[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

again, as his eyes and senses also measured the hillside, and he took a deep
breath. More than a third of the attackers remained shielded by the curve of
the hill.
 Why is he waiting? whispered a voice.  Leave him alone. He s got to get
them all at once. Too many are hidden by the slope of the hill, hissed
Huldran. As the sweat dripped from his forehead, and he absently brushed it
away from his eyes, Nylan continued to watch, to sense. As the dark forces
swelled and surged across the hillside toward the thin line of guards, he
waited.
Finally, as he tasted salt and blood, he triggered the laser, and the beam
flared, and spread into a cast of light that did nothing, just sprayed reddish
light across the advancing Lornians.
 What s with the laser? snapped Huldran.  We ve got power.
 The wizards. They ve got shields. Nylan extended his senses toward the
focal point of the shields, stepping toward Huldran as he did.  Ease it right,
more, more. Hold it there!
White-faced, Huldran helped him ease the laser eastward.
The focal change failed to help, and another flare of light lit the
hillside, even as the Lornian forces reached a point less than two hundred
cubits from Ryba and the guards.
 Shit! He could sense the interlocked shields of the two wizards on the
hillside, and his mind and fingers tried to tighten the focus of the beam, to
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
swing it right against those red-white shields.
The energy in the firin cells seemed to build, and Nylan could sense the
surging power, surges with far more energy than those cells could have
possibly contained, as well as the invisible hands of the white wizard,
probing, jabbing.
The engineer concentrated, ignoring the nearing hoofbeats, ignoring the
raging chaos in the power cells behind him, trying to focus his energy and
order into the thinnest, sharpest needle of order and power.
The white shields pulsed, and the needle halted. Nylan concentrated harder,
and the black needle probed at the reddish-white shields, narrowing,
narrowing. Nylan squeezed all the firin cell energy into that needle, driving
it, hammering like a smith might hammer a needle-thin chisel against the
joints in armor, relentlessly probing.
His eyes burned; his head felt like an anvil he was using, as though each
thrust of the laser and the chaos somehow added by the white wizards rebounded
back through him. His fingers were locked on the laser, as though held there
by an electric current that flayed his nerves.
Still, Nylan hammered the needle against the white-red shields, forcing
more and more power into that thrust, more and more chaos, more and more
disruption, fighting the chaos backlash, and the lines of fire that felt as if
they streamed from the white wizards and fell like lashes across his mind and
body.
The shields of the white wizards wavered, and Nylan eased every erg of
energy, chaotic and nonchaotic, smoothing it into an overwhelming tide of
massed energy that cascaded against the pulsing white shields of the
struggling Lornian wizards.
Something has to give& has to& has to, thought Nylan as he strained against
the barriers that protected the Lornians.
CRRUMMMMMPTTT!
Energy flared across the Roof of the World, and the sky shivered and the
ground shook, and all three wizards were clothed in flame and chaos. At that
moment, Tower Black, rearing mounts, guards, armsmen, and wizards were
suspended in a timeless instant-bathed in fire, bathed in chaos, bathed in
order.
CXXVI
 LEAVE THE SIEGE engines at the bottom there, Sillek orders Viendros.
Viendros nods, as does Koric from beyond the Gallosian commander. If they
can clear the field, then there will be time for the engines. If not, they
will never get close enough to use them. The Gallosian rides back toward the
lagging equipment.
 Arrows continue to fly from the trees on the left, and from the rocky
jumble on the right. Sillek occasionally glimpses a slim figure retreating
uphill as the Lornian force, under the two differently shaded purple banners,
continues forward. The lancers advance almost in circles, keeping the horses
moving at angles and turning abruptly to cut down on the ability of the angel
archers to predict where the horsemen will be.
The foot keep their small shields raised, and many arrows either stick in
the shields or bounce off. A fair number penetrate defenses and bodies, and
several dozen bodies sprawl across the hillside behind the advance, as has
been the case for kays. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]