Read Dumarest 33 - Child of Earth for Free Online

that!”
    “Just the rustle of snow stirred by the wind,” repeated the doctor. “Ordinary sound. If you listen hard enough and have imagination enough you can hear anything you want to hear. Voices. Children crying, women screaming, angels singing, men cursing, Guardians talking—anything.”
    “He’s right,” said Dumarest.
    “But he could be wrong.” The woman was insistent. “I believed Tazima when she said she’d heard the Shining Ones. I want to hear them too. Will you take me outside? Please!”
    Chagal said, “Tazima is dead.”
    “I know. I heard. Sound travels in a place like this. But she could have met them. They could have been kind. If they helped her then they could help me.”
    “Are you saying you want to die?”
    “I am of the Kaldari. We do not fear death. You are of the Kaldari also, doctor. You should not fear killing. Be truthful, now. Can you cure me? Any of us here? Be honest. Do we have any real hope? If we haven’t then be merciful. Do what needs to be done.”
    “You have courage,” said Dumarest. “There is no need for you to go outside. I can do what you ask.”
    “I thank you for that. You have more compassion than some I could name.” She glanced at the doctor. “But to ask you to do that would be to ask too much. Just help me. Get me outside where I can hear the voices.” Then, urgently, she added, “Why do you hesitate? Why deny me mercy? Must I call others to witness your shame? Help me, I beg you!”
    “We’ll need clothing,” said Dumarest. “Covers to keep you warm. There is no need for you to freeze while you listen to the voices. Covers and something to carry you on. I’ll get them now!”
    It was as ifnothinghad changed. The sun still hung in the sky, lower now, but the wind was the same and the undulating expanse of snow coated with the fine, seemingly alive swirl of drifting particles. The dell was as he remembered now graced with the woman on what she intended to be her bier. From the rim he looked back at the elfin grace of the wreck and beyond it to where a mound of ice and snow reared in an oblong hummock. Tazima’s final resting place and close to her would be the captain and the navigator and others who had died in the crash. Nadine among them and he felt an inner pain as he remembered the warm softness of her body as he hugged it in his arms knowing, but not wanting to accept the fact, that she was dead. That never again would they share thoughts and emotions, make plans, make love. That, again, he would be alone.
    “She is setting an example,” said Chagal. He pointed to where the woman had eased the clothing from her head and shoulders to expose her body to the cold. “Demonstrating the courage of the Kaldari. I hope others will learn from it.”
    “If they don’t?”
    “Then I must. You are right, Earl. As was she. It is wrong to withhold the mercy of a painless end. Perhaps I should begin at once.”
    “But not with her.” Dumarest stared down into the dell. “She has too much courage and has earned respect. If she wants I will do what must be done—but I’ll not leave her to die alone.”
    She turned her head as he approached and weakly tried to prevent him from replacing the covers. She smiled as he insisted, smiled again as he chafed her cheeks and lethis fingers trail over her throat so as to locate the carotid arteries which carried the blood to her brain. Clamped they would cease to function and, within seconds, she would lose consciousness. In less than a minute she would be dead.
    “Not that, Earl. You promise?”
    “It would be kind.”
    “As you are. But I have made my own plan. I want to die as Tazima died. I want to hear the voices of the Shining Ones.” She moved a little, one hand rising to point to the far edge of the dell. “Can you hear them? Listen! Can you?”
    A soft hum of wind and with it a subdued rustling. A faint rasping as if a horde of insects were crawling over a resonant surface. A blur of ‘white