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Mulak s head. The thin dusting of papery leaves provided little shelter from
the suns, but there was nothing else around so she sighed and set Pari
trotting over to them.
At the trees, whose shelter was flimsier than she expected, she twisted in
the saddle and licked dry and cracking lips.  This s not shade enough to
shelter a mikhmikh. The square of tufan tied over the pack on the stallion s
back caught her eye.  At, idea! Pari, this dried-up lady isn t licked yet.
She slid off the mare s back and tied the tufan so that it threw a pool of
shade big enough for the three of them to crowd into.
She suffered the high heat through, head and eyes aching furiously. At the
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worst part she poured water onto her sleeve and bathed the horses tender
noses and poured some water in a shallow basin so they could drink. For
herself she splashed it over her face and drank a few swallows. It took years
for Hesh and Horli to move the few degrees of arc that put a thicker blanket
of air between them and the crisping earth. She stirred finally and felt the
waterskin. It was limp, nearly empty. She poured some water into the basin and
let the horses drink again. Trickling a few more drops out onto her sleeve so
she could bathe her face, she thought,I d better find water. Soon .
She looked up and saw a hawk sailing high overhead. Reaching out, she stroked
his small fierce brain.Water , she thought at him,water , thrusting the idea
deep into his dim awareness. He angled swiftly southward.
With the line between them a stretching thread of communication, Aleytys
hurriedly untied the tufan, bundled it on top of the pack, and climbed back
into the saddle. She kicked her heels into the mare s flanks and sent her
loping after the fleeting speck. The black stallion trotted along behind,
linked to her by the other invisible thread spun out from her mind.
As she rode, she nested further into the bird s mind, striving to maintain
the link between them. Suddenly she felt a snap and a whirling dizziness. Then
she was looking down at a rolling wrinkled surface pale gray and queerly
distorted. Off in the distance bobbed the clumsy earthbound animals, a
blackish blot on the unreeling map of the ground. Fleetingly she felt the
oddness of a black and white vision of the earth, somehow even stranger than
the unaccustomed aerial view.
A building compulsion jerked the bird s eyes away, Aleytys s awareness
following, as to the south, far ahead, almost at the limit of vision, a
wandering line of dark gray cut through the pale gray grass.Trees , she
thought.Some kind of stream. That s good. I wonder how far it is .
The hawk caught the wind in the hollow of his wings and banked over and down
into a long slanting glide. The ground came close and the glide leveled out.
She sensed the complex play of muscles, as ordinarily she was aware of the
pressure of air sliding on her skin& a subtle tactile awareness with every
inch of her body part of a vibrant sensing organ. With the hawk she soared. It
was an exhilarating experience, joy riding on the wings of air.
A sudden jolt snapped her away from the hawk. She blinked. For a moment a
vast resentment of her heavy clumsy human body quivered in her, then the last
remnants of hawk evaporated and she was once more wholly herself, flat on her
back in the hot and dusty grass.
Cautiously she straightened her arms and legs. Everything worked and
everything hurt, but no sharp, shooting pains warned of serious injury. With a
wry grin on her dirty face she struggled back onto her face and dusted herself
off.
Somewhat abashed, she climbed back on the mare and tucked the abba around her
legs. As she rode along, letting the mare choose her own pace, Aleytys tilted
her head and looked into the sky with amusement and regret.  Next time I go
flying, she murmured, laughter bubbling in her voice,  I ll keep my feet on
the ground. She stretched and groaned.  Just what I need, a new set of
bruises.
Hesh and Horli crept slowly down a sky that was vibrating with heat so that
the air burned her lungs with each breath she took. Even the horses were
panting and growing increasingly skittish. Every shadow sent their eyes
rolling and their bodies dancing sideways. She looked anxiously around. The
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grass spread out on either side, broken here and there by low patches of
brush. Even the scattered trees were behind her. Rolling gently in a series of
small lumps, the earth heaved up and down, stretching endlessly to the horizon
line all around., Hot& it was hard to breathe& her mouth was dry, her nose
stiff and hard& hot& . She unhooked the waterskin and squeezed out a few drops
onto the edge of her cowl. Her throat felt scraped raw, her mouth like badly
cured leather. An ache climbed up the back of her neck and burned blue-white
at the back of her head. She clutched at the saddle horn with one hand, the
other held the damp material against her mouth and nose.Where the hell is that
stream ? she thought.
The land washed out in front of her eyes, washed out like a faded print,
until all she could see was flash on flash of blue-white light.
Up another hill, then down, bracing with feet in stirrups; the mare s gait
grew rougher& she was speeding up. Hoof-beats sounded beside her& the
stallion. He was a black blur going by on her right side. She opened swollen
eyes. At first it was difficult to focus on anything, then she squinted
painfully and made out a blue-green line crawling at the bottom of a long
slope. The mare twitched her head from side to side, pulling the reins loose
from Aleytys s shaking fingers as she stretched out into an eager run. Aleytys
hung on grimly, bobbing about in the saddle like a bundle of avrishum, her
legs too tired and sore to have any grip left in them.
A sudden halt& belly banging into saddle horn, face into mane. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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