[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
I don t get it. But I ll tell you one thing. I like your configuration a
lot.
She smiled and kissed him.
When she took her lips from his he said, Why & He took a deep breath. Why
you like me?
do
I told you. I like bright men. Besides, you re a user, and I was created to
serve users.
Jeremy put his arms around her waist. I still can t believe it. But I m
working on it.
Let s work on it together, Jeremy.
Yeah, let s.
Eleven
Forest
He had crossed enemy lines without incident, avoiding detection with a partial
invisibility spell. The going had been risky. The energy level was low back on
the plains. This world blew hot and cold on magic. In spots, like Merydion,
there was little power, whereas in other places, such as his destination, the
level was dangerously high. Not a few native magicians had vaporized
themselves fooling with powers they couldn t control. It was an occupational
hazard.
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/John%20DeChancie%20-%20Castle%2004%20-%20Castle%20Wa
r.html (67 of 255)23-12-2006 0:24:59
Castle War
Now the energy gradient was steepening as he entered the Timeless Forest.
Though not sufficient to power a teleportation spell, the magic of the forest
was tricky. There were currents and eddies of force.
Page 37
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Intersecting lines of influence wove a tangled web to snare the unsuspecting.
He had not spent a great deal of time here, but was aware of the risk and knew
some of the dangers. Yet he was by no means experienced. He would have to take
it easy.
The trees were tall, their trunks of staggering girth. Thick loam compressed
beneath his mount s hooves.
The undergrowth was thin, unable to thrive in the dark under the forest
canopy. Moss on tree trunks grew thick as rugs. Toadstools towered almost
man-high, and morels resembled hot-air balloons. Vines like hawsers hung from
the treetops.
He sniffed. It was high summer, but there was the definite tang of autumn in
the air, the cider smell of rotting fruit. Strange.
He rode on, noticing odder things. Some leaves were turning. A little farther
along the trail most of the foliage had bloomed into colorful fall decay.
Reds, yellows, golds. Puzzled, he halted his mount and looked around.
The leaves seemed to change as he watched. Then they began to fall.
Leaves swirling around him, he continued. Soon the forest floor was a carpet
of colors. The air now had the snap of early winter.
The sky grayed over and the temperature dropped. A snowflake drifted by. Then
another. Another.
He rode on. The accumulation was fast and reached ankle height in no time.
Wisps of steam trailed from his mount s nostrils. He wore no cloak, and had on
only a short-sleeved doublet. He shivered and shook.
Deepening hoof prints trailed in the snow.
Winds buffeted him while bare branches grasped and tangled above. He booted
his mount into a slippery canter, hoping to get through the anomaly.
After a good stretch he eased the horse into a walk again. The snow had
stopped falling. Green buds appeared, and birds sang. The snow melted. In a
matter of minutes he passed from winter to spring, and then back to midsummer
again.
The years go by fast when you get old, he told his horse.
The trail forked ahead. He stopped to get his bearings. He was inclined to
take the right fork, and did.
Warm breezes brought the smell of wildflowers as he rode through sun-dappled
shade. Sagging branches creaked, and a lone bird twitted at him. The trees
were more slender now, but still tall. Shelves of yellow
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/John%20DeChancie%20-%20Castle%2004%20-%20Castle%20Wa
r.html (68 of 255)23-12-2006 0:24:59
Castle War fungus ringed an occasional stump. Passing through a swarm of
gnats, he fended them off, and journeyed on.
An hour passed, and the trail fed into another. A line of hoof prints marked
the dirt. He turned right and followed them.
Ahead the trail diverged. It looked like the same fork, to which he had come
full circle. His own trace went off to the right.
Left, this time, I think.
He went at a trot, and another hour passed. He tried to watch the sky and the
angle of the sun, but it did no good. At length he came around again, the way
merging with the original trail. This time two sets of hoof prints went to the
left, and again he confronted the parting of the ways.
He abandoned the trail and urged his horse through the underbrush, dodging low
branches. After a slow-
moving and arduous hour &
Damn.
The same trail, and ahead the same fork.
He tried going off trail again, this time in another direction. Twigs of
saplings snagged at him. Low branches swooped. An angry buzzing informed him
that the gourdlike object he had brushed against was a wasps nest. He geed up
into a gallop and almost had his head taken off by a malevolent tree. He rode
Page 38
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
blindly for a good long while.
At length he broke into the open. The blasted trail again! this time with
more sets of hoof prints than he could discern.
I m starting to get pissed off.
He turned against the traffic and went back the way he had originally come.
The trail gave out about a minute later. He found himself in a small clearing
that had not been there before. He reined his sweating steed around to find
that the path had entirely disappeared. Hemmed in, he dismounted.
All right, what do you want?
He heard or thought he heard laughter.
file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/John%20DeChancie%20-%20Castle%2004%20-%20Castle%20Wa
r.html (69 of 255)23-12-2006 0:24:59
Castle War
Right. Well, we ll see.
He walked the circumference of the clearing, peering into the undergrowth.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pldoc.pisz.plpdf.pisz.plalternate.pev.pl
|
