[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Mark thought that now he could recognize some of them individually.Four were attired with divine elegance, wearing crowns, tunics, Page 51ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlrobes ablaze with color, gold, and gems.But one, who limped as he strode forward, was clad in simple furs.Again Mark glanced back quickly at the platform.Vilkata was out of striking range, and still closely surrounded by his people and his magical attend-ants.The Dark King had sheathed the Mindsword now, and was issuing terse orders to certain of his wizards.In the next instant one of these magicians gave a convulsive leap that carried him clear off the platform.He fell more heavily than Mark had fallen, and lay writhing helplessly on the ground.Mark could guess that some protective spell of this man's had somehow impeded the divine progress;and that when the spell was snapped, like some ship's hawser in the docks, he who had been holding it was flattened by the recoil.Whatever magic had been in their path, spells perhaps triggered automatically by their intrusion, the gods had broken their way through it; they were irritated, Mark thought, looking at them, like adults bothered by some maze of string set up by children.At last the four gods and one goddess halted their advance.They stood on the parade ground only a score of meters from the platform, their heads still easily overtopping that of the Dark King who faced them from his elevation.Everyone else on the plat-form was kneeling, Mark realized, or had thrown themselves face down in abject panic, and everyone near him on the ground also.He and the Dark King were the only two humans within a hundred meters still on their feet.How curious, Mark wondered distantly.The only other time in his life when he had seen deities as close as this, why that time too he had been able to remain standing, while around him other humans knelt or huddled in collapse.The limping god was moving forward.In the silence that lay over the whole camp, his ornaments of dragon-scale could be heard clinking as he lurched to within one great stride of the platform.That is Vulcan the Smith, thought Mark, staring up at the fur-garbed titan-he who took off my father's arm.Vulcan paid no attention to Mark, but was looking at Vilkata.As far as Mark could tell, Vilkata did not flinch, though when the god halted he was close enough to the platform to have reached forth one of his long arms and plucked Vilkata from it.Wind came keening across the camp, blowing out of the bare, devastated lands surrounding it.Otherwise there was silence.A silence abruptly broken, by the voice of Vulcan that boomed forth at a volume appropriate for a god."What madness is this that you fools of humans are about? Do you.not realize that thefile:///G|/rah/Fred%20Saberhagen/Fred%20Sab.%20-%20The%20Third%20Book%20Of%20Swords.txt (61 of 171) [2/5/2004 12:22:42 AM]file:///G|/rah/Fred%20Saberhagen/Fred%20Saberhagen%20-%20Swords%2003%20-%20The%20Third%20Book%20Of%20Swords.txtSwordgame is over?"Vilkata summoned up his best royal voice to answer."I am the Dark King-" It was no surprise at all to Mark that the King's voice should quaver and falter and quit on him before the sentence ended.The only wonder was that the man could stand and speak at all in such a confrontation.Vulcan was neither impressed nor pleased."King, Queen, or whatever, what do I care for all that? You are a human and no more.Hand over that tool of power that you are wearing at your side."Vilkata did not obey at once; instead he dared to answer once more in words.Mark did not hear the words exactly, for his attention had once more been Page 52ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmldistracted by something in the distance.This was another cloud, and it looked as unusual as the first.This cloud was not rolling down a mountainside, only drifting through the air, but its path was at a right angle to those of other clouds and the wind.Now the strange cloud was hovering, hesitating in its slow passage.It appeared to be maintaining a certain cautious distance from the scene on the parade ground.With Sightblinder still in hand, Mark could perceive in this second cloud also the presence of figures of human shape but divine dimensions.There was one, a perfect essence of the female, that he thought could be only Aphrodite.He could see none of the others so clearly as individuals, though all of their faces seemed to be turned his way.The distraction had been only momentary.Now Vulcan, made impatient by even a moment's temporizing on the part of this mere human king, thundered out some oath, and stretched forth his arm toward Vilkata.With a swift motion the DarkKing drew the Mindsword from its sheath-but not to hand it over in surrender.Instead he brandished it aloft.Vulcan cried out once, a strange, hoarse tone, like masses of metal and rock colliding.The lame god threw up a forearm across his eyes.He reeled backward, and fell to one knee.Mark could feel in the ground under his own feet the impact of that fall.Just behind the Smith, the four other deities who had come out of the cloud with him were kneeling also.Once again a long moment of silence held throughout the camp.The distant airborne cloud was moving faster now, departing at accelerated speed.Mark gazed after it numbly for a moment.The gods had failed.The thousands of human beings massed around him were cheering once again.Now Vilkata was speaking again.After Vulcan's thunder the King's voice sounded puny, but it was triumphant and confident once again as he shouted an order to the kneeling gods, their heads still higher than his own."Follow me!Obey!""We hear." The ragged chorus rolled forth.The wooden stand, the earth, vibrated with it."We follow,file:///G|/rah/Fred%20Saberhagen/Fred%20Sab [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Mark thought that now he could recognize some of them individually.Four were attired with divine elegance, wearing crowns, tunics, Page 51ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlrobes ablaze with color, gold, and gems.But one, who limped as he strode forward, was clad in simple furs.Again Mark glanced back quickly at the platform.Vilkata was out of striking range, and still closely surrounded by his people and his magical attend-ants.The Dark King had sheathed the Mindsword now, and was issuing terse orders to certain of his wizards.In the next instant one of these magicians gave a convulsive leap that carried him clear off the platform.He fell more heavily than Mark had fallen, and lay writhing helplessly on the ground.Mark could guess that some protective spell of this man's had somehow impeded the divine progress;and that when the spell was snapped, like some ship's hawser in the docks, he who had been holding it was flattened by the recoil.Whatever magic had been in their path, spells perhaps triggered automatically by their intrusion, the gods had broken their way through it; they were irritated, Mark thought, looking at them, like adults bothered by some maze of string set up by children.At last the four gods and one goddess halted their advance.They stood on the parade ground only a score of meters from the platform, their heads still easily overtopping that of the Dark King who faced them from his elevation.Everyone else on the plat-form was kneeling, Mark realized, or had thrown themselves face down in abject panic, and everyone near him on the ground also.He and the Dark King were the only two humans within a hundred meters still on their feet.How curious, Mark wondered distantly.The only other time in his life when he had seen deities as close as this, why that time too he had been able to remain standing, while around him other humans knelt or huddled in collapse.The limping god was moving forward.In the silence that lay over the whole camp, his ornaments of dragon-scale could be heard clinking as he lurched to within one great stride of the platform.That is Vulcan the Smith, thought Mark, staring up at the fur-garbed titan-he who took off my father's arm.Vulcan paid no attention to Mark, but was looking at Vilkata.As far as Mark could tell, Vilkata did not flinch, though when the god halted he was close enough to the platform to have reached forth one of his long arms and plucked Vilkata from it.Wind came keening across the camp, blowing out of the bare, devastated lands surrounding it.Otherwise there was silence.A silence abruptly broken, by the voice of Vulcan that boomed forth at a volume appropriate for a god."What madness is this that you fools of humans are about? Do you.not realize that thefile:///G|/rah/Fred%20Saberhagen/Fred%20Sab.%20-%20The%20Third%20Book%20Of%20Swords.txt (61 of 171) [2/5/2004 12:22:42 AM]file:///G|/rah/Fred%20Saberhagen/Fred%20Saberhagen%20-%20Swords%2003%20-%20The%20Third%20Book%20Of%20Swords.txtSwordgame is over?"Vilkata summoned up his best royal voice to answer."I am the Dark King-" It was no surprise at all to Mark that the King's voice should quaver and falter and quit on him before the sentence ended.The only wonder was that the man could stand and speak at all in such a confrontation.Vulcan was neither impressed nor pleased."King, Queen, or whatever, what do I care for all that? You are a human and no more.Hand over that tool of power that you are wearing at your side."Vilkata did not obey at once; instead he dared to answer once more in words.Mark did not hear the words exactly, for his attention had once more been Page 52ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmldistracted by something in the distance.This was another cloud, and it looked as unusual as the first.This cloud was not rolling down a mountainside, only drifting through the air, but its path was at a right angle to those of other clouds and the wind.Now the strange cloud was hovering, hesitating in its slow passage.It appeared to be maintaining a certain cautious distance from the scene on the parade ground.With Sightblinder still in hand, Mark could perceive in this second cloud also the presence of figures of human shape but divine dimensions.There was one, a perfect essence of the female, that he thought could be only Aphrodite.He could see none of the others so clearly as individuals, though all of their faces seemed to be turned his way.The distraction had been only momentary.Now Vulcan, made impatient by even a moment's temporizing on the part of this mere human king, thundered out some oath, and stretched forth his arm toward Vilkata.With a swift motion the DarkKing drew the Mindsword from its sheath-but not to hand it over in surrender.Instead he brandished it aloft.Vulcan cried out once, a strange, hoarse tone, like masses of metal and rock colliding.The lame god threw up a forearm across his eyes.He reeled backward, and fell to one knee.Mark could feel in the ground under his own feet the impact of that fall.Just behind the Smith, the four other deities who had come out of the cloud with him were kneeling also.Once again a long moment of silence held throughout the camp.The distant airborne cloud was moving faster now, departing at accelerated speed.Mark gazed after it numbly for a moment.The gods had failed.The thousands of human beings massed around him were cheering once again.Now Vilkata was speaking again.After Vulcan's thunder the King's voice sounded puny, but it was triumphant and confident once again as he shouted an order to the kneeling gods, their heads still higher than his own."Follow me!Obey!""We hear." The ragged chorus rolled forth.The wooden stand, the earth, vibrated with it."We follow,file:///G|/rah/Fred%20Saberhagen/Fred%20Sab [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]