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No, no, said Cohen vaguely. Don t apologishe. You were right to point it
out.
He turned and looked at Bethan, who waved at him, and then he looked up at
the star that glared through the mists.
Eventually he said, Dangerous times, these.
That s a fact.
Who knows what tomorrow may bring?
Not me.
Cohen clapped Rincewind on the shoulder. Shome-timesh we jusht have to
take rishks, he said. Don t be offended, but I think we ll go ahead with the
wedding anyway and, well, he looked at Bethan and sighed, we ll just have to
hope she s shtrong enough.
Around noon the following day they rode into a small, mud-walled city sur-
rounded by fields still lush and green. There seemed to be a lot of traffic going
the other way, though. Huge carts rumbled past them. Herds of livestock ambled
along the crown of the road. Old ladies stomped past carrying entire households
and haystacks on their backs.
Plague? said Rincewind, stopping a man pushing a handcart full of children.
He shook his head. It s the star, friend, he said. Haven t you seen it in the
sky?
We couldn t help noticing it, yes.
They say that it ll hit us on Hogswatchnight and the seas will boil and the
countries of the Disc will be broken nd kings will be brought down and the cities
will be as lakes of glass, said the man. I m off to the mountains.
That ll help, will it? said Rincewind doubtfully.
No, but the view will be better.
Rincewind rode back to the others.
Everyone s worried about the star, he said. Apparently there s hardly anyone
left in the cities, they re all frightened of it.
107
I don t want to worry anyone, said Bethan, but hasn t it struck you as un-
seasonably hot?
That s what I said last night, said Twoflower. Very warm, I thought.
I shuspect it ll get a lot hotter, said Cohen. Let sh get on into the city.
They rode through echoing streets that were practically deserted. Cohen kept
peering at merchants signs until he reined his horse and said, Thish ish what I ve
been looking for. You find a temple and a priesht, I ll join you shortly.
A jeweller? said Rincewind.
It s a shuprishe.
I could do with a new dress, too, said Bethan.
I ll shteal you one.
There was something very oppressive about the city, Rincewind decided.
There was also something very odd.
Almost every door was painted with a large red star.
It s creepy, said Bethan. As if people wanted to bring the star here.
Or keep it away, said Twoflower.
That won t work. It s too big, said Rincewind. He saw their faces turned
towards him.
Well, it stands to reason, doesn t it? he said lamely.
No, said Bethan.
Stars are small lights in the sky, said Twoflower. One fell down near my
home once big white thing, size of a house, glowed for weeks before it went
out.
This star is different, said a voice. Great A Tuin has climbed the beach of
the universe. This is the great ocean of space.
How do you know? said Twoflower.
Know what? said Rincewind.
What you just said. About beaches and oceans.
I didn t say anything!
Yes you did, you silly man! yelled Bethan. We saw your lips going up and
down and everything!
Rincewind shut his eyes. Inside his mind he could feel the Spell scuttling off
to hide behind his conscience, and muttering to itself.
All right, all right, he said. No need to shout. I I don t know how I know,
I just know .
Well, I wish you d tell us.
They turned the corner.
All the cities around the Circle Sea had a special area set aside for the gods,
of which the Disc had an elegant sufficiency. Usually they were crowded and
not very attractive from an architectural point of view. The most senior gods,
of course, had large and splendid temples, but the trouble was that later gods
108
demanded equality and soon the holy areas were sprawling with lean-to s, an-
nexes, loft conversions, sub-basements, bijou flatlets, ecclesiastical infilling and
trans-temporal timesharing, since no god would dream of living outside the holy
quarter or, as it had become, three-eighths. There were usually three hundred dif-
ferent types of incense being burned and the noise was normally at pain threshold
because of all the priests vying with each other to call their share of the faithful to
prayer.
But this street was deathly quiet, that particularly unpleasant quiet that comes
when hundreds of frightened and angry people are standing very still.
A man at the edge of the crowd turned around and scowled at the newcomers.
He had a red star painted on his forehead.
What s Rincewind began, and stopped as his voice seemed far too loud,
what s this?
You re strangers? said the man.
Actually we know one another quite Twoflower egan, and fell silent.
Bethan pointed up the street.
Every temple had a star painted on it. There was a particularly big one daubed
across the stone eye outside the temple of Blind Io, leader of the gods.
Urgh, said Rincewind. Io is going to be really pissed when he sees that. I
don t think we ought to hang around here, friends.
The crowd was facing a crude platform that had been built in the centre of the
wide street. A big banner had been draped across the front of it.
I always heard that Blind Io can see everything that happens everywhere,
said Bethan quietly. Why hasn t
Quiet! said the man beside them. Dahoney speaks!
A figure had stepped up on the platform, a tall thin man with hair like a dan-
delion. There was no cheer from the crowd, just a collective sigh. He began to
speak.
Rincewind listened in mounting horror. Where were the gods? said the man.
They had gone. Perhaps they had never been. Who, actually, could remember
seeing them? And now the star had been sent
It went on and on, a quiet, clear voice that used words like cleanse and
scouring and purify and drilled into the brain like a hot sword. Where were
the wizards? Where was magic? Had it ever really worked, or had it all been a
dream?
Rincewind began to be really afraid that the gods might get to hear about this
and be so angry that they d take it out on anyone who happened to have been
around at the time.
But somehow even the wrath of the gods would have been better than the
sound of that voice. The star was coming, it seemed to say, and its fearful fire
could only be averted by by Rincewind couldn t be certain, but he had visions
109 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl fopke.keep.pl
No, no, said Cohen vaguely. Don t apologishe. You were right to point it
out.
He turned and looked at Bethan, who waved at him, and then he looked up at
the star that glared through the mists.
Eventually he said, Dangerous times, these.
That s a fact.
Who knows what tomorrow may bring?
Not me.
Cohen clapped Rincewind on the shoulder. Shome-timesh we jusht have to
take rishks, he said. Don t be offended, but I think we ll go ahead with the
wedding anyway and, well, he looked at Bethan and sighed, we ll just have to
hope she s shtrong enough.
Around noon the following day they rode into a small, mud-walled city sur-
rounded by fields still lush and green. There seemed to be a lot of traffic going
the other way, though. Huge carts rumbled past them. Herds of livestock ambled
along the crown of the road. Old ladies stomped past carrying entire households
and haystacks on their backs.
Plague? said Rincewind, stopping a man pushing a handcart full of children.
He shook his head. It s the star, friend, he said. Haven t you seen it in the
sky?
We couldn t help noticing it, yes.
They say that it ll hit us on Hogswatchnight and the seas will boil and the
countries of the Disc will be broken nd kings will be brought down and the cities
will be as lakes of glass, said the man. I m off to the mountains.
That ll help, will it? said Rincewind doubtfully.
No, but the view will be better.
Rincewind rode back to the others.
Everyone s worried about the star, he said. Apparently there s hardly anyone
left in the cities, they re all frightened of it.
107
I don t want to worry anyone, said Bethan, but hasn t it struck you as un-
seasonably hot?
That s what I said last night, said Twoflower. Very warm, I thought.
I shuspect it ll get a lot hotter, said Cohen. Let sh get on into the city.
They rode through echoing streets that were practically deserted. Cohen kept
peering at merchants signs until he reined his horse and said, Thish ish what I ve
been looking for. You find a temple and a priesht, I ll join you shortly.
A jeweller? said Rincewind.
It s a shuprishe.
I could do with a new dress, too, said Bethan.
I ll shteal you one.
There was something very oppressive about the city, Rincewind decided.
There was also something very odd.
Almost every door was painted with a large red star.
It s creepy, said Bethan. As if people wanted to bring the star here.
Or keep it away, said Twoflower.
That won t work. It s too big, said Rincewind. He saw their faces turned
towards him.
Well, it stands to reason, doesn t it? he said lamely.
No, said Bethan.
Stars are small lights in the sky, said Twoflower. One fell down near my
home once big white thing, size of a house, glowed for weeks before it went
out.
This star is different, said a voice. Great A Tuin has climbed the beach of
the universe. This is the great ocean of space.
How do you know? said Twoflower.
Know what? said Rincewind.
What you just said. About beaches and oceans.
I didn t say anything!
Yes you did, you silly man! yelled Bethan. We saw your lips going up and
down and everything!
Rincewind shut his eyes. Inside his mind he could feel the Spell scuttling off
to hide behind his conscience, and muttering to itself.
All right, all right, he said. No need to shout. I I don t know how I know,
I just know .
Well, I wish you d tell us.
They turned the corner.
All the cities around the Circle Sea had a special area set aside for the gods,
of which the Disc had an elegant sufficiency. Usually they were crowded and
not very attractive from an architectural point of view. The most senior gods,
of course, had large and splendid temples, but the trouble was that later gods
108
demanded equality and soon the holy areas were sprawling with lean-to s, an-
nexes, loft conversions, sub-basements, bijou flatlets, ecclesiastical infilling and
trans-temporal timesharing, since no god would dream of living outside the holy
quarter or, as it had become, three-eighths. There were usually three hundred dif-
ferent types of incense being burned and the noise was normally at pain threshold
because of all the priests vying with each other to call their share of the faithful to
prayer.
But this street was deathly quiet, that particularly unpleasant quiet that comes
when hundreds of frightened and angry people are standing very still.
A man at the edge of the crowd turned around and scowled at the newcomers.
He had a red star painted on his forehead.
What s Rincewind began, and stopped as his voice seemed far too loud,
what s this?
You re strangers? said the man.
Actually we know one another quite Twoflower egan, and fell silent.
Bethan pointed up the street.
Every temple had a star painted on it. There was a particularly big one daubed
across the stone eye outside the temple of Blind Io, leader of the gods.
Urgh, said Rincewind. Io is going to be really pissed when he sees that. I
don t think we ought to hang around here, friends.
The crowd was facing a crude platform that had been built in the centre of the
wide street. A big banner had been draped across the front of it.
I always heard that Blind Io can see everything that happens everywhere,
said Bethan quietly. Why hasn t
Quiet! said the man beside them. Dahoney speaks!
A figure had stepped up on the platform, a tall thin man with hair like a dan-
delion. There was no cheer from the crowd, just a collective sigh. He began to
speak.
Rincewind listened in mounting horror. Where were the gods? said the man.
They had gone. Perhaps they had never been. Who, actually, could remember
seeing them? And now the star had been sent
It went on and on, a quiet, clear voice that used words like cleanse and
scouring and purify and drilled into the brain like a hot sword. Where were
the wizards? Where was magic? Had it ever really worked, or had it all been a
dream?
Rincewind began to be really afraid that the gods might get to hear about this
and be so angry that they d take it out on anyone who happened to have been
around at the time.
But somehow even the wrath of the gods would have been better than the
sound of that voice. The star was coming, it seemed to say, and its fearful fire
could only be averted by by Rincewind couldn t be certain, but he had visions
109 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]