Alan Dean Foster The Hour Of The Gate

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

"THREE MILLION YEARS!" M'nemaxa boomed, his neighing shaking boulders from the
cliffsides of the canyon.
"ONLY THREE MILLION. THANK YOU, LITTLE HUMAN. YOU
ARE A WIZARD OF UNKNOWN WISDOM. FAREWELL!"
The vast fiery form rose into the air. There was an earsplitting explosion
that rent the fabric of space-time. The gap closed quickly and M'nemaxa had
gone, gone back to resume his now truncated journey, gone back to the every-
where otherplace.
Bodies, furred and otherwise, swarmed around the returnees
Caz, Flor, Bribbens holding his bandaged right arm where he'd taken a sword
thrust. Pog fluttered excitedly overhead, and warmlander soldiers mixed
queries with congratulations.
The battle had ended, the war was over. Those Plated Folk who had not perished
in the modest thermonuclear explosion at the far end of the Pass were being
herded into makeshift corrals.
Jon-Tom was embarrassed and nervous, but Mudge glowed like M'nemaxa himself
from me adjulation of the crowd.
When the excitement had died down and the soldiers had gone to join their
companions below, Clothahump managed to make his way up to Jon-Tom.
"You did well, my boy, well! I'm quite proud of you." He smiled as much as he
could. "We'll make a wizard of you
294
THE HOUR Or THE GATS
yet. If you can only leam to be a bit more specific and precise
Page 203
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
in your formulations."
"I'm learning," Jon-Tom admitted without smiling back.
"One of the things I've learned is to pay attention to what lies behind a
person's words." He and the wizard stared into each other's eyes, and neither
gave ground.
"I did what I had to do, boy. I'd do it again."
"I know you would. I can't blame you for it anymore, but
I can't like you for it, either."
"As you will, Jon-Tom," said the wizard. He looked past
the man and his eyes widened. "Though it may be that you
condemn me too quickly."
Jon-Tom turned. A petite, slightly baffled redhead was
walking toward them. He could only stare.
"Hello," Talea said, smiling slightly. "I must have been
unconscious for days."
"You've been dead," said a flabbergasted Mudge.
"Oh cut it out. I had the strangest dream." She looked down at the canyon.
"Missed all the fighting, I see."
"I saw you.. .out there," Jon-Tom said dazedly. "Or a part of you. It came to
me and I knew it was you."
"I wouldn't know about that," she said sharply. "All I
know is that I woke up in a tent surrounded by corpses. It scared the shit out
of me." She chuckled. "Did worse to the attendants. Bet they haven't stopped
running.
"Then I asked around for you and got directions. Is it true what everyone's
saying about you and M'nemaxa and..."
"Everything's true, nothing's false," Jon-Tom said. "Not anymore. Whatever
entered me I sent back to you, but it doesn't matter. What is is what matters,
and what is, is you."
"You've gotten awfully obscure all of a sudden, Jon-
Tom."
He put his hands on her shoulders. "I suppose we have to
stay together now.'' He smiled shyly, not able to explain what
295
Alan Dean Foster
had happened in Elsewhere. She looked blank. "Don't you re-
member what you said to me back in Cugluch?" he asked.
Page 204
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
She frowned at him. "I don't know what you're talking about, but that's
nothing new, is it? You always did talk too much. But you're wrong about one
thing."
"What's that?"
"I do remember what I said back in Cugluch," and she proceeded to give him the
deepest, longest, richest kiss he'd
ever experienced.
Eventually she let him go. Or was it the other way around?
No matter.
Caz and Hor sat on the ramparts nearby, hand in paw.
Jon-Tom shook his head, wondering at that blindness that conceals what is most
obvious. Bribbens had disappeared, doubtless to make arrangements for reaching
the nearest river.
Falameezar was able to help the boatman with that, being a river dragon. That
is, he was when he wasn't too busy reeducating his rodent charges about their
responsibilities and rights as members of the downtrodden proletariat.
Clothahump had gone off to discuss the matters of magic with the other
warmlander wizards.
"What now, Jon-Tom?" Talea looked at him anxiously. "I
guess now that you've mastered your spellsinging you'll be returning to your
own world?"
"I don't know." He studied the masonry underfoot. "I'm not so sure you could
say I've mastered spellsinging." He plucked ruefully at the duar. "I always
seem to get what I
need, not what I want. That's nice, but not necessarily reassuring.
"And for some reason being a rock star or a lawyer doesn't seem to hold the
attraction it once did. I guess you could say
I've had my horizons somewhat expanded." Like to include infinity, he told
himself.
296
THE HOUK OF TBK GATE
She nodded knowingly. "You've grown up some, Jon-
Tom."
He shrugged. "If experiences can age you, I ought to be the equivalent of
Methuselah by now." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Odnośniki