[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Such a feeling was apparent in the faces of the commoners who wandered about
the terraces in small groups and not too many of those, for the victors in
last night s struggle were determined to keep matters well in hand. Later on
the commoners would begin to talk in loud voices and poke at things and pry,
Page 104
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
but for the present they touched nothing, said little. Their eyes and their
minds were too busy.
.They kept meeting priests who were wandering about even more aimlessly than
themselves. At such times they merely stepped aside to avoid each other,
without comment. Most of the priests wore ragged black armbands, perhaps torn
from the robe of a dead deacon, to indicate that they had changed sides,
although no one as yet had asked them to.
Occasionally the terraces were crossed by a man or woman who walked briskly
and obviously knew what he or she was doing. Most of these wore a simple black
tunic, but a few were still clothed as commoners or even as priests. On the
shoulders of some peering familiars perched, like trained monkeys.
Necks were craned as a faint hissing broke the silence. Looming over the
intervening structures, the Great God s head was visible. A light scaffolding
had been set up on the shoulders, and pygmy figures were setting to work in a
businesslike way. There was the flicker of tiny blue flames.
Onto the topmost terrace four figures issued one in the scarlet and gold of an
archpriest; two in black tunics; one a woman in drab homespun.
 Yes, it was very simple, Sharlson Naurya was saying, and the after-the-storm
emptiness was apparent in her words.  No alternate timestream, no dead come
alive, Nothing like that. But it was what Asmodeus had devised for you long
ago, and so it worked though the emergency forced us to make some changes. It
was your familiar who influenced your thoughts by telepathy. Likewise it was
he who called your name from your apartments. With one exception, the ghostly
figures that appeared to you were telesolidographic projections, reconstructed
on the basis of old duplicate solidographs preserved in the Hierarchic
Dossiers of Commoners, the effect of normal aging being achieved by
painstaking retouching. Telesolidographic projections also accounted for the
seeming change in your room.
 You would have known that they were solidographs, except that you touched me
and found me real. I placed myself in such a way that it would be me you
touched. My clothes were impregnated and my skin filmed with a faintly glowing
preparation, so that I would resemble the others.
 You found I was real and yet you knew I could not be real, for you had just
destroyed me with your wrath beam. There lay Asmodeus clinching subtlety.
When you first saw me in your apartments, you saw a telesolidographic
projection. That was what you destroyed. A sequence showing its blackening and
dissolving had been faked and was switched on by the operator as soon as you
activated your wrath ray. You may remember the time lag.
 Had the scheme failed, as by some error in timing, you would instantly have
been killed and an alternate plan adopted. But it was better to let you live
and make use of your power over the
Hierarchy, to defeat it, than to kill you and by that action perhaps jar your
overawed subordinates into taking over your responsibilities and the supreme
command. Asmodeus died, but the
Witchcraft triumphed, because there were those who could and did succeed him.
With you it was just the other way.
Goniface did not reply. Once again his face was a mask to hide his bitter,
nauseous self-
contempt. But he was not altogether without consolation. For he knew that the
Hierarchy would still win out, although with no credit to himself. Almost
slyly, he turned his head and looked beyond the Sanctuary walls. On this side,
away from the commoners section, lay the Blasted
Heath, an arid gray expanse of many acres, on which no vegetation grew. His
gaze lingered there knowingly.
 All my life I have looked forward to this moment, he heard Sharlson Naurya
say, and there was a weariness apparent in her voice.  As if all my life I had
been falling from the bridge and looking up at your face and willing the
miraculous moment to come when I would be able to reach up and pull you after
Page 105
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
me. Now the moment has come and it means very little.
The oddly distorted shadow of a man entered her field of vision. She looked
up. The Black Man raised his hand in greeting. Dickon was responsible for the
distortion. From his shoulder-perch he imitated his brother s greeting. His
fur was a gorgeous golden red in the sunlight.
 I have just come from Web Center, the Black Man explained.  We have
established contact with our forces in most of the key cities. There only
remains the mopping-up of a few small towns and rural sanctuaries.
Without any animosity, but with frank curiosity, he looked at Goniface, who
slowly turned back from his contemplation of the Blasted Heath. The glances of
the two leaders met.
At that instant there came a distant roaring that grew momently louder, a
curiously profound throbbing and drumming that seemed to shake the ground.
Those wandering on the terrace gazed quickly toward the head of the Great God
and the workmen who were still busy around the neck.
But the new sound was too big for that.
Its thundering filled the sky. Something was coming from the sun, darkening
it. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]