"Brian Daley - Jinx on a Terran Inheritance" - читать интересную книгу автора (Daley Brian)

[Fitzhugh 2]-JINX ON A TERRAN INHERITANCE


eVersion 1.1 - click for scan notes

JINX ON A TERRAN INHERITANCE
Brian Daley

I think this one's for the house-apes: Eileen, Kevin, Danny and Mike, and Erin and
Nicholas



CHAPTER 1тАФPARDON US
"Hold it!" Alacrity yelled, grabbing for the controls. "That's her!" He yanked the corridor tram out of
autoguide and changed course so fast that Hobart Floyt had to clutch frantically to keep their scant
luggage from flying down the corridor. The tram came to an abrupt stop behind a huge pilasterтАФthe
stronghold Frostpile was built on the grand scale in every wayтАФnearly throwing them both off.
The robes they'd worn to the funeral of Cazpahr Weir, and in which they'd nearly been killed an hour
earlier, hung limply, bedraggled and ridiculous. Floyt bruised his hip against his Inheritor's belt, a
waistband of heavy reddish alloy plaques.
"Who'd you see?" Floyt demanded in a whisper. "What's going on? We should've demanded that
Governor Redlock give us back our guns, that's what!" Until a few weeks earlier, Floyt, native of
preterist, isolationist Terra, had refused to so much as touch a firearm. But then again, he'd been through
a lot recently. "Hey, watch where you're stepping," he added as Alacrity clambered over him.
Alacrity winced at the pain from the rib he'd cracked that morning in an airbike crash. He peered
cautiously around the pilaster, motioning Floyt to silence. Alacrity's big, oblique eyes, their great irises a
radiant yellow streaked with red and black, were wider than ever.
His baggy robe had slid back off his shoulders, revealing a mane of slate-gray hair, shot through with
strands of silver, growing in a sharp V down the muscular channel of his back. He was a lean 197
centimeters tall.
Floyt left the tram, padding up behind in soft tabi. More than twenty centimeters shorter than Alacrity,
he had close-trimmed brown hair and a beard going to gray. Recent events had left him less stocky than
formerly. "Who is it? Did you see Heart?"
"Heart? Why would I be hiding from Heart? I'm in love with her! No, I thought I saw Sintilla."
Floyt snorted exasperatedly. "Sintilla went to one of the lesser wakes before Weir's last rites, remember?

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 [Fitzhugh 2]-JINX ON A TERRAN INHERITANCE


She'll be gone for hours. Now, stop being such a worrywart and let'sтАФ"
"A what? Wari-what?" Alacrity babbled.
"Hah? Not wari, 'wari-wart!' I mean, wari-what! Goddammit, worrywart, wart! Floyt gibbered.
"Keep it down, Ho! That's all we need, for Tilla to spot us now! Or d'you want her tagging along all the
way to Blackguard?"
Floyt drew a slow breath between clenched teeth. A patient and reasonable man, he was near his limits.
He eased around the pilaster just below his friend, whispering, "Even if it is her, she won't be looking for
us yet. And by the time she finds out that we'veтАФ"
He straightened up suddenly and shouldered past the rangy Alacrity. "That woman's a food technician!