The birth was easy by a human reckoning, but hard in the nature of things, and I sweated by the fuzzy pink moonlight, easing the two baby jiklos into the world of Kregen. Melow the Supple bore twins, a boy and a girl manhound. When it was done and everything was cleaned up and tidied away and a fold of cloth enclosed the two tiny forms, one on each side of her, I slumped back, exhausted.
Melow lay looking at her twins, and I swear that motherhood made of her face that was normally of so ferocious an aspect a kindly and concerned benediction as she gazed at her babies.
She looked up at me.
“I did not think you would return. Truly, Dray Prescot, you are not as other men.”
“So I have been told, Melow. And usually in anger.”
“I do not bear you anger, Dray Prescot.” She fussed with the cloth about the girl jikla. “And where do we fly now?”
We were out over the sea, heading north with just a touch of east in our course, so that we would pass safely far east of the Koroles, the islands off the east coast of Pandahem.
“We fly to Valka.”
“Valka? Do I know it?” The hazy golden moonlight struck twin shadows as She of the Veils rose from the sea rim. “No matter. For in all Kregen I have nowhere to go now, Dray Prescot, save by your side.”
How strange, by Vox, were the fates that sought to link me with a deadly and vicious Manhound of Antares!
“You will always be a welcome comrade, Melow the Supple.”
After all my adventures I had achieved much in Havilfar; and if war was to come with Hamal, then my home of Vallia would not fight defenseless in the air. Much remained to be done, but I would deal with that when the time came. I, Dray Prescot, smiled at the jikla, Melow the Supple, and at her baby twins.
“We fly for Valka, Melow, and for home.”
How marvelous it was to be flying back to Delia! Often and often in my life on Kregen I have flown, sailed, ridden, or walked on my own two feet back home to Delia. I own it to be the more perfect experience of travel in all of Kregen or of Earth.
Many a time I had returned to Delia, and if Zair and all the other gods of Kregen grant the boon to me, then always will I return many and many a time yet to come.
Home! Back to Valka and my Delia, my Delia of Delphond, my Delia of the Blue Mountains!
That can never tire. That, for me, is always the perfect ending to every adventure.
I would have it no other way.
Alan Burt Akers is a pen name of the prolific British author Kenneth Bulmer. Bulmer has published over 160 novels and countless short stories, predominantly science fiction.
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The Delian Cycle:
Transit to Scorpio
The Suns of Scorpio
Warrior of Scorpio
Swordships of Scorpio
Prince of Scorpio
Havilfar Cycle:
Manhounds of Antares
Arena of Antares
Fliers of Antares
Bladesman of Antares
Avenger of Antares
Armada of Antares
[1]
Waso
: five.
[2]
Dwabur
: five miles.
[3]
Jen:
Prescot has often used this word and I have changed it to its English equivalent, “Lord.” It compares with the Hamalese “Notor.” “Jen” is pure Vallian, I believe. [A.B.A.]
[4]
Shiv
: six.
Shebov:
seven.
Ord:
eight
So:
three.
[5]
Kyro:
square or piazza.
[6]
Dudinter:
electrum. The Districts of the Ba-cities are named for their chief products; the nobles take their titles from the Districts for which they are responsible and from which come their wealth. [A.B.A.]
[7]
Here Prescot goes into an analysis of the game, which he lost, clearly annoyed with himself. As he says, his mind was on matters of more weight at the time. [A.B.A.]
[8]
Shif:
serving girl or slave wench. A word not often used by Prescot since it appears to signify a degree of arrogant contempt by its user. Here, of course, that was the intention in Prescot’s use, and why I retain it in transposition. [A.B.A.]
Copyright © 1975, Kenneth Bulmer
Alan Burt Akers has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, to be identified as the Author of this work.
First published by Daw Books, Inc. in 1975.
This Edition published in 2006 by Mushroom eBooks, an imprint of Mushroom Publishing, Bath, BA1 4EB, United Kingdom
www.mushroom-ebooks.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN 184319404X