"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 04 - Kalin" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

"That's right!" roared a man. "A dirty, filthy, stinking witch!
She hexed my daughter so that she aborted!"

Others took up the chorus. "She called up a wind to rip the
roof off my barn!"

"I had a whole brewing ruined through her!"

"My boy lost an eye!"

"She dug a hole and my wife fell in it and broke a leg!"

"I bought stock and went broke. She did it!"
 The shouts became an animal snarl.

"She did it! She did it! Witch! Stinking, lousy witch! Kill her!
Burn her! Flay her alive! Kill! Kill! Kill!"

Dumarest retreated as they began to advance, then heard the
frenzied shout of the trader.

"Back, Earl! Back! It's all fixed!"

He turned and dived for the gate, seeing the girl pass through
with a flash of red and gold and gleaming white. The guards
closed in behind him, presenting a solid front to the screaming
mob, their hands tight on their weapons, their eyes oddly red.

"Witch!" shrieked a voice. "Don't let her get away!"

The mob howled, indifferent to personal danger, hurling
themselves against the guards, their guns, the fence, smashing it
beneath the pressure of their bodies, racing across the field to
where Dumarest and the others ran up the ramp and into the
open lock seconds before the captain sealed the ship.


Chapter Two


HER NAME WAS KALIN and she really was a witch.

She sat facing Dumarest at the table in the lounge of the ship,
watching as he shuffled a deck of cards. They were alone.
Seegihm, the trader, lay in his bunk, a purple symbiote
wreathing his neck, his eyes closed in a sleepless dream. The
vendor was busy with his stock. The woman and her companion
stayed in her cabin. The crew, as always, took care not to mingle
with the passengers.