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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] men. At the karl's signal they touched their smoking torches to the lowest branches. The oil caught quickly, and yellow flames licked eagerly at the dry grass that covered the framework. The screams began immediately. The oil was crudely processed and gave off vast quantities of choking smoke, which quickly handed a kind of mercy to the condemned muties. There was little wind, and the column of boiling darkness rose straight into the evening air, like an accusing finger. The wicker men were transfigured into giant men of fire. Most of the Vikings watched the hideous passing of their captives with a stoic silence, the flames staining their cheeks a bloody scarlet. Within a bare minute the piercing screams had ceased. "Suffocated," Doc pronounced. "The best that one could hope for the poor wretches. Murderous they might have been, but that is a damnably wicked passing." Jorund realized that the ritual of revenge was too quickly done, and he lifted his sword, shouting to his people. "So they perish, and their soured spirits shall tread the path of tears for our brother, Bjarni, and for the other warriors. Let us now go to them!" Ryan trailed along with the Norsemen, hoping to be able to get close to Krysty for a word, to sound her out about making a run from the archaic ville within the next forty-eight hours. But the press of moving men stopped them. THE LONG SHIP WAS PUSHED out into the still waters of the lake, with Bjarni and his companions laid out on its deck. Ryan saw for the first time that the corpses of three of the young women thralls were also lying on the doomed vessel. file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...eathlands%2010%20-%20Northstar% 20Rising.html (182 of 266) [12/29/2004 6:20:32 PM] d14 Erik Stonebiter was next to him, watching the ceremony. "The girls? How did they get chilled?" Ryan asked. "Strangled by three women, free-born, to accompany their masters on the road to Asgard." Ryan didn't say anything. One of the first lessons he'd learned in life was that there was a time for speech and a time for silence. Knowing the difference was real important. The warriors chanted a paean of death to the lost men, as the ship floated away, its sail furled on the high mast, the dragon's head on the bow nodding at the wavelets. Ryan couldn't catch many of the words, but it sounded like it was all about honor, valor and brotherhood. He caught the odor of lamp oil again. At first he thought it was still filling his nostrils from the fiery slaughter of the muties, but he soon realized that the woodwork of the long ship was also soaked with it. Jorund threw the first flaming torch. The fire caught immediately, tongues of smoky red and orange dancing along the deck and creeping up the mast, lapping their way toward the snarl-toothed figurehead. The next senior warrior threw his torch, followed by Egil Skallagson and Sigurd Harefoot, then all the others. The lights whirled through the dusk, then flames exploded in roaring streaks. In less than a minute, the ship was ablaze from end to end, the smoke beginning to obscure the small group of corpses. Page 95 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html "It's the way for a warrior to leave this life for the next," Erik said with an almost religious awe. "What's the next life like?" J.B. asked interestedly. "You carouse with a multitude of available women," the young man replied. file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...eathlands%2010%20-%20Northstar% 20Rising.html (183 of 266) [12/29/2004 6:20:32 PM] d14 J.B. turned to Ryan and lowered his voice. "Sounds like living forever in a frontier pesthole gaudy house." "Yeah. Look. Boat's near burned down to the water already." "With the evil offered through the wicker men, there will be no need of further gifts," Erik told them. "Gifts?" Doc asked. "What kind of gifts, young fellow?" The Viking turned to face him, his mouth working uncertainly. "Gifts? I had not meant that. It is that our warriors need company on their sky-road, once taken and never retraced. The sluts and evil ones are enough, and they will keep off more dark days." There was a roar of noise from the throng of watching Norsemen. Fire hissed as [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |