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Irerly and what I must look for."
"You will find yourself in an interesting land of living mountains. They
bellow and yell, but for the most part it is all braggadocio. I am told that
they are ordinarily benign."
"And should I encounter one of the other sort?"
Melancthe smiled her pensive smile. "Then we shall avoid the qualms and
perplexities of your return."
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That remark, thought Shimrod, might as happily been left unsaid.
Melancthe went on in an abstracted voice. "Perceptions occur by unusual
methods." She gave Shimrod three small transparent disks.
"These will expedite your search; in fact, you will go instantly mad without
them. As soon as you pass the portal, place these on your cheeks and your
forehead; they are sandestin scales and will accommodate your senses to
Irerly. What is that pack you carry? I
had not noticed it before."
"Personal effects and the like; don't concern yourself. What of the gems?"
"They occur in thirteen colors not known here. Their function, either here or
there, I do not know, but you must find them and bring them away."
"Exactly so," said Shimrod. "Now kiss me, to demonstrate good will."
"Shimrod, you are far too frivolous."
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- - - - Vance uses many footnotes in this volume
"And trusting?"
Melancthe, as Shimrod watched, seemed to flicker, or give a quick jerk of
movement. Now she was smiling. "'Trusting'? Not altogether. Now then, even to
enter Irerly, you will need this sheath. It is stuff to protect you from
emanations. Take these as well." She tendered a pair of iron scorpions
crawling at the end of golden chains. "These are named Hither and Thither. One
will take you there; the other will bring you here. You need nothing more."
"And you will wait here?"
"Yes, dear Shimrod. Now go."
Shimrod enveloped himself in the sheath, placed the sandestin scales to his
forehead and cheeks, took the iron charms. "Thither!
Take me to Irerly!" He slipped into the passage, picked up his ball of yarn
and went forward. Green fluctuations swarmed and pulsed. A green wind whirled
him afar, another force of mingled mauve and blue-green sent him careening in
other directions. The yarn spun out between his fingers. The iron scorpion
known as
Thither gave a great bound and pulled Shimrod to a passing luminosity, and
down into Irerly.
Chapter 15
IN IRERLY CONDITIONS WERE LESS EASY than Shimrod had hoped. The sheath of
sandestin-stuff lacked consistency and allowed sound and two other Irerlish
sentiments, toice and gliry, to chafe against his flesh. The iron insects,
both Hither and Thither, at once shriveled into mounds of ash. The fabric of
Irerly was viciously malign, or so Shimrod speculated the creatures might not
have been sandestins after all. Further, the disks intended to assist
perception were out of proper adjustment, and Shimrod experienced a startling
set of dislocations: a sound that reached him as a jet of ill-smelling liquid;
other scents were red cones and yellow triangles which, upon adjustment of the
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disks, disappeared
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- - - - Vance uses many footnotes in this volume completely. Vision expressed
itself as taut lines striking across space, dripping fire.
He worked at the disks, testing various orientations, quivering to implausible
pains and sounds which crawled across his skin on spider-legs, until by
accident the incoming percepts made contact with the appropriate areas of his
brain. The unpleasant sensations dwindled, at least temporarily, and Shimrod
gratefully took stock of Irerly.
He apprehended a landscape of vast extent dotted with isolated mountains of
gray-yellow custard, each terminating in a ludicrous semi-human face. All
faces were turned toward himself, displaying outrage and censure. Some showed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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