Lamarchos by Jo Clayton Page A

pulling her toward the caravan. Stavver slid down and together they got the stumbling weeping woman up the back stairs into the caravan and laid her down on the mattress.
    For a minute Aleytys leaned back against Stavver, his hard healthy flesh a healing anodyne for her tattered spirit He wrapped his arms around her and held her with quiet affection. “All right now, Leyta?”
    â€œLife keeps getting more complicated,” she sighed. “Well, let’s get back to those idiots outside.”
    â€œThink about this, love. When we get to Loahn’s place you can have your bath.”

Chapter IX
    On the way to the house Olelo murmured in her ear, “The first task is done, sister.”
    â€œOh, is it then?” She eyed the bouncing rumps of the trotting horses. “So. What’s the second?”
    â€œA little thing.”
    Aleytys snorted skeptically. “And what is that little thing?”
    â€œYou are to curse the city Karkys and drive the Karkiskya off Lamarchos.”

PART II

Chapter I
    Karkys rode the ridge, a heavy, basalt lump dark and massive against the whorls and streaks of pastel tints that made the sky a delicate wonder. Behind the city the ridge flattened into tableland where a number of slender needles were partially visible. Star ships. Beyond this the western horizon broke into gradually increasing waves of land until a wall of mountains melted dim and blue into the multicolored sky streaked with the hordes of aerial bacteria until it resembled a circus tent. As they came closer the clouds of dust from the unpaved road swirled up from beneath the hooves and wheels and feet to throw a softening veil over the harsh contours of the city.
    Aleytys wiped the rag across her face, scrubbing away briefly the mixture of sweat and dust that prickled like nettles against her skin. “What a mess.”
    â€œSoon over.” Stavver brushed fastidiously at his arms and frowned at the mob of humanity surrounding them. “We could do with a bit fewer bodies.”
    Aleytys laughed, then regretted it as the clogging dust swelled into her mouth. She spat, then spat again. “Phahh! I get your point. But we’ll be lost among them.”
    â€œI’d settle for a thinner cover.” He sneaked the rag off her lap and scrubbed at his face. “I haven’t seen Loahn for a while. You send him off somewhere?”
    â€œYou were sleeping. He went ahead when we were way back down there. To get us a good place to camp. I sent Olelo with him to keep him out of trouble. With that stubble on his head someone’d probably try to kill him as outcast.”
    â€œMmmmm.”
    A man on horseback trotted past, glanced curiously at them then vanished in the dust pall. Slowly, in a painfully drawn-out creeping forward, the line of wagons and complaining herds and plodding packtrains wound up the hillside. The noise was appalling.
    The massive walls loomed higher and higher as they crept near.
    â€œFormidable.” Aleytys raised her brows. “The four of us are supposed to get around that?”
    Stavver shook his head. “That pile of stone isn’t where the difficulty lies.” He leaned forward peering through the eddying dust. “The pinch is in the electronic gear concealed in those walls. The scanners by the gate will be taking apart everything that passes them. That’s why my tools sit in Maissa’s Vryhh-box. One smell of them.…” He laughed then spat in his turn, grunting in disgust.
    Aleytys stared fascinated at the looming gate. Then she shook her head. “Anything more complicated than a crossbow makes my head ache.”
    â€œLeave it to me, mountain girl. That’s my business. Why I’m here.” He yawned, shielding his mouth with a hand, then stretched and groaned. “Another hour of this at least.”
    â€œAhai, Miks, seems like a year to go.”
    He glanced at the sun’s glow spot. “Since we