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Show "'Tis a long story," said Dr'Anya, quickly looking away from her daughter. "And," said Janni, smiling aside, "'twould mayhap send me t o . . . to the.. .TranquilizingSatellite. . . . " Should I tell this vain man about that thing and mayhap cause myself to be loosed from his pretty son? "Thou meanest, t h o u . . . " Dr'I'gor began, all agape at Janni. "Oh, naynaynay. . .nay! " broke in Dr'Anya. "Janni harmed no wight, indeed." "He was already dead, thou seest," said Janni, with some gusto. And then added weakly, "In all truth he was already dead..." "Or rather, near enough," put in Dr'Anya, in order to make the record clean straight. "There is, there was indeed hope, rather mean I no hope. . .he was...on the e d g e . . ." "The word is moribund, child..." Dr'Igor looked at the two, eyes out on stalks. "Who?" asked Dr'Igor. "Who be this wight you speak of?" Janni looked at Dr'Igor, then at her good mother. And thought she to herself full deeply. 'Twould of a surety, give the man pause about her pledge with Pym...and that rightly! She sighed, then, with a great show of resignation. "Now that we are all aware of the Skill, mayhap I could tell..." Dr'Anya looked at her daughter, puzzled at this high drama her daughter was staging. "Now, c h i l d . . . - " she began. "In faith, my mother," the maid returned. "Never would such a thing have happened. . .none of i t . . . had we not to hide our Skill, thou knowest 214 |