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the other human enter the cabin she broke free and rushed astern, trailing
curses in her wake. He just missed her in the main corridor, collided with
Lyra instead. It was a timely collision, since his impact knocked her aside
and clear of the knife that whistled past them.
He fired wildly and seared a section of ceiling, as a funny, high moan
sounded from the direction of the cockpit. Homat fell away from the wheel as
Lyra moved to help him.
Another pair of fishing nets clung to the boat, and Etienne pushed a few
tangles aside as he cautiously emerged on deck. Irquit was unarmed, however,
except for her mouth. She snarled something that Etienne translated crudely as
"Death to the Faceless One!" Whether the curse was aimed at Homat or himself
he had no way of knowing and likely never would know, because their former
guide and cook threw herself over the side and instantly vanished astern. No
doubt her Changritite allies would fish her out of the river and send her on
her way Downriver toward Po Rabi.
Etienne was gratified that they'd put their trust in Homat. Certainly he
had burned his bridges behind him. There was no way the Mai could ever show
his face in Po Rabi again.
If he didn't live, though, it wouldn't make any difference. Etienne
remembered that surprised moan as Irquit's knife sailed past his ear. With the
Changrit flotilla rapidly falling astern, he turned and hurried back into the
cool interior of the hydrofoil.
The pilot's seat was unoccupied and he slid behind the wheel, made a fast
check of the instruments. The scanner showed only a few small logs floating to
starboard, in con-trast to the thick cluster of shiplike shapes behind them.
In a minute or two those distant threats would slip off the screen altogether.
Homat was lying on the floor moaning. Lyra had pulled the knife out and
was working to stanch the bleeding. The weapon lay near her right leg, a very
large blade to have struck so small a humanoid. A couple of centimeters to the
left, and they'd have found themselves continuing their jour-ney without
either of their guides. Lyra had removed her halter and bound it over the
hole. The halter's air-condi-tioning system was still operating full blast,
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
and he thought to ask why when it occurred to him that the cold would pro-mote
coagulation. On rare occasions it struck him that he'd married a woman of more
than average intelligence.
With the flow of blood slowed she disappeared astern, to return a moment
later with a handful of vials and spray cans.
"I don't know how well this is going to work on you, Homat. It wasn't
designed to be used on a Mai, but it's all we have and I don't know what else
to try. Can you under-stand me?"
He nodded slowly, his small sharp teeth grinding together in pain.
"You're fully mammalian and from what I've been able to learn your
physiology's close enough to ours so that-"
"Screw the biology lecture, Lyra!" her husband snapped.
She glanced sharply up at him, but this time only nodded. Her unvoiced
admission of his rightness gave him no pleasure. He was too women about Homai.
The freeze spray on top of the effect produced by her halter's cooler
stopped the rest of bleeding. Homat gasped at the chill and tried not to look
at the intimidating alien machines they were using on his body. Then she took
a small curved device that cupped the curve of her palm, adjusted it
carefully, and held It over the wound as she removed the bloodied halter. As
she passed the device over his shoulder and upper chest it hissed softly. A
faint bright yellow light poured from its underside.
Homat writhed in pain, but when she pulled her hand away and snapped off
the surgiseal he could see that the cut had been closed completely, and
sterilized in the bargain. There would be a permanent scar, but Lyra was no
surgeon and there hadn't been time to consult the computer.
"Any poison?
"No, de-Lyra," Homat whispered at her, staring at his chest in amazement.
"A clean knife for a clean death." Etienne received this information with
relief. His arm had ceased bleeding and now he could stop worrying about his
own wound.
"You'll be all right now," Lyra assured their guide. "Just take it easy
for a few days and try not to use that arm too much." He was shivering
steadily and it occurred to her it wasn't from shock.
"He'll freeze in here, Etienne." The cabin thermometer registered a
temperature of eighty degrees. "We've got to get him back out on deck."
"Go ahead, we're well clear now. I'll help you." He al-lowed the
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