Lin Carter - The City Outside the World Read Free Page B

the naked boy could be seen to hesitate at the entrance to alleys, to turn aside, to falter. And it slowly dawned upon Ryker that the three he followed were being . . . herded.
    He looked back over his shoulder at their pursuers. There were very many of them and they were curiously unspeaking.
    They looked to him like a mob. And mobs are as unpredictable, as potentially dangerous, as unruly and as given to sudden whims of violence on Mars as back on Earth.
    Despite the cold, dry air of the evening, sweat broke out upon Ryker's brow and the skin crawled horribly on the nape of his neck.
    He began to wish, and that most fervently, that he had never let that idle curiosity, that vagrant impulse, lead him out of the tavern to follow the girl with the golden eyes and the boy whose breast bore the Mark of Mystery into the furtive, meandering, shadow-steeped back alleys of old Yeolarn.
    But he had, and there was no turning back now. He
    sensed the mood of the mob behind him. They were after the girl and her companions, not after him. But they would not permit him to escape, either. Whatever lay ahead— towards whatever trap or cul-de-sac they were herding the three fugitives—no witness would be permitted to get away unmolested.
    Especially, no F'yagha witness.
    Ryker growled a bitter curse deep in his throat, and his fingers curled about his gun butt. His hard face grew bleak. His lips thinned, and his cold, pale eyes went hunting restlessly from side to side, for a doorway, an open arcade, a flight of worn steps. But no avenue of escape was left open, he knew within his heart. Silent men stood deep in the shadows, blocking every way out of the maze.
    They came at last into an open square which was walled on three sides by sheer stone surfaces, unbroken by gate or archway.
    At the entrance to this cul-de-sac, Ryker halted and stood aside against the nearer wall in the black shadow of an overhanging second-story balcony, hoping not to be seen.
    The girl, the old man, and the boy, stopped, too, realizing they were trapped and could go no further.
    The silent mob halted at the entrance to the little courtyard, and stood motionless, blacker shadows amid the darkness of the alley. Ryker drew his gun and hid it in a fold of his cloak and stood there sweating, wishing himself a thousand miles away. He smelled an execution in the air, and the stench of it was fearsome and ugly.
    And then the shadows, which stood ranked motionless, began to . . . whisper. Ryker cocked his ears to catch the unfamiliar word. It was rarely heard, even in the vilest dens of Mars, but it was not unknown to him.
    "Zhaggua!" the shadows were whispering.
    The word was blunt and unlovely, and they spat it like a curse.
    "Zhaggua! Zhaggua!—Zhaggua!"
    The girl stood, naked under her fringed long-shawl, facing the faceless shadow-throng proudly, masked face lifted fearlessly, and took the ugly word full in the face like a glob of spittle. She took it unflinchingly, Ryker noticed. And even here, with death inches away and only moments in the future, he felt the pure, sweet, singing spirit of her, and he marveled at it. The manhood within him responded to the unconscious grace of her slim, poised body, her thrusting breasts outlined under the thin silken stuff of the shawl, and the pride and scorn eloquent in the fearless lift of that masked face.
    "ZhagguaV'
    The shadows were inching closer now, the glitter of catlike eyes intent on their prey. And the whispering rose to a chant as the ugly strange name, the ugly word, was spat forth. The smell of the mob was rank and vile in Ryker's nostrils, and the name of that smell was hate. But the reek of fear was in that sharp stench, too. And that was strange.
    For why should the mob, many men strong, fear a slim girl, an old man, and a child?
    But yet another question seethed through the turmoil of Ryker's thoughts. And it was the strangest mystery of all.
    For the vile, guttural word— Zhaggua —had a meaning. A meaning