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the town.
Once she learned to let go and relax, it became almost second nature to fly.
It was wonderful, one of the greatest feelings she'd ever known!
The landscape spread out all around her, but it looked quite different, not
only because of the aerial perspective but also because of additional sights
and information she was now receiving. Somehow, she instantly knew where she
was in relation to anything else she could see, and just exactly how far it
was to any point from there. While it was clearly dark, everything was easily
visible in great detail, and much that was not seen by human eyes was visible,
too. The very air had slight, subtle coloration and texture, and tiny
sparklies of varying colors moved along, saying exactly where the air was
moving, and how fast.
Areas of forest and field and far-off mountains also had their own strange
patterns. Complex patterns, mostly, like tiny spi-derweblike strings of every
color, intensity, and hue, and in and around areas where nothing should be
there were patches of various pastel blobs in a variety of sizes.
It was beautiful.
"Fairy sight," Joe told her. "The strings are spells, magic and sorcery of
some sort. The blobs are living things, creatures mostly of faerie. Although
we're a sort of soft red, in general watch out for the reds and yellows and
whites. They tend to be on the darker side of faerie. The blues and greens
tend to be almost always to the good, the rest sort of in-betweens. Don't take
them for granted, though. As the Kauri are reds, and not evil, so, too, are
there exceptions to all the Rules."
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"The reason why they call the darkest magic black is that it is," Marge told
her. "And black strings and blobs blend in and can't be so easily seen until
it's too late. If you ever see any sort of blackness and suspect it might have
moved, ever so slightly, stay away! Don't depend on fairy flesh or the were
curse to save you there are things far worse than death. Just imagine
something eating you alive . . . forever."
The point was well taken, although, in truth, as weres they were better
protected than Marge.
"Let's go over to the military encampment first," Joe suggested. "It's likely
to have fewer defenses from ones like us than the other place where the
bigwigs are, and I want to see just what the hell they're training for."
It was becoming easier by the moment. You just picked some sparklies that were
going in the general direction you wanted and got into their flow. Only when
you had no lifting aid from the air did you work at it, and it quickly was
becoming automatic, even at that.
"Remember," Marge warned, "we're just about incapable of an offense, so, if
you run into anything, fly or run like hell. If you can't, let me handle it
and go along with whatever I do, no matter how idiotic it looks to you. There
are a few things only experience can tell you."
From this height, you could see the military camp clearly, even at this
distance. It was huge, with tents and temporary structures all over the place,
some going all the way out to the horizon.
A lot of the Valisandran army was there, much of it bedding down for the
night, but both Joe and Mia were struck by the enormous waves of feelings
coming from the camp. Enormous waves of loneliness, unhappiness, even despair,
and, over all, an atmosphere of terrible fear you could almost see. It was
almost too much for Mia to handle, and she fought back tears. "Those poor
guys," she sympathized.
"Yeah, you really get the weight of the world as a Kauri." Marge sighed.
"After a while, though, you get to handle most anything. To me, that's the
biggest banquet hall I ever did see."
"Yes, but how do you feed on it?" Mia asked, and, almost immediately, her body
told her. "Ohhh . . ."she managed.
"Yeah, well, you shouldn't feel hungry right now," Marge told her, "because
I've had no problems getting energy around this place and you got what I got.
Maybe tomorrow night. It just seems normal only you get a whole extra body
kick to it and, instead of being tired at the end, you're rarin' to go."
Joe ignored the interchange, far more interested in the lay of the land.
"There's the centaurs there. Big, mean-looking suckers, aren't they? They'd be
like mounted archers that could hit a target at a couple of hundred yards, I
bet. And over there, off by themselves . . . Bentar! I knew those bastards
would be here someplace!"
The Bentar were the fiercest race of fighting fairies, totally without mercy,
conscience, or any moral sense at all. Their tall, grim visages were at once
like a bird of prey and yet oddly reptilian, with mean eyes that reflected the
light. You didn't need fairy sight to know those were real sons of bitches
down there.
"I don't understand it," Marge said, shaking her head. "It looks as if they're
assembling something the size of the Battle of Sorrow's Gorge, yet where's the
heavy stuff? The big catapults and siege machines and all the rest and the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]