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hard time convincing himself that it would ever move. It sat there at the end of the Landgrave's dock, dwarfing the commercial rafts that skimmed its flanks like waterbugs. Nearly two hundred meters long, with three towering masts, bowsprit, and dozens of tightly furled sails, it radiated enor-mous power held in check. The tran arrowhead design had been slimmed down to needle-like proportions. Only the two big airfoils marred the raft's rakish lines. There was nothing unusual about the morning set for their departure. A typical trannish day sunny, windy, freezing to the core. Last-minute supplies and spare parts were being taken on. A considerable crowd had taken time froze the un-ending drudgery of making a living to see them off- or pre-side at an entertaining crack-up. They lined the shore and spilled out onto the ice. Cubs ignored mothers and darted in and out around the great duralloy runners. Sir Hunnar came on board as nominal commander of their military compliment. But General Balavere was making the journey, too. When he was a cub he'd experienced a rain of ash and hot stone from the Place-Where-The-Earth's-Blood-Burns. It had darkened the sky over Wannome for four days. Surely it was a holy place-arid the general had reached an age when such things took or increasing file:///F|/rah/Alan%20Dean%20Foster/Foster,%20...20Dean%20-%20Icerigger%201%20 -%20Icerigger.txt (127 of 179) [1/16/03 7:07:12 PM] file:///F|/rah/Alan%20Dean%20Foster/Foster,%20Alan%20Dean%20-%20Icerigger%201% 20-%20Icerigger.txt impor-tance. He was going to see that legendary mountain. Old Eer-Meesach, of course, couldn't have been kept away by a herd of famished krokim. The raft had nothing like the carefully arranged chain of responsibility that existed on board a spatial liner. Nor did Williams' arcane knowledge yield any counterpart for the ancient terran clippers, beyond the rank of captain. So Hunnar's squires, Suaxus and Budjir, came along as his seconds. Ta-hoding retained much of his own raft crew and worked through them. Another side of Hunnar was reflected in his choice of squires. Neither was a type Ethan would choose: Suaxus always dour and suspicious, Budjir laconic to the point of ap-parent idiocy. However, both were almost severely competent. The crew and passengers trooped on board to the accom-paniment of tremendous cheers and shouts of encouragement, a few good-naturedly obscene, from the assembled townsfolk. Some had come from as far away as Ritsfasen at the far western tip of Sofold Isle for the departure. The Landgrave stood at the dock surrounded by his im-portant nobles and knights. When all were on the raft and the boarding plank had been pulled back, he raised his staff. A respectful silence settled on the crowd. "You have come from a strange place and you go to a strange place," he intoned solemnly. "In the short time between you have done deeds that will be remembered forever by the people of Sofold and myself. You have also said that the universe is a vast place, vaster than we could ever im-agine, with thousands of being as different from us as we are different from you living in it. "Should these worlds and beings extend to infinity and you were to go among each and every one, you will always find a hone and fire for you and your children's children here, in Wannome. "Go now, and go with the wind." "WITH THE WIND," echoed the crowd somberly. 'then someone made a rude noise and they broke into wild yelling and cheering. Page 132 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html "A predictable sentiment," commented Hellespont du Kane flatly. "Yes? They might be cheering for us, or because their exalted ruler kept his speech. admirably short," September theorized, turning away. But had that been a hint of moisture at the corner of the big man's eyes? Or was it only distortion from the scratched and battered snow goggles. "All right, Ta-hoding" he bellowed aft. "Let's see if this firetrap will make it out of the harbor!" The strange new commands were issued in modified Tran-nish sailing terminology, relayed across the deck and up into the rigging to the sailors stationed aloft. Just watching the huge natives scramble up the rigging into the shrouds in the continual gale gave Ethan the jitters. And it would be much worse once they left the sheltering bulk of the island. But those powerful muscles and clawed hands and feet held them steady as, one by one, the rust- green sails be-gan to drop and dig wind. Slowly, smoothly, the Slanderscree began to slide away from the dock, while the shouts from on shore grew louder and louder. Eyes on the sailors above, September walked over and gave Ethan a sly pat on the back. "By-the-by, young feller-me-lad, did you ever manage to get that business of the Landgrave's offspring straightened out?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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