[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.""I'll tell you right down to the number of blankets in their storehouses, if I know it," she promised."So where shall we start?""With the property of the demon closest to our current line of march who is also farthest from your people," he said promptly."If we must give him a target, let us give him a true and tempting one.""Diric," she replied, after studying him for a moment, "I come to like you more and more with every passing moment.""And I, you, oh crafty maiden," he told her truthfully."And I, you."Keman got his turn later that afternoon; he was looking forward to it with an anticipation that made his teeth ache.He wanted out of that cursed collar so badly, he could hardly stand it.Not only because he wanted to go hunt—in this form, it was easier to live on the kinds of foods available to him than it was for Dora in her bovine form, but he still needed fresh, raw meat in quantity every so often—but because he wanted to meet Dora tonight face-to-draconic-face.What he had learned of her last night had been something of a trauma to both of them; she had no idea there were any other dragons in the world at all, and he had no idea there were any Lairs as far south as hers was.Without talking to one of her elders, he was not able to determine if her people had discovered their own Gate, if they were a late-arriving group from the peaceful haven that his Kin had left because it proved boring, or if she was even a dragon as he knew them.After all, dragons and elves were both immigrants to this place from elsewhere.There might be yet another group of creatures that had found its way here.Page 145But the time spent in her company had been far too short, and despite all the momentous occurrences since sunset yesterday, the meeting she had promised with him for this evening was still the thing that preoccupied his thoughts.He begged Shana to let him be the second one to have his collar removed, using persuasion and some truth, so that he could go fly with Dora in his true form.She had not been able to shift where he could see it last night, because that would have been well within sight of both the herds and the herdsmen, so he still had no idea what she really looked like.The truth was that he had traveled over more of the elven lords' lands than any of the four of them, when he had made his search for Shana after she had been captured by slavers.He had not confined his travels to being in elven form, either; he had made plenty of trips in the air.Draconic memory for territory was excellent and very precise; he would be able to draw maps that should send Jamal into paroxysms of delight.Mero, Lorryn.and Kalamadea would be able to add their information that would send Jamal into fits of greed as well.All of them knew something about the properties that various elven lords held, and what they didn't know, they were equipped to make up.It should be interesting.It would be even more interesting if Jamal actually got as far as attacking the elves.One thing at a time.For now it was most important that he get this cursed collar off!Diric was waiting, with stylus and a set of smoothed slabs of clay.So was his wife, with her little pouch of tools.Both were smiling as he entered the tent."Make your rough maps on the clay," Diric told him without preamble."This way you can erase or change things; when you are certain of your map, I will give it to one of my Priests to be burned onto leather."He nodded, and sat down beside Kala, Diric's wife.After several days of living with these people, he had begun to accustom himself to their idea of beauty, and he could see that she had been a great beauty when she was young, and was still quite attractive now.She still moved with a precise and studied grace, and when she smiled, she glowed.If her figure had spread with age, if gray had crept into her coarse black curls, it hardly mattered.Her eyes were the loveliest that Keman had ever seen on a human or even an elven lord; a beautiful, deep brown, as wide and guileless as a doe's."This will not take long, now that I have the trick of it," she told him—and a few moments later, after skillful probing with her tools, the lock gave a click and the collar came off in her hands.He rubbed his neck reflexively with one hand, and picked up the stylus in the other, grateful now that his mother had taught him reading and writing as the elves practiced it.These Iron People still had no idea what he was—and he was not about to give that particular secret away!And the sooner he got some maps into this clay, the sooner he would be out of here, free to meet Dora for a flight and a hunt.It took a little longer than he had really wanted—it proved to be much more difficult than he had thought it would be to translate what he remembered from the air and the roads into scratches of the right relative length in the clay.By the time he had filled the four clay tablets with maps of the territory between here and Lord Tylar's estate, it was fully dark.Page 146"This is very rough," he warned, as Diric placed the last of the tablets into the hands of one of his under-Priests.'There was a lot of detail I had to leave out because of the scale we were working in.""Then you will have to return to give me that detail, will you not?" Diric replied, logically."Indeed, you and Shana and the other two should all be here to give me that detail.It will mean many, many meetings, I would think.""Oh," he replied, feeling very, very stupid for not seeing that very thing."Of course.We want to have many, many more meetings, right?""As many as it takes," Kala replied, and held out the hated collar."Here you are, slip this on and push it closed; you will hear it click as if it has locked, but it cannot lock now, it can only latch." She showed him a tiny stud on the underside of the collar."You push this, and it will release, and you can take it off.""Thank you," he said, fervently, and slipped the collar back on.He tested her work by closing it, then opening it again, immediately, and smiled with relief when it came open exactly as she had promised.She only raised an eyebrow at that, but made no comment other than, "You must promise to take those with you; I would not want faulty collars in among the rest.If all you say is true, and if Jamal has his way with his dreams of conquest, we may well need true collars in the future.""Thank you again," he replied to both of them, and slipped out of the tent door, onto the platform, into the cool breeze that always followed the setting of the sun.He scampered down the stairs, then stopped by the tent to see Shana, but Kalamadea reported that she and Mero were with Lorryn."I shall join them shortly," the elder dragon added."And what of you?""Ah—I want to hunt," he said truthfully.Kalamadea nodded."See to it that you go well beyond the herds before you shift, then," he only said, "and take the collar with you.We do not want it to be found without you inside it.Not yet, anyway [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.""I'll tell you right down to the number of blankets in their storehouses, if I know it," she promised."So where shall we start?""With the property of the demon closest to our current line of march who is also farthest from your people," he said promptly."If we must give him a target, let us give him a true and tempting one.""Diric," she replied, after studying him for a moment, "I come to like you more and more with every passing moment.""And I, you, oh crafty maiden," he told her truthfully."And I, you."Keman got his turn later that afternoon; he was looking forward to it with an anticipation that made his teeth ache.He wanted out of that cursed collar so badly, he could hardly stand it.Not only because he wanted to go hunt—in this form, it was easier to live on the kinds of foods available to him than it was for Dora in her bovine form, but he still needed fresh, raw meat in quantity every so often—but because he wanted to meet Dora tonight face-to-draconic-face.What he had learned of her last night had been something of a trauma to both of them; she had no idea there were any other dragons in the world at all, and he had no idea there were any Lairs as far south as hers was.Without talking to one of her elders, he was not able to determine if her people had discovered their own Gate, if they were a late-arriving group from the peaceful haven that his Kin had left because it proved boring, or if she was even a dragon as he knew them.After all, dragons and elves were both immigrants to this place from elsewhere.There might be yet another group of creatures that had found its way here.Page 145But the time spent in her company had been far too short, and despite all the momentous occurrences since sunset yesterday, the meeting she had promised with him for this evening was still the thing that preoccupied his thoughts.He begged Shana to let him be the second one to have his collar removed, using persuasion and some truth, so that he could go fly with Dora in his true form.She had not been able to shift where he could see it last night, because that would have been well within sight of both the herds and the herdsmen, so he still had no idea what she really looked like.The truth was that he had traveled over more of the elven lords' lands than any of the four of them, when he had made his search for Shana after she had been captured by slavers.He had not confined his travels to being in elven form, either; he had made plenty of trips in the air.Draconic memory for territory was excellent and very precise; he would be able to draw maps that should send Jamal into paroxysms of delight.Mero, Lorryn.and Kalamadea would be able to add their information that would send Jamal into fits of greed as well.All of them knew something about the properties that various elven lords held, and what they didn't know, they were equipped to make up.It should be interesting.It would be even more interesting if Jamal actually got as far as attacking the elves.One thing at a time.For now it was most important that he get this cursed collar off!Diric was waiting, with stylus and a set of smoothed slabs of clay.So was his wife, with her little pouch of tools.Both were smiling as he entered the tent."Make your rough maps on the clay," Diric told him without preamble."This way you can erase or change things; when you are certain of your map, I will give it to one of my Priests to be burned onto leather."He nodded, and sat down beside Kala, Diric's wife.After several days of living with these people, he had begun to accustom himself to their idea of beauty, and he could see that she had been a great beauty when she was young, and was still quite attractive now.She still moved with a precise and studied grace, and when she smiled, she glowed.If her figure had spread with age, if gray had crept into her coarse black curls, it hardly mattered.Her eyes were the loveliest that Keman had ever seen on a human or even an elven lord; a beautiful, deep brown, as wide and guileless as a doe's."This will not take long, now that I have the trick of it," she told him—and a few moments later, after skillful probing with her tools, the lock gave a click and the collar came off in her hands.He rubbed his neck reflexively with one hand, and picked up the stylus in the other, grateful now that his mother had taught him reading and writing as the elves practiced it.These Iron People still had no idea what he was—and he was not about to give that particular secret away!And the sooner he got some maps into this clay, the sooner he would be out of here, free to meet Dora for a flight and a hunt.It took a little longer than he had really wanted—it proved to be much more difficult than he had thought it would be to translate what he remembered from the air and the roads into scratches of the right relative length in the clay.By the time he had filled the four clay tablets with maps of the territory between here and Lord Tylar's estate, it was fully dark.Page 146"This is very rough," he warned, as Diric placed the last of the tablets into the hands of one of his under-Priests.'There was a lot of detail I had to leave out because of the scale we were working in.""Then you will have to return to give me that detail, will you not?" Diric replied, logically."Indeed, you and Shana and the other two should all be here to give me that detail.It will mean many, many meetings, I would think.""Oh," he replied, feeling very, very stupid for not seeing that very thing."Of course.We want to have many, many more meetings, right?""As many as it takes," Kala replied, and held out the hated collar."Here you are, slip this on and push it closed; you will hear it click as if it has locked, but it cannot lock now, it can only latch." She showed him a tiny stud on the underside of the collar."You push this, and it will release, and you can take it off.""Thank you," he said, fervently, and slipped the collar back on.He tested her work by closing it, then opening it again, immediately, and smiled with relief when it came open exactly as she had promised.She only raised an eyebrow at that, but made no comment other than, "You must promise to take those with you; I would not want faulty collars in among the rest.If all you say is true, and if Jamal has his way with his dreams of conquest, we may well need true collars in the future.""Thank you again," he replied to both of them, and slipped out of the tent door, onto the platform, into the cool breeze that always followed the setting of the sun.He scampered down the stairs, then stopped by the tent to see Shana, but Kalamadea reported that she and Mero were with Lorryn."I shall join them shortly," the elder dragon added."And what of you?""Ah—I want to hunt," he said truthfully.Kalamadea nodded."See to it that you go well beyond the herds before you shift, then," he only said, "and take the collar with you.We do not want it to be found without you inside it.Not yet, anyway [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]