Frederick Kirchhoff The Emperor's Library 2 The Tritargo

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.Talor smiled again.Klei saw that Talor thought he d made the right decision, but why heheld that opinion Klei wasn t sure.On Talor s instructions the two men lay down, side by side, at the center of the platform.Saash took Klei s wrist and held it tightly.Klei could tell that he was frightened, which seemedodd, since nothing that had been said about the ceremony had given Klei reason for fear.Thenthe two men began moving the greenstones, which were set in the platform in a way that enabledthem to pivot on their axes.They worked slowly and carefully, adjusting and readjusting eachstone so that it stood in proper alignment although what constituted that alignment was amystery.As this process progressed, Klei found himself growing dizzy.Even though he was lyingon hard stone, he felt he was sinking slowly into an abyss that opened deeper and deeper belowhim.At length he lost consciousness of the men adjusting the greenstones and finally even ofSaash s hand, which was still holding his wrist, although no longer as tightly as before.The sinking continued for a long time, but then he found himself in the midst of a vastcity, with high towers and pinnacles a city of men and women who looked like Rand, only theywere wearing ornate clothes and sometimes a kind of armor that resembled the scales of a fish.The city was filled with activity, and the people were rushing in all directions, and, unlike theRand he knew, they were making sounds loud cries of pain and anger.Then all Klei was awareof was a great emptiness like a bare room so large you couldn t make out the walls or ceiling.But that vision also passed, succeeded by another set of images this time of Rand in the forest naked, just as they d been when he d first encountered them.But something was missing.Ittook him a long time to realize what it was, and then it dawned on him they lacked tritargons.Yet they had weapons spears and swords and bows and arrows all the weapons of combat.How long ago was that? he found himself asking.Did it take place before they lived in cities orafter that time? Or had any of these events occurred in the actual past? Could they instead havebeen visions of alternatives that were never realized?These Rand, too, disappeared, and with them the questions that had formed in Klei smind.Now he was high in the mountains.Rand, once again wearing clothes, were cutting stone,it looked like, and carving large statues and bearing them away on wooden platforms that floatedabove the surface of the ground like rafts on a shallow lake.Then he saw them erecting thestatues, one after another.Next he found himself traveling in a great spiral across rivers and hillsand broad stretches of grassland, but looking down he saw the statues standing each one aloneamidst its own surroundings; and as he moved from one statue to the next he became aware of apower that spread itself out over the face of the land like a web of light.But then the sky darkened, and the web of light became fingers of blood that reached intothe sky.He felt a great terror was he going to be trapped in this vision of death? and heclosed his eyes, trying to shut out the sight before him, but now the fingers of blood were insidehis own brain, twisting his thoughts into madness.He wanted to scream, but no sound came fromhis throat.Then he felt a cool wind.Opening his eyes, he saw men pulling down the statues andbreaking them into pieces not all of them, but a few and one Rand was standing high on amountain ridge holding a spear, and there was a piercing green light coming from its tip a lightthat threatened to blind him.Then he saw a man running away from the light.No, he was that man himself, and hewas holding a small box in his hands.He did not know what was in the box, but he knew that itmust at all cost be hidden from the men who wanted to posses its power [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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