Planet of Adventure Omnibus Read Online Free PDF

twunggg-thwack! The shaft sped away too swiftly to be seen. A
moment later, high in the sky, appeared a burst of white fire; and the watchers
gave a sigh of exaltation.
    For another
half-hour the folk of the tribe stood looking up toward Az. Did they envy Osom,
Reith wondered, presumably now rejoicing in the Vaduz palace on Az? He sought
among the dark shapes, lingering before going to his pallet, until, with a
smile of grim amusement for his own weakness, he realized that he was hoping to
locate the girl who had occasioned the entire affair.
     
    On the
following day Reith was sent forth to gather fodder, a coarse leaf terminating
in a drop of dark-red wax. Far from resenting the work, Reith was happy to
escape the monotony of the camp.
    The rolling
hills extended as far as the eye could reach, alternate cusps of amber and
black under the windy sky of Tschai. Reith looked south, to the black line of
forest, where his ejection seat still hung in a tree, or so he hoped. In the
near-future he would ask Traz Onmale to conduct him to the spot ... Someone was
watching him. Reith swung around, but saw nothing.
    Wary, watching
from the corner of his eyes he went about his task, plucking leaves, filling
the two baskets he carried on a shoulder-pole. He started down into a swale,
where grew a copse of low bushes, with leaves like red and blue flame. He saw
the flutter of a gray smock. It was the girl, pretending not to see him. Reith
descended to meet her and they stood face to face, she half-smiling,
half-cringing, awkwardly twisting her fingers together.
    Reith reached
forth, took her hands. “If we meet, if we are friends, we’ll get in trouble.”
    The girl
nodded. “I know ... Is it true that you are from another world?”
    “Yes.”
    “What is it
like?”
    “It’s hard to
describe.”
    “The
magicians are foolish, aren’t they? Dead people don’t go to Az.”
    “I hardly
think so.”
    She came
closer. “Do that again.”
    Reith kissed
her. Then he took her by the shoulders and held her back. “We can’t be lovers.
You’d be made unhappy, and get more beatings...”
    She shrugged.
“I don’t care. I wish I could go with you back to Earth.”
    “I wish you
could too,” said Reith.
    “Do that
again,” said the girl. Just once more...” She gave a sudden gasp, looking over
Reith’s shoulder. He jerked around, to see a flicker of movement. There was a
hiss, a thud, a heartrending sob of pain. The girl sagged to her knees, fell over
on her side, clutching at the feathered bolt buried in her chest. Reith gave a
hoarse call, looked wildly here and there.
    The skyline
was clear; no one could be seen. Reith bent over the girl. Her lips moved, but
he could not hear the words. She sighed and relaxed.
    Reith stood
looking down at the body, rage crowding all rational thought from his mind. He
bent, lifted her-she weighed less than he expected-and carried her back to
camp, reeling and straining. He took her to the shed of Traz Onmale.
    The boy sat
on a stool, holding a rapier which he glumly twitched back and forth. Reith lay
down the body of the girl as gently as he was able. Traz Onmale looked from the
body to Reith with a flinty stare. Reith said, “I met the girl picking fodder.
We were talking-and the bolt hit her. It was murder. The bolt might have been
meant for me.”
    Traz Onmale
glanced down at the bolt, touched the feathers. Already warriors were
sauntering close. Traz Onmale looked from face to face. “Where is Jad Piluna?”
    There were
mutters, a hoarse voice, a summons. Jad Piluna approached: one whom Reith had
noticed on previous occasions: a man of dash and flair, with a keen
high-colored face, a curious V-shaped mouth, conveying, perhaps
unintentionally, a continual insolent mirth. Reith stared at him in a
fascination of loathing. Here was the murderer.
    Traz Onmale
held out his hand. “Show me your catapult.”
    Jad Piluna
tossed it, an act of casual disrespect, and Traz Onmale turned up a