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.The rock was smooth and sun-warmed.“Certainly not! That is a common agate.I, on the other hand, am a history stone—a repository of all the legends and data concerning this quadrant of the starfield.Now Abercrombie is washed up, rejected by the Realm of Magic.”They gathered around the stone and looked down at it.This rock looked no different from any other in the vicinity.It was about the size of Javik’s hand, yellow ochre in color.Prince Pineapple felt a rush of excitement at the thought of Lord Abercrombie being rejected by the Realm of Magic.For the first time the prince consciously considered the possibility of stepping into Abercrombie’s place.Before this he had felt only generalized anger, a desire to throw Abercrombie out.Now he felt something entirely different.He wanted to be lord.They were right about me, Prince Pineapple thought, looking at each of the others.They saw it in my eyes.Javik looked at him.Prince Pineapple looked at the talking agate and asked, “How do we know we can trust you?”The agate laughed, its voice seeming to come from all around.“You don’t.But then, what choices do you have?”Javik lifted the stone and stood up with it.“I could toss you in a ravine,” Javik said.“There’s one just over there.” He nodded to indicate direction.“I could place barriers in your way to prevent it,” the agate said.“I’ll tell you what, though.If you want to take this trail, go right ahead.”“You won’t stop us?” Prince Pineapple asked.“No.But do you really think that would be wise, Prince Pineapple? Do you, Namaba?”“It knows our names!” Namaba said, surprised.She looked around.“Someone around here knows our languages, too,” Rebo said.“This could all be Lord Abercrombie’s doing,” Prince Pineapple said.“We’ve all recharged.He knows everything about us now from the connection.”Namaba wrinkled her hair-framed face into a frown.“I think my yenta is working again,” she said.“It tells me we should trust the agate.”“You’re certain?” Javik asked.He leaned over and put the stone back where he had found it.“We don’t have much to go on,” he said, rubbing his tongue across his lower lip.The lip was chapped.“I think I agree,” Rebo said.“This agate might have threatened us, or tried to bluff us with its magic.It didn’t do either of those things.”“Do you mind if we continue on this trail a little ways?” Namaba asked, leaning over the agate, “and then make our own decision?”The sign disappeared.There was no response other than this.Namaba loped ahead to where the sign had been, then passed beyond.“Let’s take the other trail,” she said.All agreed, and they set off across a field of rock.Here they encountered occasional long-stemmed yellow flowers that had six round petals apiece.Javik picked a flower and used a piece of twine to secure it to Namaba’s mane.“This will replace the ribbon you lost,” he said.Glowing bright pink with a yellow tail, Wizzy skirted the base of the white cliff, following the three-dot trail markings.He flew above the blue lake, which narrowed to a ribbon of water, then paused at the beginning of the precipice trail.From there he passed the cliff dwellings of the strawberry people.Three of them ran out to watch him as he flew by.Wizzy was a good deal larger now than he had been, and his translucent tail extended a good five meters behind his nucleus.This must have been quite a sight for the outcast strawberry people, especially following so closely on the heels of the episode with Javik’s party.Wizzy left the strawberry people in the wink of a cat’s eye.He swooped low over the Moha now, passing through the opening in the cliffs.This agitated the Moha, and it waved its tentacles wildly.One tentacle passed harmlessly through Wizzy’s gaseous tail.Reaching the eight folding paths, Wizzy nudged them open.In doing this, he clumsily destroyed the gazebo with the fire from his nucleus.Fortunately, a foresighted magician had treated the cloth paths with flame retardant.While the gazebo burned, Wizzy checked each path.Quickly he located the one with three-dot markings.Streaking along this path, he reached the dirt area so rapidly that the magical agate did not have time to warn him.“Wait!” the agate called out.“Not that way!”But Wizzy was so far uptrail that he did not hear the agate.With Prince Pineapple trudging ahead and Rebo bringing up the rear, Javik and Namaba walked beside one another holding hands.At first the lovers found this difficult to do, owing to the markedly different cadence of their steps.Namaba’s gait was more of a lope, with her head bobbing up and down, while Javik walked erectly and smoothly in the Earthian manner.After a kilometer or so, they found a middle ground, with Namaba moving more smoothly and Javik herky-jerking it.“We’ll be married in Moro City,” Namaba said.“My minister can do it.” The light brown fur on her mane was gold-tinged from the sunlight.“Where would I work?” Javik asked, squinting.“Is there a Moravian Space Patrol?“We have an Air Guard,” she said.“But Moravian ships are more primitive than yours.And we have nothing to compare with the technology in your wardrobe ring.”“That’s not technology,” Javik said with a wink.“It’s magic.”She smiled.“I don’t mind if the place is a little backward,” Javik said.“Just as long as we’re together.” He thought about how sappy his words might have sounded to him once.But it struck him that the really important things in life were sappy.Catching up, Rebo said, “It won’t be easy for you on Morovia.I’m not saying that out of jealousy.Most folks will be afraid of Tom.”Namaba’s eyes flared.“They can all go to Morovian Hell.”“It’s easy to say that,” Rebo said.“But you’d better think it over carefully.They’ll think Tom is a freak.”“Then I’ll make my living touring the planet,” Javik said flippantly.“We’ll make enough money off freak shows to build a rocket and get the hell out of there.”“We’re not doing any sideshows,” Namaba said.“You’re no freak.A Moravian on Earth would face the same situation.You’re different, that’s all.We’ll prove to people that different is not bad.” She squeezed his hand tightly.“We’ll make them understand,” she said.Her lips were a thin, determined line.“Good luck to both of you,” Rebo said.“Maybe I can help, when we all get back—if the Dimensional Tunnel works out the way we hope [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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