[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Yael-mri sighed. "You don't make it easy." She pinched at an
earlobe, lifted her eyes to the carving above the door a striding
macai. "I have a quest for the pair of you if you choose to accept it."
Hern continued to look bland, heavy lids drooping over his pale eyes. "Quest?"
he murmured.
"Perhaps an ally for you, Hern." Yael-mri's voice was dry; her mouth drew
momentarily into a small pursed smile.
"You don't have many of those."
Serroi saw a muscle twitch at the corner of Hern's mouth; he didn't like being
reminded of how isolated he was or how bad his chances were of doing anything
at all about Floarin's usurpation.
Page 16
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"I'm listening." His mask in place again, he looked sleepy and a little
stupid.
Yael-mri looked grim. She splayed her fingers out on the table, stared down at
them, watching them tremble, forcing them still, obviously reluctant to
continue. There was a strained silence in the office for several
minutes, then she spoke. "There exists a being of very uncertain nature but
great power who calls himself Coyote." She rubbed her long thumbs across the
glossy wood. "He . . . ummm . . . pro-nouns are a difficulty. Coyote is
neither male nor female nor . . .
I'm blathering. Dom Hern, Coyote is capable of disrupt-ing anything the
Nearga-nor do. In ... well, let it be his ... in his own way, he is greater
than the Nearga-nor and the Biserica combined. But he's capricious and
inclined more to mischief than constructive aid to either side in this
battle of ours. Coyote ... he picked up that name in his travels
elsewhere;
Maiden alone knows what he means by it, but he told me it fitted him more
nearly than any other he tried on . . . Coyote is capricious, as I said; he is
also intensely senti-mental, intensely curious, inclined to poke his finger
into events just to see what happens and inclined also to weep co-piously over
the havoc he creates. And he pays his debts, though more often than not with
disastrous results. Remem-ber that, Dom, as you decide. However, if you can
find him, if you can coax him into letting you look into his mirror, if you
can make the right choice among the choices he offers you, then you will have
the best chance you'll ever get to take back the mijloc. In doing this you
will be, in effect, de-
fending us in the Valley, so. . . ." She contemplated Hern, shook her head.
Impossible to tell what he was thinking, to know if he was thinking at all,
Serroi thought. She watched them both, amused at the antagonism between
them two dominants maneuvering for points like sicamars jousting for a hunting
range and startled at the embarrassment both obvi-ous and incongruous on
Yael-mri's face each time she men-tioned the oddly named character.
Coyote. A strange word, I wonder where he picked that one up, I wonder if I'll
ever know.
She scratched thoughtfully at the side of her nose.
Hern opened his eyes, raised his brows.
Yael-mri's tight smile wavered. "Coyote owes me a favor." A faint
color strained her face, the tip of her nose reddened. "As the defense
of the Biserica is involved you may use my name once you find him. This might
catch his interest long enough to gain you a hearing. As I said, he pays his
debts. I promise nothing, but I do swear to you, Dom Hern, that there is no
other way that offers any comparable chance of defeating the Nearga-nor. I
can tell you where he sometimes shows his ... um . . . face when he's not
elsewhere; what you make of him will be up to you."
Hern blinked lazily. "Both of us, you said. The meie is coming with me?"
Yael-mri stiffened. "If she so chooses," she said after a mo-ment, each word
edged with ice. "The meie is free to accept or reject the quest as
she wishes. She most certainly will not be with you in the sense
you mean, not subordinated to you in any way."
"We'll work that out." He smiled at her with practiced charm, then sat up, his
lazy mask dissolved. He dropped his hands on his thighs, leaned forward,
intent grey eyes hard on her face. "Details, please."
CHAPTER III:
THE MIJLOC
When the sun was only a promise in the east, hands shook Tuli gently awake.
She blinked up into an unsmiling face whose features were side-lit by the pale
red glow of the dawn. Hearing the soft breathing of her sisters, she sat up, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

glaz.keep.pl