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never objected to working a fifteen-hour day, seldom spoke unless spoken to;
and seemed to be able to live without food or sleep.
He had no idea of how much they were learning about what he was doing, or how
much they would be able to tell anyone else about it. Even if they knew all of
his secrets, they would find it hard to get through the mountain clansmen and
reach anyone who would listen to them.
The clansmen were also obeying their orders. Blade never saw them from the
house during the day.
Occasionally he would hear soft footfalls and see shadowy human figures moving
past with feline grace in the darkness. At other times he would be out in the
woods, supervising the gathering of afresh batch of peza leaves. Suddenly the
assistants would start, and sometimes drop their baskets, as two or three
fur-clad figures slipped out from behind the bushes. The mountain people never
stopped to talk and barely stopped to look. A moment, and they would be gone
into the dripping forest as silently as they had come. At times Blade had the
feeling that his laboratory was guarded by an endless coming and going of
ghosts or spirits..
The youngest of the four assistants, named Kulo, turned out to have a positive
genius for woodcarving.
This became more and more useful as Blade's work demanded more and more
precisely made equipment. Blade set Kulo some nearly impossible tasks, but
somehow the young man always rose to the occasion.
That was encouraging to Blade. It would soon be time to make the first of the
weapons designed for use with the distilled sleeping water. He was now
spending hours with charcoal and parchment, making rough sketches of various
ideas. If they could not be turned into usable weapons, all his work here
would be wasted.
That was one of the thoughts that always drove Blade back to his workshop.
Sometimes it made him wish that there were more than twenty-four hours in a
day.
One gray morning, things were going so well in the workshop that Blade slept
late and ate a leisurely breakfast. Then he went out to help bring in a
caravan of porters bringing more threebo stems. Although the threebo grew this
high in the mountains, it grew more abundantly in the lowlands, and the warmer
weather down there made the stems grow thicker and stronger. So the High
Kaireen sent eight porter loads of threebo wood up to Blade each week.
Blade met the caravan half a mile downhill from the workshop. He saw the
porters plod up the path toward him, each man with a bundle of threebo wood
strapped across his shoulders. Blade stood while
they passed by, sweating in spite of the coolness of the morning, carefully
seeking out footholds in the damp earth under their feet. Not for the first
time, Blade wished he could tell the people helping him at least some of what
he was trying to do. That might make all the sweat and all the long hours seem
more worthwhile. But the secret had to remain a secret for a while longer.
Of course Kulo had probably already guessed much of what Blade planned. But
Kulo was also the one
Blade trusted most, in spite of his youth. Kulo would keep his mouth shut.
Blade watched the last of the porters disappear up the hill into the dripping
forest. For the moment he was alone among the trees, and he savored the
sensation. He had been busy too long, with too many hours spent in smoke and
fume-laden air in the dark, almost airless workshop. The limitless forests of
Gleor in all their wild beauty were all around him; he should take more
advantage of this.
After the work is over, he told himself firmly. After he had found his answer
to the stolofs, he and Neena would come back up here for a few days by
themselves. Then there would be time to hunt, bathe in the mountain streams
(as cold as they were), make love in-
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
A soft whistle sounded behind Blade. He turned around, drawing his sword as he
did so.
One of the mountain hunters stood beside a huge moss-grown tree, raising a
hand in salute to Blade.
"Hail, Prince Blade. One of my brothers has been bitten by a snake. He has
need of a Kaireen's wisdom to heal him. We have heard that you have that
wisdom, along with your warrior's skills. Will you follow me, and do what can
be done to aid my brother?"
Blade didn't recognize the man facing him, of course. That was no surprise. He
had seen only a handful of clansmen by daylight, and none for very long. The
whole thing seemed safe enough, and he did have sword, knife, bow, and arrows.
For all the guards in the forest around him, Blade never went anywhere
unarmed.
He followed the hunter off into the forest. They went downhill for about a
mile, then struck north. The hunter seemed to know exactly where he was going,
and set a fast pace. Several times the path led down into hollows that were
filled with mist like thick dirty cotton wool. With the trees and the dampness
and mist all around, there was little noise except water dripping and their
own feet on the path. Even these sounds were weirdly distorted. Almost anyone
except Blade would have begun to feel slightly uncomfortable, this far out in
an unknown part of the mist-shrouded forest. Even Blade kept his hand close to [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]