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."Yes, barbarian.Yes, a price.You bind yourself to me.""For how long? Until Hell cracks open and the world bows to Yob-Haggoth?"A wild light shone in her eyes."That time will not be long in coming, Brak,mark me.How long there remains an interest between us is my right to say.Mine alone.But you would have to grant me that right freely, for that rightis one thing I cannot take from you by a spell.Your alternative is simply thecompletion of the sacrificial rite."With one fierce, sweeping turn, Brak faced away from her and confronted theencompassing horizon, the gilt city dropping behind, a dun-colored plainPage 17ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlsweeping up ahead.Upon the plain an army maneuvered in the dawn light.Brak saw tens upon tensof thousands of horse and footmen, and scythe chariots, and heralds blowinggreat bronze war horns of teardrop shape.He saw a panoply of martialsplendors such as he had merely imagined in his youth.The dream chariot raced above the sea of aquamarine and yellow and emerald androyal purple pennons which dipped and whipped on lance tips.And none in thegreat host saw the phantom chariot overhead.Brak made a savage gesture that took in all this richness of armed might."Whydo you ask the question here, Ariane? Why here, woman? Why here, where I cansee all this? Why do you ask in this car which almost flies faster than thelight itself, over wonders I've never seen before?"Ariane did not answer directly.Her mouth gleamed softly as she lifted ittoward him."Let me have your soul, barbarian.""I know nothing of words like that.I am sure I have a thick right arm towield a sword, and two limbs to carry me, but as for other things & ""You have a soul," she whispered."'But you must grant it freely.""As the minstrel Tyresias granted it?""What?""With the skewering of his eyes by your own hand?"Ariane seemed caught up in some sensual trance.She did not react to the wordswith anger as he expected, only seemed to relax and sway gently against hisbronzed forearm.Her cheek touched his skin with an odd softness that arousedthick, evil thoughts in his mind.He fought the thoughts as she rubbed her cheek against his forearm andmurmured, "Brak, Brak, my strong one.There is nothing, nothing in the greatworld which does not have a price that must be paid for it.I can offer you somuch.My own love, and more.All you want of the world and its jeweled cities.If you do not believe how wonderful it is look!"The last word was a jubilant cry as she whipped the reins down upon the backsof the horses.The wind increased.In moments the copper car was traveling with a swiftnessthat made Brak clutch its rail and fear for his life.Beneath him streamed the kingdoms of the world resplendent in the dawn.He sawgreat border walls and turquoise seas where fat merchantmen plowed underbright-colored sail.Strange shrines and forgotten cities loomed in yellowdeserts, and there were craggy mountain regions, and silver mines chopped fromthe peaks where thousands upon thousands of men labored, antlike, to gatherthe raw gleaming silver stuff.Onward the chariot sped down the sky, past castles, forests, glades, prairies,uplands, over battling armies and tribes of desert nomads wandering, pastlofty enamelled city spires where holy men cried into the sunrise, on and onand on in a mad, dazzling pattern of sights and splendors of such hurtingbeauty as to nearly crack a man's mind.Under the plowing hoofs of the chariot that raced between land and stars, allthe kingdoms of the world fled by as she cried their magic names aloud Phrixosand Phryx and Toct, Gat and Chambalor and Ringarim, Bemkah and Kopt, Tyros andThanzid and Tobool.And then, burning with a yellow haze in a great encompassing crescent at thesouth edge of the world, there it was.Brak's heart quickened fearsomely.Above the wind Ariane lashed the horses maniacally and shrieked: "Khurdisan,Brak my beloved.Khurdisan the Golden."White knuckled, he clutched the rail, straining for a glimpse of it behind theshining golden mist upon the horizon.Suddenly Ariane's laughter bubbled up and died [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]