Books In English "City Of Illusions" Ursula K. Le Guin | Page 55

voice, and the utter silence in which she hid her pride or shame, then he
winced at his failure to spare her, and felt himself humiliated as her
fellowman, and as a man.
"We'll go tonight," he said to her next day in the drifted snow beside
the Women's Lodge. "Come to my tent. Let a good part of the night pass
first."
"Kokteky has told me to come to his tent tonight."
"Can you slip away?"
"Maybe."
"Which tent is Kokteky's?"
"Behind the Mzurra Society Lodge to the left. It has a patched place
over the flap."
"If you don't come I'll come get you."
"Another night there might be less danger—"
"And less snow. Winter's getting on; this may be the last big storm.
Well go tonight."
"I'll come to your tent," she said with her unarguing, steady
submissiveness.
He had left a slit in his bandage through which he could dimly see his
way about, and he tried to see her now; but in the dull light she was only a
gray shape in grayness.
In the late dark of that night she came, quiet as the windblown snow
against the tent. They each had ready what they had to take. Neither spoke.
Falk fastened his oxhide coat, pulled up and tied the hood, and bent to
unseal the doorflap. He started aside as a man came pushing in from
outside, bent double to clear the low ga p—Kokteky, a burly
shaven-headed Hunter, jealous of his status and his virility. "Horressins.
The Red Woman—" he began, then saw her in the shadows across the
embers of the fire. At the same moment he saw how she and Falk were
dressed, and their intent. He backed up to close off the doorway or to
escape from Falk's attack, and opened his mouth to shout. Without
thought, reflex-quick and certain Falk fired his laser at pointblank range,
and the brief flick of mortal light stopped the shout in the Basnasska's
mouth, burnt away mouth and brain and life in one moment, in perfect
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