[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Don t worry. The swordsman was walking next to him, bent over and eyeing the underside of the
great shimmering mass uneasily.
They passed out from beneath it without incident, but were then forced to advance single file down a
narrow corridor between two twenty-foot-tall bodies of free-floating swamp. The dark green walls that
hemmed them in on either side were in constant, if lugubrious, motion, bulging and rippling with a great
volume of water constrained only by thin, transparent walls of unusual surface tension.
Guela! Simna, who had momentarily taken the lead, suddenly let out an exclamation of surprise and
stopped short. Behind him, Ahlitah let out a warning snarl. A concerned Ehomba stopped short of the
cat s flicking tail.
What is it, what s wrong?
Look to your left. The great cat was pressed up against the floating swamp-sac on their right, his eyes
focused in the indicated direction.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
The crocodile that swam slowly past at eye level with the travelers was at least twenty feet long and
weighed close to two tons. Its huge armored tail swayed slowly from side to side, propelling it languidly
through the murky water. As it swam past, one eye swiveled to meet Ehomba s. The slitted yellow orb
tracked the man standing next to the side of the aerial pond for a long moment. And then the hulking
reptile was gone, turning back into the distant depths of the floating lake it called home.
I don t understand. Simna s tone betrayed his lingering tension. Why didn t it have a go at us? It
could have broken out easily.
Ehomba considered. We are making our way through air, not water. Perhaps it did not see us as part
of its environment. Who can imagine how the creatures that have learned to live in such a remarkable
place have developed? Possibly they consider each individual bubble of water, whether as big as a lake
or small enough to fit in a bucket, an isolated world whose boundaries are not to be tampered with.
Looking away from the dark green water that hemmed them in on either side, he tilted back his head to
regard the narrow band of blue sky that still held sway directly overhead.
Even our world could be like that. Stick a finger up high enough, hard enough, and you might puncture
the lining of the sky and let all the air escape out into nothingness.
That s ridiculous! With a snort of derision, Simna turned away and resumed walking. But for a while
thereafter, every so often he would sneak a glance at the clouds and resolve to suppress any impulse to
make sudden, sharp gestures upward.
They emerged safely from between the two large bodies of floating water only to find themselves
surrounded by a dense population of smaller but still sizable globules. While some of these were clear
and contained nothing larger than small cichlids and kindred swimmers, others were opaque with
flourishing plant life, crustaceans, shellfish, and aquatic reptiles. Though still able to advance, their
progress was slowed by having to walk around or duck under the proliferating floating bubbles.
Once they had to wade right through a drifting airborne pond too wide to walk around. As they did so,
they experienced the most peculiar sensation of being soaked from sole to ankle, then dry up to their
waists, and then wet again up to their necks. By lowering their packs so that they temporarily rode not on
their shoulders but on their hips, Ehomba and Simna were able to keep their gear dry despite the double
immersion.
All day they trekked through the unprecedented landscape, ducking beneath, walking around, or
hopping over individual intervening patches of water, until the sun, a welcome harbinger of the normal
world, began to set. Certainly it was a most curious place to make a camp.
Simply choosing a suitable site presented unique problems of its own. Standing in six inches of water
with not a suggestion of dry land visible in any direction, the prospect of a fire was out of the question,
much less any thoughts of lying down and keeping dry. Big as he was, Ahlitah would have no trouble
keeping his head above water during the night, but it was not inconceivable that Ehomba or Simna could
roll over in their sleep and drown. Furthermore, soaking themselves to the skin for an entire night was not
the best way of ensuring continued good health.
Gembota, but this is awkward. Muttering to himself, Simna sloshed through the tepid shallows in
search of someplace to drop his pack, and found none. What are we going to do until morning? He
eyed the great cat s broad back speculatively. Correctly interpreting the swordsman s appraising stare,
Ahlitah lifted a massive paw and shook his head.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Put it out of your mind, little man. No one sleeps on me. Up against me, perhaps, for mutual warmth,
but only if I am in a sociable mood. But on my back, never. It would be demeaning.
We have to do something. A peevish Simna kicked at the omnipresent water. We can t lie down and
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]