done has
been done so that I can win one goal: reach the Flying Stars? If I can
get the Earthman to his ship I'll leave with him and not set foot
again for years on this planet. Maybe never again."

She looked stricken. "But what about the war here?" she asked.

"There are a few men among the Landfolk who are capable of leading in
wartime. It will take strong men, and there are very few like me, I
admit, but--oh, oh, opposition!" He broke off at sight of the six
guards who stood before the Earthman's suite.

Lusine helped, and within a minute they had slain three and chased
away the others. Then they burst through the door--and Rastignac
received another shock.

The occupant of the apartment was a tiny and exquisitely formed
redhead with large blue eyes and very unmasculine curves!

"I thought you said Earth_man_?" protested Rastignac to the Giant who
came lumbering along behind them.

"Oh, I used that in the generic sense," Mapfarity replied. "You didn't
expect me to pay any attention to sex, did you? I'm not interested in
the gender of you Humans, you know."

There was no time for reproach. Rastignac tried to explain to the
Earthwoman who he was, but she did not understand him. However, she
did seem to catch on to what he wanted and seemed reassured by his
gestures. She picked up a large book from a table and, hugging it to
her small, high and rounded bosom, went with him out the door.

They raced from the palace and descended onto the square. Here they
found the surviving Amphibs clustered into a solid phalanx and
fighting, bloody step by step, towards the street that led to the
harbor.

Rastignac's little group skirted the battle and started down the steep
avenue toward the harbor. Halfway down he glanced back and saw that
nobody as yet was paying any attention to them. Nor was there anybody
on the street to bother them, though the pavement was strewn with
Skins and bodies. Apparently, those who'd lived through the first
savage melee had gone to the square.

They ran onto the wharf. The Earthwoman motioned to Rastignac that she
knew how to open the spaceship, but the Amphibs didn't. Moreover, if
they did get in, they wouldn't know how to operate it. She had the
directions for so doing in the book hugged so desperately to her
chest. Rastignac surmised she hadn't told the Amphibs about that.
Apparently they hadn't, as yet, tried to torture the information from
her.

Therefore, her telling him about the