Cantilever Jones Swings Low, Part 3
The Girl was kneeling and naked and blue. She stood up, and her eyes were the color of iron and suddenly she ran
off into the snow that was white.
“Where is she going?”
“She will come back,” said Pale-Face.
“How do you know?”
“We know.” Said Dark-Face.
“Fine,” I said. “Galfus, let’s get a drink.”
“Yeah,” said Galfus. And I called Vin.
*
*
*
She did come back, after a while, still blue, and still naked and speaking a language that had never been heard before
by my ears. Pale-Face related to me that she had apparently eaten the demonic things. Dark-Face added that now
her blood could command them. They would return to Brana Prime, study her, and then finish the job here on
Senel-4.
“Soon the inhabitants will live without fear,” said Pale-Face.
“What a shame for Lord Calabus,” I said.
“We do not understand,” said Dark-Face, after a moment.
“You don’t need to,” I said.
Galfus drank merrily and I joined him. The Jones, having swung low once, did so again back to Asport, back to our
very same docking bay. All went exactly as it should have. Except the girl never spoke an intelligible word again,
and when Vin asked me what a demon was, I could not find the words to explain it to him. UJ
.