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district headmen had begun to arrive in Seoul to pledge the new king fealty.
Also, a few days earlier, ravens had found the
star man and the barbarian youth, though not the barbarian wizard. Now a
courier had arrived from the troop he d sent to capture them. They d captured
the star man basically uninjured, and were bringing him to Miyun. The
barbarian youth had escaped, but he was of little importance.
It seemed to Tenzin that the emperor was as pleased by this as by the major
news from Korea. Wonderful, Your
Magnificence, he said. The star man should prove a wellspring of
Page 96
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
information.
Indeed. The emperor raised a knowing eyebrow.
Meanwhile you are worried, and come to tell me of some calamity you ve
created. It can t be as bad as you think, dear geshe.
The comment brought the situation to the surface of the geshe s mind. Songtsan
raised both eyebrows, then laughed.
Tenzin, Tenzin! You are a remarkable wizard, but -- He shook his head.
Evict your demon from the fabric of the Tao? Nonsense, Tenzin! You ve done
wonderfully; far better than you realize. What you must now learn to do is
rule it, not evict it!
Songtsan Gampo habitually thought behind a screen when other telepaths were
with him, though he denied them the privilege. An emperor had his
prerogatives. Thus Tenzin Geshe didn t know what his emperor failed to say:
That Songtsan Gampo intended to bond the demon to himself, once Tenzin and the
Circle had established control of it. He would bond the demon to himself, and
tell it he was its god.
THIRTY-THREE
Baver regained a groggy consciousness while being tied across the back of a
horse, and tried to raise his head. A soldier cursed -- at least it sounded
like a curse -- and cuffed him. Whereupon the commander rode up to the
soldier, and bending struck him hard on the head with the flat of his sword.
The man fell to the ground, partly from the blow and partly in self defense,
while an angry string of words rattled from the commander s mouth.
The language was one Baver felt sure he d never heard before. Chinese? he
wondered. He d heard Chinese several times on a cube, ancient Chinese, on New
Home. Alex Malaluan had been hypno-learning it. It had sounded more tonal than
this. But then, languages change, some more, some less.
With quick fingers, a different soldier untied
him. Two others helped him off the horse, onto his feet, where his hands were
retied in front of him, leaving twenty centimeters of twisted thong between
them to give him some freedom of hand movement. This done, he was boosted into
the saddle.
He was aware that virtually all the soldiers were staring at him. He supposed
they d never seen anything like a jumpsuit before, with its pockets at chest,
hips, and thighs.
It occurred to him then that Hans wasn t there. Perhaps he d gotten away. Or
was dead. There was no way to ask. But these people didn t seem to be in a
killing mood. Did they have orders to bring in prisoners alive and well?
And what had there been about himself and Hans that inspired the chase?
Perhaps it was simply that Hans had bolted. Or no, Hans hadn t bolted till
after the soldiers had lacked their own horses to a gallop. And there had been
Han s dream! -- prophetic in a way. Perhaps accurately prophetic if they d
stayed where they d camped.
He wondered what they d do with him. And why the commander had struck the
trooper for actually rather modest abuse. Baver had seen and heard enough, on
this primitive world, to know that here, merely cuffing a prisoner was benign
behavior.
There was more to this, he decided, than appeared on the surface.
During two long days of riding with his hands tied, Baver was treated with
consistent brusque decency, and learned a few words of the soldiers language,
notably chu and kyöra sagiyö: water or drink, and eat or food.
The third morning brought them to the ruins of a large city. An old city, some
of it dating to well before the days of knock-down-and-replace buildings.
Probably a major capital, because some of the individual buildings were so [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl fopke.keep.pl
district headmen had begun to arrive in Seoul to pledge the new king fealty.
Also, a few days earlier, ravens had found the
star man and the barbarian youth, though not the barbarian wizard. Now a
courier had arrived from the troop he d sent to capture them. They d captured
the star man basically uninjured, and were bringing him to Miyun. The
barbarian youth had escaped, but he was of little importance.
It seemed to Tenzin that the emperor was as pleased by this as by the major
news from Korea. Wonderful, Your
Magnificence, he said. The star man should prove a wellspring of
Page 96
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
information.
Indeed. The emperor raised a knowing eyebrow.
Meanwhile you are worried, and come to tell me of some calamity you ve
created. It can t be as bad as you think, dear geshe.
The comment brought the situation to the surface of the geshe s mind. Songtsan
raised both eyebrows, then laughed.
Tenzin, Tenzin! You are a remarkable wizard, but -- He shook his head.
Evict your demon from the fabric of the Tao? Nonsense, Tenzin! You ve done
wonderfully; far better than you realize. What you must now learn to do is
rule it, not evict it!
Songtsan Gampo habitually thought behind a screen when other telepaths were
with him, though he denied them the privilege. An emperor had his
prerogatives. Thus Tenzin Geshe didn t know what his emperor failed to say:
That Songtsan Gampo intended to bond the demon to himself, once Tenzin and the
Circle had established control of it. He would bond the demon to himself, and
tell it he was its god.
THIRTY-THREE
Baver regained a groggy consciousness while being tied across the back of a
horse, and tried to raise his head. A soldier cursed -- at least it sounded
like a curse -- and cuffed him. Whereupon the commander rode up to the
soldier, and bending struck him hard on the head with the flat of his sword.
The man fell to the ground, partly from the blow and partly in self defense,
while an angry string of words rattled from the commander s mouth.
The language was one Baver felt sure he d never heard before. Chinese? he
wondered. He d heard Chinese several times on a cube, ancient Chinese, on New
Home. Alex Malaluan had been hypno-learning it. It had sounded more tonal than
this. But then, languages change, some more, some less.
With quick fingers, a different soldier untied
him. Two others helped him off the horse, onto his feet, where his hands were
retied in front of him, leaving twenty centimeters of twisted thong between
them to give him some freedom of hand movement. This done, he was boosted into
the saddle.
He was aware that virtually all the soldiers were staring at him. He supposed
they d never seen anything like a jumpsuit before, with its pockets at chest,
hips, and thighs.
It occurred to him then that Hans wasn t there. Perhaps he d gotten away. Or
was dead. There was no way to ask. But these people didn t seem to be in a
killing mood. Did they have orders to bring in prisoners alive and well?
And what had there been about himself and Hans that inspired the chase?
Perhaps it was simply that Hans had bolted. Or no, Hans hadn t bolted till
after the soldiers had lacked their own horses to a gallop. And there had been
Han s dream! -- prophetic in a way. Perhaps accurately prophetic if they d
stayed where they d camped.
He wondered what they d do with him. And why the commander had struck the
trooper for actually rather modest abuse. Baver had seen and heard enough, on
this primitive world, to know that here, merely cuffing a prisoner was benign
behavior.
There was more to this, he decided, than appeared on the surface.
During two long days of riding with his hands tied, Baver was treated with
consistent brusque decency, and learned a few words of the soldiers language,
notably chu and kyöra sagiyö: water or drink, and eat or food.
The third morning brought them to the ruins of a large city. An old city, some
of it dating to well before the days of knock-down-and-replace buildings.
Probably a major capital, because some of the individual buildings were so [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]