Free The Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz Page A

stopped for an instant; then a shock of alarm. His scalp began prickling as if an icy, soundless wind had come astir above his head.
    He knew somehow exactly what was going to happen next, and that there was no use trying to revoke his wish. Some klatha machinery already was in motion now and couldn't be stopped...
    A second or two went past. Then an oval of light appeared quietly about the recess, illuminating the setting within. It grew strong and clear. The captain realized it came from above, past his shoulder. Cautiously, he looked up.
    And there the little monster was, suspended by its base from the upper deck. Its slender neck reached down in a serpentine curve to place a beam of light precisely where he'd wanted to have it. His skin kept crawling as if he were staring at some nightmare image…
    But this was only klatha, he told himself. And after the Sheewash Drive and other matters, a lamp which began to move around mysteriously was nothing to get shaky about. Ignore it, he thought; finish up the job...
    He reached down with the tools, laboriously adjusted the thrust setting, tested it twice to make sure it was adjusted right. And that wound up his work in the engine room. He hadn't glanced at the lamp again, but its light still shone steadily on the shaft. The captain collapsed the tools, stowed them into his pockets, balanced himself on the curving surface of the drive shaft, and reached up for it.
    It came free of the overhead deck at his touch. He climbed down from the shaft, holding the lamp away from him by the neck, as if it were a helpful basilisk which might suddenly get a notion to bite. In the control room he placed it back on the desk, and gave it no further attention for the next twenty minutes while he ran the throttled engines through a complete instrument check. They registered satisfactorily. He switched the main drive back on, tested the emergency override. Everything seemed in working condition; the Venture was operational again... within prudent limits. He turned the ship on a course which would hold it roughly parallel to the Empire eastern borders, locked it in, then went to the electric butler for a cup of coffee.
    He came back with the coffee, finally stood looking at the lamp again. Since he'd put it down in it usual place, it had done nothing except sit there quietly, casting a pool of light on the desk before it.
    The captain put the cup aside, moved back a few steps.
    "Well," he said aloud, "let's test this thing out!"
    He paused while his voice went echoing faintly away through the Venture's passages. Then he pointed a finger at the lamp, and swung the finger commandingly towards the worktable beside the communicator stand.
    "Move over to that table!" he told the lamp.
    The whole ship grew very still. Even the distant hum of the drive seemed to dim. The captain's scalp was crawling again, kept on crawling as the seconds went by. But the lamp didn't move.
    Instead, its light abruptly went out.
    "No," Goth said. "It wasn't me. I don't think it was you either, exactly."
    The captain looked at her. He'd grabbed off a few hours sleep on the couch and by the time he woke up, Goth was up and around, energies apparently restored.
    She'd been doing some looking around, too, and wanted to know why the Venture was running on half power. The captain explained. "If we happen to get into a jam," he concluded, "would you be able to use the Sheewash Drive at present?"
    "Short hops," the witch nodded reassuringly.   "No real runs for a while, though!"
    "Short hops should be good enough," he reflected. "I read that item in the Regulations. They right about the klatha part?"
    "Pretty much," Goth acknowledged, a trifle warily.
    "Well..." He'd related his experiences with the lamp then, and she'd listened with obvious interest but no indications of surprise.
    "What do you mean, it wasn't me, exactly?" he said. "I was wondering for a while, but I'm dead sure now I don't have klatha ability."
    Goth wrinkled