[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
called for at the moment, she feels. Besides, she wants to be alone with her
thoughts, and with the direct link she certainly does not feel alone.
Linkage probabilities between the man in black at the temple of the Black One
and the code file Interest Black'? The Throne Room is silent.
Linkage between the recently observed man in black and the Black One
variable, depending on validity of Kyre-Brackell hypothesis and associated
Auroran phenomena. Range from thirty percent to eighty percent.
Linkage between man in black and code file Interest Black' approaches unity.
Linkage between the Black One and code file cannot be calculated. Further
query? The Viceroy purses her lips once more. Why would there be any linkage
between the man in black and the Black One? But why would her sources on
Aurore merely have suggested her agents assassinate the man in black? How had
he managed the failure? For that alone he deserved to live, at least until she
could discover if he had a certain method for beating the Guild. That she
could use. She frowns. Why was his bearing familiar?
At last, she shakes her head. Maybe the familiarity was only an illusion, a
similarity to someone else.
XLIX
Rydal and Commoron drift across the Lake of Dreams in a swanboat, a common
swanboat with second-degree time-stretching and pleasure-lifting intensifiers.
They thus prolong each instant into hours, trying to grasp the feeling of
eternal life and youth.
The swanboats on the Lake of Dreams are all the two will know of long life or
of centuries as frequent as sunrises. Rydal and Commoron are poor, limited to
extensive wardrobes, limited in travel to the grand city of Karnak, limited to
one now, waiting for a death that will arrive long before the Viceroy has
skimmed another millennium down the timetrack.
I saw a streak of black along the far shore.
No one walks that shore, Commoron. That's from the ruins of death.
That's why I noticed it.
You shouldn't be noticing such things now.
Why doesn't the Viceroy, persists Commoron, just level the Black One's
temple? She finishes with the symbol of the looped cross.
Because, answers her lover, the poor Rydal, the Black One remains trapped
within the temple, like you're trapped within my boat.
Rydal ignores the fact that the swanboat is not his, as youths have done in
all times and in all cultures. No one wears black on Karnak, Commoron muses.
Then you didn't see a streak of black, he responds, before kissing her hand
and drawing her to him.
The swanboats, including the one containing Rydal and Commoron, circle the
Lake of Dreams on their preprogrammed patterns, twining their intricate paths
Page 91
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
for poor lovers clutching a moment out of time.
And yet. . . do those poor lovers know something in their blindness?
They do not. It only seems so, particularly to gods who are searching for
humanity in a race that has never really had it.
Martel knows about the swanboats and favors them with a glance as he walks the
ruinshore side of the Lake of Dreams, the side he had never walked as a
student. He inhales the too-strong scent of trilia and novamella that crosses
the water from the pleasure groves on the opposite side, beyond the dreaming
couples in the swanboats.
Too much of a scent, like too much power, often has the wrong effect.
He smiles at the thought, but the smile is not a pleasant one, for his eyes
are cold.
The Viceroy's Palace is at the far end of the lake, where the dark water
lightens into the brilliant blue bay and where the sun always shines, even
when it has set.
The swanboats do not go nearly that far, milling around as they do near the
end of the Avenue of Emperors, not nearly far enough from a small square and a
jet-black temple that has resisted a millennium and more of the Empire's best
weapons.
The temple is guarded only because it could not be destroyed, not without
taking most of the city with it, and neither the Regent nor the Grand Duke had
wished that, not when the Park of Summer had already been destroyed by the
Dark One and the Tree of Darkness.
The Dark One has not been seen since, excepting reports that He has reappeared
on Aurore and will return to His true believers. Or reports that he has
appeared on Tinhorn, or Mardreis, or Sileorn, or any one of a hundred worlds
outside the mainstream of the Empire. In the interim, neither age nor weapons [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl exclamation.htw.pl
called for at the moment, she feels. Besides, she wants to be alone with her
thoughts, and with the direct link she certainly does not feel alone.
Linkage probabilities between the man in black at the temple of the Black One
and the code file Interest Black'? The Throne Room is silent.
Linkage between the recently observed man in black and the Black One
variable, depending on validity of Kyre-Brackell hypothesis and associated
Auroran phenomena. Range from thirty percent to eighty percent.
Linkage between man in black and code file Interest Black' approaches unity.
Linkage between the Black One and code file cannot be calculated. Further
query? The Viceroy purses her lips once more. Why would there be any linkage
between the man in black and the Black One? But why would her sources on
Aurore merely have suggested her agents assassinate the man in black? How had
he managed the failure? For that alone he deserved to live, at least until she
could discover if he had a certain method for beating the Guild. That she
could use. She frowns. Why was his bearing familiar?
At last, she shakes her head. Maybe the familiarity was only an illusion, a
similarity to someone else.
XLIX
Rydal and Commoron drift across the Lake of Dreams in a swanboat, a common
swanboat with second-degree time-stretching and pleasure-lifting intensifiers.
They thus prolong each instant into hours, trying to grasp the feeling of
eternal life and youth.
The swanboats on the Lake of Dreams are all the two will know of long life or
of centuries as frequent as sunrises. Rydal and Commoron are poor, limited to
extensive wardrobes, limited in travel to the grand city of Karnak, limited to
one now, waiting for a death that will arrive long before the Viceroy has
skimmed another millennium down the timetrack.
I saw a streak of black along the far shore.
No one walks that shore, Commoron. That's from the ruins of death.
That's why I noticed it.
You shouldn't be noticing such things now.
Why doesn't the Viceroy, persists Commoron, just level the Black One's
temple? She finishes with the symbol of the looped cross.
Because, answers her lover, the poor Rydal, the Black One remains trapped
within the temple, like you're trapped within my boat.
Rydal ignores the fact that the swanboat is not his, as youths have done in
all times and in all cultures. No one wears black on Karnak, Commoron muses.
Then you didn't see a streak of black, he responds, before kissing her hand
and drawing her to him.
The swanboats, including the one containing Rydal and Commoron, circle the
Lake of Dreams on their preprogrammed patterns, twining their intricate paths
Page 91
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
for poor lovers clutching a moment out of time.
And yet. . . do those poor lovers know something in their blindness?
They do not. It only seems so, particularly to gods who are searching for
humanity in a race that has never really had it.
Martel knows about the swanboats and favors them with a glance as he walks the
ruinshore side of the Lake of Dreams, the side he had never walked as a
student. He inhales the too-strong scent of trilia and novamella that crosses
the water from the pleasure groves on the opposite side, beyond the dreaming
couples in the swanboats.
Too much of a scent, like too much power, often has the wrong effect.
He smiles at the thought, but the smile is not a pleasant one, for his eyes
are cold.
The Viceroy's Palace is at the far end of the lake, where the dark water
lightens into the brilliant blue bay and where the sun always shines, even
when it has set.
The swanboats do not go nearly that far, milling around as they do near the
end of the Avenue of Emperors, not nearly far enough from a small square and a
jet-black temple that has resisted a millennium and more of the Empire's best
weapons.
The temple is guarded only because it could not be destroyed, not without
taking most of the city with it, and neither the Regent nor the Grand Duke had
wished that, not when the Park of Summer had already been destroyed by the
Dark One and the Tree of Darkness.
The Dark One has not been seen since, excepting reports that He has reappeared
on Aurore and will return to His true believers. Or reports that he has
appeared on Tinhorn, or Mardreis, or Sileorn, or any one of a hundred worlds
outside the mainstream of the Empire. In the interim, neither age nor weapons [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]