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suffocate." After completing half a dozen
THE MOMENT or THE MAGICIAN 181
circumnavigations of the dome, he stopped in front of the entryway again.
"Now I know I'm faster than that big bastard, if I
could just get past 'im." He let the thought trail off.
"Trouble is, I'd probably do it in pieces."
Jon-Tom moved back to the reed mat and sat down. "I never saw them hit us."
"Neither did 1, mate, until it was too late." He pointed toward the giant
water bug floating placidly outside their prison. "That hunk of armored vomit
came up underneath us., and dumped us in. His smaller relations were waidn' to
drag us down 'ere."
He looked over at his cOan&anion.
"When theyspdumped l|s |n this 'alf bubble, your face was all sw^ll up like
ayifiird's bladder. I thought y^a.were a golfer for sure-CTBey did a little
dance on ytyur;j)ack an
th^n gave up an^Uleft- After a couple of
' groanirf, ^en fell asleep. I wiped face and figured I might as well woke up.
That was yesterday."
I- "I figured I must've been out happened to our raft and supplies?"
Hsr the lake .bottom," Mudge told u|e^idn't see fit to salvage. They've
feapoitt iff'a little dry storage area over the ^ter from ruinin' 'cm. Exhibit
A
:utiongyd wliger."
ftiinutes^
|he droo lurait and l-^ii forawtflJ
'^Scattg him sadly.
got ^11 oui there, to k for the pr
Jen-Tom separated f smaller, air-
ons and personal be terminate number o nt toJIwyalf Nfext to then- prison and
>, it by omy a; foot of water/was a much ff^ d®n»e. Il^was cramh^ckwith weap-
gings scavenged from an inde-
similarly unlucky travelers to this part of the Wrounipai. The most recent
acquisi-
tions were clearly visible atop a wooden hamper: his ramwood staff and sword;
Mudge's longbow and arrows and short sword; some of their food stock; and atop
Alan Dean Foster
182
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everything else, dry and apparently undamaged, his precious duar. If not for
the intervening water and walls he might have reached out and grabbed it.
"Mudge, if we could just get ahotd of my duac..."
"Then you'd charm 'em all with your sweet songs.
mate. Unfortunately, there's only one way out o' 'ere, and 1 ain't about to
try it unless that mobile butcher shop out there swims off to take a crap or
somethin', Uh-oh." He started backing toward the far wall.
Jon-Tom looked around nervously. "What'is it, what's wrong?"
"Company."
Jon-Tom hurried to join him.
One by one, a trio of Plated Folk entered the chamber. Spend the majority of
their lives beneath the water they might, but they still had to go up to the
surface from time to time to breathe. Their bodies concealed lungs, not gills.
So they built air chambers to live in, like the imprisoning dome.
Two of them looked like twins- They wore some kind of thin, unrusted metal
armor. Jon-lbm thought it might have been tarnished copper, but he wasn't
certain. Each was about four feet in height.
The third was a tall, reedy character who looked something like a hydrotropic
walking stick but really resembled no insect Jon-Tom had ever seen before on
this world or his own. It wore no armor and, unlike its two stocky companions,
carried no weapons.
Instead, in one set of pincers it held several thin sheets of metal thick with
engraving.
This sickly seven-footer bent to confer with its aides. Together they appeared
to discuss the con-
tents of the metal sheets. Then it straightened to its full height and pointed
an accusatory finger in Jon-
Tom's direction.
"There is no question. He is the one."
"Is the one!" his two shadows declared loudly.
THB MOMENT or TVS MAOSCIAM 183
"Is the one what?" Jon-Tom asked innocently.
**The music wizard who called forth the fire horse and slew the Empress
Skrritch at theJo-Troom Gate.
You are he,"
Jon-Tom burst out laughing. "I'm who? Look, friend, I never heard of the
Jo-Troom Gate or the Empress
Skrritch or any of what you're talking about. My companion here and I are
wanderers in this land.
We're just a little while out from Quasequa, having ourselves a bit of
vacation. I swear I don't know what the devil you're talking about!"
"But you do know about lying. That much is evident," murmured the tall
speaker, "because you do it so forcefully. You are the wizard. There is no
point in denying it."
"But I do deny it. Forcefully, as you put it."
The pair of shorter insects moved toward him, drawing their short, curved
swords. Barbs protruded from the sicklelike cutting edges.
They lumbered past him and one put a sword against Mudge's throat. The otter
made no effort to dodge. There was nowhere to hide.
The fixed chitin could not convey much in the way of expression, but the
speaker's meaning was dear to Jon-Tom nonetheless. "Do you deny it still?"
Jon-Tom swallowed. "Maybe I did participate in the battle for the Gate, but so
did half the inhabit-
ants of the warmlands."
The sword pressed tight against Mudge's Adam's apple, trimming some of the
hair from his neck.
*And 1 have some faint recollection of perhaps possi-
bly maybe participating in some small way in the casting of some minor spell,"
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Jon-Tom added hastily.
The hooked scimitar withdrew and the otter breathed again.
"That is better," said the speaker.
"No need to take it so personal," Jon-Tom said, Alan Dean Foster
184
but the speaker ignored him, spoke instead to his two aides.
"This is a great day for this outpost of Empire. A
memorable day." The aides resheathed their swords.
Their chitin was a rich maroon color, black under-
neath and marked by thick black vertical stripes across the vestigial wing
cases. The speaker was yellow and black, with white spots on his cases.
"There will be decorations for all, and the war coun-
cil will be pleased. The Empress herself will com-
mend us."
"The Empress?" Jon-Tom blurted it out. There-
seemed no harm, since they were certain of his identity. "I thought Skrritch
was slain during the battle, as you just said."
"So she was. 1 refer to the Empress Isstrag, now reigning. She will preside
over your deaths. A small measure of revenge will be gained for the destruc-
tion you wrought at the Gate. I shall turn you over to the Dissembling Masters
myself. Our land-dwelling cousins will be most delighted."
"Your cousins? Then you didn't participate in the battle?"
"Distance precluded our lending aid to our cous-
ins in the Greendowns, and in any case the battle was waged upon the land. We
could have been of litde help. We regretted our exclusion. Now you have pro-
vided us with a means to make up for it."
"If you didn't join in the fight, then you've got nothing against us, and
we've got nothing against you," Jon-Tom argued desperately. "Why not let us go
on our way? We've no quarrel with the inhabit-
ants of Cugluch."
"Ah, but they have a lingering quarrel with you, wizard. Your dismemberment
will bring much honor on our isolated community. All will gain in prestige.
THE MOMENT OF TEE BSAGICUN
185
You must be kept alive and well for your delivery to the Masters"
"Look, guv'nor," said Mudge, "I know I don't 'ave a 'ole lot o' leverage 'ere, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]