[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
tiny mirror on his key chain in the palm of one hand. It grew to the size of a
saucer, and as he traced his finger across its surface, green fire shimmered
in its depths. Terry had studied tracking with June Bug, and he would work
with her to try to locate the source of the plague that was wiping out the
Earth s population.
He looked at June Bug, and she held out her right hand. He took it with his
left. They stared into the surfaces of their own mirrors, and June Bug said,
Show the source of the rebound plague.
Mayhem waited for a moment to let her spell clear, then said, Draw path,
disease vector.
The Sentinels circle waited, holding its breath. When they had tried this
before, Lauren s massive redecorating spells had completely overshadowed any
tracks Willie, Deever, and Tom might have left behind. This time, the
Sentinels were as close to their targets as they dared get, they were pointed
in the direction of the enemy, and they d canceled or blocked magical sources
from other directions.
They should be able to get a read, Eric thought. Even if the spellcaster had
put a heavy shield over the spell that was causing the problem, they should
still get a direction, an indication of the source, and from both of those, an
idea of what they could do to counter the problem.
Eric wanted to see something good happen he had to fight his natural impulses
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
to keep from willing something good to happen. That would just cast another
spell, and screw things up. He tried to think of nothing but the integrity of
the shields he d cast around Jake and the gates, and the backup shield he kept
on ready for himself, and the steady movement of air in and out of his lungs.
That was the hardest part of doing magic as a team keeping metaphorical
fingers out of somebody else s part of the spell. All of them struggled with
it. Sometimes someone, too eager for results, slipped.
But this time everyone held. They all apparently kept their urgent desire for
results in check by remembering how dire the fallout would be if they screwed
up. They didn t screw up, and finally, Mayhem said, I ve got a mouse here,
at the same time that June Bug blurted out, I have a complete spiderweb of
trails, and all of them link to other trails, and then most of them die off to
nothing.
A mouse? Eric asked, looking from Sentinel to Sentinel. A mouse? What does
a mouse have to do with the end of the world?
Inside Cold Starhold
They re out there, Willie said. He leaned against the parapet and pointed
down at the river.
Tom and Deever both looked. Don t see them, Tom said.
Look for a tiny divert attention spell attached to the area straight ahead
and down. Then look for a couple of small shields back of it, that it s been
anchored to.
Tom wove a little spell in the air, and suddenly held a tiny circle of clear
glass. He angled the glass in the direction Willie had been pointing, and
suddenly two brilliant green bubbles appeared: one fixed, one moving. He
looked for the divert spell Willie had mentioned, and when he finally got
through it, noticed the semicircle of Sentinels pointed toward the castle,
shieldless. Easy targets. They must have gotten reinforcements.
They came directly here not overland. Which means they have a gateweaver,
Willie said. So, yes, they ve brought reinforcements. And that means we have
a problem.
He paced along the parapet. He didn t look much like the old Willie Locklear
anymore. For one thing, he appeared to be no more than thirty. For another,
the etching of constant pain that had deepened the lines on his face for the
last two years was completely gone. When he finally made his break with Earth
and the Sentinels permanent, he erased the cancer he d been secretly fighting;
he d felt the awful gnawing that had eaten halfway through his spine and deep
into his liver and his bones just melt away, and he had rejoiced. And in the
same breath, had cursed the Sentinels for refusing to let their own take
advantage of the wondrous powers that they controlled. He would never have
been permitted to use magic to eliminate his cancer; nor would the Sentinels
ever have allowed him to reclaim lost youth. Those were, in their eyes,
unnecessary and deadly expenditures of magic, and, timid creatures that they
were, they dreaded the slightest divergence from their narrow, chaste path.
We could attack them, Deever said.
Could. But I don t think we should. They re not after us right this second,
though they surely will come after us sooner or later. They re trying to track
down the spell that s killing Earth. They ll have their hands full trying to
deal with that; they won t have anything left over for us for quite some
time.
Then now would be the perfect time to hit them, Tom said.
Willie turned and studied his protégé with narrowed eyes. You think so?
Of course. While they re completely focused on something else
They re trying to save your world, you ass. They re trying to save the lives
of all the people you ve ever known. You re going to interrupt them in the
middle of that?
What do we care? We aren t ever going back, Tom said.
Deever shook his head and turned away, disgusted. Willie said, Did you mean
anything you said when you took the Sentinel oath?
Of course. But I m not a Sentinel anymore. Tom didn t seem to see that he d
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suggested anything wrong.
The values you hold as a Sentinel don t go away when you cease being a
Sentinel, Willie said. If your world and your people ever mattered to you,
they still do.
And that s the reason you sold your friends and colleagues to an Orian?
That s the reason you broke every rule in the Sentinel book about contact with
natives, about the use of magic for personal gain, about making yourself one
of the gods, for the love of Jesus& Tom looked from Willie to Deever. And
you, Deever, have a lot of room to talk turning yourself into a golden-haired
Greek god and planning on sneaking back to Earth while there s still something
left to pick up women for your harem. I m not the one who decided I needed a
wang like a flagpole, am I, or a whole bunch of new hair, or muscles on top of
my muscles? I haven t done a single spell for myself. But you two are sure
enough quick off the mark to tell me what a bad boy I am.
Willie had the good grace to flush. Deever just scowled and kept staring at a
fixed point at the far corner of the tower on which they stood.
Willie finally noticed where he was looking. What do you see, Deever?
A mouse.
Dead?
Looks real damned alive to me. He pointed, and both Willie and Tom looked
where he was pointing. I thought we got rid of all the mice.
Might be the last one, Tom said. If it is, it could live a long time. I set
the spell so that each mouse would only die after it had infected at least one
other mouse, so if it s the last one, we ought to catch it and throw it over
the side.
You limit that spell? Deever asked.
Limited it to mice.
Deever considered that, then shrugged. That ought to be good enough. He took
a deep breath and returned his attention to the encampment of Sentinels below
the castle. So what are we going to do about them?
CHAPTER 18
Copper House
MOLLY SAT CROSS-LEGGED on a stone bench in the center of one of Copper House s
many gardens, with Yaner twitching and squirming on the seat beside her.
The tips of her middle fingers rested against the pads of her thumbs firmly
enough that she could feel her own pulse beating steadily; she matched her
breathing to her pulse. Breathe in for six heartbeats, hold for six
heartbeats, breathe out for six heartbeats, and hold again for six more. She
concentrated on slowing her heart rate, on driving her breathing deeper and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl fopke.keep.pl
tiny mirror on his key chain in the palm of one hand. It grew to the size of a
saucer, and as he traced his finger across its surface, green fire shimmered
in its depths. Terry had studied tracking with June Bug, and he would work
with her to try to locate the source of the plague that was wiping out the
Earth s population.
He looked at June Bug, and she held out her right hand. He took it with his
left. They stared into the surfaces of their own mirrors, and June Bug said,
Show the source of the rebound plague.
Mayhem waited for a moment to let her spell clear, then said, Draw path,
disease vector.
The Sentinels circle waited, holding its breath. When they had tried this
before, Lauren s massive redecorating spells had completely overshadowed any
tracks Willie, Deever, and Tom might have left behind. This time, the
Sentinels were as close to their targets as they dared get, they were pointed
in the direction of the enemy, and they d canceled or blocked magical sources
from other directions.
They should be able to get a read, Eric thought. Even if the spellcaster had
put a heavy shield over the spell that was causing the problem, they should
still get a direction, an indication of the source, and from both of those, an
idea of what they could do to counter the problem.
Eric wanted to see something good happen he had to fight his natural impulses
Page 145
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
to keep from willing something good to happen. That would just cast another
spell, and screw things up. He tried to think of nothing but the integrity of
the shields he d cast around Jake and the gates, and the backup shield he kept
on ready for himself, and the steady movement of air in and out of his lungs.
That was the hardest part of doing magic as a team keeping metaphorical
fingers out of somebody else s part of the spell. All of them struggled with
it. Sometimes someone, too eager for results, slipped.
But this time everyone held. They all apparently kept their urgent desire for
results in check by remembering how dire the fallout would be if they screwed
up. They didn t screw up, and finally, Mayhem said, I ve got a mouse here,
at the same time that June Bug blurted out, I have a complete spiderweb of
trails, and all of them link to other trails, and then most of them die off to
nothing.
A mouse? Eric asked, looking from Sentinel to Sentinel. A mouse? What does
a mouse have to do with the end of the world?
Inside Cold Starhold
They re out there, Willie said. He leaned against the parapet and pointed
down at the river.
Tom and Deever both looked. Don t see them, Tom said.
Look for a tiny divert attention spell attached to the area straight ahead
and down. Then look for a couple of small shields back of it, that it s been
anchored to.
Tom wove a little spell in the air, and suddenly held a tiny circle of clear
glass. He angled the glass in the direction Willie had been pointing, and
suddenly two brilliant green bubbles appeared: one fixed, one moving. He
looked for the divert spell Willie had mentioned, and when he finally got
through it, noticed the semicircle of Sentinels pointed toward the castle,
shieldless. Easy targets. They must have gotten reinforcements.
They came directly here not overland. Which means they have a gateweaver,
Willie said. So, yes, they ve brought reinforcements. And that means we have
a problem.
He paced along the parapet. He didn t look much like the old Willie Locklear
anymore. For one thing, he appeared to be no more than thirty. For another,
the etching of constant pain that had deepened the lines on his face for the
last two years was completely gone. When he finally made his break with Earth
and the Sentinels permanent, he erased the cancer he d been secretly fighting;
he d felt the awful gnawing that had eaten halfway through his spine and deep
into his liver and his bones just melt away, and he had rejoiced. And in the
same breath, had cursed the Sentinels for refusing to let their own take
advantage of the wondrous powers that they controlled. He would never have
been permitted to use magic to eliminate his cancer; nor would the Sentinels
ever have allowed him to reclaim lost youth. Those were, in their eyes,
unnecessary and deadly expenditures of magic, and, timid creatures that they
were, they dreaded the slightest divergence from their narrow, chaste path.
We could attack them, Deever said.
Could. But I don t think we should. They re not after us right this second,
though they surely will come after us sooner or later. They re trying to track
down the spell that s killing Earth. They ll have their hands full trying to
deal with that; they won t have anything left over for us for quite some
time.
Then now would be the perfect time to hit them, Tom said.
Willie turned and studied his protégé with narrowed eyes. You think so?
Of course. While they re completely focused on something else
They re trying to save your world, you ass. They re trying to save the lives
of all the people you ve ever known. You re going to interrupt them in the
middle of that?
What do we care? We aren t ever going back, Tom said.
Deever shook his head and turned away, disgusted. Willie said, Did you mean
anything you said when you took the Sentinel oath?
Of course. But I m not a Sentinel anymore. Tom didn t seem to see that he d
Page 146
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
suggested anything wrong.
The values you hold as a Sentinel don t go away when you cease being a
Sentinel, Willie said. If your world and your people ever mattered to you,
they still do.
And that s the reason you sold your friends and colleagues to an Orian?
That s the reason you broke every rule in the Sentinel book about contact with
natives, about the use of magic for personal gain, about making yourself one
of the gods, for the love of Jesus& Tom looked from Willie to Deever. And
you, Deever, have a lot of room to talk turning yourself into a golden-haired
Greek god and planning on sneaking back to Earth while there s still something
left to pick up women for your harem. I m not the one who decided I needed a
wang like a flagpole, am I, or a whole bunch of new hair, or muscles on top of
my muscles? I haven t done a single spell for myself. But you two are sure
enough quick off the mark to tell me what a bad boy I am.
Willie had the good grace to flush. Deever just scowled and kept staring at a
fixed point at the far corner of the tower on which they stood.
Willie finally noticed where he was looking. What do you see, Deever?
A mouse.
Dead?
Looks real damned alive to me. He pointed, and both Willie and Tom looked
where he was pointing. I thought we got rid of all the mice.
Might be the last one, Tom said. If it is, it could live a long time. I set
the spell so that each mouse would only die after it had infected at least one
other mouse, so if it s the last one, we ought to catch it and throw it over
the side.
You limit that spell? Deever asked.
Limited it to mice.
Deever considered that, then shrugged. That ought to be good enough. He took
a deep breath and returned his attention to the encampment of Sentinels below
the castle. So what are we going to do about them?
CHAPTER 18
Copper House
MOLLY SAT CROSS-LEGGED on a stone bench in the center of one of Copper House s
many gardens, with Yaner twitching and squirming on the seat beside her.
The tips of her middle fingers rested against the pads of her thumbs firmly
enough that she could feel her own pulse beating steadily; she matched her
breathing to her pulse. Breathe in for six heartbeats, hold for six
heartbeats, breathe out for six heartbeats, and hold again for six more. She
concentrated on slowing her heart rate, on driving her breathing deeper and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]