Odnośniki
- Indeks
- Anthony Barnhart In the Name of Rome (pdf)
- Anthony, Piers & Margroff, Robert E The Ring
- Gian Vincenzo Gravina Della ragion poetica
- Michaels Leigh Lekcja uczuć
- James P. Hogan Voyage from Yesteryear
- Roberts Nora śÂwićÂte grzechy(1)
- Kurtz Sylvie Czarny mnich
- Yasmine Galenorn Sisters of the Moon 3 Darkling (v1.0)
- Foley Ewa Zakochaj sić w śźyciu
- Dick_Philip_K_ _Transmigracja_Timothyego_Archera
- zanotowane.pl
- doc.pisz.pl
- pdf.pisz.pl
- szostka.htw.pl
right."
"But I hardly know what to do."
"The Good Magician would not have sent you unless he were sure you could do the job. Our situation is
verging on desperate. There are so few of us left."
"So few?" Imbri asked.
"Come, you must meet King Ivy. She will help explain."
"King who?"
"King Ivy. She had to take over when King Dor was lost. Right this way."
"But what of King Dolph?" Imbri asked.
"Oh, he's not until later. But he's lost too."
"Lost?"
"There are only six of us here now. Ah, here we are."
They had arrived at the throne room. Sure enough, a woman of forty sat on the throne. She rose to come
to them as they entered.
"King Ivy, this is Forrest Faun, and Mare Imbrium, from Xanth,"
Princess Ida said. "They are here to enable Dawn & Eve to handle the margins."
"What a relief!" King Ivy said. "Come, we must have a banquet."
"But is this the time for that?" Forrest asked. "I mean, if the situation is serious-"
"We can talk best then," Princess Ida explained. "Everyone gets together for a banquet."
Soon they were at the banquet hall. The other members of the castle arrived and were introduced:
Consort Grey, a handsome man just beyond forty, Princess Electra, who was 872 or 38 depending on
whether chronological or normal living time was counted, and her daughters Dawn & Eve, who were a
buxom eighteen. Dawn had flame-red hair, green eyes, and wore bright clothes. Eve had jet black hair
and eyes, and wore dark clothing. Both were startlingly beautiful.
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
"When I met you two, a few days ago, you were six years old!" Forrest said, bemused.
"Yes, that's our blank year," Dawn agreed.
"So we don't remember you," Eve said. "But we're sure you're an interesting person."
"Girls, don't be too forward," their mother Electra warned them.
"Oh, pooh!" Dawn said. "He's a faun."
"It's impossible for us to embarrass him," Eve agreed.
Then they both leaned forward over the table, so that their d?lletages fell open, flashing four impressive
hemispheres. And for the second time in his life Forrest blushed.
"Girls!" Electra exclaimed indignantly.
"See?" Dawn asked her sister as they straightened up. "I told you it was possible to embarrass a faun."
"You win," Eve agreed. "But we probably couldn't do it again."
"You won't!" Electra cried before they could do it again. "You'll have to excuse my impetuous children."
The two girls shrugged in unison, looking halfway smug. Forrest found himself becoming a trifle
nervous about having to advise them. While he was trying to show them what to do, what would they be
showing him? It would have been easier to work with the two six year olds, whose naughtiness would
have been more limited.
The banquet was good, with slices of buttered breadfruit and chipped potatoes, and pitchers of drink.
Forrest spied one whose label seemed to say Boot Rear, so he poured himself a mug of that, as he liked
forest products. He took a sip, and it was very good. But Dawn, sitting across from him, looked alarmed.
"You're drinking Toot Rear?"
Oops-had he taken the wrong drink? He had seen only the latter part of the label. The last thing he
wanted was to embarrass himself at the King's banquet! But then he saw that the pitcher did say Boot,
not Toot. Both girls, seeing his face, burst out laughing. They had fooled him.
Electra glared at them, and the two subsided. This was surely going to be a long assignment.
"How can we help you perform your Service?" King Ivy inquired as they proceeded to dessert.
"I admit that I have no idea how I should proceed," Forrest said. "I don't think I have any qualifications."
"Oh, you are surely qualified," Consort Grey said. "The Good Magician always knows. You just have to
discover how you are qualified.
"But I don't even know anything about human women, let alone princesses. How can I presume to
advise them?"
"Your authority derives from that of the Good Magician," Ivy said. "The twins may pout-" As she spoke,
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
Dawn & Eve pouted prettily. "But they know the mission is quite serious, and will do their best. They
know that this is the only way to save their father, Prince Dolph." And at that the twins were abruptly
serious.
"Can you tell me just what the situation is? We passed a number of lines as we approached the castle,
but don't know what they mean."
The King sighed. "They mean that the human sector of Ptero is being marginalized. Some hostile force
is laying siege to us, and has already limited us to the immediate region of the castle, so that we can't
range through our lives and become young or old as we choose. This means that I am stuck at age forty,
which is definitely not comfortable for a woman, and so is my sister Ida. But that's the least of it. All the
human beings of this territory have been lost to the margins, so that only the six of us you see here
remain. Soon all of us will be gone, if you are not able to guide the twins successfully."
"All are gone?" Imbri asked, appalled.
"All," Ivy said firmly. "At first we sent folk out to try to deal with it, but none of them returned. Even
Magicians and Sorceresses were lost. Our daughters Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm are gone, and my
grandparents Magician Trent and Sorceress Iris, and Grey's parents Magician Murphy and Sorceress
Vadne. They went out and got caught by the margins."
"The margins," Forrest repeated. "Those are the lines?"
"Yes. They appear suddenly, and whatever is caught within them is lost. Sometimes we can see their
forms faintly within their enclosures, but we can't reach them."
"You can't cross the lines?" Forrest asked.
"We can't cross. They are like glass walls, impenetrable."
"But we crossed them without difficulty."
"They seem to be one way walls," Grey explained. "My talent is to nullify magic, but I have not been
able to nullify the margins. I think it is because they are merely the effects of some distant magic, which
I can't reach. Similarly Eve's talent is to know anything about anything inanimate, but she can't discover
anything about the margins. So it may be that they aren't really there, though their effects certainly are.
Did you try to cross any margins the other way?"
Forrest exchanged a chagrined glance with Imbri. "No. It didn't occur to us. But still, how can folk be
trapped behind the walls, then?
Why don't they cross in toward the castle?"
"When the margins are laid down, they seem to exert control over whatever they enclose," Grey said.
"The inanimate things remain as they were, but the animate things become ghostly. You are the first folk
to pass through them and reach us, since the marginalization began a few weeks ago. On occasion we
have seen birds from elsewhere fly in, but soon they drop into a marginalized segment and become
ghostly."
"But then that should have happened to us, too," Imbri said.
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
"We would have thought so," Ivy agreed. "But we are very glad you got through."
"The blanket!" Forrest exclaimed. "It must have helped."
"Blanket?" Princess Ida asked.
"He has a blanket of obscurity that Cathryn Centaur gave us," Imbri said.
"Cathryn!" Eve said, her dark eyes brightening like stars. "Is she all right?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]