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.She smiled.Aleytys fussed too much.Worried over things.In a way Ibex was good for her, all those dreary little enclaves obsessed withkilling off everyone who was different and unless she wanted to spend a Vryhhlifetime there she couldn t change any of it; with all her power she couldn tboot them into righteousness.Still, just as well she grew up with thatuncomfortable conscience firmly installed what would she be like without it?Shadith shivered.I should be glad she worries I wouldn t be taking this walkotherwise.Halfway through the morning the presence came tickling back, didn t sayanything, just hung around watching.She glanced at Linfyar to see if he feltanything.Neither she nor Aleytys knew much about the limits of hisperceptions; he kept surprising them.He showed no signs of noticing anythingstrange floating about.He was whistling, more softly now, spaced bursts ofsound, as if he were trying out his hallucinations, working on them, playingwith the tricks his mind was throwing him.She laughed.He swung around andbegan to walk backward, grinning at her, his ears shivering and shiftingabout. I think you like this crazy world, she said. Ay-yeh, Shadow. He waited for her, turned around and jigged along besideher. Crazy-crazy. He liked the sound of the doubled word, said it again, Crazy-crazy, began chanting it over and over under his breath.She worriedfor a moment about how he was going to find his way without his locatorpulses, but his proximity sense and whatever else he had was working wellenough, because he negotiated the tangle of roots more nimbly than she,avoided patches of brush and low-hanging tree limbs, all the while continuingthe sotto-voce chant, changing words to try out different combinations ofsounds.The world blurred suddenly, it warped and flowed into strange shapes abouther, images dripping down, melting into each other, color melting into color,shapes ballooning, dissipating like smoke, shapes doubling and redoubling.Shestumbled to a stop, lost in this chaos, flung her hands out groping forPage 39ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlsomething solid.Anything.A small warm hand-closed on hers, held it with astrength, that vaguely surprised her; she heard a gush of words but understoodnone of them, their sounds as distorted as the colors and shapes, understoodonly that it was Linfyar who spoke.Trembling with relief, she clung to thoseanchor points, Linfy s hand and Linfy s voice, and let him lead her until theconfusion faded.When the sun was close to directly overhead, they stopped to eat and restawhile; in a thirty-two-hour day it was a long time between dawn and noon.Asthey ate they talked about things unconnected with this disconcerting world,things back on Wolff, horses and colts, the vagaries of the house cats, thesong of birds that lived in the grove of trees behind the house, the necessityor not for Linfyar to spend some years in school; they tried out a few songs,blending their voices at times, at times Shadith singing to Linfy s whistle,at times he singing while she beat the rhythm with her palms on the leather ofher harp case.The listener in the forest drifted in closer sometimes,sometimes retreated until Shadith almost couldn t feel him, but never quitewent away.Shortly after they started on, Linfyar staggered, then began running.Shadithran after him, caught him before he could hurt himself, hugged him tightagainst her, remembering how much comfort she d found in his touch when shesuffered chaos.Disoriented and frightened, he clung to her, whimpering andshuddering.She looked about, found a knot of roots high enough to make aseat, lifted him into her lap and rocked him like a baby, stifling her urge tosing to him; it might make his horrors worse.Finally she heard a longshuddering sigh and he relaxed against her.She risked a word. Over? Uh-huh, Shadow. For a moment longer he nestled against her, then he pushedaway with nervous strength and stood on the bed of leaves with feet apart, hisbody a shout of defiance; whistling as loud as he could, he flung a scornfultrill at the forest. Hunh, he said. Stupid trees.Shadith laughed and rocked back onto her feet, the pack a weight that grewheavier with each hour.A lot of hours ahead before they got to the end ofLinfy s stupid trees.She thought of making camp here and going on in themorning, then sighed and began walking.Might as well keep going.God knewwhat prowled here in the dark.Episodes of confusion came steadily after that, none of them quite as bad asthe first.Linfyar and she helped each other and kept moving; theirmetabolisms differed enough for one to be clear-headed when the other wasmuzzy.Irritated and a little afraid, she was tempted to take more of thecounteractant, but Head had warned her against that. We re running on guessand hope, she d said,  and the fact that this glop has never killed anyone,though a lot of different types have taken it.Both you and the boy aremutated stock, no knowing what it ll do to you; the only reason for chancingit is that going in without it would probably be worse. Shadith endured andLinfyar endured and both kept moving.The exercise seemed to help.Bymidafternoon the severity of the hallucinations had diminished so much thatfor Shadith it was like looking at the world about her though a distortingscreen.Shapes and colors changed, sometimes did the melting trick, but sheknew where she was and what was around her no matter how wild the contortionsgot.Her mind and body were adjusting to the world, a wrenching experience butone that seemed about over.Linfyar was experimenting with sound, playing withwhat had terrified him just a short while before, so she knew he d passed hiscrisis and was enjoying himself again; she watched him strutting along andchuckled softly.I told Lee you were a tough little imp, she thought, and soyou are, oh yes you are.When the sun was a hand s breadth above the horizon and shadows wereswallowing the expanse of three-lobed ground-cover plant thick and soft asmoss that stretched from the forest to the outskirts of the city, Shadith andLinfyar walked from under the trees and stopped after a few steps onto theclovermoss, enjoying the sudden sweep of a brisk cool wind.Linfyar bounced on the springy growth, bent and broke off a stem, crushed thePage 40ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlleaves and sniffed at them. Walking on a mattress, he said. Smells good [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]