[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.They chose spare clothing, and a change of boots; and wore a second siga over the first.And last and most important of all they visited the shrfhe of the pan’en, and Niun gathered the ovoid reverently into his arms and bore it down to the sled, settling it into the place that was prepared for it.“ “Take us down,” Melein said.Duncan pressed the switch and the cargo lift settled slowly groundward, to let them step off onto the red sands.It was already late afternoon.Behind them, the cargo lift ascended, crashed into place again with a sound alien in all this desert, and there was no sound after but the wind.The mri began to walk, never looking back; but once, twice, a third time, Duncan could not bear it, and glanced over his shoulder.The ship’s vast bulk dwindled behind them.It assumed a strange, frozen quality as it diminished, sheened in the apricot light, blending with the land: no light, no motion, no sound.Then a rise of the land came between and it passed from view.Duncan felt a sudden pang of desolation, felt the touch of the mri garments, that had become natural to him, felt the keen cold of the wind, that he had desired, and was still conscious that he was alone.They walked toward the sun toward the source of activity that the instruments had detected, and the thought occurred to him that did they find others, his companions would be hard put to account for his presence with them.That there could come a time when his presence would prove more than inconvenient for Niun and Melein.It was a bad way to end, alone, and different.It struck him that in his madness he had changed places with those he pitied, and sorriest of all, he did not believe that Niun would willingly desert him.Na’i’in set, providing them a ruddy twilight that flung the dying sea into hazy limbo, a great and terrifying chasm on their left, with spires upthrust through the haze as if they had no foundation.They rested in the beginning of that sunset, double-robed against the chill and still warm from walking, and shared a meal together.The dusei, that they had thought would have come at the scent of food ,on the wind, did not appear.Niun looked often during that rest, scanning their backtrail, and Duncan looked abso, and fretted after the missing beasts.“They are of a world no less hard,” Niun said finally, “and they are likely ranging out in search of their own meal.”But he frowned and still watched the horizon.And a strange thing began to happen as the sun declined.Through the gentle haze in the air, mountains leaped into being that had not been visible before, and the land grew and extended before them, developing new limits with the sun behind the hills.On the shores of the dying sea rose towers and slender spires, only a shade darker than the apricot sky.“Ah!” breathed Melein, rising; and they two rose up and stood gazing at that horizon, at that mirage-like city that hung before them.It remained distinct only for a few moments, and then faded into shadow as the rim of Na’i’in slipped beneath the horizon and brought them dusk.“That was surely what the instruments sensed,” said Duncan.“Something is alive there.”“Perhaps,” said Niun.Surely he yearned to believe so, but he evinced no hope, no anxiousness.He accepted the worst first: he had constantly done so; it seemed to keep the mri sane, in a history that held little but destructions.Melein settled again to her mat on the sand, and locked her arms about her knees and said nothing at all.“It could be very far,” Duncan said.“If it is the source of what you scanned?” Niun asked.Duncan shrugged.“A day or so.”Niun frowned, slipped the mez lower to expose most of his face.“Tell me truth: are you able to make such a walk?”Duncan nodded, mri-fashion.“The air is thin, but not beyond my limits.Mostly the cold troubles me.”“Wrap yourself.I think that we will rest in this place tonight.”“Niun, I will not be a burden on you.”Niun considered this, nodded finally.“Mri are not bearers of burdens,” he said, which Duncan took for kel humor, and the precise truth.He grinned, and Niun did likewise, a sudden and startling gesture, quickly gone.The veils were replaced [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]