[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
circle around them. Where the lines joined, he sprinkled more sani
, then stepped back.
"Now watch," Spart said as they gathered and sat in the middle of the circle.
"See what even a young
Sidhe can do in the Realm."
Biri reached out with his long, muscle-knotted arms and touched a spot
directly before him with his index finger. The muscles in his face tightened
and his lips moved silently. The rock began to glow, and presently the cold
was dispelled by a steady pulse of heat. Michael was mesmerized by the glowing
spot.
"Will I ever be able to do that?" he asked Spart in a whisper.
She shook her head, not in definite denial, but as if the question irritated
her. Michael leaned back, frowning.
Well, will I
? he asked himself. He held his hands out to the warmth. He was thirsty he
had swallowed some dust and it tasted like the bitter part of a bad apple
and hungry, but he knew better than to ask about food.
Presently his legs cramped and he unfolded them and lay back. The others
remained sitting, staring at the glow. He leaned on his elbow, stretching his
legs behind Spart. His eyelids began to droop.
He awoke, his whole body jerking and trembling. His eyes opened and he became
aware that he was standing, the toes of his shoes on the edge of the circle
Bin had drawn. He faced away from the heat into darkness. Something urged him
to cross over the line, but he couldn't.
In the fixed starglow, Michael made out a purple shape beyond the circle. Each
time he blinked, it changed form and appeared closer. The battle between the
Page 69
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
urges to step over the line and to stay inside the circle jerked him harder
now; his legs and arms twitched like marionette limbs in the hands of an inept
puppeteer.
The purplish shape was close enough now to stand face to face with him, but it
had no face. The shape consisted of smooth rings of varying sizes stacked atop
each other, with several more rings gliding up and down the thing's exterior.
Michael blinked and the shape became an assemblage of irregular rounded blobs.
He blinked again, and the shape was his mother, smiling at him and holding out
her arms.
Again, and it was Helena, waving for him to follow her as she stepped back.
"It's quite obvious, isn't it?" Biri said, standing beside him. "You haven't
met one of these before?"
Michael shook his head. "What is it?"
"An abortion. A creation too inconsistent to match up with the Realm."
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%2...wer%2001%20-%20The%20Infinity%
20Concerto.html (66 of 198) [5/21/03 12:42:32 AM]
Bear, Greg - Songs of Earth and Power Vol. 1 - The Infinity Concerto
"One of Adonna's mistakes?"
"Gods don't make mistakes," Biri said. "What are you going to do?"
Michael laughed hysterically. "What should I do?"
"Do you wish to see it as it really is?"
"Should I? I mean no, no."
"I've seen them many times," Biri said. "They are mostly harmless to a Sidhe,
even to capable Breeds.
Only humans are susceptible. It was the power of the Isomage that liberated
them from their deep tombs.
The Blasted Plain has much worse to offer."
"Can it hurt me?"
"It can do worse than kill you. Whenever a human child is bom, one of these is
liberated. The child has no reservoir of waiting souls from which to draw, so
its search allows certain patterns within one of these to enter the Pact
Lands. The child is branded. The same could happen to you if you slept here
and did not have a circle."
"You mean, I'd be possessed?"
"These are not intelligences. They are abortions. You would be more eaten than
possessed. Your soul is a rare thing here, heavily armored within your body.
What happens to it when they crack that armor is not explainable in your
languages."
Michael tried to retreat from the edge of the circle, but couldn't. "I'm
stuck."
"It cannot hurt you in here. You can play with it, in a sense; it can no more
leave you than you can back away. So you can learn from it."
"I don't want to learn. I want it to go away and leave me alone."
"A Sidhe uses the abortions to prove his interior "
"I don't care!" Michael shouted. "I'm not a Sidhe! Make it go away."
"I can't," Biri said. "Only you can release it." The novice walked away and
squatted near the glowing rock.
"Spart," Michael said, "help me!"
There was no reply, and he couldn't turn his head to see the Crane Women. The
shape now resembled
Eleuth. She looked very sad, as if she had lost something vital and he was
responsible. She looked down.
She became a cylindrical something, lines of light crawling up its surface
like worms, leaving trails of fire behind.
He tried to find a clue within himself. They wouldn't leave him in this fix
(he hoped) if they didn't believe he had some way of getting out of it. He had
to think it through___
No, in an emergency, thought would be too slow. What if humans had something
Page 70
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
to make up for their lack of magic, something instinctive? He searched,
waited, but the necessary remedy wouldn't come forth.
The cylinder split like a pared cucumber, revealing an interior compounded of
offal and tiny, unidentifiable skeletons. The bones of the skeletons linked
and spun, churning the fleshy parts into liquid, which streamed through the
lengthening slits and spattered on the dark ground. The segments turned into
slithering smooth snakes without discernible head or tail. They rolled into
spirals and the spirals lifted to vertical positions, then met at their edges.
They flowed into the shape of Arno Waltiri. He sat upright in a coffin,
sallow-fleshed, eyes open but dead and sunken. His mouth fell open abruptly
and music came out, sharp and painful. Michael's skin seemed to blister as the
music surrounded him. The corpse fell forward, draped over the lower half of
the coffin lid, and revealed another body behind it: his own.
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%2...wer%2001%20-%20The%20Infinity%
20Concerto.html (67 of 198) [5/21/03 12:42:32 AM]
Bear, Greg - Songs of Earth and Power Vol. 1 - The Infinity Concerto
"Wait," Michael protested. It was stealing all these images from inside him.
If he could stop the flow&
"Wait," the ragged Michael in the coffin mimicked, shaking its head from side
to side. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl exclamation.htw.pl
circle around them. Where the lines joined, he sprinkled more sani
, then stepped back.
"Now watch," Spart said as they gathered and sat in the middle of the circle.
"See what even a young
Sidhe can do in the Realm."
Biri reached out with his long, muscle-knotted arms and touched a spot
directly before him with his index finger. The muscles in his face tightened
and his lips moved silently. The rock began to glow, and presently the cold
was dispelled by a steady pulse of heat. Michael was mesmerized by the glowing
spot.
"Will I ever be able to do that?" he asked Spart in a whisper.
She shook her head, not in definite denial, but as if the question irritated
her. Michael leaned back, frowning.
Well, will I
? he asked himself. He held his hands out to the warmth. He was thirsty he
had swallowed some dust and it tasted like the bitter part of a bad apple
and hungry, but he knew better than to ask about food.
Presently his legs cramped and he unfolded them and lay back. The others
remained sitting, staring at the glow. He leaned on his elbow, stretching his
legs behind Spart. His eyelids began to droop.
He awoke, his whole body jerking and trembling. His eyes opened and he became
aware that he was standing, the toes of his shoes on the edge of the circle
Bin had drawn. He faced away from the heat into darkness. Something urged him
to cross over the line, but he couldn't.
In the fixed starglow, Michael made out a purple shape beyond the circle. Each
time he blinked, it changed form and appeared closer. The battle between the
Page 69
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
urges to step over the line and to stay inside the circle jerked him harder
now; his legs and arms twitched like marionette limbs in the hands of an inept
puppeteer.
The purplish shape was close enough now to stand face to face with him, but it
had no face. The shape consisted of smooth rings of varying sizes stacked atop
each other, with several more rings gliding up and down the thing's exterior.
Michael blinked and the shape became an assemblage of irregular rounded blobs.
He blinked again, and the shape was his mother, smiling at him and holding out
her arms.
Again, and it was Helena, waving for him to follow her as she stepped back.
"It's quite obvious, isn't it?" Biri said, standing beside him. "You haven't
met one of these before?"
Michael shook his head. "What is it?"
"An abortion. A creation too inconsistent to match up with the Realm."
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%2...wer%2001%20-%20The%20Infinity%
20Concerto.html (66 of 198) [5/21/03 12:42:32 AM]
Bear, Greg - Songs of Earth and Power Vol. 1 - The Infinity Concerto
"One of Adonna's mistakes?"
"Gods don't make mistakes," Biri said. "What are you going to do?"
Michael laughed hysterically. "What should I do?"
"Do you wish to see it as it really is?"
"Should I? I mean no, no."
"I've seen them many times," Biri said. "They are mostly harmless to a Sidhe,
even to capable Breeds.
Only humans are susceptible. It was the power of the Isomage that liberated
them from their deep tombs.
The Blasted Plain has much worse to offer."
"Can it hurt me?"
"It can do worse than kill you. Whenever a human child is bom, one of these is
liberated. The child has no reservoir of waiting souls from which to draw, so
its search allows certain patterns within one of these to enter the Pact
Lands. The child is branded. The same could happen to you if you slept here
and did not have a circle."
"You mean, I'd be possessed?"
"These are not intelligences. They are abortions. You would be more eaten than
possessed. Your soul is a rare thing here, heavily armored within your body.
What happens to it when they crack that armor is not explainable in your
languages."
Michael tried to retreat from the edge of the circle, but couldn't. "I'm
stuck."
"It cannot hurt you in here. You can play with it, in a sense; it can no more
leave you than you can back away. So you can learn from it."
"I don't want to learn. I want it to go away and leave me alone."
"A Sidhe uses the abortions to prove his interior "
"I don't care!" Michael shouted. "I'm not a Sidhe! Make it go away."
"I can't," Biri said. "Only you can release it." The novice walked away and
squatted near the glowing rock.
"Spart," Michael said, "help me!"
There was no reply, and he couldn't turn his head to see the Crane Women. The
shape now resembled
Eleuth. She looked very sad, as if she had lost something vital and he was
responsible. She looked down.
She became a cylindrical something, lines of light crawling up its surface
like worms, leaving trails of fire behind.
He tried to find a clue within himself. They wouldn't leave him in this fix
(he hoped) if they didn't believe he had some way of getting out of it. He had
to think it through___
No, in an emergency, thought would be too slow. What if humans had something
Page 70
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
to make up for their lack of magic, something instinctive? He searched,
waited, but the necessary remedy wouldn't come forth.
The cylinder split like a pared cucumber, revealing an interior compounded of
offal and tiny, unidentifiable skeletons. The bones of the skeletons linked
and spun, churning the fleshy parts into liquid, which streamed through the
lengthening slits and spattered on the dark ground. The segments turned into
slithering smooth snakes without discernible head or tail. They rolled into
spirals and the spirals lifted to vertical positions, then met at their edges.
They flowed into the shape of Arno Waltiri. He sat upright in a coffin,
sallow-fleshed, eyes open but dead and sunken. His mouth fell open abruptly
and music came out, sharp and painful. Michael's skin seemed to blister as the
music surrounded him. The corpse fell forward, draped over the lower half of
the coffin lid, and revealed another body behind it: his own.
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-%2...wer%2001%20-%20The%20Infinity%
20Concerto.html (67 of 198) [5/21/03 12:42:32 AM]
Bear, Greg - Songs of Earth and Power Vol. 1 - The Infinity Concerto
"Wait," Michael protested. It was stealing all these images from inside him.
If he could stop the flow&
"Wait," the ragged Michael in the coffin mimicked, shaking its head from side
to side. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]