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.And if theElves wouldn't have, Ancaladar would.There weren't any answers down here to the question of where Ancaladar was or how he'd vanished(Harrier was just going to assume he was alive for now: it was simpler) though it took Tiercel two hoursto give up and admit it.By that time, Harrier had established to his own satisfaction that this level wasnothing like the ones above: the corridor was less than half as long as the one on the level above, thewalls and the ceiling were blank and smooth, the floor was covered with a random pattern of ridges andswirls, and there was no place for Ancaladar to have vanished to."Come on," he said finally."Let's go.""He's gone," Tiercel repeated numbly, running a hand through his hair.It had come out of its tie a whileback and hung down around his face in lank strands."I don't understand what happened."Harrier sighed."Neither do I.Look.We'll go back up, and.maybe there's a spell, okay?"But if he'd been hoping to get Tiercel to focus on the long climb back up to the topmost level, his wordshad the opposite effect."A spell?" Tiercel nearly shouted."You really don't get it, do you? Ancaladar is gone! The Bond is gone!I'm never going to be able to do another spell in my entire life! If you're expecting me to go to the Lakeof Fire and defeat Bisochim by magic, you'd better get used to the idea of living under the rule of theEndarkened! Or being dead! Because ""We will worry about that later," Harrier said, spacing out his words slowly and carefully."You didn'thave Ancaladar when you started out, and We'll think of something.I didn't have the Three Books,either.We'll think of something.Come on."He practically had to drag Tiercel over to the staircase, but once they were there Tiercel trudged up thesteps under his own power.The climb back to the garden of the Nalzindar was a long one.ALL the Nalzindar seemed to know that something was horribly terribly wrong the moment Harrier andTiercel arrived back in the garden.They'd never been the sort of people who gathered around andchattered whenever somebody came back, but the moment he and Tiercel arrived, Harrier saw that all ofthe ones in sight stopped what they were doing and followed the two of them with their gaze as Harrierled Tiercel across the clearing to Shaiara's tent.Even though it didn't matter here, the Nalzindar still started their day with the sun which meant thatTiercel and Harrier did too so it was only an hour or two past midday when they got back, and the tentwas empty.Harrier led Tiercel to their communal sleeping mat and forced him to sit down."I'm fine," Tiercel snarled sulkily."We have to ""Think," Harrier said."And rest, and plan." He dropped the bag of supplies that Tiercel usually carried tothe mat and pulled off his heavy cloak.It was as cold as an Armethalieh autumn night in the lower levels,but up here it was baking hot and humid, too.He could never figure out what he ought to be wearing.Tiercel didn't seem to notice the heat.He sat on the sleeping mat, still wearing his cloak, with his armsclasped around his knees, staring at nothing."I'm fine," he repeated.Harrier knew he wasn't, but he couldn't think of anything to do for him.Tiercel said that the Bond withAncaladar had been broken or, to be completely accurate, he'd said that he couldn't feel it any longer.Harrier refused to believe that it was broken, because that would mean that he didn't even understandwhat little he'd thought he understood about magic.And he also didn't want to think about the fact that ifthe Bond were broken and Tiercel was, by some miracle, still alive he might have been hurt by itsbreaking in some way that no Healer could touch.He was grateful, though he would never have admitted it aloud, when Shaiara poked her head throughthe tent flap and he could get to his feet, and leave Tiercel's side, and go over to her.She studied his faceas he approached, and backed away without a word to let him exit.Anyone else Harrier had ever known would have assaulted him with questions and demands until hecould barely think [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]