that wild and enraged attack. How it had glittered!
    Her sword. She spoke. It was difficult to credit this same clear, full — one could almost say civil — voice, with having uttered those wild howls.
    She spoke, her head bowed down. Then she lifted it, spoke again, in obvious surprise. Little Joe came up to Captain Rond, took his hand, pointed to the sword. Then child and woman spoke together, but without looking at one another. Now she gazed at each of them in turn. For a moment her look was scornful, then this gave way to confusion. She gave a gasp, then shrugged, and once again bowed her head.
    “I think,” said Rond, slowly, “that I … or we … are supposed to do something about that sword. I know that swords were of great significance in pre-T times on our own Homeworld, but …”
    The woman, finally mastering the notion that they really did not know what to do, looked at Little Joe, and, with a sound too curt for a word, indicated to him to show them. By means of gestures with pantomime, but without ever touching the sword or any of the martial gear, the child directed Captain Rond. Rond took up the sword with both his hands (“Rather a good steel, considering … I wonder if it might have been coked? If they know coal, they might know oil.”) and plunged it into the ground. Upon the hilt they placed her mask and helmet, and layed her gauntlets, crossed, before it.
    She looked on, nodding, with a deep sound, once or twice. Once or twice her face twitched. But that was all. Then she had them do the same for the sword of the dead woman — for that one was a woman too — older, gaunt and grim, gray in her russet coils — but a woman. Dead …
    Lockharn said, suddenly, “Why, she don’t care about the body at all. It’s just the sword and gear she’s worried about. I suppose it’s their custom, but — ”
    Rond answered him. “You may pray, if you wish, Systemsman Lockharn.” He did not give him much time for it, though. He touched Little Joe’s cheek, looked into his eyes, and said, “What now? And where? But it must be quick.”
    Before the place was out of sight, Jory Cane turned his head to look. It seemed to him that two sentinels remained, heads alone protruding from the ground, heads bowed upon crossed hands.
    • • •
    Once again Little Joe’s grass buskins flew and they trotted after him. The woman made no resistance, her face showed no expression. Parts of her curious black and scarlet armor flapped loosely as she jogged along, where the tapes had been cut away to bind her hands. They came upon a road paved with broad, flat stones, crossed it in a moment and plunged into the woods on the other side; but not before Jory had time to reflect that it must have been here that the attackers had stamped the metal butts of their spears … and, as though confirming the source of the rythmic clangor, several of the spears lay where they had fallen … or been dropped. Other items of equipment lay scattered, but he didn’t stop to examine them.
    “Hey, look at this thing, Mr. Cane,” Storm said.
    “No time — ”
    “All right. I’ve got it — them. Look … what do you — ?”
    It took Jory a moment to identify the articles, even when he held them in his hand. One was a crossbow, rich in inlays of scarlet and black, with a touch or two of gold. The other was a leather pouch with tassels of the same two major colors. He squeezed it as he ran. “Pellets,” he said. “I don’t know what for.”
    “Change a letter or two,” Rond said. “Bullets. It’s a bullet-crossbow. They didn’t all shoot darts — that’s not the word — bolts … or arrows. Give me one.”
    The pellets or bullets were of some dull gray metal, and seemed to have been cast in a mold. Rond, running as effortlessly as a man half his age, bit into it;