[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
She looked at him as though she had forgotten he was there, then she smiled
from the depths of the hood. 'Yes,' she said. 'Yes, let's.'
She held his arm tightly as they crossed the street.
'Tell me more about Lavishia.'
'Where? Oh, Lavishia. Let me think. Well now, in Lavishia everybody is able to
fly.'
'Like birds? Lattens asked.
'Just like birds,' DeWar confirmed. 'They can leap from cliffs and tall
buildings of which there are a great many in Lavishia or they can just run
along the street and jump into the air and soar away up into the sky.'
'Do they have wings??
'They do have wings but they are invisible wings.'
'Can they fly to the suns?'
'Not on their own. To fly to the suns they have to use ships. Ships with
invisible sails.'
'Don't they burn in the heat of the suns??
'Not the sails, they're invisible and the heat goes straight through them. But
the wooden hulls scorch and blacken and burst into flame if they go too close,
of course.'
'How far is it to the suns?'
'I don't know, but people say that they are different distances away, and some
clever people claim that they are both very far away indeed.'
'These would be the same clever people called mathematicians who tell us the
world is a ball, and not flat,' Perrund said.
'They would,' DeWar confirmed.
A travelling troupe of shadow players had come to court. They had set up in
the palace's theatre, whose plaster windows had shutters which could be closed
against the light. They had stretched a white sheet very tightly across a
wooden frame whose lower edge was just above head height. Below the frame hung
a black cloth. The white screen was lit from behind by a single strong lamp
set some distance back. Two men and two women manipulated the two-dimensional
puppets and their accompanying shadow-scenery, using thin sticks to make the
characters' limbs and bodies swivel. Effects like waterfalls and flames were
achieved using thin strips of dark paper and bellows to make them flutter.
Using a variety of voices, the players told ancient stories of kings and
queens, heroes and villains, fidelity and betrayal and love and hate.
It was the interval now. DeWar had been round the back of the screen to make
sure that the two guards he had stationed there were still awake, and they
were. The shadow players had objected at first, but he had insisted the guards
stay there. UrLeyn was sitting in the middle of the small auditorium, a
perfect and stationary target for somebody behind the screen with a crossbow.
UrLeyn, Perrund and everybody else who had heard
about the two guards behind the screen thought DeWar was once again taking his
duties far too seriously, but he could not have sat there and watched the show
comfortably with nobody he trusted behind the screen. He had stationed guards
by the window shutters too, with instructions to open them promptly if the
lantern behind the screen went out.
These precautions taken, he had been able to watch the shadow players'
performance
from the seat immediately behind UrLeyn with a degree of equanimity, and
when
Lattens had clambered over the seat in front and come and sat on his lap
demanding to know more about Lavishia he had felt sufficiently relaxed to be
happy to oblige. Perrund, sitting one seat along from UrLeyn, had turned round
Page 69
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
to ask her question about mathematicians. She watched DeWar and Lattens with
an amused, indulgent expression.
'Can they fly under the water, too?' Lattens asked. He wriggled off DeWar's
lap and stood in front of him, an intent look on his face. He was dressed like
a little soldier, with a wooden sword at his side in a decorated scabbard.
'They certainly can. They are very good at holding their breath and can do it
for days at a time.'
'And can they fly through mountains?'
'Only through tunnels, but they have lots of tunnels. Of course, some of the
mountains are hollow. And others are full of treasure.'
'Are there wizards and enchanted swords?'
'Yes, enchanted swords by the cistern-full, and lots of wizards. Though they
tend to be a trifle arrogant.'
'And are there giants and monsters?'
'Plenty of both, though they are all very nice giants and extremely helpful
monsters.'
'How boring,' Perrund murmured, reaching out her good hand and patting down
some of
Lattens' more wayward curls.
UrLeyn turned round in his seat, eyes twinkling. He drank from a glass of wine
then said, 'What's this, DeWar? Are you filling my boy's head with nonsense?'
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]