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. The cold s not the problem, Akki said. I& I can t swim.Jakkin was silent for a moment, watching the dragon s head disappearing into the dark beyond. Maybe there s some other way around, some sort of ledge or path  Akki said.:,We don t have time, Jakkin said. Auricle& she s getting away. Then you swim after her, Jakkin, and I ll keep looking for another way and follow along after. Hervoice was thin. I don t want to leave you, Jakkin said. Go! Akki gave him a push.He stumbled backward into the water, which was colder than he d expected, then he turned andsplashed noisily after the dragon, his clothing slowing him down but not so much as to take him below.The sound of his swimming drowned out everything else.Once or twice he went under, but kept up hisstroke.The water had a flat, metallic taste.When he opened his eyes under the water it was too dark tosee anything.Blindly, he swam on.The lake was not very large and he was on the other side quickly.But when he turned around the cavebehind him was black.He couldn t see Akki at all. Akkkkkkkkkkki, he called out.The sounds bounced crazily off the cave walls and it was some time before it was quiet again.At lastthere came a tinny cry, neither plea nor call. Go on, said the voice.Or at least Jakkin thought that s what it sounded like.He mouthed the wordsback:  Go on.He tried to send to her, but there was no response.All he received was a fuzzy static, a crackling thatsputtered across his mind as if the water had somehow damaged his ability to receive.He shivered, morefrom fear than cold, then looked back over his shoulder to the passage where the dragon haddisappeared. She said to go on, he urged himself.Then he hesitated for another long moment before he plunged intothe passage after the worm.chapter 16STATIC STILL CRACKLED through Jakkin s mind, blanking out even the lightest of sendings, but hecould track the dragon by the trail of large puddles in the middle of three tunnels leading away from thelake.Jakkin searched his pockets frantically for a marker to leave for Akki.Finding none, he tore off apocket instead and dropped it on the floor of the cave.It was the best he could do.The middle tunnel curved downward at a steep slope, but it, too, was lit with patches ofphosphorescence.They were at such regular intervals, Jakkin wondered if they had been placed there. Question number twelve, he thought grimly.The tunnel took one last abrupt turning, and then, suddenly, he could see light ahead.It wasn t the brightwhite light of outdoors, but rather a flickering reddish glow.For a moment he wondered if he should waitfor Akki to catch up to him.He turned and looked over his shoulder, straining into the darkness behind,but he couldn t see her.In fact, he couldn t see anything.For a moment he listened, but his crackle-filledmind reached nothing.The only way to go was forward, so he edged slowly toward the red light.As he got closer he heard a kind of steady growl above the mindcrackling.It came from the samedirection as the light.He moved forward again and began to distinguish two separate noises, one a lowclanging and the other an echo.The closer he got, the more he became mesmerized by the light andsound.After so many hours in the cave, the color and noise both assaulted and drew him.Finally,overwhelmed by it all, he stopped, crouched down, and put his hands up over his ears.He squeezed hiseyes tight until white sparks seemed to jump around in front of them.For a long time he squatted, unmoving.Then slowly his mind cleared, as if he were waking up and knewhe was waking, but wasn t yet shed of a dream.He opened his eyes, took his hands away from his ears,and stood.His knees gave a protesting creak.The scene before him was as odd as anything he d gotten from the dragon.It looked as if it were asending he couldn t read properly.He was on the far end of a large cavern lit by flames from a central pitthat was as wide across as the Narakka River.Sitting on a grillwork over the flames were large potsfilled with something that glowed now red and now shadow.Above the pots, on an overhang of rock,were half a dozen leaning figures stirring the pots with long sticks.Were they men or not-men? Auricle s puzzlement became his own.Men and not-men.These creatureshad a man s form, muscular and stockier than anyone Jakkin had ever known.But there was somethingreally wrong with the shape.They were much too broad in the shoulder, much too short in the leg.Menand not-men.One of the strange, stocky creatures saw Jakkin and pointed at him.Without a sound the rest of them alllooked up at once.Jakkin felt his head suddenly filled with strings of picturequestions.Like the sending of dragons, thequestions were wordless and yet completely understandable. Who you? The thoughts came in sharp stabs of light. You?You? Who you? It was not one mind but a number of them asking the question.He could feel thedifferences as clearly as if they d been individual voices.Jakkin shouted at them across the pit, not yet trusting his mind, needing to feel the precision of words inhis mouth.Akki was right about that. I am Jakkin.Jakkin Stewart.From Sarkkhan s Nursery.Bondsman and trainer.Master now. He felt no need to disguise who he was.Surely these creaturesknew nothing about the Rokk Pit.Unaccountably, his hand went to his chest, his fingers fumbling for thebond bag that had hung there for so many years.Then he gave a short, staccato laugh.None of thatseemed to mean anything to them.He d try another tack. I am Jakkin Stewart of the mountains.Out ofHeart s Blood.Who are you?That seemed to reach them.They put down their sticks and looked at one another, gesturing wildly butstill not speaking aloud.Then, as if on a signal, they all turned and faced him, staring.Their eyes, evenfrom so far away, seemed to glow like an animal s in the dark.Jakkin felt his mind fill up again until he felt it would overflow, for the sending was so loud andoverpowering, he couldn t move.It was like Akki s first sendings multiplied a hundredfold.Hot points ofsizzling lights danced in his brain.How long he stood there, stupefied, he couldn t have said, but suddenly he felt a painful slap on his cheekand he could see and move again, his mind cleared.In front of him stood the man who had delivered theblow, arm still upraised.A man.Definitely.Stocky, broad-shouldered, hulking, but unquestionably aman.He was stripped down to a skin loincloth, his feet in leather sandals, his chest hairy, his headsmooth.But a man.Despite the stinging cheek, Jakkin smiled at him.The man was a full head shorter than he was. I told you who I was, Jakkin said. Who are you?The man raised his hand again.This time Jakkin saw the blow as well as felt it, yet he couldn t move fromit or respond in kind, for at the same time a ringing admonition leaped into his mind. Do not krriah, youngling.You not child.Still you give child s krriah.Be man.Bewildered, Jakkin felt himself cast loose of this second mindspell.He put his hand to his cheek.Hecould still feel the heat of the blow beneath his fingers. I Makk [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]