[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

partly set putty. I constructed a circular palisade standing to about shoulder-height, myself at its center. I
unwound Frakir from my wrist then voiced the necessary instructions as I paced her atop my rough and
shining wall.
Frakir elongated, stretching herself as thin as a thread and twining among the shardlike branches. I
felt safe. I did not believe anything could cross that barrier without Frakir's springing loose and twining
herself to deathly tightness about it.
I spread my cloak, lay down, and slept. For how long, I am not certain. And I recall no dreams.
There were no disturbances either.
When I woke I moved my head to reorient it, but the view was the same. In every direction but
down the view was filled with interwoven crystal branches. I climbed slowly to my feet and pressed
against them. Solid. They had become a glass cage.
Although I was able to break off some lesser branches, these were mainly from overhead, and it did
nothing to work my release. Those which I had planted initially had thickened considerably, having
apparently rooted themselves solidly. They would not yield to my strongest kicks.
The damned thing infuriated me. I swung my blade and glassy chips flew all about. I muffled my face
with my cloak then and swung several times more. Then I noticed that my hand felt wet. When I looked
at it, I saw that it was running with blood. Some of those splinters were very sharp. I desisted with the
blade and returned to kicking at my enclosure. The walls creaked occasionally aid made chiming noises,
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
but they held.
I am not normally claustrophobic and my life was not in imminent peril, but something about this
shining prison annoyed me out of all proportion to the situation itself. I raged for perhaps ten minutes
before I forced myself to sufficient calmness that I might think clearly.
I studied the tangle until I discerned the uniform color and texture of Frakir running through it. I
placed my fingertips upon her and spoke an order. Her brightness increased. and she ran through the
spectrum and settled into a red glow The first creaking sound occurred a few seconds later.
I quickly withdrew to the center of the enclosure and wrapped myself fully in my cloak. If I
crouched, I decided; some of the overhead pieces would fall a greater distance, striking me with more
force. So I stood upright, protecting my head and neck with my arms and hands as well as with the
cloak.
The creaking sounds became cracking sounds, followed by rattling, snapping, breaking. I was
suddenly struck across the shoulder, but I maintained my footing.
Ringing and crunching, the edifice began to fall about me. I held my ground, though I was struck
several times more.
When the sounds ceased and I looked again I saw that the roof had been removed, and I stood calf
deep amid fallen branches of the hard, corallike material. Several of the side members had splintered off
at near to ground level. Others now stood at unnatural angles, and this time a few wellplaced kicks
brought them down.
My cloak was torn in a number of places, and Frakir coiled now about my left ankle and began to
migrate to my wrist. 'The stuff crunched underfoot as I departed.
I shook out my cloak and brushed myself off. I traveled for perhaps half an hour then, leaving the
place far behind me, before I halted and took my breakfast in a hot, bleak valley smelling faintly of sulfur.
As I was finishing, I heard a crashing noise. A horned and tusked purple thing went racing along the
ridge to my right pursued by a hairless orange-skinned creature with long claws and a forked tail. Both
were wailing in different keys.
I nodded. It was just one damned thing after another.
I made my way through frozen lands and burning lands, under skies both wild and placid. Then at
last, hours later, I saw the low range of dark hills, and aurora streaming upward from behind them. That
was it. I needed but approach and pass through and I would see my goal beyond the last and most
difficult barrier of all.
I moved ahead. It would be good to finish this job and get on with more important matters. I would [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]