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was empty and useless to him.
Michael stood for a few moments .by the remains, filled with an emotion
between pity and indignation.
From what he had felt in his probe, he could tell that Tonn's wife  he didn't
even know her name! 
had once been nearly as noble a Sidhe as the Ban of Hours. So what had she
done to deserve such punishment? What had Lamia and Tristesse done? He could
understand the action taken against the
Serpent Mage, but why so much undirected and senseless cruelty?
As he recrossed the border of the Blasted Plain, Michael saw the sky and the
sun slew to one side, then spin. He fell to the ground and crept toward a
tree. The shadows of the forest recessed wildly, then
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Bear, Greg - Songs of Earth and Power Vol. 2 - The Serpent Mage steadied. He
looked up, eyes wide, then got to his knees. All the directions had changed.
His skin itched, and his hair stood on end. Fundamentals in the construction
of the Realm were decaying, that much was clear.
But which direction would he take now? He couldn't follow the sun  it seemed
to have been smeared into a constant glowing haze above the land. He walked
into a clearing and shaded his eyes against the warmth and glare of the entire
sky. He would have to travel rapidly. There was very little time left.
Calling upon all his discipline, he took several deep breaths and began to run
through the forest and across the open fields, following now the much weaker
and confused beacon of that mass of human minds. He did not run far.
The land ahead had abruptly separated, leaving a chasm several miles wide.
Michael slowed to a walk, frustrated and more than a little frightened. He had
never seen such a feature in the Realm before; it was new, and it looked very
dangerous, certainly uncrossable without aid. The edges of the chasm were
crumbling away, the clumps falling off into nothingness with majestic
slowness.
Michael came as close to the edge as he dared, crawling out on a lip of solid
rock, fingers seeking any sign of tremors or instability. Far below, he saw
the foundation of Adonna's creation roiling and rainbowing in opalescent mist.
And nothing else.
The chasm appeared to extend in both directions forever. It cut him off from
the human murmurings. It even separated him from the distant sensation of
Inyas Trai and the Irall.
If he could not cross, then he could do nothing more in the Realm. He
retreated from the lip of the precipice and walked back into the forest a safe
mile or so, to rethink his plans and see if another way presented itself.
Page 121
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Why do I feel so good
?" he asked himself, standing beneath an enormous conifer, at the center of a
circle of half-melted snow. "Everything's going wrong& " But he already knew.
It was because he was back in the Realm. The Realm had a beauty, even now,
that he had deeply missed after returning to Earth. Beauty
 and horror and sadness, much more concentrated than on Earth. Every
sensation felt here was at once more intense and more stimulating.
The inexplicable horror of Adonna's wife; the surreal nastiness of the Blasted
Plain; the ever-changing days and seasons. The lushness of the forest, with
its wild orchards. Inyas Trai. The cursed territory of Lin
Piao Tai. How would the Sidhe feel, forced to return to Earth after their
centuries here?
How could a mage take the demanding variety of Earth and mix it with the
intensity of the Realm?
He closed his eyes and spread his palms. He could see everything through his
skin. The Realm vibrated and sketched itself across his eyelids. He could
almost feel its deep structure, catch the secret of Adonna's creation&
"Man-child."
Michael opened his eyes and saw a Sidhe horse approaching him. An image of
Tarax  clearly not the
Sidhe himself but a shadow  guided the epon through the trees with one hand
cupped under its chin.
The shadow smiled. "Play-acting at magic?"
Michael stumbled over his words and finally, face flushed, just nodded.
"We have an appointment," the shadow said. "You obviously can't make your way
across the Realm unaided. Even most Sidhe have difficulty now. Adonna can
spare one of its epon for your journey. We will meet beneath the Testament of
the lrall."
The shadow faded. The horse stood, tail flicking, long foreleg pawing the
grass and humus, with its eyes fixed patiently on Michael.
"Hello," Michael said.
The epon tossed its head and turned sideways To allow him to mount.
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Bear, Greg - Songs of Earth and Power Vol. 2 - The Serpent Mage
Chapter Twenty-Three
Contents - Prev / Next
The Sidhe horse, eyes blank as ice, silver-pearl skin blinding in the diffuse
sky-glow, leaped from the crumbling edge with legs extended fore and aft.
Michael clung to the mane, his heart racing, and cried out, "
Abana
!"
The chasm, the separated sections of the Realm, the mist of Adonna's creation
far below, all skewed and tumbled. The horse screamed and was surrounded by a
coma of fire that broke away like shards of glass behind them. The cold was so
intense that Michael nearly froze before he could increase his hyloka
. The horse's lips curled back from its teeth, and its muscles tensed hard as [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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