This would be talked over by
every Sargolian for many storm seasons to come!
Jellico glanced up at the sky. "Say an hour after dawn, chieftain. With
your leave, we shall confer concerning a champion."
"My council room is yours," Groft signed for a liege man to guide them.
Chapter VII
BARRING ACCIDENT
The morning winds rustled through the grass forest and, closer to hand,
it pulled at the cloaks of the Salariki. Clan nobles sat on stools,
lesser folk squatted on the trampled stubble of the cleared ground
outside the stockade. In their many colored splendor the drab tunics of
the Terrans were a blot of darkness at either end of the makeshift arena
which had been marked out for them.
At the conclusion of their conference the Queen's men had been forced
into a course Jellico had urged from the first. He, and he alone, would
represent the Free Traders in the coming duel. And now he stood there in
the early morning, stripped down to shorts and boots, wearing nothing on
which a net could catch and so trap him. The Free Traders were certain
that the I-S men having any advantage would press it to the ultimate
limit and the death of Captain Jellico would make a great impression on
the Salariki.
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