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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] When I had spent my summer with the sisterhood, we d raided a Greek garrison. We d had the advantages of surprise, speed, and arrow poison. The garrison had plenty of weapons and horses we d stolen some of them but only one spell-chain, if that. The Sisterhood of Weavers, I knew from my service to Kyros, rarely entrusted more than one spell-chain at a time to their army. That, apparently, had changed. In the dim light of dawn, I could see flickers of light across the Page 55 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html battlefield; djinni carried torches to provide light. At first I thought that the djinni were following the Greek soldiers, but that would have made them easy targets. The djinni were following the Alashi, offering targets to the Greeks. Other djinni seemed to be circling the battlefield and snatching weapons away from Alashi. Another had been sent to wreak chaos in the Alashi encampment scattering horses, emptying sacks of grain and rice, sabotaging pots. The one small mercy was that it was too risky to have the djinni do anything to the individual Alashi directly. file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Bureaublad/...0-%20Freedom's%20Sis ters/Krit_0553902784_oeb_c08_r1.htm (10 of 11)5-1-2007 1:02:00 Freedom sSisters I had thought that Alashi women fought side by side only with other women, but today there were both brothers and sisters on the battlefield quite a few of them. Even so, they were outnumbered by the Greeks. And they were losing. I heard a horn give the signal to retreat. But retreat to where? I thought. This was no mere raid. The Greeks were making war on the Alashi. There was karenite on the steppe; the Greeks meant to take the steppe and wipe out the Alashi like lice. Hearing the signal, Zhanna wheeled her horse; too late to dodge, I realized that she would ride it straight through me. The world went dark and silent around me; the battle, for me, was over. I stood in darkness for a moment, then realized that I could still hear that sound I d heard before the sound of water. Holding my breath, I moved quietly toward it. The darkness around me lightened to gray, and I found myself in an empty courtyard with a fountain at the center. The sound came from the fountain. It was a very simple fountain more a pool, really, just a round thing with a wall, but when I looked down I saw endless deep water with no bottom. Something glowed near the bottom, and faintly, over the sound of water, I could hear singing a thousand voices singing together in a vast powerful chord. I took a deep breath, leaned forward, and let myself fall in. The water around me was cold shockingly cold, after the vague unreality of the borderland. I swam down, and farther down; I could see a blue glow, and through the water the voices sang loudly. There. THERE. It was the spell-chain. THE spell-chain the chain that bound the Syr Darya, I knew with absolute certainty, lying at the bottom of this fountain, wherever it was. Miles of chain and blue beads and light; I started to try to gather it up, but my hands here had no more reality than they d had in the vision of the library. My lungs were beginning to scream for air, but I took a moment to look around. Where is this? Is this a real place? Could I go here and find the spell-chain? I was underwater, but around me I saw what looked like a ruined temple. There were walls, and a gate. A light flickered through the gate, then another light came back out again. It felt familiar, even though I had never seen it before. I need to breathe. I thrust my feet up against the rough stones, swimming back toward the surface. My head didn t break through; the water was endless, and I saw no light overhead. Need to breathe to breathe to breathe& Oh, shit& I sat up in bed, gasping for breath, choking the water I would have sworn was Page 56 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html there out of my lungs. My heart beat frantically and after a moment I let myself slump back against the pillows, shivering in the warm night. My hair was damp, though from sweat, not swimming. The taste of the water was still on my tongue. file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Bureaublad/...0-%20Freedom's%20Sis ters/Krit_0553902784_oeb_c08_r1.htm (11 of 11)5-1-2007 1:02:00 Freedom sSisters CHAPTER NINE T AMAR I could send a message to Zivar from the Temple of Athena. Of course, the message would not be private, so I would have to choose my words carefully. Tamar wishes to speak with you was definitely out. There weren t that many women named Tamar, and Kyros might have people watching for messages from anyone named Tamar or Lauria. Of course, he might also know where we spent the winter and read anything sent to Zivar. But we had to send a message, because we were running out of time. It would take weeks to ride down and speak to Zivar. If we sent the message through the temple, it would be carried by djinni. Neither Alibek nor I could read or write, so I hired a scribe. I thought a bit longer, then said the message was from Photios, the man who ran her merchant company. Surely he sent her a lot of messages, so this wouldn t attract attention. But Zivar would know it wasn t his handwriting. I had the scribe write a simple message with the name of our inn, saying I had something to discuss and signing it with Photios s name. When the ink had dried, I rolled [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |