[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
I suspect there is not as much in here as I expected.
Zarel lowered his head, saying nothing.
If that is true, you know I ll be back sooner rather than later.
Why not check now? Garth said quietly.
Kuthuman looked over at Garth, his features troubled.
Later. And he said the words coldly, looking back at Zarel, who gazed at
Garth with unconcealed hatred.
It is time to go, the Walker announced, and he fixed Garth with an icy
stare.
This will be amusing.
He raised his hands high.
Garth felt as if an opaque screen had been drawn around him, the world beyond
drifting off into a hazy, fog-covered shadow. Sound distorted as if the mob
were shouting from down the end of a long underground cavern. The world
darkened. He looked up and the sun, which had been blazing with such hot
intensity, was now a dull red, darkening into night.
And then he began to fall. His stomach tightened and he suppressed the urge
to cry out with fear, wondering for an instant if he were already dead. The
ground was no longer beneath his feet, yet he felt no rushing of wind, no
sense of flying. The opaque shadow drew in tighter, all going dark. Again he
looked up at the sun. It was gone. Overhead there was a narrow cone of
light, of brilliant purple, and out of it streaks of light snapped past. Yet
it was almost as if he did not see the light, but merely sensed it. He wanted
to reach out and touch the lights yet knew that somehow they were impossibly
Page 152
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
far away.
He looked down at his feet. A small disk of dark red was drawing in upon
itself, shrinking into a pinpoint, becoming nothing, the lights streaking past
him shifting in an instant from purple to red, then disappearing.
Garth felt a surging of power, a sudden delight coursing through him, as if
the infinite universe had been reduced to a toy that now rested in the palm of
his hand. He reveled in the power, allowing it to course through his soul.
Time lost all meaning, all sense, and he was not sure if a second had
transpired or aeons.
Now you know the power of the infinite, a voice whispered to him.
For the first time Garth was aware that there was a presence with him. It was
dark, foreboding, and yet for this instant he could sense an almost benign
amusement, as if the Walker was an indulgent old man, showing new wonders to a
child.
The power you wielded is but nothing compared to what I am.
The light ahead shifted, drifting out of purple into blues, greens an infinite
variety of a million hues. He felt as if he were soaring into the heart of a
sun that was exploding into rainbows of fire.
Garth felt as if he could reach out and, with the flick of a finger, set suns
spinning on their courses, that with the palms of his hands he could mold and
shape worlds, and with his breath set the firmament swirling. He felt as if
he had become a god and the power of it was all-consuming, reaching into his
soul with its seductive strength.
He laughed, his voice echoing through the night.
The sensation of falling stopped and he felt a pressure on the soles of his
feet. All was dark and then, ever so slowly, a hazy light formed, out of
focus, as if he looked up into the sunlight from the depths of the sea. The
light swirled, sparkled, and then took form.
He was standing in a shady grove, the trees around him reaching up into a
crystalline blue sky flecked with high, drifting clouds. The air was rich
with a heady scent of springtime flowers. Tropical birds of red, green,
yellow, and dazzling white darted past, their songs echoing like a heavenly
choir.
Garth turned, smiling, watching them pass.
It is like paradise, Garth whispered, and he was surprised that his voice
was knotted, a tear blinding him.
And then the memory came. It was warm, soft, laden with the gentle light of
childhood. It was the garden of his father s winter palace, far in the
southlands. He looked around closely. There on the green grass was a
favorite toy, a wooden rocking horse upon which he would ride and dream of
glorious charges. Next to it was a stuffed mammoth, the right tusk gone, the
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]