The sight of Amra, Inzax, and the children being marched out between
musketmen was enough for Green. He turned away and spoke softly but
savagely.
"Keep your backs to them! Don't look back! We're far enough away in the
dark so they might not recognize us. Especially in this crowd!"
A minute later he and the boy and the cat were looking around the
corner of a large building. They saw the soldiers commandeer a rickshaw
and put the prisoners in it. Then four of them walked behind the
vehicle as it was pulled away.
"They--they'll be put in the Tower of the Grass Cat," said the boy,
shaking with fury. "Oh, that devil Miran! That fat old devil! He's the
one who's accused Mother of witchcraft! I know! I know!"
"He didn't accuse her," said Green, "but me. She's guilty through
association with me. Well at least we'll know where they are for a
while."
"There go Miran and the soldiers back into the hotel."
"Waiting for us," said Green. "They'll have a long wait. Well, let's
go. First things first. We'll buy a ticket, see the ship. I have to
know where it's located, what type it is, et cetera. Luckily I've
enough money on me to do that. But we'll be broke then. You have any?"
"Ten _axar_."
"That's not much, but it's enough to pay for a rickshaw ride to the
windbreak."
At the box-office, Green bought two tickets, then walked up the steep
flight of steps with Grizquetr. At the top he found himself in a large
group standing on a platform beneath a wooden roof. This was for the
curious who wanted to get a preview of the demons' vessel. Tomorrow the
gates would be opened to admit a vast crowd, who would sit on the hard
wooden seats of the amphitheatre that had been built fairly close to
the ship.
The ship itself was an Earth naval vessel, a two-man scout. It pointed
its needle nose upward, resting upon eight jetstruts, gleaming in the
moonlight. Its naval insignia, a green globe crossed with rocket and
olive branch, was a smudge in the shadows. Nevertheless he could make
it out. He felt his breast swell and he choked with homesickness.
"Ah, so near, yet so far," he murmured. "Even if I get to you, then
what? What if the poor devil of a survivor turns out to be a navigator?
Still, he ought to know enough to get her off the ground and into
space. And from there on, with interstellar drive, we ought to be able
to get home, somehow."
He sounded plaintive, even to himself, for he knew how vast space was
and how complicated astromathematics was. And of course there was no
guarantee that the Earthman would even be a navigator. He might just be
an officer or perhaps a civilian official who was being ferried in one
of the swifter small ships.
Then there was the awful possibility that the vessel might have landed
here because there was something wrong with it, and that it could not
rise again even if it had a full crew. In fact, that was the most
logical explanation.
He sighed and turned to the boy.
"This may be for nothing, but we can't just sit down and watch. Let's
take off for the windbreak."
"What are we going to do there?" asked Grizquetr, as they walked down
the steps.
"Well, we're not going back to the yacht," Green answered. "Soldiers'll
be waiting there to arrest us. No, we'll go to the other side of the
'break. Stealing another 'roller isn't going to get us in any more
trouble than we're already in."