[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
More likely of magic, he reminded himself.
"Easy part's over with." Bribbens moved to wind in the bow anchor,
using the small winch bolted there.
"The easy part?" Jon-Tom didn't hear the boatman too clearly. Water
still sloshed in his ears.
"Yes. This much of the Sloomaz-ayor-le-WeentIi is known. Little
traveled in its lower portion, but still known." He pointed with a webbed hand
over the bow. Ahead of them the river(s) disappeared into darkness. "What's
ahead is not."
Jon-Tom walked forward and gave the boatman a hand with the winch.
"Thanks," Bribbens said when they were finished.
A strong breeze blew in Jon-Tom's face. It came from the blackness
forward and chilled his face even as it dried his long hair. He shivered a
little. The wind came from inside the mountain. That hinted at considerable
emptiness beyond.
Here there was no mass of water-soaked debris to prevent their
Page 81
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
continued traveling. The mouthlike opening could easily swallow the logs and
branches bunched against the mountainside above. The cliff did not descend
this far.
When they had the second anchor up and secured and the boat was
drifting downstream once more, Bribbens moved to a watertight locker set in
the deck. It offered up oil lamps and torches. These were set in hook or hole
and lit.
The wind blew the flames backward but not out. Oil light flickered
comfortingly inside conical glass lamps.
"Why didn't you explain it to us?" Flor brushed at her long black
mane while she chatted with the boatman.
Bribbens gestured at the squat shape of Clothahump, who rested
against the railing nearby. "He suggested back at my cove that it'd be a good
idea not to say anything to you."
Jon-Tom and Flor looked questioningly at Clothahump.
"That is so, youngsters." He pointed toward the flowing silver roof.
"From there to here's something of a fall. I wasn't positive of the distance
or of what your mental reactions to such a peculiar dive might be. I thought
it best not to go into detail. I did not wish to frighten you."
"We wouldn't have been frightened," said Flor firmly.
"That may be so," agreed the wizard, "but there was no need to take
the chance. As you can see we are all here safe and sound and once more on our
way."
A muttered obscenity fell from the form on the right spreader.
They were interrupted by a loud multiple splashing to starboard. As
they watched, several fish the size of large bass leaped skyward. Their fins
and tails were unusually broad and powerful.
Page 82
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Two of the leapers fell back, but the third intersected the flowing
sky, got his upper fins into the water, and wiggled its way out of sight
overhead. Several minutes passed, and then it rained minnows. A huge school of
tiny fish came shooting out of the upper river to disappear in the lower. The
two unsuccessful leapers were waiting for them. They were soon joined by the
descending shape of the stronger jumper.
Jon-Tom had grown dizzy watching the up-and-down pursuit. His brain
was more confused than his eyes. The new optical information did not match up
with stored information.
"The origin of the name's obvious," he said to the boatman, "but I
still don't understand how it came to be."
Bribbens proceeded to relate the story of the
Sloomaz-ayorle-WeentIi, of the great witch Wutz and her spilled cauldron of
magic and the effect this had had upon the river forevermore.
When he'd finished the tale Plor shook her head in disbelief.
"'Grande, fantastico. A schizoid stream."
"What makes the world go 'round, after all, Flor?" said Jon-Tom
merrily.
"Gravitation and other natural laws."
"I thought it was love."
"As a matter of fact," said Clothahump, inserting himself into the
conversation, "the gravitational properties of love are well known. I suppose
you believe its attractive properties wholly psychological? Well let me tell
you, my boy, that there are certain formulae which..." and he rambled off into
a learned discussion, half balderdash and half science: which is to say, fine
magic. Jon-Tom and Flor tried to follow, largely in vain.
Talea leaned on the bow railing, her gaze fixed on the blackness
ahead and around them. The cool wind continued, ruffling her hair and making
her wonder what lay ahead, concealed by the screen of night.
For days they drifted downstream in darkness; water above, water
Page 83
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
below, floating through an aqueous tube toward an uncertain destination.
Jon-Tom was reminded of a corpuscle in the bloodstream. After all the talk of
Zaryt's "Teeth" and of traveling into the "belly" bf the mountain, he found
the analogy disquieting.
From time to time they would anchor in midstream and supplement
their supplies from the river's ample piscean population. Occasionally
Bribbens and Mudge would make exploratory forays into the upper river. They
would climb the mast, Mudge helping the less adapted boatman. A small float
attached to an arrow was shot into the underside of the current overhead. The
float was inflated until it held securely. Then the cord trailing from it
would be tied to the mast. Bribbens and the otter would then shinny up it, to
disappear into the liquid ceiling.
With them went small sealed oil lamps fitted with handles. These
provided light in the darkness, a necessity since even such agile swimmers as
the two explorers could become lost in the deep waters.
On the twelfth day, when the monotony of the trip had become
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]