But then clear words came up to them.
“Let the upper-world man come to the foot of the steps,” called the Duca. “I have an offer to make him!”
CHAPTER VII
To himself Kirby chuckled. Such real entreaty filled the Duca’s voice that there seemed no danger of further treachery from him at the moment.
With a grin, Kirby took Naida’s hand and led her down the steps, unbolting each bronze gate but the last.
“What do you want?” he asked in a cool voice a moment later, when he stopped on the final step and faced the Duca from behind the protection of the final gate.
Clearly the parley was going to be a blunt one.
“I want you to leave our world,” the Duca rumbled promptly.
He was drawn up in a posture intended to display dignity. But his left cheek, where Kirby had hammered him, was pulpy and discolored, and somehow he seemed to Kirby more than ever merely human.