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the war to begin. Glory would accrue to her and to Cugluch. With the wizard's assistance why should she
not become Empress of the Universe, supreme ruler of as yet unknown beyonds and their inhabitants?
Yes, she would have the exquisite pleasure of presiding over destruction and conquest instead of
records and stupid, fawning, peaceful citizens. Cugluch was on the march, as it should be. Only this tune
it would swell and grow instead of sputtering to an ignominious halt!
The hallucination faded until it was only an amusing and insignificant memory....
XV
Jon-Tom was split down the middle. Half of him was cool and damp from the early morning mist. The
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other side was warm and dry, almost hot with the weight leaning against it.
He opened his eyes with that first lethargic movement of awakening and saw a white-and-black-clad
form snuggled close against his own. Flor's long black hair lay draped over his shoulder. Her head was
nestled in the crook of his left arm.
Instead of moving and waking her, he used the time to study that perfect, silent face. She looked so
different, so childlike in sleep. Further to his left slumbered the silent shape of the wizard.
With his head and limbs retracted Clothahump was a boulderish form near a clump of bushes. Jon-Tom
started to look back down at his sleeper when he became aware of movement just behind him. Startled,
he reached automatically for his war staff.
"Rest easy, Jon-Tom." The voice was less reassuring than the words it spoke. Talea moved down
beside him, staring morosely at the recumbent couple. "If I murder you, Jon-Tom, it won't ever be in your
sleep." She stepped lithely over them both and trotted over to Clothahump.
She bent and rapped unceremoniously on the shell. "Wake up, wizard!"
A head soon appeared, followed by a pair of arms. One hand held a pair of spectacles which were
promptly secured before the turtle's eyes. Then the legs appeared. After resting a moment on all fours,
the wizard pushed back into a squat, then stood.
"I am not accustomed," he began huffily, "to being awakened in so brusque a fashion, young lady. If I
were of less understanding a mind..."
"Save it," she said, "for him." She pointed to the unsteady shape of Pog. The sleepy bat was fluttering
awkwardly over to attend to his master's early morning needs. He'd been sleeping in the branches of the
great oak overhead.
"What's da matter?" he asked tiredly. "What's all da uproar? Can't ya let a person sleep?"
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"C'mon," Talea said curtly, "everybody up." She looked back at Jon-Tom, and he wondered at
something he thought he saw in her gaze. "Well," she asked him, "are you two going to join this little
session or aren't you? Or do you intend to spend the rest of your life practicing to be a pillow?"
"I might," he shot back, challenging her stare and not moving. She looked away. "What's the trouble,
anyway? Why the sudden fanaticism for an early start? I've never noticed you passing up any chance for
a little extra sleep."
"Ordinarily I'd still be asleep, Jon-Tom," she replied, "but what made me wake up wasn't too much sleep
but the lack of something else. Isn't it obvious to any of you yet?" She spread both hands and turned a
half circle. "Where's Mudge?"
Jon-Tom eased Flor off his shoulder. She blinked sleepily and then, becoming aware of her position, slid
to one side. Her cat stretch made it difficult for him to concentrate on the problem at hand.
"Mudge is gone," he told her as he rose, trying to work the kinks out of shoulders and legs.
"So da fuzzy little bugger up and split." Pog used the tip of one wing to clean an ear, grimacing as he did
so. "Don't surprise me none. He as much as said he was gonna do it first chance he got."
"I thought better of him." Jon-Tom looked disappointedly at the surrounding woods.
Talea laughed. "Then you're a bigger fool than you seem. Don't you realize, the only thing that kept him
with us this far was wizardry threats." She jabbed a thumb toward Clothahump.
"I am most upset," said the wizard quietly. "Despite his unfortunate predilection for illegal activities, I
rather liked that otter." Jon-Tom watched the turtle's expression change. "Well, I cannot bring him back,
but I can fix him, where he is. I'll put a seekstealth on him." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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