The Parallel Man Read Online Free Page B

breeze grew stronger. The box, with me following, rounded a corner, and there was an open door a dozen paces away. Beside it lounged a thickset man in a green garment, who called out softly, “Any trouble?” I shook my head, keeping my face down as much as I could so that he saw mostly my blue-capped head and a foreshortened face. The box approached him with nightmare slowness; pushing at it seemed not to hurry it at all. I saw his eyes narrow and his hand go to his belt. “Hold on,” he said. “You’re not . . .” I raised my right hand above the level of the box and pressed the circle on my weapon. There was a purple flash and the man crumpled, astonishment on his face.
    I wanted his garment and I wanted to hide his body, but the corridor was unpromisingly bare. Suddenly I grinned. Stripping his garment from him, I touched the circle on the box, bundled his body into it and shut the lid. Immediately the box floated off out of the open door. While I stood staring it turned a corner out of my sight. I heard a sort of click, then a rumble, and when I moved to peer cautiously out the door a black cart of some sort was vanishing down the road with no beast to draw it. I shrugged, bundled the green garment under my arm and set off down the road in the direction opposite to that which the cart had taken. The spell on the box must work either by weight or by contact with living flesh, I thought; once a body was inside it the box would probably float to its destination with no one touching it from outside.
    I half regretted not following the box all the way to its destination, but it would have been easy for me to be trapped by my ignorance in a situation which I could not fight my way out of. For the moment it was enough that I was free, had a change of disguises and a weapon. That was little enough for a stranger in a land of enchanters, but it was a start. Eventually I must find out what had happened to Delora, but if she was in the building I had just come from she was probably being treated no worse than I had been; she could wait until I knew more and had more powers at my disposal.
    I looked up at the monstrous bulk of the building I had just left. I had discarded the thought of going from room to room looking for Delora as soon as I had realized the size of the buildings in this wizards’ city. I felt like an ant crawling among the benches of the Great Hall as I looked up at the towering shapes around me. The broad street on which I walked had raised walkways at each side but there were no animal droppings on the road between the walkways; I remembered that I had seen no beasts of burden in the view of the city that the oval had shown me.
    There was a cross street ahead of me; I slowed my shambling walk and stayed close to the side of the building. When I rounded the corner I stood and gaped as I have seen serfs do. I would gladly be rid of my present disguise but until I was I had better act the part. There were a few people walking on the street, clad in close-fitting garments of various hues so that it was hard to tell women from men at a distance. This street was less sterile than the one I had just left; a row of trees bordered the roadway on each side. There were a few doorways with writing above them which I could not read at this distance; some of them might be shops.
    About a bowshot down the street a little knot of blue-capped serfs stood in a ragged line, gazing vacantly around them. I walked toward them slowly trying to gauge the dangers and advantages of joining them. Among them I would be inconspicuous, but if they were some sort of work party I might find myself led off to labor at some task which I could not escape from without arousing suspicion. A howling sound from the street behind me made up my mind; it sounded as if it might be some sort of alarm call. I shambled to the end of the line of serfs and tried to imitate their vacant stares.
    The howling sound grew louder and down the street rushed a