The stench of the stuff was sickening, but the fear of being
entrapped in it gave him the necessary impetus to push forward, though
what was meant to be a swift half-dive was more of a worm's progress. He
grabbed frantically at brittle stems, at coarse grass which cut like
knives at his hands. But some of the material held and he lay face down
on a lump which did not give under his weight.
There was no time to linger; he had to get to the next patch, to free
this dubious landing place for the men embattled on the rise above.
Stumbling up, Dane judged the distance with a space-trained eye and
jumped to a knob Nymani had already quitted. The Khatkan was more than
halfway along toward that promise of solid ground which the tangled mass
of leprous vegetation led to, zigzagging expertly from islet to islet.
There was a crash and a roar behind. Dane balanced on the third of the
minute islands to look back. He saw the lash of blaster fire on the top
of the cliff, Tau on his knees on the first of their chain of
steppingstones, and a graz sprawled head and forequarters in the sucking
muck where it had dived past the two defenders above.
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