Archiwum
- Index
- Chalker Jack L W Świecie Studni 5 Zmierzch przy Studni Dusz (pdf)
- Ian Rankin [Jack Harvey 03] Blood Hunt (v4.0) (pdf)
- Jack L. Chalker Watchers at the Well 03 Gods at the Well of Souls
- James Fenimore Cooper Jack Tier, Volume 2
- Chalker Jack L W Świecie Studni 3 Poszukiwanie (pdf)
- Jack McKinney RoboTech 14 Dark Powers
- Jack McKinney RoboTech 05 Force of Arms
- Jack L. Chalker Dancing Gods 3 Vengance of the Dance
- Jack L. Chalker Three Kings 3 Kaspars Box
- Jack McKinney RoboTech 01 Genesis
- zanotowane.pl
- doc.pisz.pl
- pdf.pisz.pl
- docucrime.xlx.pl
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
land-yawl the Wind-runner ill-naturedly passed across the goods he had taken.
Jemasze asked: Where are you bound?
To the depot; where else?
Seek out Moffamides the priest; tell him you have met us; tell him what
occurred, and tell him that if the fiaps guarding the sky-car are as false as
those he gave us, we ll take him down to the Alouan and lock him in a cage
forever. He ll never escape us; we ll follow his track wherever he goes. Take
him that message, and be certain that he hears you out!
The Wind-runner, clench-mouthed with rage, tacked off into the south on a
freshening breeze.
Elvo and Jemasze loaded the yawl while Kurgech boiled the crayfish for lunch
to be consumed on the
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way. The sails were hoisted; the yawl rolled briskly into the northeast.
At noon Kurgech pointed across the bow to the sails of three lofty brigantines
bellying in the wind. The first of the tracks.
If Moffamides gave us proper directions.
He gave us proper directions; I read at least this much truth in his mind. I
read mischief as well, and this has been demonstrated.
I understand now why Outkers seldom visit the Palga, said Elvo glumly.
They are not welcomed; this is true.
The brigantines passed in front of the yawl: three beer-wagons, each loaded
with three enormous hogsheads. The crews watched the yawl incuriously and
ignored Elvo Glissam s wave.
The yawl crossed the track an avenue of compressed soum and pointed once more
across the open sarai.
An hour later they sailed past another set of irrigated tracts. Wind-runner
families worked at the plots:
tilling, pulling weeds, harvesting legumes, plucking fruit; their sail-wagons
standing nearby. At mid-
afternoon the yawl overtook just such a wagon: a six-wheeled schooner with a
pair of high masts, three jibs and topsails. Two men leaned on the after rail;
children played on the deck; a woman peered through the casements of the aft
cabin as the yawl approached. Elvo steered to pass downwind, which he deemed
to be the courteous tactic. The Wind-runners however failed to recognize the
nicety and gave no acknowledgment to Elvo s cheerful wave. Peculiar people,
thought Elvo glumly. Shortly after, the schooner changed course and trundled
off to the north, to become a far white spot, then disappear.
The wind had become gusty; to the south a scurf of black clouds rose up into
the sky. Jemasze and
Kurgech reefed the mainsail, lowered the mizzen and took in the jib; still the
yawl bowled across the soum on hissing wheels.
The clouds raced overhead; rain began to fall. The three men hauled down all
sails, braked and blocked the wheels, tossed to the ground a heavy metal chain
connected through the shrouds to the lightning rod, then took refuge in the
aft cuddy. For two hours lightning clawed at the sarai, generating an almost
continuous reverberation of thunder; then the storm drifted north; the rain
stopped; the wind died, leaving behind an uncanny silence.
The three men crawled forth from the cuddy to find the sun setting through a
confused storm-wrack and the sky an inverted carpet of flaring purple-red.
While Gerd Jemasze and Elvo put the yawl to rights, Kurgech boiled up a soup
in the forward cuddy, and the three men took a supper of pawpaws, soup and
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hard-bread.
A slow and easy breeze came to blow the remaining storm clouds north; the sky
was clear and effulgent with stars. The sarai seemed utterly vacant and
lonely, and Elvo was surprised to find Kurgech in a state of obvious
uneasiness. After a few minutes Elvo became infected with nervousness and
asked: What s the trouble?
Something is drawing upon us.
Jemasze raised his hand to feel the wind. Shall we sail for an hour or two?
There s nothing we can run into.
Kurgech readily agreed. I will be happy to move.
The sails were hoisted; the yawl swerved around and bore off on a quartering
reach into the northeast at an easy ten miles an hour. Kurgech steered by
Koryphon s North Star Tethanor, the Toe of the Basilisk.
Four hours they sailed, until midnight, when Kurgech declared: The imminence
is gone. I no longer feel pressure.
In that case, it is time to stop, said Jemasze. The sails were dropped; the
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brakes were set; the three laid out their beds and slept.
At dawn they hoisted sail in preparation for the morning wind, which once more
came tardily, and the three men sat silently waiting. At last the monsoon
arrived and the yawl slid off into the northeast.
After an hour of sailing they crossed the second track, though no sails were
visible save a tall narrow triangle far astern.
The sarai began to rise and fall, at first almost imperceptibly, then in long
wide hills and dales. Ledges of black trap slanted up from the soum, and for
the first time navigation demanded a degree of foresight and strategy. The
easiest route most usually lay along the ridges, where the wind blew most
freshly and where the ground lay generally flat. Often these ridges ran in
inconvenient directions; then the helmsman must direct the craft down one
slope and up the one opposite, and often the auxiliary motor was needed to
propel the yawl the last fifty or hundred feet to the ridge.
A river meandered across the countryside, at the bottom of a steep-sided
terraced valley where the land-
yawl could not go, and for several miles they sailed along the brink of the
valley, until the river once more swung north.
The tall-sailed wagon they had noticed previously had gained appreciably upon
them. Jemasze took binoculars and inspected the craft, then handed the glasses
to Kurgech who looked and uttered a soft
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Uldra curse.
Taking the binoculars, Elvo saw a long black articulated wagon of three
segments, each with a notably tall mast and narrow sail: a vehicle intended
for high speed and high capability into the wind. Five men rode the deck,
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