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.When shestood up she held something white in her hand. Our neat bone stacker is getting sloppy, Jakkin said, running a finger over the top of the bone.It was abande dominus, the large knobby bone from a dragon s wing.It provoked no laugh from Akki, who began to shiver again.Jakkin s foot kicked something that clattered away in the darkness.He got to his knees to try to find it byits gleam, but there were no telltale white patches anywhere on the tunnel floor and he guessed it hadfallen into a ditch or ricocheted around a bend.He lifted his head suddenly and realized that the singingand the command had stopped.It felt as if a headache that had long and mysteriously plagued him haddisappeared.He shook his head. This is crazy, he said aloud, his voice back to its normal pitch. What are we doing here? We have tofind our way back and mark our passage or we ll be lost in here forever. Akki grunted her agreement.They turned, heading back the way they had come.With his head clear of the mental message, Jakkinfound he could see a bit more.The gray was not complete, lit as it was by flickering jewels in the wall.He reached out to touch one, and when his hand came close to it, it winked out as if it were an eye, butwhere the eye had been was only a pinpoint of icy air. He caught his breath and stumbled on, not mentioning this discovery to Akki, since he wasn t sure what itmeant.Perhaps the mountain was only a shell and these tunnels were close to the outside.Perhaps therewas some more sinister meaning.But she was already frightened enough, so he calmed his traitorthoughts and instead sent her a strengthening picture.They walked along silently for some time, following the twistings of the tunnel.At last Akki spoke, thoughJakkin had already guessed what she wanted to say, her absolute fear having snaked into his mindmoments before.: We re lost, Jakkin.I know it. How can you be sure? We haven t stumbled over my pack, have we? We should have come on it long ago.And the pathseems to be going down instead of up.If we were in the right tunnel, we would have found the caveopening by now. He made more soothing sounds, but he knew she was right.He d figured it out himself scant momentsbefore, and his mind sent out a confirmation before he could stop it.Akki sat down on the cold stone and, after a moment of hesitation, Jakkin did the same.For a long timethey were silent, their bridged minds sending landscapes of gray despair back and forth, picturescompounded of nervousness and the steady drip-dripping of eroding confidence.Jakkin forced himself to reach over and pat Akki s shoulder.That touch comforted them both.Shemoved over and snuggled against him.And then they heard a sound, a quick scuttering, as if hundreds of tiny feet were coming toward them. The bones, Akki whispered. The monsters of the bone pile. Into Jakkin s head exploded the picture of that pile magnified by Akki s fear into a mountain of drippingblood, red blood, the first color he had been able to conjure in a long while.The sound got closer.They scrambled up, determined to face whatever it was on their feet, and they pressed their backsagainst the wall as if they could disappear into the resisting stone.Akki was holding her breath on and off.Each time she had to let it out to take another breath there was a tiny explosion of sound that echoedmockingly from the walls.Jakkin tried to slow his own breathing but it seemed to roar out instead,bouncing off the stone.He could feel his heart pounding, too, and that noise was so loud he wonderedthat there was no answering echo.And still the slithering, skuttering sound came closer, as if the monster bone-stackers had rounded yetanother bend in the tunnel.Jakkin grabbed Akki s shoulder and she let out a high yip. I know that sound, he said. The echoes confused me at first, but I recognize it now. : What& is& it? Akki asked. In the nursery, Jakkin said breathlessly. When we unstalled the dragons and led them through the halls,the hens in heat dragged their tails behind them on the ground and made that shushing sound.That waswhen we first knew they were ready to mate. Of course, Akki said, the scent glands dragged along the ground and the males would smell it andtrack a female down. She stopped. But all those bones& dragons don t eat dragons.They revegetarians.Only people eat dragons.And drakk. No one s been in these caves before.No one that I know of, Jakkin said. Though old Likkarn said- And that was when the sending burst upon them full force.It was a strange, wild, frenzied picture, a riot of grays shot through with angry, jagged blacks and icysilvers, reeking with fear.No common landscape, this one was tunnel-shaped and tunnel-twisted, butover and under and burrowing through was an unmistakable rainbow pattern, except that the onlygradations of color were grays. That s Heart s Blood s pattern! Jakkin screamed. The rainbow.It s her.She s here! Jakkin, no! Akki cried, clawing at his arm. She s dead.Heart s Blood is dead.No! The wallsreturned her cry over and over.But Jakkin was already running down the dark tunnel toward the sending.Akki left the small safety of the wall and followed the sound of his pounding feet.Around a final bend shecaught up to him and wrenched at the pack on his back, slowing him for a moment and slamming himagainst the wall.Just then something large and smelling of the familiar musk of dragon heaved past them,its dragging tail frantically whipping against the walls.The tail caught them both around the ankles andthey fell heavily, Akki atop Jakkin s pack.She felt the jar of boil break and the wetness spread beneathher.She whispered frantically, That s not Heart s Blood, Jakkin.She s dead.We carved her open.Remember? We sheltered in her.Remember? I saw her bones. His sobs began then, the racking sobs of someone unused to tears.At last he got hold of himself and satup. Sorry, he said, snuffling. I know it s not her.But who-or what-is it? I don t know, Akki said, putting her arms around him with a fierceness that astonished them both. ButI ve got a feeling we re going to find out soon. Akki took a deep breath, then urged Jakkin to do the same.In and out, in and out, they timed theirrespirations until they were both calm.And then they felt it, a great trembling presence nearby: breathy,hulking, and frightened. Man? The dark sending was knife sharp, though still within the basic tunnel shape, still gray.Then,tremulously, the sharper -nage melted away into a river of softer grays. Not-man? Jakkin stood and shed the soaking pack, then he walked slowly toward the creature with the sure step ofa dragon trainer.All the while he thought cool and careful landscapes full of meadows and mountains,rivers and trees, gray-green, blue-gray.He put his hand out and rubbed down the dragon s enormous leguntil the creature put its head to his hand and sniffed it carefully.It nudged his hand and he felt along thenose and over the bony ridge of the forehead till he came to its ears.He began to scratch around itsearflaps [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.When shestood up she held something white in her hand. Our neat bone stacker is getting sloppy, Jakkin said, running a finger over the top of the bone.It was abande dominus, the large knobby bone from a dragon s wing.It provoked no laugh from Akki, who began to shiver again.Jakkin s foot kicked something that clattered away in the darkness.He got to his knees to try to find it byits gleam, but there were no telltale white patches anywhere on the tunnel floor and he guessed it hadfallen into a ditch or ricocheted around a bend.He lifted his head suddenly and realized that the singingand the command had stopped.It felt as if a headache that had long and mysteriously plagued him haddisappeared.He shook his head. This is crazy, he said aloud, his voice back to its normal pitch. What are we doing here? We have tofind our way back and mark our passage or we ll be lost in here forever. Akki grunted her agreement.They turned, heading back the way they had come.With his head clear of the mental message, Jakkinfound he could see a bit more.The gray was not complete, lit as it was by flickering jewels in the wall.He reached out to touch one, and when his hand came close to it, it winked out as if it were an eye, butwhere the eye had been was only a pinpoint of icy air. He caught his breath and stumbled on, not mentioning this discovery to Akki, since he wasn t sure what itmeant.Perhaps the mountain was only a shell and these tunnels were close to the outside.Perhaps therewas some more sinister meaning.But she was already frightened enough, so he calmed his traitorthoughts and instead sent her a strengthening picture.They walked along silently for some time, following the twistings of the tunnel.At last Akki spoke, thoughJakkin had already guessed what she wanted to say, her absolute fear having snaked into his mindmoments before.: We re lost, Jakkin.I know it. How can you be sure? We haven t stumbled over my pack, have we? We should have come on it long ago.And the pathseems to be going down instead of up.If we were in the right tunnel, we would have found the caveopening by now. He made more soothing sounds, but he knew she was right.He d figured it out himself scant momentsbefore, and his mind sent out a confirmation before he could stop it.Akki sat down on the cold stone and, after a moment of hesitation, Jakkin did the same.For a long timethey were silent, their bridged minds sending landscapes of gray despair back and forth, picturescompounded of nervousness and the steady drip-dripping of eroding confidence.Jakkin forced himself to reach over and pat Akki s shoulder.That touch comforted them both.Shemoved over and snuggled against him.And then they heard a sound, a quick scuttering, as if hundreds of tiny feet were coming toward them. The bones, Akki whispered. The monsters of the bone pile. Into Jakkin s head exploded the picture of that pile magnified by Akki s fear into a mountain of drippingblood, red blood, the first color he had been able to conjure in a long while.The sound got closer.They scrambled up, determined to face whatever it was on their feet, and they pressed their backsagainst the wall as if they could disappear into the resisting stone.Akki was holding her breath on and off.Each time she had to let it out to take another breath there was a tiny explosion of sound that echoedmockingly from the walls.Jakkin tried to slow his own breathing but it seemed to roar out instead,bouncing off the stone.He could feel his heart pounding, too, and that noise was so loud he wonderedthat there was no answering echo.And still the slithering, skuttering sound came closer, as if the monster bone-stackers had rounded yetanother bend in the tunnel.Jakkin grabbed Akki s shoulder and she let out a high yip. I know that sound, he said. The echoes confused me at first, but I recognize it now. : What& is& it? Akki asked. In the nursery, Jakkin said breathlessly. When we unstalled the dragons and led them through the halls,the hens in heat dragged their tails behind them on the ground and made that shushing sound.That waswhen we first knew they were ready to mate. Of course, Akki said, the scent glands dragged along the ground and the males would smell it andtrack a female down. She stopped. But all those bones& dragons don t eat dragons.They revegetarians.Only people eat dragons.And drakk. No one s been in these caves before.No one that I know of, Jakkin said. Though old Likkarn said- And that was when the sending burst upon them full force.It was a strange, wild, frenzied picture, a riot of grays shot through with angry, jagged blacks and icysilvers, reeking with fear.No common landscape, this one was tunnel-shaped and tunnel-twisted, butover and under and burrowing through was an unmistakable rainbow pattern, except that the onlygradations of color were grays. That s Heart s Blood s pattern! Jakkin screamed. The rainbow.It s her.She s here! Jakkin, no! Akki cried, clawing at his arm. She s dead.Heart s Blood is dead.No! The wallsreturned her cry over and over.But Jakkin was already running down the dark tunnel toward the sending.Akki left the small safety of the wall and followed the sound of his pounding feet.Around a final bend shecaught up to him and wrenched at the pack on his back, slowing him for a moment and slamming himagainst the wall.Just then something large and smelling of the familiar musk of dragon heaved past them,its dragging tail frantically whipping against the walls.The tail caught them both around the ankles andthey fell heavily, Akki atop Jakkin s pack.She felt the jar of boil break and the wetness spread beneathher.She whispered frantically, That s not Heart s Blood, Jakkin.She s dead.We carved her open.Remember? We sheltered in her.Remember? I saw her bones. His sobs began then, the racking sobs of someone unused to tears.At last he got hold of himself and satup. Sorry, he said, snuffling. I know it s not her.But who-or what-is it? I don t know, Akki said, putting her arms around him with a fierceness that astonished them both. ButI ve got a feeling we re going to find out soon. Akki took a deep breath, then urged Jakkin to do the same.In and out, in and out, they timed theirrespirations until they were both calm.And then they felt it, a great trembling presence nearby: breathy,hulking, and frightened. Man? The dark sending was knife sharp, though still within the basic tunnel shape, still gray.Then,tremulously, the sharper -nage melted away into a river of softer grays. Not-man? Jakkin stood and shed the soaking pack, then he walked slowly toward the creature with the sure step ofa dragon trainer.All the while he thought cool and careful landscapes full of meadows and mountains,rivers and trees, gray-green, blue-gray.He put his hand out and rubbed down the dragon s enormous leguntil the creature put its head to his hand and sniffed it carefully.It nudged his hand and he felt along thenose and over the bony ridge of the forehead till he came to its ears.He began to scratch around itsearflaps [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]