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.Gaby watched her, feeling forthe first time in years that irrational desire for the Wizard to makesomething happen.It did no good to know that Cirocco's powers did not workthat way.She wanted her to make it rain."She said she'd provide cloud cover," Gaby pointed out."She said she'd try," Cirocco corrected."You know Gaea can't control everydetail of the weather.It's too complex.""So she keeps saying." Seeing the look on Cirocco's face, Gaby kept the restof her remarks to herself."We haven't seen any wraiths yet," Robin said."Maybe the clouds were enoughto scare them off before they broke up.""They're probably down deep in the sand," Hautbois agreed.Gaby said nothing.Instead, she reached into Hornpipe's saddlebag and took out a bladderfruit thesize of a baseball.The group was at the end of the foothills leading to the eastern slopes of theRoyal BlueLine.Not far to the east was the central Tethys cable, and barely visiblebeyond it was the fine line of the Circum-Gaea Highway.A last outpost ofnaked rock formed a wide bowl filled with sand just in front of them, its rimsubmerged in several places.Standing on Hornpipe's back, steadying herself with a hand on Cirocco'sshoulder, Gaby lobbed the bladderfruit in a high arc that brought it down inthe center of the bowl.The results were dramatic.Nine lines quickly diverged from the point ofimpact.There were humps at the heads of the lines and shallow depressionsbehind them that quickly filled in with sand.The humps moved as swiftly ascartoon gophers under a suburban lawn.In a few seconds there was no sign theyhad been there.Cirocco had risen to her knees when the missile hit the sand.Now she slumpedback to a file:///G|/rah/John%20Varley%20-%20Gaea%2002%20-%20Wizard.txt (102of 164) [2/14/2004 1:06:22 AM]file:///G|/rah/John%20Varley%20-%20Gaea%2002%20-%20Wizard.txt sittingposition."What do you want to do?" she asked."Head on west to Thea?""No.I'm sure you recall who wanted to do this and who wanted to stay home.""And drink," Cirocco added.Page 133 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlGaby ignored it."I'd look silly advising you to skip Tethys after all thetime I spent convincing you to come here at all.Let's see what we can do."Cirocco sighed."Whatever you say.But look out, everybody.I want the humanswatching the air.Titanides, keep an eye on the ground.You can usually see aspurt of sand before the wraiths come out onto the surface."When Robin was nine, she read a book which had made a lasting impression onher.It was about an old fisherwoman who, alone in a small boat, hooked a hugefish and battled it for days, through storms and high seas.It was not so muchthe struggle with the fish that had frightened her.It was the evocation ofthe sea: deep, cold, dark, and unforgiving.She thought it odd that she had not recalled the book while crossing Nox orTwilight.It seemed even stranger that she would think of it now, in broaddaylight, crossing the arid desert.Yet the sand was a sea.It undulated in broad waves.In the distance, someatmospheric effect made it shimmer like glass.And beneath its surface weremonsters more terrible than the old woman's fish."I just thought of something," Cirocco said.She was riding alone on Hornpipe,followed byRobin on Hautbois and Chris and Gaby on Valiha."We should have gone north tothe road, then back west to the cable.It would have been a shorter distanceover dry sand."Robin recalled the map Cirocco had drawn."But we would have spent more timecovering flat ground," she said."That's true.But somehow I'm more worried about wraiths than buzz bombs."Robin did not say it, but she was, too.Though she was supposed to be scanningthe sky, her eyes were constantly drawn to Hautbois's hooves as they kicked upthe loose grains of sand.She could not understand how the Titanide could bearit.Her own toes curled in her boots in sympathetic horror.Any moment nowsome hideous mouth would appear and engulf the Titanide's forelegs.ExceptCirocco had said the wraiths had no mouths, eating by directly ingestingthrough their crystalline carapaces.They did not even have faces."Do you want to go back and do that?" Gaby called out."I don't think so.We're about halfway there.""Yeah, but we know there aren't any wraiths back-"As soon as Gaby stopped shouting, Robin's heightened awareness told her thatsomething was wrong.She had a pretty good idea of what Gaby must have seen,and it took only a few seconds of scanning the near side of the five-meterdune behind them to find the telltale grooves in the sand, deep in front,trailing away like the tail of a comet.She saw a dozen of them, then realizedthat was only one of five or six groups.There was no need to raise an alarm.Robin saw Cirocco standing on Hornpipe,facing backward.Valiha increased her pace until she was beside Hautbois and Robin.Gaby waspassing bladderfruit to Chris and Valiha."Hand me one of those," Hautbois said, and Robin did, feeling the Titanideincrease her pace.For the first time on a Titanide she felt some of the bouncing associated withhorseback riding."Hold your fire for now," Gaby said."That's as fast as they can move, andwe're staying ahead of them easily.""That's easy for you to say," Valiha said.Her mottled yellow skin glistenedwith foamy sweat."It's time to switch," Hautbois said."Valiha, give me Gaby for a while.Robin, you move to the front." Robin did as she was told, noting that shewould be sandwiched between Hautbois andGaby and, though it was painful to admit it, not objecting at all.The unseenwraiths frightened her more than anything she had encountered in Gaea."Just a second," Gaby said.Ignoring her own order, she turned around andlobbed a bladderfruit into the path of one approaching group of wraiths.Theysensed it while still fifty meters away.Some swung wide to avoid thePage 134 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Gaby watched her, feeling forthe first time in years that irrational desire for the Wizard to makesomething happen.It did no good to know that Cirocco's powers did not workthat way.She wanted her to make it rain."She said she'd provide cloud cover," Gaby pointed out."She said she'd try," Cirocco corrected."You know Gaea can't control everydetail of the weather.It's too complex.""So she keeps saying." Seeing the look on Cirocco's face, Gaby kept the restof her remarks to herself."We haven't seen any wraiths yet," Robin said."Maybe the clouds were enoughto scare them off before they broke up.""They're probably down deep in the sand," Hautbois agreed.Gaby said nothing.Instead, she reached into Hornpipe's saddlebag and took out a bladderfruit thesize of a baseball.The group was at the end of the foothills leading to the eastern slopes of theRoyal BlueLine.Not far to the east was the central Tethys cable, and barely visiblebeyond it was the fine line of the Circum-Gaea Highway.A last outpost ofnaked rock formed a wide bowl filled with sand just in front of them, its rimsubmerged in several places.Standing on Hornpipe's back, steadying herself with a hand on Cirocco'sshoulder, Gaby lobbed the bladderfruit in a high arc that brought it down inthe center of the bowl.The results were dramatic.Nine lines quickly diverged from the point ofimpact.There were humps at the heads of the lines and shallow depressionsbehind them that quickly filled in with sand.The humps moved as swiftly ascartoon gophers under a suburban lawn.In a few seconds there was no sign theyhad been there.Cirocco had risen to her knees when the missile hit the sand.Now she slumpedback to a file:///G|/rah/John%20Varley%20-%20Gaea%2002%20-%20Wizard.txt (102of 164) [2/14/2004 1:06:22 AM]file:///G|/rah/John%20Varley%20-%20Gaea%2002%20-%20Wizard.txt sittingposition."What do you want to do?" she asked."Head on west to Thea?""No.I'm sure you recall who wanted to do this and who wanted to stay home.""And drink," Cirocco added.Page 133 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlGaby ignored it."I'd look silly advising you to skip Tethys after all thetime I spent convincing you to come here at all.Let's see what we can do."Cirocco sighed."Whatever you say.But look out, everybody.I want the humanswatching the air.Titanides, keep an eye on the ground.You can usually see aspurt of sand before the wraiths come out onto the surface."When Robin was nine, she read a book which had made a lasting impression onher.It was about an old fisherwoman who, alone in a small boat, hooked a hugefish and battled it for days, through storms and high seas.It was not so muchthe struggle with the fish that had frightened her.It was the evocation ofthe sea: deep, cold, dark, and unforgiving.She thought it odd that she had not recalled the book while crossing Nox orTwilight.It seemed even stranger that she would think of it now, in broaddaylight, crossing the arid desert.Yet the sand was a sea.It undulated in broad waves.In the distance, someatmospheric effect made it shimmer like glass.And beneath its surface weremonsters more terrible than the old woman's fish."I just thought of something," Cirocco said.She was riding alone on Hornpipe,followed byRobin on Hautbois and Chris and Gaby on Valiha."We should have gone north tothe road, then back west to the cable.It would have been a shorter distanceover dry sand."Robin recalled the map Cirocco had drawn."But we would have spent more timecovering flat ground," she said."That's true.But somehow I'm more worried about wraiths than buzz bombs."Robin did not say it, but she was, too.Though she was supposed to be scanningthe sky, her eyes were constantly drawn to Hautbois's hooves as they kicked upthe loose grains of sand.She could not understand how the Titanide could bearit.Her own toes curled in her boots in sympathetic horror.Any moment nowsome hideous mouth would appear and engulf the Titanide's forelegs.ExceptCirocco had said the wraiths had no mouths, eating by directly ingestingthrough their crystalline carapaces.They did not even have faces."Do you want to go back and do that?" Gaby called out."I don't think so.We're about halfway there.""Yeah, but we know there aren't any wraiths back-"As soon as Gaby stopped shouting, Robin's heightened awareness told her thatsomething was wrong.She had a pretty good idea of what Gaby must have seen,and it took only a few seconds of scanning the near side of the five-meterdune behind them to find the telltale grooves in the sand, deep in front,trailing away like the tail of a comet.She saw a dozen of them, then realizedthat was only one of five or six groups.There was no need to raise an alarm.Robin saw Cirocco standing on Hornpipe,facing backward.Valiha increased her pace until she was beside Hautbois and Robin.Gaby waspassing bladderfruit to Chris and Valiha."Hand me one of those," Hautbois said, and Robin did, feeling the Titanideincrease her pace.For the first time on a Titanide she felt some of the bouncing associated withhorseback riding."Hold your fire for now," Gaby said."That's as fast as they can move, andwe're staying ahead of them easily.""That's easy for you to say," Valiha said.Her mottled yellow skin glistenedwith foamy sweat."It's time to switch," Hautbois said."Valiha, give me Gaby for a while.Robin, you move to the front." Robin did as she was told, noting that shewould be sandwiched between Hautbois andGaby and, though it was painful to admit it, not objecting at all.The unseenwraiths frightened her more than anything she had encountered in Gaea."Just a second," Gaby said.Ignoring her own order, she turned around andlobbed a bladderfruit into the path of one approaching group of wraiths.Theysensed it while still fifty meters away.Some swung wide to avoid thePage 134 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]