[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Then, one day—and he had no idea if it was day or night, morning or afternoon—Sisoka
pulled him away from the well rim and led him over to where Mildred knelt beside
Krysty. Her face was startlingly pale, surrounded by her thick cloud of red hair, but her
eyes were bright, more brilliant than the green geofire.
"Now," Sisoka said quietly. "Now we will learn if our intentions were pure."
Swiftly, unhesitatingly, ignoring Mildred's word of warning, Sisoka seized the feathered
shaft and yanked it from beneath Krysty's breast. It came free as easily and as smoothly
as if it had been lodged in cotton wadding.
Black fluid bubbled from the puncture wound, then came a flow of bright red blood.
Mildred, her eyes dull with fatigue but registering astonishment, plugged the puncture
with a mixture of buffalo tallow and yarrow. No blood seeped around the edges of the
wound.
Sisoka touched Krysty's face three times in a ritualistic fashion. "You are well now."
And she was.
Chapter Thirty-Four
It was the third morning after they had left the cavern, and they were guests in the forest
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/J...thlands%20037%20-%20Demons%20of%20Eden.html (254 of 258) [12/30/2004 8:13:13 PM]
Dlands 37- Demons of Eden
city. All of them had been given separate rooms. Ryan in particular was far too grateful
for a place to bathe and rest to think about their next course of action.
He rose from the bunk he shared with Krysty and stretched. Pain flared along his right
forearm, and he groaned. He parted the bandages and touched the discolored, scabbed-
over flesh, wondering again how he had regained the use of the hand so quickly. The
image of the green glow flitted through his mind and answered his question. Even Jak's
wound was almost completely healed.
Krysty touched his back. "Are you all right?"
"Fine," he replied. "What about you?" She sat up in bed, her hair tumbling about her bare
shoulders and breasts. Only a faint, puckered scar showed where the arrow had pierced
her, and according to Sisoka, with applications of aloe juice, that soon would fade.
He and Krysty dressed. "How long are we going to stay here?" she asked.
"That depends on how long you want to stay." She put on her boots. "If it was up to me,
I'd say for the rest of our lives."
He paused in buckling on his gun belt. "Why isn't it up to you?"
Krysty shrugged. "The others may not see it that way. May not feel we should stay in this
place. And besides, there may be other factors involved."
"Like what?"
"I don't know," she responded, running her fingers through her hair. The locks stirred. "I
sense something."
They stepped from their quarters into the cool air. J.B., Mildred, Doc and Jak were
already outside, their faces downcast. Sisoka was with them. Ryan immediately felt a
change in the city's attitude. The past two days and nights had carried with them a snap of
good spirits, almost a buoyancy.
The Wolf Soldiers had retaken the city two weeks before without meeting any resistance.
With Touch-the-Sky dead, the whole basis of his campaign had been swept away. The
Cavern Keeper society was sick with guilt. They vowed to redress their grave wrong and
to make Ti-Ra'-Wa the valley of peace again.
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/J...thlands%20037%20-%20Demons%20of%20Eden.html (255 of 258) [12/30/2004 8:13:13 PM]
Dlands 37- Demons of Eden
Much of the valley was blackened and blasted by fire, though the land near the forest city
was untouched. Sisoka had said fatalistically, "It is enough. It will grow again."
They had missed the ritual period of mourning the dead while in the cavern, and when
they arrived back in the city, they were greeted pleasantly enough.
Now, this day, the air of mourning seemed to have returned. Ryan and Krysty approached
Sisoka, and they saw she was dressed in her costume of office: a long buckskin dress,
leggings adorned with tufts of fox fur and a necklace made from alternating disks of gold
and silver hung from her throat. A buffalo robe was draped about her shoulders. Her dark
eyes were inscrutable. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]