[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

young dragon lord.
You're marked for dying. Why should I go anywhere with you? I can think of a
dozen simpler ways to commit suicide."
Flinx stopped. He stared hard but unthreateningly back at Pocomchi. "I need to
find the man you told me of, even though he's probably just another false
lead. You're the only one on Alaspin I
know who could find him for me. I don't expect you to come with me out of
friendship. I'll settle for hiring you. Why should you go anywhere with me?
Why not?" he finished, rather heartlessly.
"You have other immediate prospects?"
"No," Pocomchi whispered blankly, "no other immediate prospects."
file:///D|/Alan%20Dean%20Foster/Foster,%20Alan%20Dean%20-%20End%20of%20The%20M
atter.txt (37 of 93) [2/9/03 10:29:57 AM]
file:///D|/Alan%20Dean%20Foster/Foster,%20Alan%20Dean%20-%20End%20of%20The%20M
atter.txt
"But money isn't sufficient reason for you to come with me," Flinx went on
relentlessly. "So I'll give you a better reason. I'd be very surprised if they
don't try to kill Ab and me again."
Pocomchi rose and brushed at his pants to wipe off imaginary sand. "That's no
reason."
"Think Pocomchi," Flinx urged him. "It means that you and Balthazaar will have
a chance to meet some more Qwarm."
The Indian glanced up at him, uncomprehending for a moment. Then his
expression tensed with the realization of what Flinx was telling him. "Yes.
Yes, maybe we will have a chance to meet some of that kind again. I'd like
that." He nodded slowly, forcefully. "I'll go with you and guide you, Flinx."
Turning, he spat on the two limp bodies and started to murmur in a guttural,
alien tongue.
Flinx reached out, took Pocomchi's unresisting arm, and tugged him toward the
exit. The man allowed himself to be led, but never ceased his muttering, which
Page 51
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
was directed at the two corpses they were leaving behind.
They crossed the small brook. In midstream it turned into a river of molten
lava. Flinx felt gentle heat swirling around his legs, when they should have
been burned to cinders. But he took only the barest notice of the effect. His
mind was full of thoughts unconnected with the sensory gluttony provided by
the simiespin machinery.
"Come on, Ab!" he shouted behind him. Blue eyes focused on him. With a
good-natured singsong having something to do with vultures and fudge, the
alien followed the two men across the glowing pahoehoe. By the time they
reached the simiespin exit, Pocomchi had recovered enough to pay for his stay
with his own credcard, though from time to time be would resume his muttering.
Finally they were on the street outside. Flinx started back toward his motel,
Pocomchi walking alongside. The last remaining light of the Alaspinian evening
was fading to an amber luminescence.
Expecting a new kind of destruction to stab at them from behind every crate
and barrel, from every rooftop and floater, Flinx found his gaze shifting
constantly at imagined as well as real movements.
A hissing cry sounded suddenly- a reptilian wail. Both men paused. Behind
them, a leathery winged shape rose into the sky. It passed over their heads,
soaring on brilliantly hued wings as it lifted into the sunset. For a minute
it paused there, above and slightly ahead of them, circling as it climbed. A
dream-dragon out of a childhood fairy tale, its colorful diamond pattern
caught the fading sun.
Abruptly it gave another short cry; it had reached a decision. Wings pushing
air, it shot off in the direction of the setting sun. Light and distance
combined to obscure Flinx's view of it in a very short while.
Both men resumed walking. "I wondered what Habib's minidrag would do," Flinx
murmured thoughtfully. "I always wondered what a tame minidrag would do if its
master died."
"Now you know-they turn wild again," Pocomchi elaborated. "Hazarez was a good
snake." He eyed the sun, which had swallowed the last sight of the shrinking
dark dot. "Balthazaar will miss Hazarez, too."
"We're liable to miss a lot more," Flinx assured his companion, "if we don't
get off these streets before dark. The Qwarm prefer two sets of clothing: [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]