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cavern has alot of things in it, but they all look like personal belongingsthat people dropped while they were running away. Kyrtian wants to camp in there," he told them, as he leapt down from the last boulder. "Right now, we need some ropes to get downinside." "And just how are we going to get the horses up that mess?"one of the men demanded. "They won't go, and I don't blamethem." "Oh." Keman clearly hadn't thought of that, and obviously,neither had Kyrtian. "I could stabilize it, but that would taketime " "And then what are you going to do? Lower them on a rope? Hobie and Lynder can go with my lord, and the rest of us willstay out here," the man replied firmly."They're the ones that gomucking about in holes, not us. You just put some of those mag-ics on our camp to keep the horrors away, and we'll be finewaiting in the open." Keman looked at Shana, who just shrugged. These weren't her men to command. "Go see what Lord Kyrtian has to sayabout that," was her only advice. So back up the pile went Keman, and back down again, justas quickly. "He says it's all right, but camp away from the rock- fall area," he called as he leapt from rock to rock. "So we needto scout a secure area Hobie and Lynder, though, he wantsyou to bring up the climbing gear he asked for." "What about the camping stuff?" Lynder asked immediately. "How are we going to get that down?" Keman just laughed. Page 254 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html "Leave that to Shana and me," he said; so the two men Kyrt-ian called for gathered up a pack apiece, and several coils ofrope, and began the climb while Shana and Keman and the rest went to look for a good place for the others to set up. They found it soon enough, an indentation in the side of thehill, too small to be called a valley, too large for a ravine. Moreof a pocket in the hillside that Shana could fence off with magicfor them to keep the horses confined and screen the camp fromview. That was easy enough for her to do; an illusion of solid hill- side and vegetation, layered onto a barrier that would only let people pass. She kept the mage-lights going while they set up camp, then once they had a fire and their own lanterns going, dismissed all but one of her lights. Then she and Keman col-lected all of the gear they were going to need inside the cave. He had taken the form of something rather grel-like, with abroad, flat back to carry a great many packs, and four strong,limber legs ending in claws. It was a very good thing that hehad taken all the gear, be-cause Shana had a hard enough time getting herself up thatslope. It was as much of a scramble as a climb, testing eachfoothold only to find her feet skidding as loose scree dislodged,grabbing desperately for a handhold until she could get her feet firmly planted again. Fortunately, once they reached the top,Hobie and Lynder were waiting with ropes set up to bring downeverything a bit at a time. Keman himself carried Shana, pick-a-back, with her arms wrapped around his neck, legs wedged under the muscles where wings met shoulder. He was in hisown shape, of course, climbing down with the agility of a fly on a wall, disdaining the use of rope. She kept her eyes shut; ifanything, it was a lot farther to the floor of the cave than it had been to the ground outside, and the rock-fall had piled up into a much nastier barrier on this side. Once they were down on firm soil, though, she opened hereyes to take her first look around. Mage-lights up near the vaulted top of the cave imparted a soft glow that was as good as daylight. There was rubbisheverywhere,about half of it being wood, leaves, branches, andother detritus that had blown in or washed in before the cave was so totally sealed up. But the other half of the litterwasn't. It looked, just as Keman's brief description had suggested, as if a great many people had come through here laden down withpersonal belongings, and for one reason or another, had simply dropped them or left them here. Quite clearly, the mess had been poked at, dug through, and nested in by all manner of animals over the course of severalcenturies. Anything of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |