[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]Eeneeri just made it through the frame, his bandaged wing scraping painfully on the polished surround.
Confessor-Senior, said the Doctor. The sunlight was now so bright that it was hard to see his face silhouetted against it But Aapurian had already
made his decision. I can t fly far enough, Doctor. Leave me here.
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The Doctor met his eyes. We may need you.
I doubt it, said Aapurian. I did all I could. The rest is up to you.
The Doctor s jacket had begun to smoulder. He hesitated for one more second, then nodded at Aapurian and dropped through the window into the
open air.
Aapurian closed his eyes. He was glad he was going to die in this way, alert and knowing that the end was coming. He began repeating the last
words of the philosopher Coneeturrian, in the way he had always intended to do when the time came.
World, I hope I leave you better The heat was intense enough to dry his throat, and there was smoke in the air. He began to cough. ... better than
I came to you, he finished silently.
But he knew that he hadn t, despite all that he had done.
There was a violent snapping sound as the timber walls exploded into flame.
I only wish I knew how it will end, he thought, and died.
They had been flying for hours, and Xani was exhausted. Her muscles no longer ached: they were like belts of dead leather, unable to respond. She
was amazed that her wings remained spread; kept beating. Far below, the Rim forests the cold forests where the Dead were said to walk were
wreathed in evening mist
I need to rest! she called to Jo, though she knew that there was no chance of that now until they reached the Sky.
Jo glanced over her shoulder and smiled. Not much further! she shouted back. Only a couple of miles!
Xaai looked up at the Temple of Iujeemii. It still seemed a long way above her. By some trick of her exhausted eyes, it seemed to be brighter than
the Sky around it, as if illuminated by an enormous lamp. As she watched, the light got brighter still. Xaai realized that it was a real light, no illusion.
It had to be real, because it was shining on only one side of the Temple. Was it sunlight? But why was it so bright?
Xaai wasn t quite sure what happened next. The light became unbearably brilliant, and then it was as if the wind suddenly started blowing upward.
There was a sound: a huge sound, as if the Sky itself was breaking open. Instinctively, Xaai flexed her wings harder, fighting the updraft. Ahead and
above, she saw Jo turning her head, staring at something behind them, her mouth open; then suddenly the wings of her friend s pedithopter
collapsed and she was tumbling upward.
Xaai strained harder against the updraft, felt herself gaining.
Below, the ground seemed to have got darker, further away. The 142
light had changed, as if the sun had gone out. The wind blew harder, until it was pulling her head back. Pieces of loose material slammed into her,
and then something heavier. She could feel the bones of her wings snapping. Dark clods of day rushed past her eyes, and the ripped leaves of the
trees.
Suddenly it was over, and everything was still. For a moment Xaai was hovering, buoyed up by the air currents, then she started to fall. She tried to
spread her wings, gain control, but only received jolts of pain from broken bones and shredded flesh.
This is how I die, thought Xaai. Just as I intended to last night.
But why? What did I do wrong?
She looked up, to see what had happened to Jo, but she was no longer visible in the haze of light and smoke. Above, the Sky looked strange, as if
someone had painted a white flower across it.
In the centre of the flower, smoke was still shifting, filled with glittering fragments.
And the Temple of Iujeemii was gone.
Xaai stared, and stared, and stared, and finally, with a great effort, looked over her shoulder at the sun. She was surprised to see it still shining,
though partly shrouded in dust and ice.
Had that light really come from the sun? Had it been anything to do with the man Jo s enemy Epreto? She remembered, quite suddenly, that she
had known Epreto as a man, that he had been there in the fallen sun.
Is it my fault? she asked, as she fell through the swirling air.
Could I have stopped it?
But the ground was very close now, and Xaai knew she wasn t going to live long enough to hear the answer to her question.
143
Eighteen
aptain Mike Yates was glad to be back on duty. It felt good to have a definite set of orders again af
C
ter the undefined
vagueness of the past few
Hours? Days? Weeks?
He wasn t sure about that.
Mike decided it didn t matter. He checked ahead, saw that the forest was thinning out. He could see the lamplit windows of a farmhouse, moving in
and out of the gaps in the trees.
Find out what s gone wrong in the world above the Land. Take the necessary action.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]zanotowane.pldoc.pisz.plpdf.pisz.plkajaszek.htw.pl
