Scorpio Invasion Read Free

laughing.
    More walled gardens followed, gate after gate. A few more female Och slaves barely looked up as I went by, intent upon their labors.
    Given that the sound of the party ought to come from the central portions of this damned maze of gardens, then to keep on going directly away from the party should bring me to the outside wall. That, at least, was the theory. Ha! You who have followed my narrative will know how theories have the diabolical habit of mercilessly tripping up one hight Dray Prescot.
    So far the guard uniform had brought me through without question. Slaves do not normally stand up when a guard passes and challenge him with a “Who are you?”
    Other guards might, though.
    Two other guards did. Directly, harshly, slanting their spears at my midriff. They were tough, hard-faced, wearing curved leather armor and polished metal helmets flaunting red and yellow feathers. They marched smartly in through the open gate towards which I was walking and simply marched straight up to me, pointed their spears, and challenged me in a most decisive and unmistakable way.
    They did not speak exactly as Lin and Hwang had done; the burden of their message was exactly the same.
    “There is no excuse,” said the left hand one in a clipped, tight voice. “You are not allowed here.”
    The right hand one said: “We shall take you along to the guardroom. Now just come along quietly.”
    To reinforce the words she used her spear to tickle my ribs.
    “Now look here—” was as far as I got before the spear jabbed again.
    “Get moving, you loveless spawn of Holpo the Blasphemer!”
    Well, as many folk have said many times, if ladies wish to put on armor and act as soldiers, jikai vuvushis, and wield weapons, they are perfectly entitled to do so. In the struggles in Vallia during the Times of Troubles, I, myself, had cause to be thankful to the gallant regiments of jikai vuvushis who had fought so well for us. I had shuddered away from their use and had only reluctantly come to realize that girls, no less than boys, must be allowed to do what they wish and are able for the good of all.
    All this being so, the obverse is also so.
    I took the spear haft into my fist, pushed and then snatched it cleanly from the girl’s grasp and used it to parry the second girl’s automatic stroke. Then I tapped both as gently as I could under the fancy helmets just above their ears. I tried to catch both as they fell, but as I am an apim, Homo sapiens sapiens, and have only two arms, one of the poor girls pitched over onto the path. I lowered the other to her side and stepped back to view them. I shook my head. This happening is the obverse of the bright colors and armor and glittering weapons and flaunting feathers. They both slumbered peacefully.
    When I moved off I did so very smartly.
    Which was just as well.
    A long blue-fletched Lohvian arrow sprouted from the thigh of the nearest sprawled girl.
    Without thought, without hesitation, instantly, I hurled myself sideways, ducking away, fleeting over the ground.
    More arrows flicked past. When a Bowmaid of Loh shoots at you, you must deflect the shafts, run and dodge the shafts, or let the shafts shaft you to death.
    “By Makki Grodno’s pustule-covered armpits and leprous biceps!” I said to myself as I leaped from side to side and raced on, zigzagging to save my life. “They’re mighty sharp around here.”
    I went roaring past the open gate and immediately cut along to the left beside the wall. That pitiless rain of arrows dried up. I took a breath and scuttled rapidly along by the wall heading for a narrow door at the far end of the path. I ignored the opposite gate this time; it seemed to me that would only admit me onto more trouble. I could hear a few high-pitched shouts from the rear and guessed the Bowmaids would be running after me, their long legs flashing in the suns-light.
    The door proved to be unlocked. When I opened it, slid through, and slammed it at my back I assumed