Hal bent down and began to lap. It was a clumsy way of getting the liquid into his mouth, but finally he got most of it swallowed. "Now Iick the plate clean. That's right. Lift your head up. Than poured more of the liquor into the saucer. "You didn't do so good, last time, so we'll try it again. That's the way we do things in the Occupational Troops. Now-- "Oh, don't make him drink another one!" said Amanda.
Than turned his attention on her. So did Hal, in case the words were supposed to convey some hidden message to him. "Our brother Court drank some of that once," said Amanda, "and it made him awfully sick!"
She might, thought Hal, have had a little more faith in his common sense. He was hardly about to take the man's gun away and break his neck, here in the very house where the other had been quartered, in spite of his unexpected earlier flare of fury. Then he realized that the message was not what he had assumed. What she wanted was for either one of them to put this man harmlessly out of action, and she was giving him a chance to do it whatever way he had in mind, first. "Well, he should have gone right back and tried it again, Lily," said Iban. "That's the point. You've got to practice, practice, to learn things like that. Now, we don't want to make that mistake with Kaspar, here, do we?"
He stared hard at her for a long moment, then let his stubbled face relax into another grin. "But of course, for you, Lily, if you don't want Brother here to lap any more, of course I don't want to make you feel bad. So I won't do it. How do you like that?" "Thank you. Thank you very much," said Amanda. "Of course. Anything to make you happy. Because I want to make you happy, you know that?" Than leaned forward toward her and, finding the table in the way, beckoned her. "Bring your chair around here, beside me."
Amanda obeyed. Hal permitted himself a slight scowl. "You leave my sister alone," he said to Iban. "If you don't I'll put the bad eye on you. You'll be sorry." "The bad eye?" echoed Than absently, not even looking at Hal, but into the eyes of Amanda, which were now less than a quarter of a meter from his own. Then the words seemed to penetrate. He turned his gaze on Hal. "The bad eye! What kind of stupid superstition's that?" "If I look in your eyes you'll be sorry. My eyes'll eat you up." "Oh, they will, will they?" Than turned and stared directly into Hal's eyes, The eyes of the soldier were a muddy brown in color, the whites bloodshot. "All right, I'm looking in your eyes. Now, you better be able to eat me up or you're going to be sorry you said anything like that. Well, what're you waiting for? Go ahead. Eat me up!" "The quality of mercy is not strained, " said Hal in a soft voice, but one which carried clearly across the table to the other man, "it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven- "What?"
"_upon the place beneath. That quality of mercy is strong within you, Iban. You are greater than any normal man in that which you have inside you. You are large, generous, compassionate, and you have a duty to yourself to make sure that all other people know this and bow down before it..."
Hal went on talking, in the same soft, persuasive voice, until at last he stopped. When he did, Iban sat still, his eyes still fixed on Hal's. His gaze remained fixed on the place where Hal's eyes had been even when Hal leaned back in his chair and looked over toward Amanda. "Oh, oh," said Hal. "I got Marlo, too."
Slightly off to one side, standing a couple of steps behind Iban's chair, Marlo was also motionless, with the same, unmoving gaze. "Marlo," said Hal sharply. "No! Not you! Come out of it!"
The older woman blinked and stirred. She stared at the three of them. "What... ?" she said. "An Exotic and susceptible to a hypnotic trick like that?" said Hal. "For shame. It was an Exotic that taught it to me, and a half-Exotic tried it on me once."
"... I never learned," said Marlo. "Was that what it?"
"Of course," said Hal. "You sit down now and relax." He turned back to Iban.
"Listen to me, Iban," he said. "Are you listening? Look at me."
"Yes, Kaspar," said Than quietly, quitting the fixed focus of his eyes to turn their gaze on Hal. "Listen to me now and remember this for a long time. Today, when you were having a day off-"
Hal broke off, turning to look at Marlo. "That's what it was, today, wasn't it?" he asked her. "A day off duty for him?" "Yes," Marlo said. "He goes back on at eight tomorrow morning. He's on day-duty, not nights, like the other..." "I thought so." He turned back to Iban "Iban you were having this day off, and late in the day, who should come to the front door but a couple of lost children? It seems their parents were visiting here, by special permission, from another place - they were too young to tell you what their parents' names were, who the relatives were they were staying with, or anything but their names - which you've since forgotten. You were feeling generous, so after amusing yourself with making the little boy take a few drinks, you gave them permission to stay here overnight and their parents could be found tomorrow. Have you got that?" "Oh yes, every word, Kaspar," said Iban, nodding. "Good. Now, the children fell asleep in a corner and you forgot about them and went to sleep yourself. You slept clear through until the next day, except for a moment or two about midnight when there was a knock at the door and the parents showed up looking for the children. You gave them the children - you were too sleepy to ask them for any names or papers - and went back to bed. You went right back to sleep, and slept through until time to get up the next morning, after which everything went as usual - except for one thing."
He got up, took the bottle of liquor and poured it out in the kitchen sink. He came back to stand at the table and put the empty bottle in front of Iban. "When you got up," he said to the other man, "you found you'd drunk the whole bottle by yourself the evening before - and you didn't even have a hangover. That'll be something to tell when you get over to the garrison. A whole bottle and not even a trace of a hangover. It really will be something to tell them, won't it?" "It sure will," said Iban. "Now," said Hal, "since you finished off the bottle, maybe you better get some sleep to be ready for duty tomorrow." "Y'right," said Iban thickly. He got to his feet, got himself turned around and wavered unsteadily back toward and finally into the room from which he had brought out the power pistol, They heard him fall on the bed. Hal picked up the pistol and took it to the doorway and tossed it in to fall beside the man's bed. "Iban!" he said. "Iban, answer me! You can still hear me, can't you?"
"Yesss," sighed the voice thickly from within. "Remember how this shows that Marlo's good luck for you. No hangover's just a sample of the kind of good luck you've had since getting quartered here. It's all due to Marlo. You're good luck for each other. She knows that, that's why she takes such good care of you. You've got to remember to take good care of her if you want that good luck to keep going. You'll remember that, won't you, Iban? You like Marlo, and even if you didn't, she's such good luck for you, you want to keep her well and happy, isn't that right?" "Yesss..." "All right, you can go to sleep now."
This time the answer was the first of a steady succession of snores.
Hal turned back into the room. Marlo burst into tears where she stood and Amanda moved to put her arms around the older woman.
Marlo was weeping hoarsely and deeply. Amanda led her into the back of the house, through another door that evidently opened, from what Hal glimpsed, on another small bedroom. The door closed behind both women.
Hal went up to it. "I think I'll take a bit of a walk," he said through the door panel. "Fine. Get back here before twenty-two hundred hours. That's curfew," Amanda's voice answered him. "I will."
He went out. The streets outside were full of hurrying people in sackcloth robes, none of whom paid any attention to him or each other. They gave the impression of racing against a deadline. Hal estimated that perhaps one in ten had the word DESTRUCT painted on his or her robe. He wandered the streets, trying to get the feel of the community about him.