Read The Witches of Karres for Free Online

more stops or other contacts with the defenceless Empire. Maleen had cooked up a poultice which did wonders for his knee. With the end of the trip in sight, all tensions relaxed; and Maleen, at least, seemed to grow hourly more regretful at the prospect of parting. After a brief study Karres could be distinguished easily enough by the fact that it moved counterclockwise to all the other planets of the Iverdahl System.
    Well, it would, the captain thought. They came soaring into its atmosphere on the dayside without arousing any detectable interest. No communicator signals reached them, and no other ships showed up to look them over. Karres, in fact, had the appearance of a completely uninhabited world. There were a large number of seas, too big to be called lakes and too small to be oceans, scattered over its surface. There was one enormously towering ridge of mountains, which ran from pole to pole, and any number of lesser chains. There were two good-sized ice caps; and the southern section of the planet was speckled with intermittent stretches of snow. Almost al l of it seemed to be dense forest. It was a handsome place, in a wild, somber way. They went gliding over it, from noon through morning and into the dawn fringe—the captain at the controls, Goth and the Leewit flanking him at the screens and Maleen behind him to do the directing. After a few initial squeals the Leewit became oddly silent. Suddenly the captain realized she was blubbering.
    Somehow it startled him to discover that her homecoming had affected the Leewit to that extent. He felt Goth reach out behind him and put her hand on the Leewit's shoulder. The smallest witch sniffled happily.
    " 'S beautiful!" she growled. He felt a resurgence of the wondering, protective friendliness they had aroused in him at first. They must have been having a rough time of it, at that. He sighed; it seemed a pity they hadn't gotten a l ong a little better.
    " Where's everyone hiding?" he inquired, to break up the mood. So far there hadn't been a sign of human habitation.
    "There aren't many people on Karres," Maleen said from behind him. "But we're going to the town—you'll meet about half of them there."
    "What's that place down there?" the captain asked with sudden interest. Something like an enormous lime-white bowl seemed to have been set flush into the floor of the wide valley up which they were moving.
    "That's the Theatre where... ouch!" the Leewit said. She fell silent then but turned to give Maleen a resentful look.
    "Something strangers shouldn't be told about, eh?" the captain said tolerantly. Both glanced at him from the side.
    "We've got rules," she said. He let the ship down a bit as they passed over “the Theatre where— " It was a sort of large, circular arena with numerous steep tiers of seats running up around it. But all was bare and deserted now.
    On Maleen's direction, they took the next valley fork to the right and dropped lower still. He had his first look at Karres animal life then. A flock of large creamy-white birds, remarkably terrestrial in appearance, flapped by just below them, apparently unconcerned about the ship. The forest underneath had opened out into a long stretch of lush meadowland, with small creeks winding down into its center. Here a herd of several hundred head of beasts was grazing—beasts of mastodonic size and build, with hairless, shiny black hides. The mouths of their long, heavy heads were twisted into sardonic crocodilian grins as they blinked up at the passing Venture.
    "Black Bollems," said Goth, apparently enjoying the captain's expression. "Lots of them around; they're tame. But the grey mountain ones are good hunting."
    "Good eating too!" the Leewit said. She licked her lips daintily. "Breakfast— !" she sighed, her thoughts diverted to a familiar track. "And we ought to be just in time!"
    "There's the field!" Maleen cried, pointing. "Set her down there, captain!"
    The "field" was simply a flat meadow of c