Outside in the streets it was full day, and the color and life of Charin
had subsided into listlessness again, a dim morning dullness and
silence. Only a few men lounged wearily in the streets, as if the sun
had sapped their energy. And always the pale fleecy-haired children,
human and furred nonhuman, played their mysterious games on the curbs
and gutters and staring at us with neither curiosity nor malice.
Miellyn was shaking when she set her feet into the patterned stones of
the street-shrine.
"Scared, Miellyn?"
"I know Evarin. You don't. But"--her mouth twitched in a pitiful attempt
at the old mischief--"when I am with a great and valorous Earthman...."
"Cut it out," I growled, and she giggled. "You'll have to stand closer
to me. The transmitters are meant only for one person."