[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
executed in the distinctive non-European style that the "red men" had developed after becoming civilized.
Two Hawks wanted it to be otherwise, but he had no genuine identification with these people.
They were "Iroquois," but not the Iroquois he knew. Their past, and present, were too dissimilar, and the
influences under which they had come were also too alien. He actually had less identification with them
than he had with the white culture of his native United States of America.
Given time, he might have made a satisfactory adjustment. But this nation seemed destined to go
down into defeat under the overwhelming might of Perkunisha. If it did, it would give him no home. It
would be a hell. The official policy of Per-kunisha towards conquered nations was the absolute
destruc-tion of all non-Perkunishan traits. First, genocide on a scale that not even the Germany of his
world had been bold enough to proclaim publicly. Then colonization by Perkunishans and other
Europeans thought sufficiently Nordic to be given Perkunishan citizenship.
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Even now, a battle was raging some twenty miles to the west and north of 'Estokwa. Three
enemy armies were batter-ing steadily towards the gates of the capitol. Unless something unlikely
happened, the invaders would be in 'Estokwa within a week. There would be house-to-house fighting
then, but the government itself was making plans to evacuate.
As he looked over the city, he saw three dots appear in the blue sky. Presently, they were close
enough to be seen as dirigibles. Three huge silvery cigar-shapes, they slid through the air while little puffs
of smoke arose beneath them. Serenely, they ignored the futile and primitive anti-aircraft fire and
pro-ceeded toward their targets, the congressional building and chief executive's residence. Many little
objects fell from the mammoths' bellies as they passed one by one over the targets. Clouds of smoke
with hearts of fire pillared up from the ground. A few seconds later, the picture window rattled, the
asylum building trembled, and he heard the not-too-far-off boom, boom, boom.
Other great sausages appeared. More bombs. The hemi-spherical roof of the legislators' building
was gone. Wooden houses began to blaze. A factory went up in smoke and flying beams.
Two Hawks heard a door open behind him in one of the brief recesses between the explosions
of bombs. He turned to see Thorrsstein's slave stick her head inside the room. She was a pretty girl of
Amerind-white ancestry, a descendant of the aboriginal whites enslaved by the Hotinohsonih. The Lady
Thorrsstein had mentioned earlier that the girl had been loaned to her by the Hotinohsonih government
because she could speak Blodlandish. Normally, she was stationed at the Blodland embassy in 'Estokwa.
Probably, she was a spy for the Hotino-hsonih.
Ilmika asked what she wanted. The girl timidly replied that she wanted to make sure her mistress
was all right, that she was not distressed by the bombing. Ilmika did look pale, and her back was even
more rigid than usual. But she managed to smile and to say that she was quite all right, thank you. The
slave girl remained in the room until ordered to leave. Not until the girl had closed the door behind her
did Ilmika speak again. By that, Two Hawks knew that she too suspected the girl. That must also be why
Ilmika had permitted herself to be alone in a room with a man. Custom demanded that any un-married
women of noble birth always be chaperoned under such situations.
Ilmika spoke in a low voice. "My government has reason to believe that your story could be
true."
"They know of the flying machine," he said.
"Yes. But there is more. Perkunisha knows of it, also. More-over, they have another flying
machine. They also have the man who was flying it. He is in Berlin now. The Perkunishans have tried to
keep both the machines and their captive secret, but we have our ways of getting information."
Two Hawks swore. He had been so preoccupied with his own affairs that he had not once
thought of the German plane that had appeared at the same time theHiawatha had gone through the
gate. Of course! The German aviator must also have come into this world.
"You are in great danger." Ilmika said. "Just as we know about this. . . this German. . . so the
Perkunishans know about you. And they believe that you are from another universe. You are a threat to
them because you have knowledge of weapons and machines superior to those of Eorthe. Undoubtedly,
the Perkunishans plan to use the German's knowledge and skill. But they don't want yours to be used by
their enemies. So. . ."
"So they'll try to kill us the first chance they get," Two Hawks said. "I'm surprised they haven't
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already tried."
"Maybe they've hesitated because, if they failed, it would convince the Hotinohsonih government
that your story is not a madman's. But now that the city will soon be under siege, they might try under
cover of the confusion. They could try tonight. Or even now, during the bombing."
"In that case, you could be in danger, too," he said. "Your government must think me very
valuable it it's willing to risk your life in an effort to get me on its side."
She waved a hand and said, "There are guards stationed around the house while I'm here. We'd
like to leave them to protect you and O'Brien, but the Hotinohsonih might wonder why."
Two Hawks looked up through the window at the dirigibles. He thought that if the Perkunishans
wanted to kill them, they could have ordered the asylum bombed. Yet the big airships were coming
nowhere near the building. It was possible that the enemy would prefer taking them alive under the old
proverb that two birds, in this case three, in the hand were better than one in the bush, or underground.
This might be true. However, he was sure that the Per-kunishans would have no compunctions in
killing the two other-worlders if they saw they could not be taken alive.
It was also probable that the Blodlandish were thinking along the same lines. Rather than allow
the Perkunishans to capture the aliens and use their knowledge, the Blodlandish would kill the two.
Nobody loves us, Two Hawks thought. He laughed then. It was two against a hostile world. So
be it. Whatever happened to him and O'Brien, the others would have to pay a price.
Two Hawks, grinning, turned away from the window to face the Lady Thorrsstein. He said, "So
why doesn't your govern-ment tell the Hotinohsonih what they know? The Hotino-hsonih could throw up
a guard around the asylum or else hustle us off to a safe place."
He was surprised to see her blush. Evidently, she was not a professional agent. She had some
sense of honor and was only being used because she had a legitimate reason to visit him.
"I don't know," she said. She hesitated, then blurted, "Yes, I do! I was told that the Hotinohsonih
wouldn't let you go. They'd keep you for themselves, and that'd be stupid! They don't have time to
develop anything you might give them. They'll be too busy fighting for their land, which they're going to
lose in any case. Telling them about you would be throwing you away.
"You must get to Blodland. We have the brains and the materials and the engineers and the time
to use them. The Hotinohsonih can't hold out for long."
"I don't know about that," he said. "They have lots of country to go yet. Losing 'Estokwa doesn't
mean they're licked."
He thought of the great sectors of territory gobbled up by the Germans in Russia, the staggering
losses of men and material suffered by the Russians. Yet, they were not only still fighting; they were [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl exclamation.htw.pl
executed in the distinctive non-European style that the "red men" had developed after becoming civilized.
Two Hawks wanted it to be otherwise, but he had no genuine identification with these people.
They were "Iroquois," but not the Iroquois he knew. Their past, and present, were too dissimilar, and the
influences under which they had come were also too alien. He actually had less identification with them
than he had with the white culture of his native United States of America.
Given time, he might have made a satisfactory adjustment. But this nation seemed destined to go
down into defeat under the overwhelming might of Perkunisha. If it did, it would give him no home. It
would be a hell. The official policy of Per-kunisha towards conquered nations was the absolute
destruc-tion of all non-Perkunishan traits. First, genocide on a scale that not even the Germany of his
world had been bold enough to proclaim publicly. Then colonization by Perkunishans and other
Europeans thought sufficiently Nordic to be given Perkunishan citizenship.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Even now, a battle was raging some twenty miles to the west and north of 'Estokwa. Three
enemy armies were batter-ing steadily towards the gates of the capitol. Unless something unlikely
happened, the invaders would be in 'Estokwa within a week. There would be house-to-house fighting
then, but the government itself was making plans to evacuate.
As he looked over the city, he saw three dots appear in the blue sky. Presently, they were close
enough to be seen as dirigibles. Three huge silvery cigar-shapes, they slid through the air while little puffs
of smoke arose beneath them. Serenely, they ignored the futile and primitive anti-aircraft fire and
pro-ceeded toward their targets, the congressional building and chief executive's residence. Many little
objects fell from the mammoths' bellies as they passed one by one over the targets. Clouds of smoke
with hearts of fire pillared up from the ground. A few seconds later, the picture window rattled, the
asylum building trembled, and he heard the not-too-far-off boom, boom, boom.
Other great sausages appeared. More bombs. The hemi-spherical roof of the legislators' building
was gone. Wooden houses began to blaze. A factory went up in smoke and flying beams.
Two Hawks heard a door open behind him in one of the brief recesses between the explosions
of bombs. He turned to see Thorrsstein's slave stick her head inside the room. She was a pretty girl of
Amerind-white ancestry, a descendant of the aboriginal whites enslaved by the Hotinohsonih. The Lady
Thorrsstein had mentioned earlier that the girl had been loaned to her by the Hotinohsonih government
because she could speak Blodlandish. Normally, she was stationed at the Blodland embassy in 'Estokwa.
Probably, she was a spy for the Hotino-hsonih.
Ilmika asked what she wanted. The girl timidly replied that she wanted to make sure her mistress
was all right, that she was not distressed by the bombing. Ilmika did look pale, and her back was even
more rigid than usual. But she managed to smile and to say that she was quite all right, thank you. The
slave girl remained in the room until ordered to leave. Not until the girl had closed the door behind her
did Ilmika speak again. By that, Two Hawks knew that she too suspected the girl. That must also be why
Ilmika had permitted herself to be alone in a room with a man. Custom demanded that any un-married
women of noble birth always be chaperoned under such situations.
Ilmika spoke in a low voice. "My government has reason to believe that your story could be
true."
"They know of the flying machine," he said.
"Yes. But there is more. Perkunisha knows of it, also. More-over, they have another flying
machine. They also have the man who was flying it. He is in Berlin now. The Perkunishans have tried to
keep both the machines and their captive secret, but we have our ways of getting information."
Two Hawks swore. He had been so preoccupied with his own affairs that he had not once
thought of the German plane that had appeared at the same time theHiawatha had gone through the
gate. Of course! The German aviator must also have come into this world.
"You are in great danger." Ilmika said. "Just as we know about this. . . this German. . . so the
Perkunishans know about you. And they believe that you are from another universe. You are a threat to
them because you have knowledge of weapons and machines superior to those of Eorthe. Undoubtedly,
the Perkunishans plan to use the German's knowledge and skill. But they don't want yours to be used by
their enemies. So. . ."
"So they'll try to kill us the first chance they get," Two Hawks said. "I'm surprised they haven't
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
already tried."
"Maybe they've hesitated because, if they failed, it would convince the Hotinohsonih government
that your story is not a madman's. But now that the city will soon be under siege, they might try under
cover of the confusion. They could try tonight. Or even now, during the bombing."
"In that case, you could be in danger, too," he said. "Your government must think me very
valuable it it's willing to risk your life in an effort to get me on its side."
She waved a hand and said, "There are guards stationed around the house while I'm here. We'd
like to leave them to protect you and O'Brien, but the Hotinohsonih might wonder why."
Two Hawks looked up through the window at the dirigibles. He thought that if the Perkunishans
wanted to kill them, they could have ordered the asylum bombed. Yet the big airships were coming
nowhere near the building. It was possible that the enemy would prefer taking them alive under the old
proverb that two birds, in this case three, in the hand were better than one in the bush, or underground.
This might be true. However, he was sure that the Per-kunishans would have no compunctions in
killing the two other-worlders if they saw they could not be taken alive.
It was also probable that the Blodlandish were thinking along the same lines. Rather than allow
the Perkunishans to capture the aliens and use their knowledge, the Blodlandish would kill the two.
Nobody loves us, Two Hawks thought. He laughed then. It was two against a hostile world. So
be it. Whatever happened to him and O'Brien, the others would have to pay a price.
Two Hawks, grinning, turned away from the window to face the Lady Thorrsstein. He said, "So
why doesn't your govern-ment tell the Hotinohsonih what they know? The Hotino-hsonih could throw up
a guard around the asylum or else hustle us off to a safe place."
He was surprised to see her blush. Evidently, she was not a professional agent. She had some
sense of honor and was only being used because she had a legitimate reason to visit him.
"I don't know," she said. She hesitated, then blurted, "Yes, I do! I was told that the Hotinohsonih
wouldn't let you go. They'd keep you for themselves, and that'd be stupid! They don't have time to
develop anything you might give them. They'll be too busy fighting for their land, which they're going to
lose in any case. Telling them about you would be throwing you away.
"You must get to Blodland. We have the brains and the materials and the engineers and the time
to use them. The Hotinohsonih can't hold out for long."
"I don't know about that," he said. "They have lots of country to go yet. Losing 'Estokwa doesn't
mean they're licked."
He thought of the great sectors of territory gobbled up by the Germans in Russia, the staggering
losses of men and material suffered by the Russians. Yet, they were not only still fighting; they were [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]