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ordinary men.
He would be able to kill after all. He would be Promoted.
He only hoped that he could control his reactions long enough to get one of them alone. He forced himself to relax, to attempt a smile.  I m very glad
to meet you, he said.  You have saved my life, and I m grateful.
Xaai had almost glided right through the flying army before she realized they weren t going to kill her. In fact, they barely took any notice of her,
though one shouted at her, something about noncombatants. At first she was too relieved to think at all, but as the last ranks of armed flyers drifted
past she thought to pull herself up, staying level with the nearest of them in the air, and shout at him.,  What are you doing here?
The flyer laughed.  Best you don t know  A pause.  What are you doing here? Don t you know the Temple s been cleared?
Confused, Xaai dipped her wings, dropped below the flyer, then recovered herself in a confused flurry.  Should I go, then? she asked.
The flyer looked at her properly for the first time.  You re a neophyte, aren t you?
Not sure what a neophyte was, Xaai didn t reply.
 You should go to the commander s gondola. The flyer gestured upwards, at a pale, boatlike shape floating above them, held up by several dimly
patterned balloons.  She ll get you an escort out of here.
Xaai thanked the flyer and soared on, flapping her wings to gain 88
altitude towards the gondola. She was confused. Who were these people? Were they Aapurian s people, or were they fighting against them?
But naieen didn t fight. Did they?
...wingers don t fight: they re sneaking cowards...
Who had said that? The voice in her head was strange, but the words felt like her own. Her own from a long time ago, before she d understood,
before she d even dreamt. She had been a man.
But who? Why was she so special? What was it that they needed her to remember?
Xaai looked over her shoulder, breaking the steady stream of cold air tumbling over her wing. She could still see the lights of the army, dropping
steadily away from her. Ahead, the gondola was closer, but the wind had pushed her to one side of it. With an effort she corrected her course,
watched as the pale shape resolved itself into an elaborate crenellated hull with fixed masts for sails and balloons.
Not a very good design for a boat, she found herself thinking.
As she drew level with the deck, a naieen woman hailed her and asked her business.
 I need to see the commander, said Xaai.  I m a  she paused, remembering the word   neophyte. I m from the Temple. She gestured above and
behind them, though the Temple lights were no longer distinct from all the others in the Sky, and she wasn t even sure she was gesturing in the right
direction.
She became aware that she was falling behind the gondola as it drifted. She struggled to correct the drift, but her wings seemed to become
entangled with the currents of the air and she started to fall. Desperately she scrabbled her way sideways towards the crenellated wall of the
gondola, grabbed at the wood with her arms.
Strong hands took her wrists, hauled her aboard. Her wings bruised on to the hard deck, sending stabs of pain through her body.
Gasping, she slowly righted herself and looked up at her rescuer.
Iikeelu was staring down at her. There was ice in her eyes.  You wanted to see the commander, she said.  I am acting for the commander.
Xaai slumped to the deck, felt the hard rough wood against her skin.  Don t, she said.  Please don t kill me.
Iikeelu raised a hand. Xaai flinched, thinking the older naieen was going to hit her, but she was only beckoning two guardsmen.
Their heavy bodies clumped across the deck.
Then Xaai saw that they were carrying whips.
Iikeelu smiled coldly.
 The pain should help you remember. Iikeelu smiled.  I m 89
sorry. It s the only way.
But Xaai was looking into her ice-cold eyes, and knew that she wasn t sorry. She wasn t sorry at all.
90
Eleven
our plan is quite insane, and it can t possibly work. Even
 Yassuming this  fallen sun that you ve found actually was, at one time, capable of travelling between the stars  that it was a true starship it s quite
obvious that it s now severely damaged. And you simply haven t got the technology to repair it.
The Doctor was pacing to and fro between the brightly coloured shelves of the library, as if the place were his own. In the strong gaslight the lines
etched into the flesh of his face were even more evident. To Epreto they seemed almost like symptoms of the cracks, the alien rifts, in the Doctor s
mind. Why couldn t he understand? He was a rational being, wasn t he?
 Doctor, we have to escape this world. The sun of our Land will die, just as all the others have done. Just like the one we found. I have more [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]