[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.Shelby was obviously shattered by the death of his older brother, so shocked that he felt neither anger nor regret.Indeed, Waln would be surprised if he felt much of anything at all.Shelby sat at the point where two corners of thewall met, the crossbow he'd somehow retained unloaded and resting idly between his knees.There was a nasty cut onhis forehead, but the blood had mostly stopped flowing, leaving Shelby's features bordered in dried blood.Looks like we have a new nominee for ship's fool now that Elwyn's dead, Waln thought, but despite the jocular casthe tried to give his thoughts, Shelby made him uneasy.There was no telling what his mood would be when heemerged from the shock, and Waln depended on having some idea how those he led would react.Wiatt had proven equally unpredictable.He'd come close to falling indeed, if one wanted to be perfectly technicalabout it, he had fallen, but he had caught the jutting edge of a broken beam and laboriously pulled himself to therelative safety of this aerie.In the process, he'd banged his right knee badly, and even wrapping it hadn't stopped itfrom ballooning up to twice its size.However, even with the pain from his knee, Wiatt's biggest worry seemed to behow the yarimaimalom would react when he reached the ground."You don't think they know I'm the one who shot that arrow?" he kept asking."They couldn't have seen it was me,right? I was behind a wall then.Do you think they could smell me on the bolt? Surely they can't.I only handled it for amoment."This, or variations thereof, spilled from his lips so continuously that Waln was rapidly able to ignore the sound ashe ignored the sound of the wind when he was at sea.What bothered him more was that Wiatt had dropped hiscrossbow and bolts down among the wreckage.But neither Shelby's brooding silence nor Wiatt's nervous nattering bothered Waln as much as how Shivadtmon wastreating the situation.Initially, Waln had thought the aridisdu both composed and uninjured.He had been grateful forthat composure while he had inspected the other men for injuries and inventoried what gear was left to them.Thathadn't proved to be much.Most of what they had carried up from the Islander either had been left below or had beenstacked on a floor that was now indistinguishable from rubble.When Waln had asked Shivadtmon if the other had, by chance, held on to one of the bundles of rope, the aridisduhad looked at him calmly. "I don't understand how this could happen.She invited me.The door opened.Why would she let this happen?""Maybe it wasn't her that opened the door," Waln said, "maybe it was one of those monstrosities.You saw themcoming out of the other towers.They live here."But Shivadtmon had responded to this sensible statement with a small shake of his head."Magic invited me.I am sure of it.Somehow I have missed something crucial.""Well, if you think of a way we can get down," Waln said, "intact and alive, that is the other way is easy enough let me know."Shivadtmon had granted Waln a distant and bemused nod, and gone back to staring at the ruined stonework.All three of them driven mad, Waln thought, and so no help to me, but it would be best if we all got down.We'vebeen through a lot, wouldn't look good at all if I left them.Of course, if Shivadtmon took a tumble, then we could claimhe put us up to this he did really and it would only be his word against ours.But then Waln remembered cursed Barnet Lobster, presumably alive and comfortable on the Islander, and knew hecouldn't make that work.Waln had tried to see if he could climb down the outside, but two things prevented him.A wrist he'dtwistedsomehow in the crash wouldn't bear his weight but more important, he couldn't make himself take that step over theedge without so much as a line to cling to.He didn't like how the stone shifted and grated, how the mortar crumbedand crumbled.Give him honest rigging and he could still climb with the best, but on stone, with unforgiving groundbeneath him, he might as well be a landsman.Waln pulled himself back onto the relative solidity of what was seeming more and more like an island in the sky,and wondered why no one was getting around to rescuing them.He knew how his own people would react in a similarsituation.All hands would struggle to rescue a sailor from drowning even if he was due for flogging as soon as he gotout of sick bay.Maybe these Liglimom didn't see things that way.Maybe like Shivadtmon they saw this all as a punishment sentby their deities, and it would be up to Waln and the others to get themselves out.That was an ugly thought, and Walnwas still considering it when he glimpsed the fiery red hair of Derian Carter down below.He was walking with a largewolf Waln thought might be Lady Blysse's companion."Hey, Derian Counselor!" Waln shouted as loudly as if he were in a storm at sea, not thirty or so feet off theground."Hey, Waln Endbrook," Derian replied, looking up
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]