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.And then I opened it, Jenny thought.But no image of opening it, or of whathad happened after, would come to her mind.She was going to have to find thatout for herself.All the way to the door her heart was thudding wild disapproval.Her bodyseemed to have more sense than she did.No-don't-no-don't, no-don't-no-don't,her racing pulse said.Jenny took hold of the knob.The thudding became a screaming.No, don't.Don't-don't-don't____She flung open the door.Ice and shadows.That was all she could see.The closet was wide and very deep, and the insideof it was a whirling, seething mixture of white and black.Frost coated thewalls, icicles hung like teeth from the ceiling.A blast of freezing wind wentstraight through Jenny, chilling her as if she'd been plunged into Arcticwaters.The tips of her fingers went numb, the skin shriveling.It was so cold it stopped her breath.It stopped her from moving.The ice wasso bright it blinded her.She got just one glimpse of what was at the centerof that whirlpool of light and dark.Eyes.Dark eyes, watching eyes, sardonic, cruel, amused eyes.Ancient eyes.Jennyrecognized them.They were the eyes she sometimes saw just at the moment offalling asleep or of waking up.The eyes she saw at night in her room.Eyes in the shadows.Evil, malicious, knowing eyes.One pair was an indescribably beautiful blue.She didn't have the air to scream; her lungs were rebelling against thefreezing wind she was trying to draw into them.But she had to scream-she hadto do something-because they were coming out.The eyes were coming out.It was as if they were coming from very far away, rushing toward her, ridingthe storm.She had to move-she had to run.The glittery black eyes of thealien Visitors, the slanted eyes of the dark elves- Jenny had thought thosewere frightening, but they were nothing compared to this.They were feeble,petty imitations.No horror that human beings had invented to scare themselvescame anywhere close.Vampires, aliens, werewolves, ghouls, they were allnothing.Stories made up to hide the real fear.The terror that came in the darkness, the one that everyone knew about, andeveryone forgot.Only sometimes, waking up between dreams, did the fullPage 103 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlrealization hit.And even then it was seldom remembered, and if it wasremembered it was dismissed the next morning.The knowledge couldn't survivein daylight.But at night sometimes people glimpsed the truth.That humansweren't alone.They shared the world with them.The Others.The Watchers.The Hunters.The Shadow Men.The ones who walked freely through the human world, and who had another worldof their own.They'd been called different things in different ages, but theirtrue nature always came through.They granted favors-sometimes.They always asked for something in return,usually more than you could afford.They liked games, riddles, any kind of play.But they wereunreliable-whimsical.They balanced any good they did with capricious evil.They preyed on humans.When people lost time, they were responsible.Whenpeople disappeared, they were laughing.People who got into their worldusually didn't get back.They had power.Trying to get a good look at them-or trap them-was always abad idea.Even being too curious about them could kill you.One more thing.They were heartbreakingly beautiful.All this passed through Jenny's mind in a matter of seconds.She didn't needto reason it out.She knew.It was as if a crust had fallen away from hermind, and she saw the truth as a complete, coherent whole.All she could thinkwas, So that's it.I remember now.The eyes were still rushing toward her.Her loose hair whipped around herface in the wind, her own breath coating it with ice.She couldn't move."Jenny!"Her name called in a terrible voice.Before she could turn, she was caughtaround the waist and lifted-lifted as if she were five years old and weighedthirty-seven pounds."Grandpa," she gasped and threw her arms around his neck.He was smaller than she remembered, too-and just now his tired, kind face wasetched in absolute horror.Jenny tried to cling to him, but he slung heraround, thrusting her behind the bookcase."Nauthiz! Nauthiz!" he shouted.He was trying to shut the door, tracing over the rune on the front with stabsof his finger.His slashing motions as he traced the X became more and moreviolent, and his voice was the most dreadful thing Jenny had ever heard."Nauthiz!"The door wouldn't shut.The old man's shouts were becoming screams ofdespair.Page 104 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlA white light was coming from the closet.A white storm, with tendrils andlashings of mist.Dark strands were interwoven with the white.The tendrilswere writhing around Jenny's grandfather.Jenny tried to scream.She couldn't.The wind blasted out, blowing her grandfather's sparse hair.All his clotheswere rippling.Frost flowed out on the ceiling, down to the desk, to theground-level windows.It spread like crystals growing along the walls.Tears froze in Jenny's eyes.She seemed to be locked in the form of astricken five-year-old.She couldn't make herself go to him.The voices that spoke from the mist were as cold as the wind.Like bells madeof ice."We won't be put back____""You know the laws.""We have a claim, now."And her grandfather's voice, full of desperate fear."Anything else.You canhave anything else-""She broke the rune____"".set us free."".and we want her.""Give her to us." This was all the voices together."I can't!" her grandfather said.It was almost a groan."Then we'll take her____""We'll embrace her____""No, let's keep her," said a voice full of subtle, elemental music.Likewater running over rock."I want her.""We all want her____"".We're all hungry.""No," said Jenny's grandfather.A voice like an ice floe cracking said, "There's only one way to change theconsequences.Make a new bargain."Jenny's grandfather's jaw worked, and he backed away from the closet a fewsteps."You mean.""A life for a life.""Someone must take her place.""Come now, that's only fair."Page 105 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlThe voices were delicate, reasonable.Evil.Only the water-voice seemed tohave an objection."I want her." it argued."Ah, youth," said a voice as slow as a glacier, and all of them laughed likeChristmas bells."I'm ready," said Jenny's grandfather."No!" Jenny screamed.She could move at last-but it was too late.She remembered everything now [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.And then I opened it, Jenny thought.But no image of opening it, or of whathad happened after, would come to her mind.She was going to have to find thatout for herself.All the way to the door her heart was thudding wild disapproval.Her bodyseemed to have more sense than she did.No-don't-no-don't, no-don't-no-don't,her racing pulse said.Jenny took hold of the knob.The thudding became a screaming.No, don't.Don't-don't-don't____She flung open the door.Ice and shadows.That was all she could see.The closet was wide and very deep, and the insideof it was a whirling, seething mixture of white and black.Frost coated thewalls, icicles hung like teeth from the ceiling.A blast of freezing wind wentstraight through Jenny, chilling her as if she'd been plunged into Arcticwaters.The tips of her fingers went numb, the skin shriveling.It was so cold it stopped her breath.It stopped her from moving.The ice wasso bright it blinded her.She got just one glimpse of what was at the centerof that whirlpool of light and dark.Eyes.Dark eyes, watching eyes, sardonic, cruel, amused eyes.Ancient eyes.Jennyrecognized them.They were the eyes she sometimes saw just at the moment offalling asleep or of waking up.The eyes she saw at night in her room.Eyes in the shadows.Evil, malicious, knowing eyes.One pair was an indescribably beautiful blue.She didn't have the air to scream; her lungs were rebelling against thefreezing wind she was trying to draw into them.But she had to scream-she hadto do something-because they were coming out.The eyes were coming out.It was as if they were coming from very far away, rushing toward her, ridingthe storm.She had to move-she had to run.The glittery black eyes of thealien Visitors, the slanted eyes of the dark elves- Jenny had thought thosewere frightening, but they were nothing compared to this.They were feeble,petty imitations.No horror that human beings had invented to scare themselvescame anywhere close.Vampires, aliens, werewolves, ghouls, they were allnothing.Stories made up to hide the real fear.The terror that came in the darkness, the one that everyone knew about, andeveryone forgot.Only sometimes, waking up between dreams, did the fullPage 103 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlrealization hit.And even then it was seldom remembered, and if it wasremembered it was dismissed the next morning.The knowledge couldn't survivein daylight.But at night sometimes people glimpsed the truth.That humansweren't alone.They shared the world with them.The Others.The Watchers.The Hunters.The Shadow Men.The ones who walked freely through the human world, and who had another worldof their own.They'd been called different things in different ages, but theirtrue nature always came through.They granted favors-sometimes.They always asked for something in return,usually more than you could afford.They liked games, riddles, any kind of play.But they wereunreliable-whimsical.They balanced any good they did with capricious evil.They preyed on humans.When people lost time, they were responsible.Whenpeople disappeared, they were laughing.People who got into their worldusually didn't get back.They had power.Trying to get a good look at them-or trap them-was always abad idea.Even being too curious about them could kill you.One more thing.They were heartbreakingly beautiful.All this passed through Jenny's mind in a matter of seconds.She didn't needto reason it out.She knew.It was as if a crust had fallen away from hermind, and she saw the truth as a complete, coherent whole.All she could thinkwas, So that's it.I remember now.The eyes were still rushing toward her.Her loose hair whipped around herface in the wind, her own breath coating it with ice.She couldn't move."Jenny!"Her name called in a terrible voice.Before she could turn, she was caughtaround the waist and lifted-lifted as if she were five years old and weighedthirty-seven pounds."Grandpa," she gasped and threw her arms around his neck.He was smaller than she remembered, too-and just now his tired, kind face wasetched in absolute horror.Jenny tried to cling to him, but he slung heraround, thrusting her behind the bookcase."Nauthiz! Nauthiz!" he shouted.He was trying to shut the door, tracing over the rune on the front with stabsof his finger.His slashing motions as he traced the X became more and moreviolent, and his voice was the most dreadful thing Jenny had ever heard."Nauthiz!"The door wouldn't shut.The old man's shouts were becoming screams ofdespair.Page 104 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlA white light was coming from the closet.A white storm, with tendrils andlashings of mist.Dark strands were interwoven with the white.The tendrilswere writhing around Jenny's grandfather.Jenny tried to scream.She couldn't.The wind blasted out, blowing her grandfather's sparse hair.All his clotheswere rippling.Frost flowed out on the ceiling, down to the desk, to theground-level windows.It spread like crystals growing along the walls.Tears froze in Jenny's eyes.She seemed to be locked in the form of astricken five-year-old.She couldn't make herself go to him.The voices that spoke from the mist were as cold as the wind.Like bells madeof ice."We won't be put back____""You know the laws.""We have a claim, now."And her grandfather's voice, full of desperate fear."Anything else.You canhave anything else-""She broke the rune____"".set us free."".and we want her.""Give her to us." This was all the voices together."I can't!" her grandfather said.It was almost a groan."Then we'll take her____""We'll embrace her____""No, let's keep her," said a voice full of subtle, elemental music.Likewater running over rock."I want her.""We all want her____"".We're all hungry.""No," said Jenny's grandfather.A voice like an ice floe cracking said, "There's only one way to change theconsequences.Make a new bargain."Jenny's grandfather's jaw worked, and he backed away from the closet a fewsteps."You mean.""A life for a life.""Someone must take her place.""Come now, that's only fair."Page 105 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlThe voices were delicate, reasonable.Evil.Only the water-voice seemed tohave an objection."I want her." it argued."Ah, youth," said a voice as slow as a glacier, and all of them laughed likeChristmas bells."I'm ready," said Jenny's grandfather."No!" Jenny screamed.She could move at last-but it was too late.She remembered everything now [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]