Read The Game of Stars and Comets for Free Online Page B

as the Overman hit the ground and lunged again at the feebly struggling man, its hooves tearing through the plains grass. Kade steadied on one knee, the barrel of his stunner resting on his forearm, the strength of the beam pushed to "full" as he fired.
    That blast of energy must have caught the kwitu between the small eyes, and the result was the same as if an axe had cracked open its thick skull. It went to its knees, round head plowing forward so that the under jaw scraped along the earth. Then the body struck Lik, bore him along with the impetus of that now undirected charge.
    The Overman screamed once again. And his thin cry was echoed from the bushes. Out of one rusty clump an Ikkinni burst free, staggering, his hands tearing at the slave band about his throat, while the violent shaking of other bits of brush told of the agony of his fellows still governed by the control box on their injured driver.
    With a groan the Ikkinni fell to his hands and knees, began to crawl painfully toward the tangle of kwitu and Overman. Kade tore at the twisted branches and vines which held him. Before he had kicked loose from that mesh the crawling native had reached the bodies, was pulling feebly at Lik.
    Kade ran across the trampled ground and the Ikkinni looked up. It was Iskug, his lips drawn tight against his teeth, his eyes holding something of madness in their depths as he fought the pressure about his throat. Kade shifted the limp body of the Overman, was answered by a moan, a faint stir. The broad head of the kwitu rested on the man's middle, the weight of the heavy skull must be pressing directly on the control box.
    The Terran wrestled with the bull's head, using the nose horn for a grip. At last he was able to lift it away from Lik. Blood welled from a ragged tear in the alien's thigh. Kade made an examination, using the materials from his aid pack to tend the gore. Lik might also have suffered broken bones or internal injuries, but this was his only visible wound.
    Kade heard a whistling gasp of breath. Less than a foot away Iskug lay spent, a drabble of pale, pinkish blood flowing from nostrils and the corners of his now slack mouth. Beneath the down on his cheeks his naturally white skin was flushed to a purple dusk.
    The Terran tightened the temporary packing on Lik's wound. The Overman was still unconscious but his breathing seemed better than Iskug's and the off-worlder sat back on his heels, making no move to touch the control box. With a laborious effort the native levered himself up. His ribs heaving as he sucked in great gasps of air. He crawled to the Overman, watching the Terran warily.
    Obviously he expected opposition from Kade, but still he was going to make an effort to secure the box. What the off-worlder did then must have surprised the Ikkinni. For he moved, not to defend Lik, but to slide his arm about the hunter's shoulders, putting one hand over Iskug's to guide those hairy fingers to the belt about Lik's middle.
    "Take!" he urged.
    Iskug's fingers moved, fastened on that belt in a convulsive grip as a shadow struck them both. Dokital knelt on the other side of the prone Overman, went to work on the belt buckle. As he did so Kade saw a loop of rope hanging from the native's wrist, saw, also, the patch of raw skin where too tight bonds had chafed.
    "What chanced?"
    Dokital pulled the loop off, flung it into the grass.
    "It was tied."
    "Why?"
    "There was a plan. It would not aid that plan."
    "A plan for a killing?"
    "For a killing," Dokital agreed. "There were two plans. One different from the other."
    "And one was made by this one," Kade pointed to Lik. "The other by these." The Terran nodded at the natives.
    "That is so. This collar master had the saying of one plan. To kill the starwalker with a bull."
    "And the other plan?"
    "To let the Planner—" Dokital nodded toward the distant triple peak still visible, "decide who died."
    "True spoken." Iskug's voice was a croaking whisper. He sat with the control