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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] As he looked to the northwest, he sensed something, a use of Talent that wasn t normal. He hurried toward the squares where the pteridons were hosted, hoping either Quelyt or Falyna was there. Falyna stepped forward as she saw the colonel approaching. Sir? Something wrong? I don t know. Are you ready to fly? With a passenger? Yes, sir. We re the duty, such as it is Good. Let s go. Head for where we found that ancient tunnel. Yes, sir. Dainyl didn t feel like explaining. How could he? He couldn t afford to reveal that he was following a Talent-trace, not when he d been careful to hide that he had any significant Talent besides shielding. While that had been true many years before& it wasn t now, and he didn t want to lose the advantage of being underestimated in that fashion, especially not after Tyanylt s death and what he had discovered so far in Dramur. Nothing known to more than two people, and sometimes not even that, remained secret from the High Alector of Justice. After Falyna mounted the pteridon, Dainyl followed, settling himself into the silver saddle behind her. With a spring and a burst of Talent, the pteridon spread its wings and leapt into the sky, headed eastward into the prevailing wind. Within moments, taking advantage of the thermals over the wanner water off the coast, Falyna and the pteridon were high enough that Dramuria looked like a toy village below. Then the Myrmidon turned the pteridon to the northwest and continued climbing as they headed toward the peak of the ancients. With the air so chill, the pteridon could climb higher, but the cold seeped through the insulating fabric of Dainyl s uniform and even through the flying jacket. Falyna looked back at the colonel. Straight to the peak, sir? You want me to set down there, like before? Circle it, first. I ll let you know. Keep your lance ready when we get near. Yes, sir. Abruptly, the pteridon dropped a good fifty yards, then began to climb again. Dainyl looked down to his left as they drew abreast of the mining complex, but he could feel no Talent being used there, although he could make out a column of miners entering the mining compound. How many more would vanish today? And how? He forced his attention to the terrain ahead. As they drew nearer to the angled peak, Dainyl could still sense, faintly but clearly, the use of Talent, almost two lines of Talent, one red-violet and the other greenish gold, although the two seemed interlinked. That peak there? called back Falyna. The one that angles, just to the left. Got it, sir. Don t see anything, not any more than last time. Can you circle a bit higher? Page 82 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html We can try. As the pteridon swept past the cave, Dainyl caught a glimpse of the golden green arch and of two figures, one stocky and one far smaller. The stockier figure seemed to be of red-violet, the slighter one of golden green. Don t see anything there, sir! called out Falyna. Make another circle! Yes, sir. The red-violet vanished from Dainyl s Talent-perception. One instant, it was there; the next it was not. As Falyna brought the pteridon around for another pass, Dainyl studied the foliage and the rocky slope below the cave/tunnel and the bluff. He thought he could sense several landers or indigens several hundred yards below. Skylance ready! he called. Lance ready! returned the Myrmidon ranker. The pteridon swept past the opening to the short tunnel again. Dainyl could make out, literally suspended in midair, a hazy sphere of golden green. In that instant, as he watched, the sphere at least he thought it was a sphere vanished. It didn t move; it just wasn t there. Nothing there, sir. There wasn t, not any longer, but Falyna hadn t seen either presence, and that meant some sort of strong Talent-shielding, although Dainyl hadn t sensed it. Crack! As Dainyl was rocked back in the pteridon s second saddle, pain lanced through his right shoulder, the one that had barely healed from the last set of braises. Dainyl raised shields around his neck and head, all too aware of the drain his action would place on the pteridon. Sir! I m fine. Use the lance! snapped the colonel. Straight below the bluff. The lifeforce-imbued uniform and jacket had kept the bullet from breaking through his jacket and tunic, but he would feel the impact for days. Coming round, sir. Hang tight! The pteridon began to lose altitude, if slowly. Can t stay up here, sir! Go right over that grove of trees ahead. Flame the center. Crack! Crack! Dainyl could feel the force of one of the bullets against his shields, and, the corresponding loss of height by the pteridon. A line of bluish flame arrowed from Falyna s skylance toward the stand of evergreens that clung to the slope ahead and below. Yellow-and-blue fires flared, flame fountains that almost reached up to the pteridon as it passed overhead, a good hundred yards above where the trees had stood, amid the steeper rocky slopes and cliffs. With those fires, Dainyl could sense the deaths of the men who had hidden in the trees. Another pass, sir? No. None of them could have escaped that. At least, the fire had killed all that were nearby, and it would have been far too wasteful of lifeforce to flame more of the forest and the living things within it. Just head back to the compound. Yes, sir. Once they were well away from the mountains and ridges, Dainyl released his shields. His entire body was trembling from the effort it had taken to hold them that long, because he had been forced to share the draw on the lifeforce around with the pteridon or they would have crashed into the mountains themselves. As they headed back down to a warmer altitude and toward the Cadmian compound just north of Dramuria, questions swirled through his thoughts. The golden green lifeforce had to have been one of the ancients. It had matched the aura residue in the short tunnel. Where had the ancient come from? How could it have vanished so quickly? Why hadn t he felt it before? What Page 83 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html creature had created the red-violet lifeforce? Was the tunnel site some place of worship for the indigens or the landers? Where they worshipped or sacrificed themselves to the ancients? Had they fired at him to protect the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |