[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
the ground. Then he plunged downward. A branch caught him, sending a burning
pain up and down one leg. Then he landed.
Blade was expecting to smash down on the ground. Instead he landed with a
tremendous splash in the river. Pure reflex made him exhale desperately as he
went under, to keep the water from entering his lungs and choking him.
He went down so far that his legs sank up to the knees in the sticky, slimy
mud of the river bottom.
For a hideous moment he kicked and thrashed furiously, struggling to break the
suction of the mud. In another moment he knew his lungs would fill with water
and the dark river would do what the dying monster on the bank hadn't been
able to do.
Then the mud let him go. Blade's churning legs drove him upward into the
daylight, into the air. His starved lungs took in an enormous gulp of air.
Then he paddled to the bank and climbed out, water and mud and strands of weed
dripping from him.
Now to find out what the three warriors thought of what he'd done. For all he
knew he might have barged into a religious rite and now be doomed ten times
over for sacrilege and blasphemy.
The dinosaur was dead, sprawled full-length along the river bank. In its fall
its neck and tail had smashed down still more trees and hurled them about like
matchsticks. It lay completely motionless, not even the tip of the great tail
twitching.
Shouts sounded from the other side of the body and the three warriors
appeared. They sprang over the outstretched neck and ran toward Blade, holding
Page 46
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
their spears level across their chests with both hands. Blade crossed his arms
on his chest and stood where he was to meet them.
The three warriors ran up to Blade, thrust their spears into the ground, took
off their feathered headdresses, and hung them on the ends of their spears.
Then they threw themselves facedown on the ground in front of Blade, hands
outstretched toward him.
If he'd done anything religious, it didn't seem like anything they were
objecting to! It looked more like those warriors were worshipping him. Blade
let them lie for what seemed like a dignified length of time, then spoke.
"Rise up. I would look on the faces of brave warriors."
One of the three warriors slowly rose to his knees. "You cannot mean that. We
are as nothing compared to you, who have done what no Hunter of the Ganthi has
ever dared do. We are barely worthy to wash the feet of your woman."
That reminded Blade of Arllona. He grimaced. "My woman has no more need of any
aid, except that of men to bury her. The creature slew her, so I slew it." He
motioned to all three men. "Rise, I said. The
Hunters of the Ganthi need not be ashamed before any man of any people."
All three Ganthi warriors rose uncertainly to their feet, brushed themselves
off, and retrieved their spears and headdresses. The first one to speak turned
to the others.
"Brothers of the Hunt, we shall return at once to Thessu. The Eldest Brother
of this Hunt is slain, honorably and bravely. So are the others of our band.
We can do no more.
"We have also found a warrior not of the Ganthi who is worthy to be admitted
among us. Perhaps he shall even be an Eldest Brother of the Hunters. Since the
Ganthi lived in this land, such a warrior has come among us only five times.
We shall bury our Eldest Brother and the woman of this warrior, then we shall
return to Thessu."
The man turned to Blade. "I am Kordu. It is the law of the Ganthi that
Strangers in our land must die, unless they prove worthy to live among us. You
have proved that you are worthy. You have proved it ten times over!" For a
moment awe at what he had seen Blade do overcame him and he was silent.
Blade nodded. "I thank you and your Hunters. It will be a pleasure to be among
the Ganthi if all are such as you. Now let us go bury our dead."
Blade let the Ganthi bury the dead warrior first. This did not take very long,
since there was hardly enough of the man left to bury. Then Blade led them
over to where Arllona lay.
A last jerk of the dying beast's tail had hurled the fallen tree twenty feet
away. Arllona lay exposed to view where the tree had smashed her into the
ground. She was not a pretty sight, but Blade had seen more than his share of
gruesomely mangled bodies. The face was almost intact. He knelt and rested one
hand briefly on the pale forehead, then closed the staring eyes, stood up, and
turned away.
He did not turn back until the three Ganthi had finished scraping the earth
back over Arllona's body.
He stood in silence for a moment, looking down at the grave. What could he say
about Arllona, the girl who had lived a short and unhappy life in Kano and had
met a wretched death far off in some other
Dimension? That was about all the epitaph he or anyone else could give her.
"It is done," he said briefly to the three Ganthi. "Let us go."
Kordu nodded, picked up a spear drawn from the dead beast, and handed it to
Blade. "By custom no one may bear a spear until he has received it at the
Warriors' Feast. But I say you are worthy to bear that spear now."
"I thank you, Kordu," said Blade. He took the spear and fell in behind Kordu
as the warrior led the way toward the jungle.
Chapter Fourteen
«^»
Page 47
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Katerina Shumilova left her camp by the river at dawn. She would have liked to
stay longer. The camp had become as much of a home as any place in this world
could be for her.
The British had discovered time-travel. They had sent her back into the past,
into the age of the dinosaurs. She had seen and heard too much in the past
week to doubt it any longer. Flying reptiles with twenty-foot wings, snakes
forty feet long, a scaled horror stretching seventy feet from a horned and
fanged head to a tail thicker than she was. There were other things that were
only crashings in the jungle, shapes under the surface of the river, shadows
and dreadful cries in the darkness. She was alone as no other human being had
ever been alone. She would be alone as long as she lived.
Some people might have decided that there was no reason to move
anywhere and have sat themselves down to die. Katerina was not one of them.
She would go on fighting to survive as long as she was alive. Part of this was
sheer toughness, part of it was her training. Part of it also was the memory
of her father, Pavel Shumilov.
A fighter pilot in the Red Air Force, Captain Pavel Shumilov had been shot
down behind German lines it 1943. Both legs broken in the crash, he had
dragged himself along, through snow and wind and sub-zero cold, had dragged
himself along for five days until he met a Russian patrol. After many painful
months in the hospital, he had returned to combat. He had ended the war a Hero
of the Soviet Union, an ace with more than thirty German planes to his credit.
So if Katerina did not give up, it was partly because she was the daughter of
a man who hadn't given up either.
There were also practical reasons for moving on. There might be better food
and water someplace else. There certainly should be some part of this land not
completely overrun with dinosaurs. She had seen too many that could swallow
her at a gulp, and she preferred to live without them as neighbors.
Finally, scientific curiosity was still alive in her. Even though she knew she
would die in this land, she wanted to die after learning as much about it as
she could.
So that morning she put aside the last of her fear and headed south along the
riverbank. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl aikidobyd.xlx.pl
the ground. Then he plunged downward. A branch caught him, sending a burning
pain up and down one leg. Then he landed.
Blade was expecting to smash down on the ground. Instead he landed with a
tremendous splash in the river. Pure reflex made him exhale desperately as he
went under, to keep the water from entering his lungs and choking him.
He went down so far that his legs sank up to the knees in the sticky, slimy
mud of the river bottom.
For a hideous moment he kicked and thrashed furiously, struggling to break the
suction of the mud. In another moment he knew his lungs would fill with water
and the dark river would do what the dying monster on the bank hadn't been
able to do.
Then the mud let him go. Blade's churning legs drove him upward into the
daylight, into the air. His starved lungs took in an enormous gulp of air.
Then he paddled to the bank and climbed out, water and mud and strands of weed
dripping from him.
Now to find out what the three warriors thought of what he'd done. For all he
knew he might have barged into a religious rite and now be doomed ten times
over for sacrilege and blasphemy.
The dinosaur was dead, sprawled full-length along the river bank. In its fall
its neck and tail had smashed down still more trees and hurled them about like
matchsticks. It lay completely motionless, not even the tip of the great tail
twitching.
Shouts sounded from the other side of the body and the three warriors
appeared. They sprang over the outstretched neck and ran toward Blade, holding
Page 46
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
their spears level across their chests with both hands. Blade crossed his arms
on his chest and stood where he was to meet them.
The three warriors ran up to Blade, thrust their spears into the ground, took
off their feathered headdresses, and hung them on the ends of their spears.
Then they threw themselves facedown on the ground in front of Blade, hands
outstretched toward him.
If he'd done anything religious, it didn't seem like anything they were
objecting to! It looked more like those warriors were worshipping him. Blade
let them lie for what seemed like a dignified length of time, then spoke.
"Rise up. I would look on the faces of brave warriors."
One of the three warriors slowly rose to his knees. "You cannot mean that. We
are as nothing compared to you, who have done what no Hunter of the Ganthi has
ever dared do. We are barely worthy to wash the feet of your woman."
That reminded Blade of Arllona. He grimaced. "My woman has no more need of any
aid, except that of men to bury her. The creature slew her, so I slew it." He
motioned to all three men. "Rise, I said. The
Hunters of the Ganthi need not be ashamed before any man of any people."
All three Ganthi warriors rose uncertainly to their feet, brushed themselves
off, and retrieved their spears and headdresses. The first one to speak turned
to the others.
"Brothers of the Hunt, we shall return at once to Thessu. The Eldest Brother
of this Hunt is slain, honorably and bravely. So are the others of our band.
We can do no more.
"We have also found a warrior not of the Ganthi who is worthy to be admitted
among us. Perhaps he shall even be an Eldest Brother of the Hunters. Since the
Ganthi lived in this land, such a warrior has come among us only five times.
We shall bury our Eldest Brother and the woman of this warrior, then we shall
return to Thessu."
The man turned to Blade. "I am Kordu. It is the law of the Ganthi that
Strangers in our land must die, unless they prove worthy to live among us. You
have proved that you are worthy. You have proved it ten times over!" For a
moment awe at what he had seen Blade do overcame him and he was silent.
Blade nodded. "I thank you and your Hunters. It will be a pleasure to be among
the Ganthi if all are such as you. Now let us go bury our dead."
Blade let the Ganthi bury the dead warrior first. This did not take very long,
since there was hardly enough of the man left to bury. Then Blade led them
over to where Arllona lay.
A last jerk of the dying beast's tail had hurled the fallen tree twenty feet
away. Arllona lay exposed to view where the tree had smashed her into the
ground. She was not a pretty sight, but Blade had seen more than his share of
gruesomely mangled bodies. The face was almost intact. He knelt and rested one
hand briefly on the pale forehead, then closed the staring eyes, stood up, and
turned away.
He did not turn back until the three Ganthi had finished scraping the earth
back over Arllona's body.
He stood in silence for a moment, looking down at the grave. What could he say
about Arllona, the girl who had lived a short and unhappy life in Kano and had
met a wretched death far off in some other
Dimension? That was about all the epitaph he or anyone else could give her.
"It is done," he said briefly to the three Ganthi. "Let us go."
Kordu nodded, picked up a spear drawn from the dead beast, and handed it to
Blade. "By custom no one may bear a spear until he has received it at the
Warriors' Feast. But I say you are worthy to bear that spear now."
"I thank you, Kordu," said Blade. He took the spear and fell in behind Kordu
as the warrior led the way toward the jungle.
Chapter Fourteen
«^»
Page 47
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Katerina Shumilova left her camp by the river at dawn. She would have liked to
stay longer. The camp had become as much of a home as any place in this world
could be for her.
The British had discovered time-travel. They had sent her back into the past,
into the age of the dinosaurs. She had seen and heard too much in the past
week to doubt it any longer. Flying reptiles with twenty-foot wings, snakes
forty feet long, a scaled horror stretching seventy feet from a horned and
fanged head to a tail thicker than she was. There were other things that were
only crashings in the jungle, shapes under the surface of the river, shadows
and dreadful cries in the darkness. She was alone as no other human being had
ever been alone. She would be alone as long as she lived.
Some people might have decided that there was no reason to move
anywhere and have sat themselves down to die. Katerina was not one of them.
She would go on fighting to survive as long as she was alive. Part of this was
sheer toughness, part of it was her training. Part of it also was the memory
of her father, Pavel Shumilov.
A fighter pilot in the Red Air Force, Captain Pavel Shumilov had been shot
down behind German lines it 1943. Both legs broken in the crash, he had
dragged himself along, through snow and wind and sub-zero cold, had dragged
himself along for five days until he met a Russian patrol. After many painful
months in the hospital, he had returned to combat. He had ended the war a Hero
of the Soviet Union, an ace with more than thirty German planes to his credit.
So if Katerina did not give up, it was partly because she was the daughter of
a man who hadn't given up either.
There were also practical reasons for moving on. There might be better food
and water someplace else. There certainly should be some part of this land not
completely overrun with dinosaurs. She had seen too many that could swallow
her at a gulp, and she preferred to live without them as neighbors.
Finally, scientific curiosity was still alive in her. Even though she knew she
would die in this land, she wanted to die after learning as much about it as
she could.
So that morning she put aside the last of her fear and headed south along the
riverbank. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]