[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

do was grunt. Tserama didn t look back, but she heard the small noises Ammeny
made as she worked herself along the lane; the sounds followed them, mixed in
with the grinding of the changer s teeth as he ate one trailbar
after another with a grim concen-tration that told her more than any words
what it took for him to shift like that
* * *
At the northern edge of Danoulcha where Subdan s kamba orchard would
hide them from observation, Tserama stopped her macai beside Hedivy, touched
his skin.  He s burning.
 He s tough and he s been there before. Adlayr slid from the saddle.  I m
going up. When the sprite fluttered over to him, he shook his head.
Honey, you stay here, I know you, and I can hear you far-ther than the Reader.
Tserama smiled. He was a cautious creature, this shapechanger. Didn t trust
her. She took the lead rein he gave her, and sat watching as he strode away
from the macain.
He shifted form, began a lumbering run down the long slope toward the water,
powered into the air with only inches left before he d wet his feet. He flew
out across the water in a long slide, using the wind to help him rise.
The sprite gave a tiny sigh, fluttered to Adlayr s saddle.
Honeydew and S ramee need to get going.
Tserama nodded, clucked to her macai and gave an encouraging tug on the
leadropes; the wind picking up across the lake meant morning was closer than
she d thought. Tsan pyya, it was better to be armed, supplied and mounted than
leaving at a dead run like a scared paglet.
And once we get across the Sacred Way, the Danoukhans will turn back even if
the youmbards don t, and that ll cut the danger down.
She glanced up at the circling patch of black, gasped as a too-familiar chill
brushed past her. She brought the rope ends down hard on the mac, yelled the
others into a run.
* * *
Adlayr circled off the lake and over the village, the wind filling the
stretched skin of his wings, letting him glide without more effort than was
needed to ride the gusts. The village was still asleep, no lights visible
ex-cept the smoky, guttering torches on the front porch of the GodHouse. He
dipped lower and saw the dark blotch of the missing guards against the wall
where they d left them. Out in the street the woman the Reader had tied up was
lying still, only her head mov-ing. She was trying to rub off the strips of
cloth that held the gag in place. He widened his arc as he came round again,
went rushing out across the water ...
And cold came swirling round him, cold that en-tered into him and brushed his
soul.
It wasn t an attack ... or at least not an attempt to take him over .., the
water called him ... sweetly at first and then like the throb of his own heart
... stroked him ... squeezed him ... his body changed the broad wings
shortened and thickened ... the fur rebsorbed into him until his skin was
thick and shiny ... he fell toward the lake ... curved himself ... turned the
fall into a dive ... split the surface and went deep into the clear, cold
water.
Noooooo ..
.. Honeydew watched the water settle, clutched the saddle and tried to call
Adlayr back to himself as she d done before, that time in the Forest. Nothing.
Nothing at all. An emptiness where her friend had been. She kicked off and
darted to Tserama. Do something, she wailed. Help him.
The only thing anyone can do is break the Spell-maker, Honeydew. You and me,
we haven t the strength to break the spell.
Page 100
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Serree could. She did before.
Whoever she is, she isn t here. If she s one of you, she ll be heading the
same way we are.
That s the best you can do, little one. We ll find Her I don t dare name and
then we ll see.
2. Ragyal
His eyes a smoky yellow, Onkyon Bassod of the House of Bask, Jeboh of
Bagklouss, kicked Rodoji off the couch, rolled onto his feet and began pacing
the room, his silk robe billowing out from his soft, paunchy body.
Rodoji cowered in the cool linen sheets, wanting desperately to get away; she
would have crawled out and, left him to his snit, but she didn t dare. When
the yellows came over him, bad things happened to people he noticed. Rodoji
shivered as she remembered what happened the day Tygryal was shaving him; he
went into one of those yellow-eye fits and she wasn t fast enough to get the
blade out of the way so she nicked him. Rodoji was one of those he made clean
up the blood and other stuff after he finished with Tygryal.
He stopped, stood staring out the long window that led to the balcony; it was
a bright sunny day, the surface of the lake like broken sapphire, but this
time the serene view didn t calm him. He swung round, came loping round the
bed, kicked at Rodoji. She was careful to roll with the blow so he wouldn t
hurt
his foot.  Get the Daggum of the Youmbards here.
As he strolled back toward the balcony, Rodoji snatched her skonna and ran
from the room; when the door was closed behind her she wrapped the skonna
around her, fingers moving swiftly through the tucks and folds. She smoothed
her hair down as best she could without a comb, passed her hands across her
face to wipe away the lines that fear had written in the skin she d pampered
so assiduously since she was a child. She d been this long in the Jeboh s
Mokan because she d fought to keep her place there, she wasn t about to
let outsiders have any opening to use against her. Serenely
self-assured, body moving with the tantalizing sensuality of the Mokan, she
crossed the empty waiting room, opened the door and went to find the Daggum.
His voice brittle, the yellow in his eyes bleeding into the air about his
body, the Jeboh Onkyon looked down at the man stretched on his belly before
him.  You let her get away, that filthy witch. You let her slip through your
feeble grip. Do you tell me where she s gone? And these spies,
these putrescent foreign-ers who you should be able to find by smell alone,
you catch and let them slip away. And you don t even know how. You with your
kyarkyor guards who wouldn t know an idea if it bit them. No.
You wait for ME to tell you. The Cave of the Prudjin, that s where you take [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]