Chapter seventeenWhy, in the name of the glorious and radiant Opaz, can I, Dray Prescot, not keep my big nose out of other people’s affairs?
The ugly sight that presented itself to me in the mingled streaming light of the Suns of Scorpio had nothing to do with me. Nothing at all. So why did I stop in the shade of an arcade? Why did I not continue on? Why did my hand drop to my sword hilt?
I want to remind you of the devastating mistake that I almost committed when the four Xuntalese did not beat the white-skinned apim, but merely tried to arrest him. Had I gone in between them with a wild battle cry on my lips — my Val! What a mess I would have made there! Without a doubt such an error would have caused a setback in my plans.
People going about their daily business made a wide berth aro
