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Updated: May 13, 2025
"He weaves his spell with the drums, with the chant, by the suggestion his mind imposes upon yours. And, having woven his spell, he cannot limit it to just the picture he suggests if ancient racial memories raise another. I merely used the tools of Lumbrilo to show you yet another picture your people once knew well." "And in so doing made an enemy."
Lumbrilo is not a hunter, nor could he be certain when and where his magic would go to work. Unless the flitter was deliberately sabotaged, he was planning for us to use our canteens in the preserve. That is lion country and there are long distances between springs. This is jungle below us and there is a source there I think we can safely tap.
Was that threat, too, only in their minds? Or had Lumbrilo some power to so shape his hatred? The unseen was cold; it sapped a man's strength, bit at his brain, weighted his hands and feet, weakened him. It strove to soften him into clay another could remold. Nothingness, darkness, all that was opposed to life and warmth and reality, arose in the night, gathered together against them.
"We shall see. If Lumbrilo is not here he shall come." And the promise in Tau's tone was sure. "Those off-worlders will have to be out of action first. And with that walking thing sent to drive us in, they must be waiting for us." "If they have sentries out, I will silence them!" promised Nymani. "You have a plan?"
His ray brought a scream from the other, who dropped his weapon from a badly seared hand to reel back, cursing. Tau waved his hands gently. The great animal heads turned obediently, until the red eyes were set on Lumbrilo. Facing them, the witch doctor straightened, spat out his hate at the medic: "I do not run to be hunted, devil man!" "I think you do, Lumbrilo.
Straightaway he raised both from the drum head, brought them down in a discordinate series of thumps which bore no relation to either the song Tau wanted or that which Lumbrilo was now crooning. Thump thump thump Dane beat it out frantically, belaboring the drum head as he wanted to sink his fists home on the body of the Khatkan witch doctor.
Lumbrilo pattered forward, his bare feet making little sound on the stones of the terrace. Now he was only an arm's-length away from the medic. "You have challenged me, off-world man." Was that a question or a statement? Dane wondered. "Why should I challenge you, Lumbrilo? To each race its own magic. I come not to offer battle." His eyes held steady with the Khatkan's. "You have challenged me."
"Tomorrow my men make hunting magic." Asaki's voice was expressionless. "Your chief witch doctor being?" questioned Tau. "Lumbrilo." The Chief Ranger did not appear disposed to add to that but Tau pursued the subject. "His office is hereditary?" "Yes. Does that make any difference?" For the first time there was a current of repressed eagerness in the other's tone.
What they have known, you shall also know. This night you have shown me all that lies in my past that is weak, that was evil, that I may regret or find sorrow for. So shall you also remember through the few hours left you. Aye, you shall run, Lumbrilo!" As he spoke, Tau approached the other, the two black-and-white hunters pacing beside him.
"Which was good for Khatka but ill for Lumbrilo and those using him to make mischief here. The poacher and the outlaw Hunters will meet with our justice, which I do not believe they will relish. But the other two, the spaceman and the company agent, are to be sent to Xecho to face Combine authorities.
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