[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
not . . ." He shrugged. "We must try to stop them." "I believe you, Losting," Bom confessed hesitantly. "But I would have final proof." He indicated Cohoma and Logan. "And I think it would speed our return if the giants were to see the sign of Akadi passing." Losting nodded agreement and rose. "It is not far, not as far as I would wish. We can be near and return before the water falls." Both hunters started off down the limb. Cohoma and Logan had to hurry to follow. Logan stumbled and twisted her way through the clutching thorns and branches and saw-edged leaves. Ruumahum paced be- low her as a precaution. The first two days had ac- customed her to living the death of a thousand cuts every sunrise to sunset, and she was getting tough- Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html ened. She marveled at how Bom never seemed to get cut or scratched despite the thickness of the brambles he led them through. It was positively uncanny. No doubt, she reasoned, it was his smaller size, his lithe build, coupled with the innate knowledge of the hylaea's construction that enabled him to slip smoothly between the most closely packed webs of leaves and stems and twigs. A bulky green shape appeared next to her. She didn't jump this time, just quivered a little inside. She 82 was growing used to the furcot's size and silent ap- proach. "Ruumahum, what are the Akadi?" The furcot sniffed. "A thing that eats." "One thing, or many?" "There are thousands of them, and there is one of them," Ruumahum replied. "How can there be thousands and only one?" Ruumahum growled irritably. "Ask Akadi." He plunged off the branch and downward. Logan followed his path in her mind's eye, repeating to herself theatrically, "into the foliage below! . . . foliage below . . . foliage below . . . foliage. Fol emfolEmpathetic foliation?" Precise terminology for an acquired superstition, she mused. That might ex- plain the term, but not the rationale for the belief's intensity. She was missing something. It would have to wait. Losting had been right, they did not have far to go. Now they were moving through a densely packed thicket of aerial greenery striped with bright yellow. It grew at right angles, forming a living checkerboard. Losting indicated they would have to pass around it, a detour of some dozens of meters. Cohoma put out a hand and grasped the nearest of the interlocking, finger-thick stems. "Why go around?" he asked Bom, with a gesture at the lat- ter's broad-bladed knife. He squeezed the branch. "This stuff is herbaceous, soft, pulpy. If we're in a Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html hurry, why not cut our way through?" "You consider death with such indifference," Bom told him, eyeing him in much the way Cohoma would study a bug under a microscope. "Can it be that on your own world you are a hunter of sorts, too?" There was a certain unidentifiable stress laid on the word sorts. It was Cohoma's turn to stare at Bom. "It's just some big succulent." "It is alive," Bom said patiently. "If we cut through it, it will become not-alive. Why? To save time?" "Not only that. If there's some kind of multiple omnivore around here, I'd rather not be caught in 83 tight quarters. The more spase cleared around me, ,the better." Bom and Losting exchanged glances. The two fur- cots waited nearby. "He would kill for a few minutes of better light," Bom observed wonderingly. "Your priorities are strange, Jancohoma. We will go around." Cohoma had additional questions, and Logan as well. However, neither Bom nor Losting would answer them now. Eventually they rounded the copse of the checker- board succulents. In another minute they were walk- ing in dense jungle. A turn, cut, and suddenly they entered an unexpected open space, much as Cohoma had wished for, tunneled out of the forest. The tunnel was taller than a man, taller than Logan or Cohoma. It was a good five meters wide, stretching in a straight line to left and right until it merged into green. "Akadi made this. They are mindless and of one purpose. They eat their way through the world, leavingthis." He indicated the clear space. Within that tunnel, life had ceased to exist. It had simply disappeared into ... what? "Is the line always so straight?" Logan asked. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html "No. The column sends out scouts. If the food lies thicker in another direction, the Akadi swerve and eat in a new path. Once started, nothing turns them but their own hunger. See." He pointed down the tun- nel. "They will eat through anything, consuming any- thing living in their path that cannot get out of their way. I have seen them eat through the heart of a Pil- lar tree and come out the other side. It is said that one can stand by the very edge of their, tunnel and, though one could reach out and pull you in, they will not deviate from their chosen path. As those in front are sated, they drop back, letting new members eat themselves full. By the time the last has eaten, the first are hungry again. They stop only to rest and breed." Cohoma looked relieved. "No problem, then, is there? Don't tell me you're concerned because they seem to be heading toward your village?" Born nodded. The giant spread his hands. "What's the trouble? 84 All you have to do is pack up your kids and furcots and get out of the way until they've eaten their way
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] zanotowane.pldoc.pisz.plpdf.pisz.plgrolux.keep.pl
|