[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
sure if the curses are my own.
Song cries out in the next room, as if she feels everything
I do. I go into the room and she hurls a piece of clothing at me. "Get out!
Get away from me, you failure, leave me alone!" Her voice is tremulous with
pain, but her eyes are like obsidian. She clutches the fire globe against her
breast.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
"I didn't ask for this!" I snarl, sullen with exasperation.
"I came here to find my brothers, not to solve your problems."
"Liar!" She stalks back and forth, her robe flapping open so that I glimpse a
flash of breast or thigh as she moves. "You couldn't wait to get your hands on
me. You wanted me--everyone wants me, because I have power.
They'd do anything to have me. But they're all afraid of me except you." Her
hands touch her breasts; I look away. "You weren't afraid ... I thought you
were different.
Page 125
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
But you're not the man who came here--"
"What do you want from me?" I shout furiously.
"You infected me! You wanted a crazy man, and that's what you've got! Tell me
what the bloody hell you--"
I break off.
Her eyes are glazing . . . she has gone into Transfer.
"Song?" I stare at her. For a moment I can't even remember what question I've
asked. And who have I
called to answer it--
"Help . . . me," she whispers. "I want . . . help me.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Order me."
The Lake roars into my mind, her voice echoes inside
i73
JOAND. VINGE
me, until I can barely speak. "Order--you to do--what?
Who are you? Where are you?"
"Lost . . ." she moans. (Lost lost lost.) "Save me. . . ."
"Damn it--" I dig my fists into my eyes until I see stars. I know this is
important, desperately important.
But the Lake is all around me. "The Lake? Are you a prisoner of the Lake?"
"No . . . Lake. Here."
"Where? What--" I try to think. "What are you?"
"Lake. Lake." (Lake lake lake . . .)
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
My breath catches. The Lake is speaking to me, through Song. "But what are
you?" I shout, shouting down the echoes inside my head.
"Your servant... Lake." Song's eyes are vacant, helpless.
I turn away, shaking my head, wanting to shake her.
"How can I help you?"
"Ask . . ." she gasps, "ask the right questions."
What are you, what do you want from me, how can I help you--? "I can't think
of anything else!" And unspeakable anguish fills me.
Song falls out of Transfer into a sobbing heap. "Please, please . . . I" she
cries, as if her heart is breaking. "I can't
Page 126
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
... I can't . . . bear it. Help me--"
I fall on my knees beside her and take her in my arms, holding her against my
heart, because her pain is mine, as bitter and unstoppable as tears. "I'm
sorry, I'm sorry
. . ."I groan, to her, to the raving monster that holds us captive. "I tried."
Seeing now that she is as much its
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
prisoner as I am. "Why does it do this to you ... to us?
By all the gods, what does it want from us--tell me, Song!" I do shake her
now, to make her listen.
She looks at me in fear, as if she thinks she will fall into Transfer again.
"Don't!" I shout. She doesn't. "It's so alone--" Her voice trembles. "There's
no one else who hears it--not through a thousand years. So it keeps
i74
WORLD S END
me here ... I keep it here ..." She wipes at her eyes.
"It's lost in time. It needs ..." She caresses the fire globe that lies in her
lap.
"What?" I ask.
"You were supposed to know! You're supposed to
... to know."
"Why? Why me? Why not--Goldbeard, or somebody
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
else? Why not you?"
"I can't! Nobody can answer it; nobody knows what it wants, nobody knows what
it is! ... I'm lost. I can't hold on to anything. It takes everything away
from me
. . ." She clings to me, burying her face against my neck.
Her whole body shudders. "It's eating me alive."
"Gods...." I wipe my nose, sniveling with self-pity. I
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
