Now I was in for it. Unless I got out of there damned fast, I'd
lose what I'd come all the way to Charin to find.
I felt like handing the girl over. For all I knew, the bully could be
her father and she was properly in line for a spanking. This wasn't any
of my business. My business lay at the end of the street, where Rakhal
was waiting at the fires. He wouldn't be there long. Already the smell
of the Ghost Wind was heavy and harsh, and little flurries of sand went
racing along the street, lifting the flaps of the doorways.
But I did nothing so sensible. The big lunk made a grab at the girl, and
I whipped out my skean and pantomimed.
"Get going!"
"Dry-towner!" He spat out the word like filth, his pig-eyes narrowing to
slits. "Son of the Ape! _Earthman!_"
"_Terranan!_" Someone took up the howl. There was a stir, a rustle, all
along the street that had seemed empty, and from nowhere, it seemed, the
space in front of me was crowded with shadowy forms, human and
otherwise.
"Earthman!"
I felt the muscles across my belly knotting into a band of ice.
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