I fell, spun, plunged head over
heels through tilting lights and shadows that flung us through
eternities of freefall. The yelping of the Ya-men whirled away in
unimaginable distances, and for a second I felt the unmerciful blackout
of a power dive, with blood breaking from my nostrils and filling my
mouth.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Lights flared in my eyes.
I was standing solidly on my feet in the street-shrine, but the street
was gone. Coils of incense still smudged the air. The God squatted
toadlike in his recess. The girl was hanging limp, locked in my clenched
arms. As the floor straightened under my feet I staggered, thrown off
balance by the sudden return of the girl's weight, and grabbed blindly
for support.
"Give her to me," said a voice, and the girl's sagging body was lifted
from my arms. A strong hand grasped my elbow. I found a chair beneath my
knees and sank gratefully into it.
"The transmission isn't smooth yet between such distant terminals," the
voice remarked. "I see Miellyn has fainted again.
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