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I actually backed up a few steps. "No way. He didn't give it to me."
He gave the spear a couple of shakes and came toward me, obviously trying to get rid of it. I tucked my hands
behind my back. "When gods give you gifts, Coyote, you do not go around handing them off to the nearest
sucker you can find." A lightbulb went off, and I almost ran forward to seize the spear regardless of what I'd just
said. "Bound to the earth and able to reach for the sky. Trees. Duh. That thing's meant to fight the wendigo with,
and he gave it to you."
"But this isn't what I do! I don't I don't fight! I don't even know how to use this!"
"I think traditionally you stick the bad guy with the pointy end. My path's changed, Ro. Maybe yours is
changing, too."
I swear to God, you'd think I'd said maybe your grandmother has recently contracted syphilis from the way he
glared at me.
"Donno about his," Gary said from out of nowhere, "but ours sure as hell did. Where are we, doll? How'd we
get here?" He broke through the trees a dozen yards away, and I lifted my hands with a squeak.
"Stop! Wait! We have all this unbroken snow, we should use it!"
Gary froze with Sara a step behind him, both of them wideeyed as startled deer. I said, "Herne brought you here
to keep you safe from the wendigo," like it was a perfectly normal explanation. The funny thing was Gary's eyes
lit up and he went ah like it was, in fact, a perfectly normal explanation. Sara didn't look so understanding, but
nor did she push it, for which I would thank her later. For the nonce I pointed imperiously in opposite
directions. "Both of you go that way. Make a circle. But take a jump forward so your footsteps don't run into it."
There was a small kerfuffle while they got who was going which way sorted out, but peculiarly, they did as I
ordered without asking why. I eyeballed the handful of steps Coyote and I had taken, then tromped a
circumference slightly larger than that around them. "Mash everything inside this down, will you?"
Coyote eyeballed me, but did as I asked while I turned around, trying to get my bearings. I had no sense of
direction; Rainier was off to my left, but that didn't mean anything, particularly under a sky too bright with
moonshine to show me the North Star. After a second I stopped looking with my eyes and reached out with the
Sight, trying to get the same sense of place in the Middle World that I could achieve in the Lower.
The earth itself gave a confident thump when I settled on true north. I said, "Thanks," out loud, and struck off
that way, making a thick spoke in the snow. "Only walk inside these, okay, guys? I want the rest of it pristine."
Sara, more than forty feet away, muttered, "She's nuts. She's completely bonkers," and the snow carried it to me
clear as day.
Carried it to Gary, too, who said, "Nah, she knows what she's doing," which heartened me more than I could've
imagined. I marched back the other way, extending the line south, then ran around behind Sara to the most
westerly point so I could make a cross-path to the east. I was sweating and panting by the time I was done, and
everybody else was sitting in the middle admiring Coyote's spear. My eyebrows waggled entirely of their own
volition, and I rejoined them, trying not to giggle.
Coyote looked up at me, eyes gold in the moonlight. "Is this circle meant to keep things in, or out?"
I swallowed the temptation to give him the same answer Melinda'd given me, and said, "Some of both," instead
as I trod a little path at the outer edge of the inner circle. It was about ten feet across, plenty big for the four of
us, and the snow was well-packed. I took my snowshoes off and stomped a smaller cross like the one I'd just
beaten into the unbroken snow, only with the spokes at the lesser cardinal points. My footprints were deep, dark
blue shadows imperfect, but pretty. "Everybody, and when I say everybody I mean you, Sara, and then Gary
and then Coyote, in that order, stay inside this circle. This is going to be the keep-things-out circle."
Sara, sounding very much like a petulant teen, said, "Why me most of all?" but also blew the question off with a
raspberry, which I translated loosely as because I'm not a magical fruit-cake and the rest of you are.
"The larger one will be the keep-things-in circle." I slipped mostly free of my body, letting my astral form rise
up above the snow so I could see my circle's shape.
It was surprisingly no, strike that unbelievably perfect. I'd known I was keeping to straight lines with my
spokes, but I had the advantage of following the earth's magnetic fields when I was doing that. Gary and Sara
were just winging it, but they'd done an incredible job. There were tiny wavers in the circle's outer edges, but no
obvious bulges or indentations. It felt strong and ready to accept whatever power I poured into it.
I dropped back into my body to beam foolishly at Gary and Sara. "You guys are amazing. The circle's amazing.
Thank you. Okay. I've never really done this before& ."
The truth was I'd never done it at all. Melinda's promise to teach me how to open a power circle loomed large,
and I wished to high heaven that we'd had time to do that. That we'd made time to do it. I'd gone home and gone
to bed two days ago when I could've gone back to her house to learn. That hadn't seemed like an oversight at the
time, but it left me with a thimbleful of experience where I needed a vat-full. Accidentally reactivating Mel's
power circle with Raven's help wasn't exactly in the same league as what I was about to try.
I knelt where I was, tugging my mittens off to place bare hands against the snow. It was very cold, almost ice,
and despite having been mashed down, sharp edges poked my palms. I resisted the urge to stuff my hands into
my armpits to warm them up, and instead reached inside myself, eyes closed as I whispered to my power. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl aikidobyd.xlx.pl
I actually backed up a few steps. "No way. He didn't give it to me."
He gave the spear a couple of shakes and came toward me, obviously trying to get rid of it. I tucked my hands
behind my back. "When gods give you gifts, Coyote, you do not go around handing them off to the nearest
sucker you can find." A lightbulb went off, and I almost ran forward to seize the spear regardless of what I'd just
said. "Bound to the earth and able to reach for the sky. Trees. Duh. That thing's meant to fight the wendigo with,
and he gave it to you."
"But this isn't what I do! I don't I don't fight! I don't even know how to use this!"
"I think traditionally you stick the bad guy with the pointy end. My path's changed, Ro. Maybe yours is
changing, too."
I swear to God, you'd think I'd said maybe your grandmother has recently contracted syphilis from the way he
glared at me.
"Donno about his," Gary said from out of nowhere, "but ours sure as hell did. Where are we, doll? How'd we
get here?" He broke through the trees a dozen yards away, and I lifted my hands with a squeak.
"Stop! Wait! We have all this unbroken snow, we should use it!"
Gary froze with Sara a step behind him, both of them wideeyed as startled deer. I said, "Herne brought you here
to keep you safe from the wendigo," like it was a perfectly normal explanation. The funny thing was Gary's eyes
lit up and he went ah like it was, in fact, a perfectly normal explanation. Sara didn't look so understanding, but
nor did she push it, for which I would thank her later. For the nonce I pointed imperiously in opposite
directions. "Both of you go that way. Make a circle. But take a jump forward so your footsteps don't run into it."
There was a small kerfuffle while they got who was going which way sorted out, but peculiarly, they did as I
ordered without asking why. I eyeballed the handful of steps Coyote and I had taken, then tromped a
circumference slightly larger than that around them. "Mash everything inside this down, will you?"
Coyote eyeballed me, but did as I asked while I turned around, trying to get my bearings. I had no sense of
direction; Rainier was off to my left, but that didn't mean anything, particularly under a sky too bright with
moonshine to show me the North Star. After a second I stopped looking with my eyes and reached out with the
Sight, trying to get the same sense of place in the Middle World that I could achieve in the Lower.
The earth itself gave a confident thump when I settled on true north. I said, "Thanks," out loud, and struck off
that way, making a thick spoke in the snow. "Only walk inside these, okay, guys? I want the rest of it pristine."
Sara, more than forty feet away, muttered, "She's nuts. She's completely bonkers," and the snow carried it to me
clear as day.
Carried it to Gary, too, who said, "Nah, she knows what she's doing," which heartened me more than I could've
imagined. I marched back the other way, extending the line south, then ran around behind Sara to the most
westerly point so I could make a cross-path to the east. I was sweating and panting by the time I was done, and
everybody else was sitting in the middle admiring Coyote's spear. My eyebrows waggled entirely of their own
volition, and I rejoined them, trying not to giggle.
Coyote looked up at me, eyes gold in the moonlight. "Is this circle meant to keep things in, or out?"
I swallowed the temptation to give him the same answer Melinda'd given me, and said, "Some of both," instead
as I trod a little path at the outer edge of the inner circle. It was about ten feet across, plenty big for the four of
us, and the snow was well-packed. I took my snowshoes off and stomped a smaller cross like the one I'd just
beaten into the unbroken snow, only with the spokes at the lesser cardinal points. My footprints were deep, dark
blue shadows imperfect, but pretty. "Everybody, and when I say everybody I mean you, Sara, and then Gary
and then Coyote, in that order, stay inside this circle. This is going to be the keep-things-out circle."
Sara, sounding very much like a petulant teen, said, "Why me most of all?" but also blew the question off with a
raspberry, which I translated loosely as because I'm not a magical fruit-cake and the rest of you are.
"The larger one will be the keep-things-in circle." I slipped mostly free of my body, letting my astral form rise
up above the snow so I could see my circle's shape.
It was surprisingly no, strike that unbelievably perfect. I'd known I was keeping to straight lines with my
spokes, but I had the advantage of following the earth's magnetic fields when I was doing that. Gary and Sara
were just winging it, but they'd done an incredible job. There were tiny wavers in the circle's outer edges, but no
obvious bulges or indentations. It felt strong and ready to accept whatever power I poured into it.
I dropped back into my body to beam foolishly at Gary and Sara. "You guys are amazing. The circle's amazing.
Thank you. Okay. I've never really done this before& ."
The truth was I'd never done it at all. Melinda's promise to teach me how to open a power circle loomed large,
and I wished to high heaven that we'd had time to do that. That we'd made time to do it. I'd gone home and gone
to bed two days ago when I could've gone back to her house to learn. That hadn't seemed like an oversight at the
time, but it left me with a thimbleful of experience where I needed a vat-full. Accidentally reactivating Mel's
power circle with Raven's help wasn't exactly in the same league as what I was about to try.
I knelt where I was, tugging my mittens off to place bare hands against the snow. It was very cold, almost ice,
and despite having been mashed down, sharp edges poked my palms. I resisted the urge to stuff my hands into
my armpits to warm them up, and instead reached inside myself, eyes closed as I whispered to my power. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]