[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
deeper water beyond.
Slowly, it unwound and moved toward the shore, sine-waving from side to side,
sending out oily ripples in beautiful whirlpool patterns. Its head broke the
surface in the shallows, and Michael felt its dark gaze on him.
The Serpent Mage was ugly. It looked dangerous, with its smooth black skin
dimpled all over like a very old catfish or electric eel, its filmed eyes
tiny, its fins small and barbed, dorsal fin little more than a ridge of
thorn-like stickles in the middle of its back. It was a yard and a half wide
and squat in cross-section, as if oppressed even in the water by its freight
of time.
Michael shivered The head slithered up the shore, cresting sand and gravel
before it. Then it rested, careened slightly to one side, still watching him,
silent on all levels.
Its mouth was a wide, round-gummed crescent recessed behind the blunt
two-lobed snout. The mouth opened an inch or two and shut, then again.
Recessed deep behind the gums were crescents of sharp, tiny teeth, no larger
than Michael's, but far greater in number.
Michael dropped his legs over the side of the rock and approached the Serpent,
hands held out before him.
His fingers trembled.
But for a tiny, final thread of noctilucent cloud, the last light had gone out
of the sky, He was seeing the
Serpent by all of his new senses, and in that seeing, the Serpent was suddenly
wrapped in cold fire.
Mother-of-pearl stripes retreated down its length from its snout. Its eyes
became sullen blood rubies. Then the decorations passed away, and it lost all
character but its length and its width. It sat on the shore as black as
polished obsidian, blacker than the turbid loch water and the mist-shrouded
night air beyond.
"You called me," Michael finally said.
"Yes, I did," a voice issued from the long form. It spoke human words but
hardly sounded human. There
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-...0Power%2002%20-%20The%20Serpent%
20Mage.html (104 of 208) [5/21/03 12:44:32 AM]
Bear, Greg - Songs of Earth and Power Vol. 2 - The Serpent Mage was too much
age in it, too much time wrapped in solitary contemplation.
"I don't know why you called me."
"We must discuss what you're going to do," the Serpent said. "The world is
remaking itself."
Page 108
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"I'm ready to listen," Michael said, stopping three strides from the Serpent's
head.
"I am not here to give instructions," the Serpent said. "The most I will do is
suggest. The rest is up to you.
Do you know what you are now?"
"The Breed woman who brought me here said I was a candidate. I assume that
means I'm a candidate to be a mage."
"And how do you feel about that?" The Serpent rolled slightly and inched back
and forth on the pebbles, as if scratching.
Michael shook his head.
Not much different from any other job interview
, he thought. "It seems ridiculous. I'm weak and ignorant and unprepared."
"What is required of this new mage?" the Serpent asked.
"I'm not sure," Michael said. "I assume to offer leadership and help bring
humans and Sidhe together, to live in peace."
"Do you know that such a thing is possible?"
"No. But I know it's necessary, or we will all die."
"I have been listening to humans for sixty million years, give or take a few
million, and I've listened to the
Sidhe also. I've reached around the world, and beyond the world, and felt
lives. When our kind was incapable of thoughts much deeper than planning for
the next meal, or the next coupling, I waited. I saw their dreams increase in
subtlety and power and watched them struggle back to awareness. The seed of
rebirth I planted in them began to bear fruit. But time still dragged.
"I have been alive and carried in this body much too long. I have lived so
long that I have gone crazy, and outlived my insanity, thousands of time. Each
time I slipped back to savagery, I fought my way out of the tangle, even
though savagery and insanity were more comfortable, because I knew this time
would come.
I suspect other mages have also known. But unlike other mages, I could not
participate in the preparations. And during my lucid moments, I planned what I
would say when a new candidate appeared."
Rain started to fall, and the loch sang and hissed under the passing storm.
"I swam the oceans of the world, and found deep passages beneath the land and
came to these inland bodies of water to rest. Once, not very long ago, Elme
brought me to her garden, and for a time I taught the children she had made
with Aske, and the others who had gathered there. When Tonn reigned as
Yahweh, our time in the garden became a legend, then a lie, and 1 swam the
deep reaches for a thousand years, sick at heart and crazy again. I hated all
living things. I thought the past, before the War, was lost forever. Even now,
human life seems to me largely a dance of ignorance and hunger. What light
there is is rare, and when discovered, usually snuffed out. Do you know who
most often does the snuffing?"
Michael considered for a moment, water dripping from his face and steaming
from the heat coming off his body. "Tarax and the Maln," he finally answered.
"They are the latest, yes. Do you know why humans have had to struggle against
such odds in the past thousands of years?"
"Because of interference from the Sidhe."
"Yes. Do you hate them for their interference?"
Michael considered again, then shook his head. "It wouldn't do any good," he
said. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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deeper water beyond.
Slowly, it unwound and moved toward the shore, sine-waving from side to side,
sending out oily ripples in beautiful whirlpool patterns. Its head broke the
surface in the shallows, and Michael felt its dark gaze on him.
The Serpent Mage was ugly. It looked dangerous, with its smooth black skin
dimpled all over like a very old catfish or electric eel, its filmed eyes
tiny, its fins small and barbed, dorsal fin little more than a ridge of
thorn-like stickles in the middle of its back. It was a yard and a half wide
and squat in cross-section, as if oppressed even in the water by its freight
of time.
Michael shivered The head slithered up the shore, cresting sand and gravel
before it. Then it rested, careened slightly to one side, still watching him,
silent on all levels.
Its mouth was a wide, round-gummed crescent recessed behind the blunt
two-lobed snout. The mouth opened an inch or two and shut, then again.
Recessed deep behind the gums were crescents of sharp, tiny teeth, no larger
than Michael's, but far greater in number.
Michael dropped his legs over the side of the rock and approached the Serpent,
hands held out before him.
His fingers trembled.
But for a tiny, final thread of noctilucent cloud, the last light had gone out
of the sky, He was seeing the
Serpent by all of his new senses, and in that seeing, the Serpent was suddenly
wrapped in cold fire.
Mother-of-pearl stripes retreated down its length from its snout. Its eyes
became sullen blood rubies. Then the decorations passed away, and it lost all
character but its length and its width. It sat on the shore as black as
polished obsidian, blacker than the turbid loch water and the mist-shrouded
night air beyond.
"You called me," Michael finally said.
"Yes, I did," a voice issued from the long form. It spoke human words but
hardly sounded human. There
file:///F|/rah/Greg%20Bear/Bear,%20Greg%20-...0Power%2002%20-%20The%20Serpent%
20Mage.html (104 of 208) [5/21/03 12:44:32 AM]
Bear, Greg - Songs of Earth and Power Vol. 2 - The Serpent Mage was too much
age in it, too much time wrapped in solitary contemplation.
"I don't know why you called me."
"We must discuss what you're going to do," the Serpent said. "The world is
remaking itself."
Page 108
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"I'm ready to listen," Michael said, stopping three strides from the Serpent's
head.
"I am not here to give instructions," the Serpent said. "The most I will do is
suggest. The rest is up to you.
Do you know what you are now?"
"The Breed woman who brought me here said I was a candidate. I assume that
means I'm a candidate to be a mage."
"And how do you feel about that?" The Serpent rolled slightly and inched back
and forth on the pebbles, as if scratching.
Michael shook his head.
Not much different from any other job interview
, he thought. "It seems ridiculous. I'm weak and ignorant and unprepared."
"What is required of this new mage?" the Serpent asked.
"I'm not sure," Michael said. "I assume to offer leadership and help bring
humans and Sidhe together, to live in peace."
"Do you know that such a thing is possible?"
"No. But I know it's necessary, or we will all die."
"I have been listening to humans for sixty million years, give or take a few
million, and I've listened to the
Sidhe also. I've reached around the world, and beyond the world, and felt
lives. When our kind was incapable of thoughts much deeper than planning for
the next meal, or the next coupling, I waited. I saw their dreams increase in
subtlety and power and watched them struggle back to awareness. The seed of
rebirth I planted in them began to bear fruit. But time still dragged.
"I have been alive and carried in this body much too long. I have lived so
long that I have gone crazy, and outlived my insanity, thousands of time. Each
time I slipped back to savagery, I fought my way out of the tangle, even
though savagery and insanity were more comfortable, because I knew this time
would come.
I suspect other mages have also known. But unlike other mages, I could not
participate in the preparations. And during my lucid moments, I planned what I
would say when a new candidate appeared."
Rain started to fall, and the loch sang and hissed under the passing storm.
"I swam the oceans of the world, and found deep passages beneath the land and
came to these inland bodies of water to rest. Once, not very long ago, Elme
brought me to her garden, and for a time I taught the children she had made
with Aske, and the others who had gathered there. When Tonn reigned as
Yahweh, our time in the garden became a legend, then a lie, and 1 swam the
deep reaches for a thousand years, sick at heart and crazy again. I hated all
living things. I thought the past, before the War, was lost forever. Even now,
human life seems to me largely a dance of ignorance and hunger. What light
there is is rare, and when discovered, usually snuffed out. Do you know who
most often does the snuffing?"
Michael considered for a moment, water dripping from his face and steaming
from the heat coming off his body. "Tarax and the Maln," he finally answered.
"They are the latest, yes. Do you know why humans have had to struggle against
such odds in the past thousands of years?"
"Because of interference from the Sidhe."
"Yes. Do you hate them for their interference?"
Michael considered again, then shook his head. "It wouldn't do any good," he
said. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]