Earth he didn't mature as he should have. If you'll let me explain..."
She listened while he talked, but without shedding the air of general skepticism that seemed to wrap her like an invisible poncho.
"Now, I didn't know I was trespassing on your territory, or that I was supposed to check with you first," he wound up. "But in any case, I'd have wanted to come this way. I've been hoping to find out about my older brother's death. He died here on Everon eight years ago—"
"Died? How?" An edge of hardness had come into her voice and Mikey droned abruptly on a note of warning. "What do you mean—'died'?"
Jef felt the sad bitterness gathering in him. For too many years he had, suffered the misunderstandings of other people where William's death was concerned.
"I mean died!" He came down hard on the word. "There was a man named Beau leCourboisier who was there when it happened. I'm hoping he can tell me more about it than the E. Corps could. My brother was a Colony Representative for the E. Corps here on Everon—"
"He was, was he?" The hard edge in Jarji Jo Hillegas's voice sharpened. "Beau know you're looking for him?"
"No. But since he was a friend of Will's—"
"Oh... friend." The edge went out of Jarji's voice. The warning note singing in the back of Mikey's throat faded away. "Still, if you were coming through here, you should have radioed ahead."
"Nobody said anything about that, I told you," said Jef. "Do you shoot anyone at all who happens to come through here, if you don't know they're coming?"
"Now and then," said Jarji dryly. "But if your brother was a friend of Beau's I guess I might hold off—in your case."
"Thanks," said Jef grimly. "Weren't you the one who yelled 'peace' just now? I'm not going just to stand here if you try to use that thing you've got. Neither is Mikey."
"Oh, I think I might handle the two of you, if I had to—the maolot first, of course," she said. "It wasn't any doubt in my mind about being able to do that, that stopped me when I first saw you. It was trying to figure out why anybody from the city or the wisent ranches would come up here with a maolot as a pet. They make pig-food out of maolots on sight down in wisent territory."
Abruptly she came right to the edge of the fire so that only its flames were between her and Jef. With a single smooth motion she swung her weapon off her back and sat down cross-legged, laying the device out before her on the ground, beyond easy reach. Seated so, on the green moss-grass, painted by the red-yellow colors of the firelight, she seemed so much a part of this nighttime forest scene that she looked more like some creature of Everon herself, rather than a human, twenty-two-year-old, game rancher with a killing machine on the ground before her.
"I said peace, and I meant peace," she said. "Sit down. Let's talk."
Slowly, and more clumsily, Jef sat on his side of the fire. Mikey crouched beside him, one heavy shoulder against Jef's leg. Reaching out with one arm, Jarji picked up a dry branch of variform pine from the pile Jef had accumulated, and tossed it on the blaze.
"A little more light, here," she said.
The flames caught at once on the dry needles and flared up, pushing back the darkness of the surrounding forest. The scent of the burning wood rose into Jef's nostrils; and suddenly he was seized by the same faculty of acute observation he had experienced as he stepped off the spaceship. The smell of the fire, the dance of its flames licking against the night, the leaping illumination playing with the colors of Jarji's rough clothes and lining her face with moving shadows... all these and the polished wood of the weapon and the movement of the night air made him feel as if he had fallen into a trance where everything about him was twice as real as reality—and twice as wonderful. This alone, he thought suddenly, was worth his coming to Everon to experience. This, alone—
He wrenched himself out of the moment of transport with an
She listened while he talked, but without shedding the air of general skepticism that seemed to wrap her like an invisible poncho.
"Now, I didn't know I was trespassing on your territory, or that I was supposed to check with you first," he wound up. "But in any case, I'd have wanted to come this way. I've been hoping to find out about my older brother's death. He died here on Everon eight years ago—"
"Died? How?" An edge of hardness had come into her voice and Mikey droned abruptly on a note of warning. "What do you mean—'died'?"
Jef felt the sad bitterness gathering in him. For too many years he had, suffered the misunderstandings of other people where William's death was concerned.
"I mean died!" He came down hard on the word. "There was a man named Beau leCourboisier who was there when it happened. I'm hoping he can tell me more about it than the E. Corps could. My brother was a Colony Representative for the E. Corps here on Everon—"
"He was, was he?" The hard edge in Jarji Jo Hillegas's voice sharpened. "Beau know you're looking for him?"
"No. But since he was a friend of Will's—"
"Oh... friend." The edge went out of Jarji's voice. The warning note singing in the back of Mikey's throat faded away. "Still, if you were coming through here, you should have radioed ahead."
"Nobody said anything about that, I told you," said Jef. "Do you shoot anyone at all who happens to come through here, if you don't know they're coming?"
"Now and then," said Jarji dryly. "But if your brother was a friend of Beau's I guess I might hold off—in your case."
"Thanks," said Jef grimly. "Weren't you the one who yelled 'peace' just now? I'm not going just to stand here if you try to use that thing you've got. Neither is Mikey."
"Oh, I think I might handle the two of you, if I had to—the maolot first, of course," she said. "It wasn't any doubt in my mind about being able to do that, that stopped me when I first saw you. It was trying to figure out why anybody from the city or the wisent ranches would come up here with a maolot as a pet. They make pig-food out of maolots on sight down in wisent territory."
Abruptly she came right to the edge of the fire so that only its flames were between her and Jef. With a single smooth motion she swung her weapon off her back and sat down cross-legged, laying the device out before her on the ground, beyond easy reach. Seated so, on the green moss-grass, painted by the red-yellow colors of the firelight, she seemed so much a part of this nighttime forest scene that she looked more like some creature of Everon herself, rather than a human, twenty-two-year-old, game rancher with a killing machine on the ground before her.
"I said peace, and I meant peace," she said. "Sit down. Let's talk."
Slowly, and more clumsily, Jef sat on his side of the fire. Mikey crouched beside him, one heavy shoulder against Jef's leg. Reaching out with one arm, Jarji picked up a dry branch of variform pine from the pile Jef had accumulated, and tossed it on the blaze.
"A little more light, here," she said.
The flames caught at once on the dry needles and flared up, pushing back the darkness of the surrounding forest. The scent of the burning wood rose into Jef's nostrils; and suddenly he was seized by the same faculty of acute observation he had experienced as he stepped off the spaceship. The smell of the fire, the dance of its flames licking against the night, the leaping illumination playing with the colors of Jarji's rough clothes and lining her face with moving shadows... all these and the polished wood of the weapon and the movement of the night air made him feel as if he had fallen into a trance where everything about him was twice as real as reality—and twice as wonderful. This alone, he thought suddenly, was worth his coming to Everon to experience. This, alone—
He wrenched himself out of the moment of transport with an
Similar Books
