Alan Dean Foster The Hour Of The Gate

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coming from behind the gargoylish face once again.
"How can we get out?" Pog murmured worriedly.
"We walked in," said Caz thoughtfully. "Why should we
not also walk out?"
"Indeed," said Clothahump. "If we can get out into the
square we should be safe,"
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They were several levels below the surface, but under
Talea's guidance they made rapid progress upward.
Once they had to pause to let an enormous beetle pass. He waddled down the
stairs without seeing them. A huge ax was slung across his back and heavy keys
dangled from his belts.
"I don't know if he's the relief for our level or not," Talea said huskily,
"but we'd better hurry."
They increased their pace. Then Talea warned them to silence. They were
nearing the last gate.
Three guards squatted around a desk on the other side of the barred door. A
steady babble of conversation filtered into the corridor from the open door on
the far side of the guard room as busy workers came and went. Jon-Tom wondered
at the absence of a heavier guard until it came to him that escape would be
against orders, an action foreign to all but deranged
Plated Folk.
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Alan Dean Foster
But there was still the barred doorway and the three
administrators beyond.
"How did you get past them?" Caz asked Talea.
"I haven't been past them. Eejakrat believed my story, but only to a point. He
wasn't about to give me me run of the city. I had a room, not a cell, on the
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level below this one. If I
wanted out, I had to send word to him. We haven't got time for that now.
Pretty soon they'll be finding the body I left."
Mudge located a small fragment of loose black cement. He tossed it down the
stairs they'd ascended. It made a gratifyingly loud clatter.
"Nesthek, is that you?" one of the administrators called toward the doorway.
When there was no immediate reply he rose from his position at the desk and
left the game to his companions.
The excapees concealed themselves as best they could. The administrator
sounded perplexed as he approached the doorway.
"Nesthek? Don't play games with me. I'm losing badly as it is."
"Bugger it," Mudge said tensely. "I thought at least two
of them would come to check."
"You take this one," said Clothahump. "The rest pf us will quietly rush me
others."
"Nesthek, what are you...?" Mudge stabbed upward with his sword. He'd been
lying nearly hidden by me lowest bar of the doorway. The sword went right into
the startled guard's abdomen. At the same instant Caz leaped out of me shadows
to bring his knife down into one of me great compound eyes. The
guard-administrator slumped against me bars. Talea fumbled for the keys at his
waist.
"Partewx?" Then me other querulous guard was half out of his seat as his
companion ran to give the alarm. He didn't make it to the far door. Pog landed
on his neck and began stabbing rapidly with his stiletto at the guard's head
and face.
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THE HOUR OF Tm GATE
The creature swung its four arms wildly, trying to dislodge the flapping
dervish that clung relentlessly to neck and head.
Ror swung low with her sword and cut through both legs.
The other who had turned and drawn his own scimitar swung at Bribbens. The
boatman hopped halfway to the ceiling, and the deadly arc passed feet below
their intended
target.
As the guard was bringing back his sword for another cut, Jen-Tom swung at him
with his staff. The guard ducked the whistling club-head and brought his
curved blade around. As he'd been taught to, Jon-Tom spun the long shaft in
his hands as if it were an oversized baton. The guard jumped out of range.
Jon-Tom thumbed one of the hidden studs, sad a foot of steel slid directly
into the startled guard's thorax. Caz's sword decapitated him before he hit
the floor.
"Hold!"
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Everyone looked to the right. There was a waste room recessed into that wall.
It had produced a fourth administrator guard. He was taller than Jon-Tom, and
the insect shape struggling in the three-armed grasp looked small in
comparison.
The insect head of Talea's disguise had been ripped off.
Her red hair cascaded down to her shoulders. Two arms held her firmly around
neck and waist while the thud held a knife over the hollow of her throat.
"Move and she dies," said the guard. He began to edge toward the open doorway
leading outside, keeping his back hard against the wall.
"If he gives the alarm we're finished, mates," Mudge whispered.
"Let's rush them," said Caz,,
"No!" Jon-Tom put an arm in front of the rabbit. "We can't. He'll "
Talea continued to struggle in the unrelenting grip. "Do something, you
idiots!"
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Alan Dean Foster
Seeing that no one was going to act and that she and her captor were only a
few yards from the doorway, she put both feet on the floor and thrust
convulsively upward. The knife slid through her throat, emerging from the back
of her neck.
Claret spurted across the stones. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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