[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Page 38
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
The landlord turned his head: "They took to their chambers; the name you spoke
weighed on their souls."
And Liane drank his wine in frowning silence.
Next morning he left the inn and picked a roundabout way to the Old Town a
gray wilderness of tumbled pillars, weathered blocks of sandstone, slumped
pediments with crumbled inscriptions, flagged terraces overgrown with rusty
moss. Lizards, snakes, insects crawled the ruins; no other life did he see.
Threading a way through the rubble, he almost stumbled on a corpse the body of
a youth, one who stared at the sky with empty eye-sockets.
Liane felt a presence. He leapt back, rapier half-bared. A stooped old man
stood watching him. He spoke in a feeble, quavering voice: "And what will you
have in the Old Town?"
Liane replaced his rapier. "I seek the Place of Whispers. Perhaps you will
direct me."
The old man made a croaking sound at the back of his throat. "Another?
Another? When will it cease? ..." He motioned to the corpse. "This one came
yesterday seeking the Place of Whispers. He would steal from Chun the
Unavoidable. See him now." He turned away. "Come with me." He disappeared over
a tumble of rock.
Liane followed. The old man stood by another corpse with eye-sockets bereft
and bloody. "This one came four days ago, and he met Chun the
Unavoidable . . . And over there behind the arch is still, a great warrior in
cloison armor. And there and there " he pointed, pointed. "And there and
there like crushed flies."
He turned his watery blue gaze back to Liane. "Return, young man, return lest
your body lie here in its green cloak to rot on the flagstones."
Liane drew his rapier and flourished it. "I am Liane the Wayfarer; let them
who offend me have fear. And where is the Place of Whispers?"
"If you must know," said the old man, "it is beyond that broken obelisk.
But you go to your peril."
"I am Liane the Wayfarer. Peril goes with me."
The old man stood like a piece of weathered statuary as Liane strode off.
And Liane asked himself, suppose this old man were an agent of Chun, and at
this minute were on his way to warn him? . . . Best to take all precautions.
He leapt up on a high entablature and ran crouching back to where he had left
the ancient.
Here he came, muttering to himself, leaning on his staff. Liane dropped a
block of granite as large as his head. A thud, a croak, a gasp and Liane went
his way.
He strode past the broken obelisk, into a wide court  the Place of
Whispers. Directly opposite was a long wide hall, marked by a leaning column
with a big black medallion, the sign of a phoenix and a two-headed lizard.
Liane merged himself with the shadow of a wall, and stood watching like a
wolf, alert for any flicker of motion.
All was quiet. The sunlight invested the ruins with dreary splendor. To
all sides, as far as the eye could reach, was broken stone, a wasteland
leached by a thousand rains, until now the sense of man had departed and the
stone was one with the natural earth.
The sun moved across the dark-blue sky. Liane presently stole from his
vantage-point and circled the hall. No sight nor sign did he see.
He approached the building from the rear and pressed his ear to the stone.
It was dead, without vibration. Around the side watching up, down, to all
sides; a breach in the wall. Liane peered inside. At the back hung half a
golden tapestry. Otherwise the hall was empty.
Liane looked up, down, this side, that. There was nothing in sight. He
continued around the hall.
He came to another broken place. He looked within. To the rear hung the golden
tapestry. Nothing else, to right or left, no sight or sound.
Page 39
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Liane continued to the front of the hall and sought into the eaves; dead as
dust.
He had a clear view of the room. Bare, barren, except for the bit of golden
tapestry.
Liane entered, striding with long soft steps. He halted in the middle of the
floor. Light came to him from all sides except the rear wall. There were a
dozen openings from which to flee and no sound except the dull thudding of his
heart
He took two steps forward. The tapestry was almost at his fingertips.
He stepped forward and swiftly jerked the tapestry down from the wall.
And behind was Chun the Unavoidable.
Liane screamed. He turned on paralyzed legs and they were leaden, like legs in
a dream which refused to run.
Chun dropped out of the wall and advanced. Over his shiny black back he wore a
robe of eyeballs threaded on silk.
Liane was running, fleetly now. He sprang, he soared. The tips of his toes
scarcely touched the ground. Out the hall, across the square, into the
wilderness of broken statues and fallen columns. And behind came Chun, running
like a dog.
Liane sped along the crest of a wall and sprang a great gap to a shattered
fountain. Behind came Chun.
Liane darted up a narrow alley, climbed over a pile of refuse, over a roof,
down into a court. Behind came Chun.
Liane sped down a wide avenue lined with a few stunted old cypress trees, and
he heard Chun close at his heels. He turned into an archway, pulled his bronze
ring over his head, down to his feet. He stepped through, brought the ring up
inside the darkness. Sanctuary. He was alone in a dark magic space, vanished
from earthly gaze and knowledge. Brooding silence, dead space ...
He felt a stir behind him, a breath of air. At his elbow a voice said, "I
am Chun the Unavoidable."
Lith sat on her couch near the candles, weaving a cap from frogskins. The door [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]