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He laughed.  Zdra zdra, if I go sick, I d like that Healer of yours to do her
act on me. Seriously, I
don t need much. And having the Glory this close, he sighed,  it keeps the
prowlers away. So it s good for something. We never did get a chance to go to
one of those meetings like you wanted. Too many things hap-pening.
She frowned.  They re really pulling in the mem-bers with all these people
crowding into the cities.
Oram hasn t got ... zdra, call them what they are, he hasn t got the spies to
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keep track of what s going on. He doesn t think much of them, but they worry
me. She wrinkled her nose.  I m my mother s daughter for sure.
Anything I don t know worries me.
 The Tailor keeps trying to get me in there; if you want I ....
 Nik! She grimaced at the chocolate she d spilled on her skirt, set the mug
down, and rubbed at the stain with the napkin he tossed her.  They seem to be
giv-ing comfort where it s needed. The Preörchmat wouldn t agree, but their
gain is her loss. That s some-thing we ll have to look into, too, what it
means that people aren t turning to the Temple. She smiled at him.  I suppose
you ll have something to say there.
He twisted his wide mouth into a down-curved grin.  Be sure of that, Kimi
love.
She closed her eyes, the word love warming her heart, chasing away the
loneliness that had been eating at her. He didn t have to say it. He wouldn t
have said it unless he meant it, she d learned that even in the brief time
she d known him.  My mother was a wise one, she said after a short silence,
then got to her feet.  I hope I do as well for my daughter. Zdra, you need
your sleep, Hus, and I ve got to get back.
 Warn. Adlayr got hastily to his feet, stripping off the robe as he rose.
 Give me five minutes or so be-fore you step out the door. I need time to get
set.
K vestmilly hugged her father hard and slipped into the street; when she heard
the bars chunking home, she slapped the door for a last farewell and started
up the street.
She stopped a moment outside the House of Glory, listened to the sounds coming
muffled through the door, a steady monotonous chant: Glory Glory Glory.
Shaking her head, she went swiftly on, leaning for-ward as if she pushed
against a wind.
22. Death and Creation
The Darkness vibrated.
In her sleep Serroi moaned and sweated; it was pressing on her, closing in
around her.
Darkness and terror. She pushed at it and it was like touching warm wet
rubber. Revulsion filled her.
A shape congealed in the Heart of Darkness, a focus that sucked the essence of
Darkness into it. A woman came toward Serroi, arms curved to embrace her, a
woman whose face changed and changed again, elements of Yael-mri and Tayyan
were there, Raiki Janja and something of every woman she d known, fleshing
the bones of the Fetch.  Mother, it said, voice sweet and
insinuating, confidence growing, but not yet reaching to demand.  Come to me.
Let me love you like I love my children, come to me, be part of me. Come ....
>>
 Spider six to base.
 Base here. Go.
 Shooters in position. Van s almost in sight, I can see the dust and the smoke
from the fires they re setting. Unless something s come up, I m headin for
the boat. Go.
 Good work and good luck. Out.
The army came over the shen fields like an amoeba oozing across the land,
eating everything in its path and leaving destruction behind. There were tiny
pops and crackles around the fringes where the
Kers were still attacking, driven to crazy daring by the blood of their kin
and the destruction of their homes. When that got too annoying, the amoeba put
out a pseudopod and smeared the attackers into the ground, then withdrew into
itself and moved on.
It was a blind amoeba it no longer dared send out advance bands and single
scouts never came back, the spotters watching them and the Marn s Guard saw to
that and it was slower, having lost a third of its re-mounts to guard forays,
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but it was not appreciably weakened.
When it reached the deep incurve of the Great Bend and the groves of brellim,
daub, and javory that grew along the river at the northern border of the
Hayadel Bezhval, it extended several pseudopods and swept through the trees
searching for ambushers.
It found none and oozed on.
Vykon eased from the blind high in the crown of the brellim, swung down the
trunk and dropped to the ground, nodded to Nariz who came from the shadows to
join him. On both sides of the brothers more silent Harozhni left their nests
and moved toward the edge of the grove and the trees they d marked yesterday
while there was still light, big old trees, daubs and brellims that would give
them the angle and the cover they needed.
On the plain outside, the ragged tail of the amoeba had moved past except for
the slow, ponderous supply wagons that were creaking by the ambush, the orsks
plodding stolidly along, six to a hitch, their horns lopped and capped. Vykon
sighted on his first target, a slab-sided wheeler with a mottled red and white
hide; he waited for the signal from the whistleman.
It came.
He squeezed off his three shots, dropped from the tree and ran for the river,
ignoring the yells and the squealing protests from gritzer macain as the
tailgritz wrenched them around and prodded them into a full run.
He reached the river a few mac-lengths ahead of the pursuers, dived from the
low bluff, hit the water and churned toward the boat, pulling himself in,
turning in time to see his brother Nariz go floating off, half his head shot
away, and his cousin Plino jerk in mid-air, splash down and not come up. He
howled. The boat rocking under him as the other snipers clambered in, shots [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]