Voodoo Planet by Andre Norton (big ebook reader txt) ๐
Description
Voodoo Planet is the third in a series of novels featuring the adventures of Dane Thorson and the spaceship Solar Queen, written in the 1950s by Andre Norton under her male pseudonym, Andrew North. In this installment, Dane and his shipmates land on the safari planet Khatka, settled by African refugees of an atomic race war on Earth. They soon face off with a witch doctor seeking to take over the planet.
This short work was originally published as a double title paperback by Ace Books in 1959 along with a reprint of Plague Ship, the second novel in the series. Norton followed it with a sequel ten years later and then co-authored a revival of the series in the 1990s.
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- Author: Andre Norton
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โHow does he do this?โ asked the other simply. โIs it magic that we see not Lumbrilo but a lion before us?โ
โHe weaves his spell with the drums, with the chant, by the suggestion his mind imposes upon yours. And, having woven his spell, he cannot limit it to just the picture he suggests if ancient racial memories raise another. I merely used the tools of Lumbrilo to show you yet another picture your people once knew well.โ
โAnd in so doing made an enemy.โ Asaki stood before a rack of very modern weapons. Now he made his selection, a silver tube with a stock curved to fit a manโs shoulder. โLumbrilo will not forget.โ
Tau laughed shortly. โNo, but then I have merely done as you wished, have I not, sir? I have focused on myself the enmity of a dangerous man, and now you hope I shall be forced, in self-defense, to remove him from your path.โ
The Khatkan turned slowly, resting the weapon across his forearm. โI do not deny that, spaceman.โ
โThen matters here are indeed seriousโ โโ
โThey are so serious,โ Asaki interrupted, speaking not only to Tau but to the other off-worlders as well, โthat what happens now may mean the end of the Khatka that I know. Lumbrilo is the most dangerous game I have faced in a lifetime as a hunter. He goes, or we draw his fangsโ โor else all that I am, all I have labored here to build, will be swept away. To preserve this I will use any weapon.โ
โAnd I am now your weapon, which you hope will be as successful as that needler you are carrying.โ Tau laughed again, without much humor. โLet us hope I shall prove as effective.โ
Jellico moved out of the shadows. It was just after dawn, and the grayness of the vanishing night still held in the corners of the armory. Deliberately he took his own stand before the arms racks and chose a short-barreled blaster. Only when its butt was cupped in his hand did he glance at his host.
โWe came guesting, Asaki. We have eaten salt and bread under this roof.โ
โOn my body and my blood it is,โ returned the Khatkan grimly. โI shall go down to the blackness of Sabra before you do, if the flames of death are against us.โ From his belt he flipped loose his knife and offered the hilt to Jellico. โMy body for a wall between you and the dark, Captain. But also understand this: to me, what I do now is greater than the life of anyone man. Lumbrilo and the evil behind him must be rooted out. There was no trickery in my invitation!โ
They stood eye to eye, equal in height, in authority of person, and that indefinable something which made them both masters in their own different worlds. Then Jellicoโs hand went out, his fingertip flicked the hilt of the bared blade.
โThere was no trickery,โ he conceded. โI knew that your need was great when you came to the Queen.โ
Since both the captain and Tau appeared to accept the situation, Dane, not quite understanding it all, was prepared to follow their lead. And for the moment they had nothing more in plan than to visit the Zoboru preserve.
They went by flitterโ โAsaki, one of his Hunter pilots, and the three from the Queenโ โlifting over the rim of mountains behind the fortress-palace and speeding north with the rising sun a flaming ball to the east. Below, the country was starkโ โrocks and peaks, deep purple shadows marking the veins of crevices. But that was swiftly behind and they were over a sea of greens, many shades of green, with yellow, blue, even red cutting into the general verdant carpet of treetops. Another chain of heights and then open land, swales of tall grass already burnt yellow by the steady sun. There was a river here, a crazy, twisted stream coiling nearly back upon itself at times.
Once more broken land, land so ravished by prehistoric volcanic action that it was a grotesque nightmare of erosion-whittled outcrops and mesas. Asaki pointed to the east. There was a dark patch widening out into a vast wedge.
โThe swamp of Mygra. It has not yet been explored.โ
โYou could air map it,โ Tau began.
The Chief Ranger was frowning. โFour flitters have been lost trying that. Com reports fail when they cross that last mountain ridge eastward. There is some sort of interference which we do not yet understand. Mygra is a place of death; later we may be able to travel along its fringe and then you shall see. Nowโ โโ He spoke to the pilot in his own tongue and the flitter pointed up-nose at an angle as they climbed over the highest peak they had yet seen in this mountainous land, to reach at last a country of open grass dotted with small forest stands. Jellico nodded approvingly.
โZoboru?โ
โZoboru,โ Asaki assented. โWe shall go up to the northern end of the preserve. I wish to show you the roosts of the fastals. This is their nesting season and the sight is one you will long remember. But we shall take an eastern course; I have two Ranger stations to check on the way.โ
It was after they left the second station that the flitter swung farther out eastward, again climbing over the chain of heights to sight one of the newly discovered wonders the staff at the last station had reportedโ โa crater lake.
And the flitter skimmed down across water which was a rich emerald in hue, filling the crater from one rock wall to the other with no beach at the foot of
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