[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Here I am, he called low.
Huh? Ah! She must see better in the dark than he, because she came directly to him. All kay?
Yes. Maybe.
No chatter, she commanded. They may decide to check these hours, spite of our stunt. Here, hold
my hand an slip downtime. Don t hurry yourself. I know we ll make it. I just don t want em to find out
how.
Part of the Eyrie s training was in such simultaneous travel. Each felt a resistance if starting to move
faster or slower than the partner, and adjusted the chronokinetic rate ac-cordingly.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
A few nights earlier, the chamber was unoccupied, the door unlocked. They walked down shadow
stairs, across shadow courtyard, through gates which, in this period of unchallenged reign, were usually
left open. At intervals they must emerge for breath, but that could be in the dark. Beyond the lowered
drawbridge, Leonce lengthened her stride. Havig wondered why she didn t simply go to a day before the
castle existed, until he realized the risk was too great of encountering others in the vicinity. A lot of men
went hunting in the primeval forest which once grew here.
Dazed with fatigue and grief, he would do best to follow her lead. She d gotten him free, hadn t she?
She really had. He needed a while to conceive of that.
They sat in the woods, one summer before Columbus was born. The trees, oak and elm and birch
mingled together, were gigantic; their fragrance filled the air, their leaves cast green shadows upon the
nearly solid underbrush around them. Some-where a woodpecker drummed and a bluejay scolded. The
fire glowed low which Leonce had built. On an improvised spit roasted a grouse she had brought down
out of a thousandfold flock which they startled when they arrived.
I can never get over it, she said, what a wonderful world this is before machine man screws things up.
I don t think a lot o the High Years any more. I ve been then too often.
Havig, leaned against a bole, had a brief eerie sense ofdéjà vu. The cause came to him: this setting was
not unlike that almost a millennium hence, when he and she- He regarded her more closely than hitherto.
Mahogany hair in a kind of Dutch bob, suntan faded, the Skula s weasel skull left behind and the big
body in boyish garb, she might have come straight from his home era. Her English had lost most of the
Glacier accent, too. Of course, she still went armed, and her feline gait and haughty bearing hadn t
changed.
How long for you? he inquired.
Since you left me in Paris? Bout three years. She frowned at the bird, reached and turned it above the
coals.
I m sorry. That was a shabby way to treat you. Why did you want to spring me?
Her scowl deepened. S pose you tell me what happened.
You don t know? he exclaimed in amazement. For heav-en s sake, if you weren t sure why I was
under arrest, how could you be sure I didn t deserve--
Talk, will you?
The story stumbled forth, in bare outline. Now and then, during it, the tilted eyes sought him, but her
countenance re-mained expressionless. At the end she said: Well, seems my hunch was right. I haven t
thrown away much. Was gettin more an more puked at that outfit, as I saw how it works.
She might have offered a word for Xenia, he thought, and therefore he matched her brusqueness: I
didn t believe you d object to a spot of fighting and robbery.
Not if they re honest, strength gainst strength, wits gainst wits. But those . . . jackals . . . they pick on
the helpless. An for sport more n for gain. In a kind of leashed savagery, she probed the fowl with her
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
knife point. A drop of fat hit the coals; yellow flame sputtered and flared. Sides, what s the sense o the
whole business? Whyshould we try to fasten machines back on the world? So Cal Wallis can be
promoted to God j.g.?
When you learned I d been located and was being held, that touched off the rebellion which had been
gathering in you? Havig asked.
She didn t reply directly. I went downtime, like you d guess, found when the room was empty, went
uptime to you. First, though, I d spent some days future o that, not to seem involved in your escape. Ha,
ever body was runnin round like guillo-tined chickens! I planted the notion you must ve co-opted a
traveler while you were in the past. The broad shoulders lifted and dropped. Well, the hooraw blew
over. Evidently it didn t seem worth mentionin to the earlier Wallis, on his inspection tour. Why admit a
failure? His next appearance beyond your vanishment was years ahead, an nothin awful had happened
meanwhile. You didn t matter. Nor will I, when I never return from my furlough. I s pose they ll reckon I
died in an accident. She chuckled. I do like sports cars, an drive like a bat out o Chicago.
In spite of, uh, opposing a restoration of machine society? Havig wondered.
Well, we can enjoy it while we got it, can t we, whether or not it ll last or ought to? She observed him
steadily, and her tone bleakened. That s bout all we can do, you an me. Find ourselves some nice
hidey-holes, here an there in space-time. Because we re sure not goin to upset the Eyrie.
I m not certain its victory is predestined, Havig said. Maybe wishful thinking on my part. After what
I ve seen, however-- His earnestness helped cover the emptiness in him where Xenia had been.
Leonce, you do wrong to put down science and technology. They can be misused, but so can
every-thing. Nature never has been in perfect balance--there are many more extinct species than
live--and primitive man was quite as destructive as modern. He simply took longer to use up his
environment. Probably Stone Age hunters exterminated the gi-ant mammals of the Pleistocene. Certainly
farmers with sickles and digging sticks wore out what started as the Fertile Crescent. And nearly all
mankind died young, from causes that are pre-ventable when you know how ... The Maurai will do more
than rebuild the foundation of Earth s life. They ll make the first attempt ever tocreate a balanced
environment. And that ll only be possible because they do have the scientific knowledge and means.
Don t seem like they ll succeed.
I can t tell. That mysterious farther future ... it s got to be studied. Havig rubbed his eyes. Later, later.
Right now I m too tired. Let me borrow your Bowie after lunch and cut some boughs to sleep on for a
week or three.
She moved, then, to come kneel before him and lay one hand on his neck, run fingers of the other
through his hair. Poor Jack, she murmured. I been kind o short with you, haven t I? Forgive. Was a
strain on me also, this gettin away an --Sure, sleep. We have peace. Today we have peace.
I haven t thanked you for what you did, he said awk-wardly. I ll never be able to thank you.
You bugbrain! She cast arms around him. Why do you think I hauled you out o there?
But-but-Leonce, I ve seen my wife die--
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]