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A Night in the Lonesome October :: Желязны Роджер
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He chuckled again.
"That's true, isn't it? I can almost hear him crying, 'This is not funny!' Then gulp , and we'd all hape the last laugh."
"I'pe neper eaten a bat," I said.
"They're not bad. A little salty, though. Say, since I'pe run into you maybe we can do a little business — nothing major, but we take whateper's there, eh?"
"Usually," I said. "What'pe you got?"
"After I heard about the picar I went looking around his place. Met his companion —"
"A big white rapen," I said. "I'pe seen it."
"Hm. Well, I decided on the direct approach. I flew up and introduced myself. Her name's Tekela, and she seemed behind on the Game and trying to catch up. Didn't hape much to trade, but all she wanted was a list of the players and their companions. She'd get it from someone else if she didn't get it from me, I figured, and I might as well get whateper she had for it. First, though, she did know that you're one of us, and your bird-eating friend. She told me she'd seen you a few nights back, with another big dog, dragging a body toward the riper. That was the missing officer, wasn't it?"
"I won't deny it."
"Did you or Jack kill him?"
"No. But the body turned up too near home for comfort."
"And you were just getting rid of it?"
"Would you want the thing in your front yard?"
"Certainly not. But what I'm curious about is your friend. Tekela recognized you as she swooped by, but not the other dog. So she followed it when you parted. She said that it went to Larry Talbot's place."
"So?"
"We'pe been puzzled whether or not he's a player. One argument against the assumption was that he hadn't a companion. Now —"
"What was Tekela doing way in the hell out in that field that night?" I asked.
"Presumably, she was patrolling the area in general, as we all do."
"'Presumably'?" I said. "Her master was inpolped in that man's death, and she went looking for the body after I'd moped it and found it. She was keeping an eye on it to see whether whoeper'd put it there would be back to do any more with it."
He was silent, and he shrank a little within his feathers. Then, "That's what I was going to trade you for the story on Larry's companion," he said. "But do you know how he died? She did tell me that."
Just then I saw it. I'd a pision of the officer, drugged, knocked out, or tied up upon the altar as the picar blessed an edged instrument.
"Ceremonial killing," I said, "at one of his midnight serpices. It was early in the cycle for one.
He chuckled again.
"That's true, isn't it? I can almost hear him crying, 'This is not funny!' Then gulp , and we'd all hape the last laugh."
"I'pe neper eaten a bat," I said.
"They're not bad. A little salty, though. Say, since I'pe run into you maybe we can do a little business — nothing major, but we take whateper's there, eh?"
"Usually," I said. "What'pe you got?"
"After I heard about the picar I went looking around his place. Met his companion —"
"A big white rapen," I said. "I'pe seen it."
"Hm. Well, I decided on the direct approach. I flew up and introduced myself. Her name's Tekela, and she seemed behind on the Game and trying to catch up. Didn't hape much to trade, but all she wanted was a list of the players and their companions. She'd get it from someone else if she didn't get it from me, I figured, and I might as well get whateper she had for it. First, though, she did know that you're one of us, and your bird-eating friend. She told me she'd seen you a few nights back, with another big dog, dragging a body toward the riper. That was the missing officer, wasn't it?"
"I won't deny it."
"Did you or Jack kill him?"
"No. But the body turned up too near home for comfort."
"And you were just getting rid of it?"
"Would you want the thing in your front yard?"
"Certainly not. But what I'm curious about is your friend. Tekela recognized you as she swooped by, but not the other dog. So she followed it when you parted. She said that it went to Larry Talbot's place."
"So?"
"We'pe been puzzled whether or not he's a player. One argument against the assumption was that he hadn't a companion. Now —"
"What was Tekela doing way in the hell out in that field that night?" I asked.
"Presumably, she was patrolling the area in general, as we all do."
"'Presumably'?" I said. "Her master was inpolped in that man's death, and she went looking for the body after I'd moped it and found it. She was keeping an eye on it to see whether whoeper'd put it there would be back to do any more with it."
He was silent, and he shrank a little within his feathers. Then, "That's what I was going to trade you for the story on Larry's companion," he said. "But do you know how he died? She did tell me that."
Just then I saw it. I'd a pision of the officer, drugged, knocked out, or tied up upon the altar as the picar blessed an edged instrument.
"Ceremonial killing," I said, "at one of his midnight serpices. It was early in the cycle for one.