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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html Lord, who sent him back with orders. The gworl were to split into two bands. One was to continue with Kickaha. The other was to return to the Garden rim. If the man who now had the horn were to return through the gate with it, he was to be captured. The horn would be brought back to the Lord. Kickaha said, "I imagine Arwoor wanted you brought back, too. He probably forgot to relay such an order to the gworl through the raven. Or else he assumed you'd be taken to him, forgetting that the gworl are very literal-minded and unimaginative. "I don't know why the gworl captured Chryseis. Perhaps they intend to use her as a peace-offering to the Lord. The gworl know he is displeased with them because I've led them such a long and sometimes merry chase. They may mean to placate him with the former Lord's most beautiful masterpiece." Wolff said, "Then the present Lord can't travel between tiers via the resonance points?" "Not without the horn. And I'll bet he's in a hotand-cold running sweat right now. There's nothing to prevent the gworl from using the horn to go to another universe and present it to another Lord. Nothing except their ignorance of where the resonance points are. If they should find one . . . However, they didn't use it by the boulder, so I imagine they won't try it elsewhere. They're vicious but not bright." Wolff said, "If the Lords are such masters of super-science, why doesn't Arwoor use aircraft to travel?" Kickaha laughed for a long time. Then he said, "That's the joker. The Lords are heirs to a science and power far surpassing Earth's. But the scientists and technicians of their people are dead. The ones now living know how to operate their devices, but they are incapable of explaining the principles behind them or of repairing them. "The millenia-long power struggle killed off all but a few. These few, despite their vast powers, are ignoramuses. They're sybarites, megalomaniacs, paranoiacs, you name it. Anything but scientists. "It's possible that Arwoor may be a dispossessed Lord. He had to run for his life, and it was only because Jadawin was gone for some reason from this world that Arwoor was able to gain possession of it. He came empty-handed into the palace; he has no access to any powers except those in the palace, many of which he may not know how to control. He's one up in this Lordly game of muscial universes, but he's still handicapped." Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html Kickaha fell asleep. Wolff stared into the night, for he was on first watch. He did not find the story incredible, but he did think that there were holes in it. Kickaha had much more explaining to do. Then there was Chryseis. He thought of an achingly beautiful face with delicate bone structure and great catpupiled eyes. Where was Chryseis, how was she faring, and would he ever see her again? VIII DURING WOLFF'S second watch, something black and long and swift slipped through the moonlight between two bushes. Wolff sent an arrow into the predator, which gave a whistling scream and reared up on its hind legs, towering twice as high as a horse. Wolff fitted another arrow to the string and fired it into the white belly. Still the animal did not die, but went whistling and crashing away through the brush. By then Kickaha, knife in hand, was beside him. "You were lucky," he said. "You don't always see them, and then, pffft! They go for the throat." "I could have used an elephant gun," Wolff said, "and I'm not sure that would have stopped it. By the way, why don't the gworl-or the Indians, from what you've told me-use firearms?" "It's strictly forbidden by the Lord. You see, the Lord doesn't like some things. He wants to keep his people at a certain population level, at a certain technological level, and within certain social structures. The Lord runs a tight planet. "For instance, he likes cleanliness. You may have noticed that the folk of Okeanos are a lazy, happygo-lucky lot. Yet they always clean up their messes. No litter anywhere. The same goes on this level, on every level. The Amerindians are also personally clean, and so are the Drachelanders and Atlanteans. The Lord wants it that way, and the penalty for Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html disobedience is death." "How does he enforce his rules?" Wolff asked. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |