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. She went silent again, then said,  We can t wait on thisany longer.We have to see what he wants.Stay here while I wake the others.She rose and moved from Panax to the Elven Hunters, waking each with a touch, bending close tocaution them, to tell them not to react.One by one they sat up and looked over to where the strangerstood watching.Tamis came back to Quentin and bent close. This might be tricky.He won t be alone.There will beothers in the trees.He wouldn t expose himself so completely if there wasn t someone protecting hisback.He s offering himself as a decoy to see what we do.Let s not give him reason to think we meanhim harm.She stood up and walked slowly over to where he stood.She kept her hands at her sides and herweapons sheathed.Quentin heard her greet him in the Elven tongue and then, when he failed to respond,in several variants.None worked.She tried several Southland languages.Still nothing.She spoke bits ofhalf a dozen Troll dialects, all without result.Then all at once the stranger said something.When he spoke, his mouth opened to reveal that even histeeth were burnished copper instead of white.His speech was rough and guttural, and Quentin could notunderstand any of it.Tamis seemed perplexed, as well. Hold up a minute. Panax stood suddenly and walked over to them. I think he s speaking in the Dwarftongue, a very old dialect, a kind of hybrid.Let me try.He spoke to the stranger, taking his time, trying out a few words, waiting for a response, then tryingagain.The stranger listened and finally replied.They went back and forth like this for several minutesGenerated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlbefore Panax turned back to his companions. I m getting some of it, but not all.Come over and standwith me.I think it s all right.He went on talking with the stranger, Tamis staying close beside him, as Quentin, Kian, and Wye joinedthem. He says he s a Rindge.His people live in villages at the foot of those mountains behind him.They renative to this area, been here for centuries.They re hunters, and he s part of a hunting party that stumbledon us during the night. He glanced at Tamis. You were right.He s not alone.There are other Rindgewith him.I don t know how many, but I d guess they re all around us. Ask him if he s seen anyone else besides us, Tamis suggested.Panax spoke a few words and listened to the other s reply. He says he hasn t seen anyone.He wantsto know what we re doing here.There was another exchange.Panax told the Rindge they had come to search for a treasure in the ruinsof the city.The Rindge grew animated, punctuating his words with gestures and grunts.He said therewasn t any treasure, the city was very dangerous, and metal beasts would hunt them and fire would burntheir eyes out.The city had eyes everywhere, and nothing came or went without being seen, except forthe Rindge, who knew how to stay hidden.Quentin and Tamis exchanged a quick glance. How do the Rindge hide from the creepers? she askedPanax.The Dwarf repeated the question and listened intently to the answer.Confused, he made the Rindgerepeat it.While they spoke, other Rindge appeared out of the trees, just faces at first in the dim light, thenbodies, as well, materializing one after the other, ringing the little company.Quentin glanced arounduneasily.They were vastly outnumbered and very much cut off from any chance of flight.He resisted theurge to put his hand on his sword; relying on weapons for help would be foolish.Panax cleared his throat. He says the Rindge are a part of the land and know how to disappear into it.Nothing can find them if they keep careful watch, even at the edges of the city.He says they never gointo the ruins themselves.He wants to know why we did.Tamis laughed softly. Good question.Ask him what it is they re hunting.The Rindge, tall and rawboned, listened and nodded slowly as Panax spoke.Then he replied at length.The Dwarf waited until he was finished, and glanced over his shoulder. I m not sure I m getting all this.Maybe I ve got it wrong.I almost hope I do.He says they re hunting creepers, that they re setting trapsfor them.Apparently the traps are to discourage the creepers from hunting them.He says the creepersharvest the Rindge for body parts, that they use pieces of the Rindge to make something called wronks.Wronks look like them and us, but are made of metal and human parts both.I can t quite figure it out.The Rindge are pretty frightened of them, whatever they are.This one says that by taking pieces of you,the wronks steal your soul so that you can never really die.Tamis frowned. What does that mean?Panax shook his head.He spoke to the Rindge again, then glanced at the Tracker and shrugged. I can tmake it out.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html Ask him who controls the wronks and the creepers and the fire, she said. Ask him who lives under the city, Quentin added.Panax turned back to the Rindge and repeated the questions in the strange, harsh Dwarf dialect.TheRindge listened carefully.All about them, the other Rindge pressed close, exchanging hurried glances.The air was charged with fear and rage, and the Highlander could feel the tension in the air.When the Dwarf was finished, the Rindge to whom he had been speaking straightened, looked pastthem toward the ruins, and spoke a single word. Antrax.TENDeep within the bowels of Castledown, far below the ruins of the city above, Antrax spun down the linesand cables that gave it passage through its realm.Traveling somewhere between the speeds of light andsound, faster than the eye could follow if the eye had been permitted to try to do so, it sped alongcorridors and passageways, from chamber to chamber, riding the metal threads that linked it to thekingdom it ruled.It was a presence that lacked substance and shape and could be virtually everywhere atonce or nowhere at all.It was the crowning achievement of its creators in a time and a world long sincedead, but it had transcended even that to become what it was.The perfect weapon.The ultimateprotector.Built almost three thousand years earlier, in a time when artificial intelligence was commonplace andthinking machines proliferated, it was advanced for its kind even then, a prototype created in the heat ofevents that culminated in the Great Wars.Skirmishes had begun already, and its creators suspectedwhere things were heading when they first conceived of it.They were archivists and visionaries, peoplewhose primary interest was in preserving for the future that which might otherwise be lost.Lesser mindsdominated the thinking of the times; they manipulated the rules of power and politics to stir within thepopulace a mix of rage and frustration that eventually would consume them all.To thwart the madnessthat was overtaking them, the creators determined that those who would destroy what they would notconcede should not be allowed to undo the progress of civilization.Antrax knew that because when itwas built, the knowledge was programmed into it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]