|
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
pleasure trip, believe me. And once, I went with a caravan into the Dry Towns, crossing the passes at High Kimbi, beyond Carthon Carthon! The word rang like a bell, kicking something awake in Barron and sending a jolt of adrenalin into his system; he physically twitched, missing the next sentence or two. He said, cutting almost rudely through the younger man s reminiscences, Where and what is Carthon? Lerrys looked at him strangely. A city, or it used to be; it lies well to the east of here. It s almost a ghost town now; no one goes there, but caravans go through the passes; there s an old road, and a ford of the river. Why? I seem to have heard the name somewhere, said Barron lamely, and lowered his eyes to his saddle, using as his excuse the horse s increasing pace as the road levelled and led toward the low ramparts of Armida. Why had he expected it to be a castle? Now that he was at the gates, it seemed reasonable that it should be a wide-flung house, sheltered by walls against the fierce winds from the heights. It was built of blue-gray stone with wide spaces of translucence in the stone walls, behind which lights moved in undefined patches of color and brilliance. They rode through a low arch and into a warm, sheltered courtyard; Barron gave up his horse to a small, swart man clad in fur and leather, who took the reins with a murmured formula of welcome. The Terran slid stiffly to the ground. Shortly afterward he was beside a high blazing fire in a spacious, stone- flagged hall; lights warred with the dark behind the translucent stone walls and the wind safely shut outside. Valdir Alton, a tall, spare, sharp-eyed man, welcomed Barron with a bow and a few brief formal words; then paused a minute, his eyes resting on the Terran with a sudden, sharp frown. He said, How long have you been on Darkover? Five years. Barron asked, Why? No particular reason, except that perhaps it is that you speak our language well for such a newcomer. But no man is so young he cannot teach, or so old a a T T n n s s F F f f o o D D r r P P m m Y Y e e Y Y r r B B 2 2 . . B B A A Click here to buy Click here to buy w w m m w w o o w w c c . . . . A A Y Y B B Y Y B B r r he cannot learn; we shall be glad to know what you can teach us about the making of lenses. Be welcome to my hearth and my home. He bowed again and withdrew. Several times during that long evening, the warm and plentiful meal, and the long, lazy period by the fire which came between the end of supper and the time they were shown to their beds the Terran felt that the Darkovan lord s eyes were resting on him with a curious intentness. Some Darkovans are mind-readers, I ve heard. If he s read my mind, he must have seen some damn funny things in it. I wonder if there are loose hallucinations running around the planet and I ve simply caught a few somehow. Nevertheless, his sense of confusion did not keep him from eating hugely of the warm, good meal served for the travellers, and enjoying the strange green, resinous wine they drank afterward. The fuzziness from the strong wine seemed to make him less confused about the fuzziness which blurred his surprise at all things Darkovan, and after a while it was pleasant to feel simply drunk instead of feeling that he was watching the scene through two sets of eyes. He sat and sipped the wine from the beautifully carved, green crystal of the goblet, listening to Valdir s young foster daughter Cleindori playing a small harp which she held on her lap, and singing in a soft pentatonic scale some endless ballad about a lake of cloud where stars fell on the shore and a woman walked, showered in stars. It was good to sleep in the high room hung with translucent curtains and filled with shifting lights; Barron, accustomed to sleeping in a dark room, looked for twenty minutes for a switch to shut them off, then gave up, got into bed and lay watching them drowsily. The shifting colors shifted his mind into neutral gear, and produced colored patterns even behind his closed eyelids, until he slept. He slept heavily, dreaming strange swooping dreams of flight, watching landscapes tipping and shifting below, and hearing a voice calling in his dreams, again and again, Find the road to Carthon! Melitta will await you at Carthon! To Carthon& Carthon& Carthon& He woke once, half-dazed, the words still ringing in his ears when he thought sleep had gone. Carthon. Why should he want to go there; and who could make him go? Banishing the thought, he lay down and slept again, only to dream again of the voice that called murmuring, beseeching, commanding Find the road to Carthon & After a long time the dream changed. He was toiling down endless stairs, breaking sharp webs with his out-stretched hands, blinded except for a greenish, phosphorescent glow from damp walls that pressed all around him. It was icy cold, and his steps came slow, and his heart beat hard, and the same question pounded in his head: Carthon. Where is Carthon? a a T T n n s s F F f f o o D D r r P P m m Y Y e e Y Y r r B B 2 2 . . B B A A Click here to buy Click here to buy w w m m w w o o w w c c . . . . A A Y Y B B Y Y B B r r With the sunrise and the thousand small amenities and strangenesses of life in a Darkovan home, he tried to drive the dream away. He wondered again, dispassionately, if he was going mad. In God s name, what spell has this damned planet woven around me? In an attempt to break the bondage of these compelling dreams or sorceries, half through the day, he sought out Lerrys and said to him, Your foster father, or whatever he is, was supposed to explain my work to me, and I m anxious to get started. We Terrans don t like idling around when there is work to be done. Will you ask your father if he can see me now? Lerrys nodded. Barron had noticed before that he seemed to be more [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
Podobne
|