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.Better to wait this weather out, he declared, than to court disaster.Everyone accepted the newsstoically and went about their business.There was no help for it, after all.It was unnerving, being unableto see anything no sky, no sea, no colors of any sort.Not even the cries of seabirds or the splash offish penetrated the blanket of gloom that enfolded them.It was as if they had been consigned to inlimboexistence.It was as if they were alone in the world.Men gathered at the railing and stared out at thegloom in silent groups, searching for something recognizable.Even the Rovers seemed disconcerted bythe immensity of the fog.Off the coast of the Blue Divide and the Wing Hove, fog lasted only a day ortwo before the winds moved it along.Here, it seemed as if it might last forever.The fourth day dragged into the fifth and sixth with no change.It had been almost a week since they hadseen anything but the airship and each other.The silence was becoming unnerving.Efforts at liveningthings up with music and song seemed only to exacerbate the problem.As soon as the playing andsinging stopped, the silence returned, thick and immutable.The Rover crew had nothing to do while theship was at rest.Even the training sessions for the Elven Hunters had been shortened as everyone beganto spend more and more time staring off into the void.It was on the sixth night, while Bek and Quentin stood at the aft railing talking about the mist thatperiodically enveloped the Highlands of Leah, that the boy heard something unfamiliar break the silence.He stopped talking at once, motioning Quentin to be quiet.Together, they listened.The sound cameagain, a kind of creaking that reminded Bek of the ship s rigging working against spars and cleats.But itdid not come from the Jerle Shannara.It came from somewhere behind her, off in the mist.Baffled, thecousins stared at each other, then off into the gloom once more.Again they heard the noise, and nowBek turned to see if anyone else was aware of it.Spanner Frew was in the pilot box, his dark, burly formclearly visible as he stood looking over his shoulder at them.Redden Alt Mer had come on deck, as well,and was standing just below the shipwright, confusion mirrored on his strong face.A handful of othersstood clustered about the railings on either side.A long silence descended as everyone waited for some further sound to reach their ears.Bek bent close to Quentin. What do you think ?Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlHe gasped sharply and choked on the rest of what he was going to say.A huge black shape hove intoview out of the mist, a massive shadow that materialized all at once and filled the whole of the horizon.Itwas right on top of them, so close that there was barely time to react.Bek stumbled back, dragging atQuentin s arm as the black shape towered out of the gloom.Shouts of warning went up, and the shrill ofa Roc rose above them.The cousins went backwards off the low rise of the aft deck and landed in ajarring heap below as the black shape struck the Jerle Shannara in a crash of metal and splintering ofwood.The airship lurched and shuddered in response, and the air was filled with cries and curses.Everything spiraled into instant chaos.Bek rolled to his feet to find the phantom shape locked against theJerle Shannara s aft battering rams and realized to his shock that he was looking at another airship.Theimpact of the collision had sent both ships spiraling in a slow, clockwise motion that made it difficult forBek to keep his feet.One of the Rocs soared past him, lifting out of the gloom, a silent phantom thatappeared and was gone again almost immediately.Then something cloaked and hooded rose off the aft decking and lurched toward him.Bek stared at it insurprise, mesmerized by its unexpected appearance.He did not even have the presence of mind to reachfor his weapons as it approached.He just stood there.The shape took form, and the dark opening of thehood lifted into the gray misted light to reveal a reptilian face dominated by lidless eyes and a twistedmouth.Clawed hands lifted toward him, gesturing. Little peopless, the creature whispered.Bek froze, terrified. Sstay sstill now, it urged softly, hypnotically, and reached for him. No! he cried out frantically.He did so without thinking, solely in response to the danger.But he used his voice as he had that night on Mephitic when he had gone into the castle ruins with TrulsRohk, infusing it with the magic he had discovered there.He felt the force of his words strike at thecreature, causing it to flinch with the impact.Then Quentin was yanking him away and leaping into the creature s path.The Sword of Leah cutthrough the darkness in a single, glittering stroke, severing the creature s head from its body.The creaturecollapsed without a sound, and its blood sprayed everywhere.Other creatures of the same look appeared at the railing of the phantom airship, crowding through thegloom and night to look down at them, the glint of their weapons visible.Shouts rose from the Roversand Elves, and they surged out of the darkness behind the cousins, their own weapons drawn.A hail ofmissiles showered down off the other ship, and a few sent members of the Jerle Shannara to the deck,writhing in pain.Quentin pulled Bek behind a stack of boxes below the rise of the aft deck, yelling at himto stay down and cover himself up.A moment later both airships lurched anew, and in a grinding of metal and a crunching of wood,unlocked and separated.Slowly, ponderously, the leviathans drifted apart, their occupants still gatheredat the railings to stare silently across the void at each other, faceless shadows in the mist. Stations! Redden Alt Mer roared from the pilot box.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlHands working furiously on the controls, he dropped the main sail to gather what ambient light he could,unhooded the diapson crystals to give the airship power, and swung her about to face the gloom intowhich the other ship had disappeared.His Rover crew scattered across the decking to lock down theradian draws, and the Elven Hunters, weapons at the ready, dropped quickly into the fighting ports.Everyone was moving at once as Bek climbed back to his feet. What happened? Bek tried to ask Quentin, but his cousin was gone as well.With a quick glance at the fallen monster in front of him, Bek raced over to join Big Red.The RoverCaptain was still shouting out instructions, windburned face grim with determination as he searched thegloom.Bek looked with him.For just an instant, the other ship reappeared, huge and spectral in thenight, three masts cutting through the mist, pontoons and decking slicing across the haze.Then it wasgone again. That s Black Moclips! Bek heard Redden Alt Mer gasp in disbelief [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]