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.She guessed that it had vanished the moment she hit the water off the stern of the Anvil.That water was so cold! The shock had just changed everything.Suddenly she had wanted nothing more than to live!She had swum after the ship, but it had continued sailing away from her, and no one responded to her cries for help.And then, alone in the sea, she had swum until she could swim no more and she simply floated, tossing up and down on the waves while lying on her back and using her hands and legs as little as possible.She understood that death was closing in.And then the miracle, a small boat under a triangular sail.Rough hands had hauled her out and wrapped her in that warm blanket, stinking of fish.She'd stared at them, and they had stared back at her, both sides appalled by the differences they saw in each other.But they did not kill her or throw her back in the water, and later she slumped into the sleep of utter exhaustion.When she woke up they fed her a bowl of hot porridge and sour butter.She'd slept again, and finally she had awoken at dockside and entered a new and completely strange world.In a brief time she had seen so much, the buildings, the streets of a town that were obviously ancient and well made, that she was left overwhelmed.Then they had brought her to a dark room, and all she was left with were the memories, those images! Those buildings, with their fantastic detail.Each housefront was faced with stone set in exquisite patterns.The amount of work involved was simply enormous.Since all she'd had on when she jumped ship was a shift, they brought her clean, dry clothing.They opened seams and reworked them on the spot, and she watched them with absolute fascination.She liked their neat, quick ways of moving, their big-eyed expressions.Once, at Uncle Direkk's ranch in the mountains, she had seen monkeys taking ripe grain from a field.Their hands and fingers went through the grain with the same speed and meticulousness.Most of the time she dozed on the little pallet they had provided.They freed her hands after a while and brought her food twice a day.Usually it was more porridge, with butter and salt.Sometimes they brought steamed vegetables and seaweed.They were not hostile, nor did they try to talk with her.For elimination they provided a bucket with a tight lid.She was forced to reflect that they were in every way the civilized equals of her own world.While she was there she had become aware of a slow-building tension outside.Then had come the first angry crowd.She'd heard them, shouting and banging on the door.It sounded like there were a lot of them, and it didn't take much imagination for her to guess what they wanted.More guards came and went outside her door while she crouched in that room, terrified.When she thought of what the warriors had done to these folk she wanted to weep.And the memory of the hot, roasted meats brought down to the women's deck made her want to vomit.She would never believe in the Great God again.He Who Eats was a disgusting atavism, and she renounced Him completely.The priests were all liars.Then came that long night when the mob came back and raged outside the building for hours.She had expected them to break in and kill her, but they did not.After hours of shouting and banging on the door, the mob finally quieted and left.And then the next day Thru Gillo came to her cell, and everything had changed.She sensed a strength in him which only intensified while they fled through the wilderness.He was a quiet one.The guards outside her door had talked all the time, great chatterers she thought.Thru was not like that, but he was persistent in working on learning new words.She felt an enormous thirst in him for communication, and she wished to respond.Thru returned after a couple of hours, breaking into her ruminations.He brought a donkey cart, which he pulled off the road down below her position in the scrub.She climbed down from her hiding place."Come, the King wants to see you."She climbed into the back of the cart, lay down, and he covered her with a blanket.Back at the city gates the guards paid him no mind.Through the city they went.She heard the sounds of many citizens at work, the clop of donkeys and the rattle of cart wheels, some hammering and a loud roar from some unknown source.Then these sounds died away and were replaced by echoes as if they were in a large walled enclosure.The cart came to a halt.The blanket was pulled back, and Thru helped her out and guided her through a door and up some stairs.There was a narrow passageway and a door to a large room, plastered and painted white.The red-tiled floor was covered with large woven mats.Furniture of a consistent, neat design stood here and there.Figures stood up, pushing back their chairs [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]