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He drew his lips tight, displaying those same teeth, wondering for one startled moment if he should take the Rover's query literally. "Vistur! Vistur!" More than one voice called. One of the crew took a step or two forward. Like Torgul, he was tall and heavy, his over-long arms well muscled. There were scars on his forearms, the seam of one up his jaw.
"Stand away " One of the others ran forward, thrusting at the tall Rover with a stiffened out-held arm to fend him out of their path. Vistur rolled a shoulder, sending the fellow shunting away. He went down while two more, unable to halt, thudded on him. Vistur stamped on an outstretched hand and sent a sword spinning. "What goes here!" Torgul's demand was loud enough to be heard.
"Ho ... that was strong magic, that fighting knowledge of yours!" Vistur rubbed his chest reminiscently. "You have big magic, sea man. But then you serve the Maid, do you not? Your swordsman has told us that even the great fish understand and obey her." "Some fish," qualified Ross. "Such fish as that, perhaps?" Vistur pointed to the curling wake of foam. Startled, Ross stared in that direction.
Loketh was beside him now and the Hawaikan nodded to the sea. "Better go there," he cried. "Over before they try to gut you!" "Kill!" The word shrilled into a roar from the Rovers. They started up the deck toward Ross and Loketh. Then someone leaped between, and Vistur fronted his own comrades.
And the answer to that plea came in a strange way, for I fell as I went from the shrine and cut my arm on the rocks. The pain of that hurt was as a knife severing the net. Then I crawled for the wood and that calling did not come again " "If you know so much about them, tell us what weapons we may use to pull them down!" That demand came from Vistur. Ross shook his head. "I do not know."
But he could be wrong. Ross waited, tense. Just let one of them pull a weapon, and it could be his end. Two of them were aiding Vistur to his feet. The Rover's breath whistled in and out of him with that same whooping, and both of his hands rose unsteadily to his chest. The majority of his fellows stared from him to the slighter Terran as if unable to believe the evidence of their eyes.
It would not kill, but would render its victim temporarily paralyzed; and how long that state would continue Ross had no way of knowing. Tried on Terran laboratory animals, the time had varied from days to weeks. Vistur used the flat side of his war ax, clapping it against the foremost runners, setting his own bulk to impose a barrier.
Vistur gave a whooping cry and went to his knees and Ross swung again, sending the Rover flat to the deck. It had been quick but not so vicious as it might have been. The Terran had no desire to kill or even disable Vistur for more than a few minutes. His victim would carry a couple of aching bruises and perhaps a hearty respect for a new mode of fighting from this encounter.
"That is a chance to be taken. But remember ... the magic of the Foanna at the sea gate did not work against me. Perhaps this won't either. Once, earlier, I won against it." "Have you then another hand to give to the fire as your defense?" That was Vistur. "But no man has the right to order another's battle challenge." "Just so," returned Ross sharply.
Torgul, Vistur, the two other cruiser captains, all there ... and Jazia. Ross swung his feet to the deck. A pep-shot headache was already beginning, but would wear off soon. There was, however, a concentration of tension in the cabin, and something must have driven Karara to use the drug. "What is it?" Karara fitted the medical kit into the compact carrying case. "Tino-rau has returned.
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