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Show few remaining had taken off pell mell toward the north, fully two feet off the ground, whilst the shaken Armand, breathing heavily, sat down weakly on one of the cold frames, drained and exhausted. Then he fell to weeping, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands. His hair in back stood up like a terrified cock's comb. "But nay, nay," he muttered tearfully. "A more stupid girl there could ne'er be...falling t h u s . . . ." Janni looked with loathing at this man, her villainous father, from her spot among the slaughtered DragonGeese. Tenderly, she held the limp neck of the only fair-tempered one of the lot, her favorite-Merchant Pick. Armand lifted his head at length and addressed Dr'Anya. "Could we, perchance, bury the child?" His voice had dropped dramatically to a whisper-the penalty for taking human life, aye, even when it was involuntary, was exile to Earth's TranquilizingSatellite, and Armand was well aware of this fact. He rushed on, a little breathless. "The girl- thou seest?-despised her brother, told she that to me ever and often. Marry, that was the reason I bethought myself to take her in, thou knowest that well. Trying to explain I was and thou wouldst not let me speak. Never had I meant to put her in thy place. . .thou. . .thou. . .enraged me so!" He stamped a foot. "And then I said that foolish t h i n g . . . " He wiped his bald spot with a dusty hand. "She was going to leave Hoqqam...run away, try to find her way b a c k . . . back to her Seljuk mother. We could say that she'd left f o r . . . the Provinces. . .aye! We could say that the child was far away...in the Provinces. Then no o n e . . . " He paused, gasping, and leaned closer to Dr'Anya. "...then no one would ever know...!" He was holding his trembling hands by this time tightly between his knees. 224 |