|
|
|
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
It s not necessary. I will be, said Jim, using a form of magic that takes
into account the fact you re already a knight.
Ah.
Jim fished in his purse for his various magic fruits and brought them out.
They had gathered some dust, but since no one in this medieval time paid any
attention to such things, he had gotten into the habit of ignoring them,
himself.
He had eaten one grape. Now he thought of taking a bite out of the apple. It
was a small apple. If he bit into it now, only a few more bites would remain.
He was about to take one, when he felt uneasy. There was no reason to prefer
one fruit over another. He changed his mind and took another bite from the
pear, instead, visualizing Brian as a dragon.
As he looked up from putting the remaining portion of the pear back in his
purse, he saw a dragon before him, one a little smaller than he himself would
be as a dragon-which made sense since change size was proportional to original
size. The new dragon s eyes were all but shooting sparks.
THIS IS WELCOME INDEED! boomed Brian, in a voice that easily echoed the
length and breadth of the Gathering Place. As a hum of aroused voices arose
from beyond the nearest trees, Jim waved both hands desperately downward
before Brian s long, savagely toothed muzzle.
Don t say anything! hissed Jim in his loudest whisper. Nothing until I
speak to you!
A dragon s voice was certainly tremendous-a useful thing when you wanted to
chat with another dragon across three hundred yards of thin air while on the
wing; but a dragon s hearing was also very sensitive.
Brian nodded.
Jim hastily led Brian out from under the trees, into a small clear spot; then
changed into his own dragon-form. Brian smiled dragonishly at him, but kept
silent. Voices and movement could be heard approaching.
Here we go, now, said Jim. We ll fly.
Page 267
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
How... ? said Brian, in a sort of low-pitched bass grumble.
You can speak up now. They will hear but we ll be gone before they can get
to us. As for flying, just think of jumping up into the air. Your dragon body
has instincts -went on Jim, remembering his own first throat-closing dive from
an upper entrance to the Cliffside Aerie- and those instincts will make this
body do what you want. When you jump up as a human, you don t have to tell
your knees, Now bend, now straighten out fast. do you? Just follow me, and
the body will fly for you.
Jim took off. Brian took off. The sound their wings made, pulling at the air,
must have been quite loud; but they were gone above the trees and it could
make no difference.
At about eight hundred feet up, Jim leveled out; then had to hurry on up
after Brian, who seemed to want to fly all the way to Lyonesse s white sun.
You can stop moving your wings now, roared Jim at him. Hold them out open
and steady and just let them carry your weight-remember how a falcon does it!
Brian obeyed.
DEAR JAMES-that is to say, dear James, he said, toning down his dragon
voice as they began to plane earthward into a rising column of warm air Jim
had located, how can I thank you for this. Who do we fight?
Nobody, Jim was about to answer, when he realized this would be a blow to
Brian s expectations-also perhaps not correct.
Possibly the Harpies, Jim said.
Good! said Brian. James, you are quite right. I am flying without knowing
how I do it. It is a most delightful sensation-just the flying, I mean. Rather
like sailing, without the waves.
Yes, said Jim. Watch yourself, though; since all you have to do is want to
do something, and if this dragon body you ve got can do it, it ll try.
Surely, since it s something I wish, it would be good to do it?
Mostly. But you re not just a man at the moment, you re a man in a dragon
body. It might get you into something you should have thought before doing.
Yes. James! said Brian suddenly. My soul! I did not think. Have I put my
soul in peril by taking on a dragon shape?
No, no. It s the same old soul inside the dragon body, with all your regular
pieties and virtues.
Say rather my many sins...
See. Didn t I just warn you of that? said Jim, as Brian raked-or rather,
tried to rake-a viciously long and sharp talon through his tough-skinned chest
in an attempt to cross himself.
You did, James. I cannot deny it.
You re still the same person you always were, no matter what shape you re
in. Look at me. I ve been a dragon dozens of times.
Page 268
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
You have a tendency, though, to fall asleep at vespers, said Brian. I
heard you snoring several times during the two weeks we were at the Earl s
Christmas party. We are none of us perfect, James.
Naturally, said Jim. But this damn talk about me snoring has to stop.
There were enough others asleep at vespers at the Earl s. It could have been
anybody snoring.
You are quite right, James, said Brian. I pray for the grace and pardon of
your forgiveness for thinking it was you I heard.
Jim glared at him. Brian s dragon face looked back innocently-too
innocently! and interestingly so, because a dragon s expression of innocence
consisted mainly of wide-open eyes and lips pulled away from the fangs as much
as possible.
There was nothing to be done about it, however. Brian had outmaneuvered him
on this exchange. Jim made up his mind to lie in wait. An opportunity for
revenge would present itself.
Of course, he said, though it almost choked him to get it out gracefully,
that, too, was natural. By the way, were you wondering where we re going?
I was.
I ll tell you, then, said Jim. We re going north, to travel along the edge
of Lyonesse nearest the Drowned Land, almost as far as we can go.
Hah! said the dragon that was Brian. And what do we there, at our
destination, James? I know you said we two would go and find where the Harpies
come from.
That s right, said Jim. The Dark Powers have to make them somewhere.
Harpies can fly, but ogres and Worms and other such-if they have other kinds
of monsters-have to do their traveling on foot. So the Dark Powers will want
to make all of them as close as possible to wherever they plan to fight.
But what would they need Harpies and such for, if they have that help from
some like Queen Morgan le Fay, Cumberland, and Modred?
The man or woman who gave it to them would have to give up his or her will
completely before being able to work directly that way with the Dark Powers.
God forfend! said Brian, raking his chest again with a talon to make the
shape of a cross. Jim winced. But it is a grace that you know these things,
James.
Jim winced. He did not know them. It was just that from the first, after
spending several years here after growing up in a logical universe and world,
he had not been able to keep himself from looking for a logical process at
work in this world and time as well.
Certainly, this world seemed almost identical to the universe of his birth,
with all the natural laws in place-except where magic appeared to set them
aside. But did magic really do that? Or was it something else that required
that part of what seemed logical reality here was also something that could
mold reality like clay into any shape wanted or needed?
... Well, this was no time to ponder over that. In any case, the real marvel
was the balancing of forces, or whatever, that allowed ordinary physical laws
Page 269
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
and magic to coexist.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pldoc.pisz.plpdf.pisz.plkwiatpolny.htw.pl
|
|
| Cytat |
Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
|
|
