[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
to the pile on the left-hand side. There were trees,large trees, crushed under
all that rock, with the remains of dead leaves still clinging to the branches.
Mage-lights hovered over the pile as Kyrtian's men looked on
apprehensively. Keman back to human-form and Kyrt-ian climbed the rock-pile to
the single opening that Keman haddiscovered near the top of the mound.
"Is he going to be safe?" one of the men asked dubiously, asKeman
offered Kyrtian a hand-up over a tricky bit. Shana was dead-certain that he
wasn't worried about Keman.
"Keman's a dragon," she reminded him. "They don'tknowrock, theylive
rock. Keman feels where each pebble is rubbingand might be loose. He'll know
if something is going to slip be- fore the rock knows."
"You'd better be right," Lynder muttered darkly. "I climb I explore
caves all the time and I wouldn't go up there without spending weeks checking
my path."
"You're not a dragon," she retorted, and turned her own at-
tention to the base of the pile. There, in a place where rock hadbeen
melted and reformed to stabilize the area (the indisputablemark of dragon
stone-shaping), was where Keman had foundthe strange piece of metal. Shana
examined the spot on her hands and knees with her own little mage-light, and
in a fewmoments, there was no doubt in her mind that what he hadfound was not
a random bit of something that might have beendropped by a curious Elvenlord
long ago. There was more of the stuff under that original rock-fall. As she
brought her pin-point light in close to the ground, she saw a thin edge of
some-thing squashed along the boundary of rock-pile and dirt that didn't look
anything like the fractured edge of a rock. What itdid look like was another
sheet of metal.
Just what was under that pile of rock?
Just what is inside this cave? That's what I should beasking....
She looked back up again. At that moment, Keman turned and waved back
down at her. They must have found the en-trance. A mage-light left the
formation and swung purposefullytowards the two figures up on the pile, then
vanished, seem-ingly into the rocks. There was some activity up there, as
thetwo bent over something. A moment later, the first figure fol-lowed the
light into the tumbled rocks. Keman remained bent over while Kyrtian's men
fidgeted restlessly, then eventuallystarted back down the pile. Clearly
Kyrtian had gone down in-side the cave by rope, and Keman had remained just
long enough to see that he was safely down.
"Now what's Kyrtian thinking?" the man beside Shana mur-mured,
fretfully. "We ought to be making camp, not climbingaround in caves."
Page 253
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Kyrtian's probably seeing if we can campin the cave," oneof his
fellows pointed out. "It would be a lot drier, and we wouldn't have to worry
about Things."
"Unless, of course, those Things have been comingout of thecave,"
Shana warned, darkly. The more Kyrtian had explained what he hoped to find,
the less she'd liked the idea of crawlingaround in there. So far, every sign
had pointed to the conclusionthat Kyrtian was right, and this was the site of
his race's entry
into this world. What if that Great Portal hadn't quite beenclosed or
had been reopened? From what Lorryn had told her,Evelon was hellish at best;
there was no telling what kind ofhorrors lived back there. The ambush beasts
and the other weirdthings in this forest could be coming out of Evelon or
beensent by the Elvenlords' enemies, the ones they had fledhere toescape.
Fire and Rain! If they were the losers in their fight, I don'twant to
meet what the Elvenlords we know thought was so badthey would risk running
into an unknown world rather thanface it or surrender to it.
Kyrtian's men didn't look very happy with her observa-tion, so she
didn't share any more of her thoughts. Fore-warned was forearmed, but no point
in making them too nervous.
Keman came down the slide a great deal faster than he hadgone up;
more sure-footed than any goat, since he needn't trouble himself about the
stability of the surface he trod on. He looked as gleeful as only a dragon [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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to the pile on the left-hand side. There were trees,large trees, crushed under
all that rock, with the remains of dead leaves still clinging to the branches.
Mage-lights hovered over the pile as Kyrtian's men looked on
apprehensively. Keman back to human-form and Kyrt-ian climbed the rock-pile to
the single opening that Keman haddiscovered near the top of the mound.
"Is he going to be safe?" one of the men asked dubiously, asKeman
offered Kyrtian a hand-up over a tricky bit. Shana was dead-certain that he
wasn't worried about Keman.
"Keman's a dragon," she reminded him. "They don'tknowrock, theylive
rock. Keman feels where each pebble is rubbingand might be loose. He'll know
if something is going to slip be- fore the rock knows."
"You'd better be right," Lynder muttered darkly. "I climb I explore
caves all the time and I wouldn't go up there without spending weeks checking
my path."
"You're not a dragon," she retorted, and turned her own at-
tention to the base of the pile. There, in a place where rock hadbeen
melted and reformed to stabilize the area (the indisputablemark of dragon
stone-shaping), was where Keman had foundthe strange piece of metal. Shana
examined the spot on her hands and knees with her own little mage-light, and
in a fewmoments, there was no doubt in her mind that what he hadfound was not
a random bit of something that might have beendropped by a curious Elvenlord
long ago. There was more of the stuff under that original rock-fall. As she
brought her pin-point light in close to the ground, she saw a thin edge of
some-thing squashed along the boundary of rock-pile and dirt that didn't look
anything like the fractured edge of a rock. What itdid look like was another
sheet of metal.
Just what was under that pile of rock?
Just what is inside this cave? That's what I should beasking....
She looked back up again. At that moment, Keman turned and waved back
down at her. They must have found the en-trance. A mage-light left the
formation and swung purposefullytowards the two figures up on the pile, then
vanished, seem-ingly into the rocks. There was some activity up there, as
thetwo bent over something. A moment later, the first figure fol-lowed the
light into the tumbled rocks. Keman remained bent over while Kyrtian's men
fidgeted restlessly, then eventuallystarted back down the pile. Clearly
Kyrtian had gone down in-side the cave by rope, and Keman had remained just
long enough to see that he was safely down.
"Now what's Kyrtian thinking?" the man beside Shana mur-mured,
fretfully. "We ought to be making camp, not climbingaround in caves."
Page 253
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Kyrtian's probably seeing if we can campin the cave," oneof his
fellows pointed out. "It would be a lot drier, and we wouldn't have to worry
about Things."
"Unless, of course, those Things have been comingout of thecave,"
Shana warned, darkly. The more Kyrtian had explained what he hoped to find,
the less she'd liked the idea of crawlingaround in there. So far, every sign
had pointed to the conclusionthat Kyrtian was right, and this was the site of
his race's entry
into this world. What if that Great Portal hadn't quite beenclosed or
had been reopened? From what Lorryn had told her,Evelon was hellish at best;
there was no telling what kind ofhorrors lived back there. The ambush beasts
and the other weirdthings in this forest could be coming out of Evelon or
beensent by the Elvenlords' enemies, the ones they had fledhere toescape.
Fire and Rain! If they were the losers in their fight, I don'twant to
meet what the Elvenlords we know thought was so badthey would risk running
into an unknown world rather thanface it or surrender to it.
Kyrtian's men didn't look very happy with her observa-tion, so she
didn't share any more of her thoughts. Fore-warned was forearmed, but no point
in making them too nervous.
Keman came down the slide a great deal faster than he hadgone up;
more sure-footed than any goat, since he needn't trouble himself about the
stability of the surface he trod on. He looked as gleeful as only a dragon [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]