[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Huge ill-smelling creatures. Tell me, Awina, have you or any of our people ever seen a Wuggrud?"
Awina turned her dark-blue eyes toward him. She licked her black lips as if they had suddenly become
dry.
"No, Lord. None of us have seen them. But we have heard of them. Our mothers have told us stories
about them. Our ancestors knew them when we lived closer to Wurutana. And Ghlikh has seen them."
"So Ghlikh has been talking?"
He stood up and stretched and then sat down again. He had been about to walk across the cave but
remembered that it was the mortal who came to see the god, not the god the mortal. He called, "Ghlikh!
On the double!"
The tiny man scrambled to his feet and waddled across the floor. He stood before Ulysses and said,
"What is it, my Lord!"
"Why do you spread stories about the Wuggrud? Are you trying to dishearten my warriors?"
Ghlikh's face was expressionless. He said, "Never would I do that, my Lord. No, I have not spread
stories. I have merely answered, truthfully, the questions your warriors put to me about the Wuggrud."
"Are they as monstrous as the tales have it?"
Ghlikh smiled and said, "Nobody could be that monstrous, my Lord. But they are bad enough."
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
"Are we in their territory?"
"If you are in Wurutana, you are in their territory."
"I wish we could see a few and get our arrows into them. Then we'd shake this fear out of my men."
"The thing about a Wuggrud," Ghlikh said, "is that you will see them, sooner or later. But by then it may
be too late."
"Now you're trying to scare me."
Ghlikh raised his brows. "I, Lord? Try to scare a god? Not I, Lord!"
Then he said, "It is Wurutana, not the Wuggrud, that have thrown your brave warriors into such a blue
funk."
"They are brave!"
He thought,I will tell them that there is nothing to be done about Wurutana itself. It is just a tree.
A mighty big one. But it is a mindless plant which can do nothing to them. And the others, the
Khrauszmiddum and the Wuggrud, are only the lice on the plant.
He would wait until morning to tell this. Just now, they were too tired and dull. After a night's rest and a
good breakfast, he would tell them that they could rest for a few days. And he would give them an
inspiring speech.
He walked around, made sure that there was plenty of firewood and that guards had been appointed.
Then he sat down again, and while he was thinking about his speech, he fell asleep.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
At first, he thought that he was being awakened for the guard duty which he had insisted on standing.
Then he realised that he was being rolled over, and his hands were tied behind him.
A voice said something in an unfamiliar tongue. The voice was the deepest basso he had ever heard.
He looked up. Torches were flaring in the dome. Giants held them. Beings seven feet tall, even eight feet
tall. They had very short legs, very long trunks and long bulky arms. They were naked, and their hair
distribution was much like a man's except for the fur across the belly and the groin. The skin was as pale
as a blond Swede's, and the hair was reddish or brown. Their faces were humanoid, but prognathous,
with dark round wet noses. Their ears were pointed and set high on their heads. They stank of sweat,
garbage and excrement.
They carried huge knobbed clubs, long-handled wooden mallets and spears with fire-hardened points.
The thing he must be a Wuggrud spoke again. His teeth were widely separated and sharp.
There was a piping sound. It took a few seconds to grasp that the thin voice was Ghlikh's and that he
was speaking to the Wuggrud in his language.
Ulysses felt such rage that he should have been able to tear apart the bonds around his wrists. But they
held.
He said, "You foul stinking treacherous animal! I should have killed you!"
Ghlikh, smiling, turned and said, "Yes, you should have, my Lord!"
He spat on Ulysses and then kicked him in the ribs. The kick hurt the man's delicate foot more than it
hurt Ulysses. The Wuggrud growled something, and Ghlikh hopped away.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
The giant reached down and grabbed Ulysses by the neck with a huge hand and sat him upright. The
hand choked him. When his senses returned, he saw that every one of his people were bound. No, not
all. About ten lay dead, their skulls crushed.
The rear wall had been slid aside, exposing a tunnel. Torches set in stands on the wall flamed inside the
tunnel.
So that was how they caught them. But how could so few overcome so many, even if those few were
ogres? What had happened to the guards? Why hadn't the noise of the struggle awakened him?
Ghlikh squatted down in front of him. He said, "I got a powder from the Wuggrud. I put it in your water.
In everybody's drinking water. It takes effect slowly and subtly. But very powerfully."
It was subtle. The water had tasted pure, and he had no headache or bad taste.
He looked around. Awina was sitting near him with her hands also tied behind her. The thought of
something happening to her made him frantic.
His intention to ask Ghlikh why the ten had been killed was stifled. A Wuggrud leaned down and with a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

  • zanotowane.pl
  • doc.pisz.pl
  • pdf.pisz.pl
  • mew.pev.pl

    		•