I wish to remain here and join in the battle.
Nevertheless, he said, I wish you to return now. Upon returning to the enclave, bathe, relax and attire yourself appropriately for a late dinner in the military suite tonight.
She looked amazed and seemed to have difficulty finding her voice.
With you, sir?
Of course, with me. Who else occupies the military suite? He smiled at her to let her know that he was not being rude, but jovial. I suspect this matter will be settled by then, calling for a celebration. We will have fine wine, entertainment and several other enjoyable dinner companions to make a good night of it.
Yes, Your Excellency.
He watched her depart with the two soldiers who had pulled her from the drain, watched the provocative sharp lines of her slim, flat buttocks. He hoped she was as pretty beneath all that mud and moss as the eyes gave a hint she was. If her face matched her body, she would remain in the military suite long after dinner. Yes, long after. He was, of course, the chairman of the Committee on Fruitfulness
10
THE dense forest was a combination of tainted growths and pure strains, Jask knew, though he was not readily able to identify those varieties of plant life that were solely the handiwork of Lady Nature, nor those that had been touched by the corrupt hand of the Ruiner. He could see, though, when they were drawing near the Chen Valley Blight, for he watched the forest- partially mutated as it was, dumb and senseless as it was-wither rapidly, as if it had no desire to flourish beside that blasphemously barren land that had long ago been consigned to the rule of the Ruiner. The trees dwindled, grew sickly and bent, changed in color from fresh green to an unhealthy brown-yellow. The undergrowth, too, developed new character, became somehow threatening, thornier, laced with ropy vines like tentacles, ugly and cold and clearly mutated far beyond Lady Nature's original design.
Tedesco lead the way, carrying both of the antique rifles, which Jask, somewhat against his will, had shown the mutant how to use. He led them off the obvious paths and approached the entrance to the Wildlands as if he expected to find Pure sentries guarding the way.
Jask followed.
Shortly they came to the end of the forest, where they had to hunch over in order to remain hidden by the dwarf trees. They stared across the hundred yards of utterly bare earth to the place where the Chen Valley Blight began, and they saw all of this:
prisms rising up, towering overhead like the monstrously crested waves of an alien sea, jagged-edged against the comparably unspectacular blue of the sky, appearing to ebb and to flow, shift and wash as water on a beach, but in reality as stationary as the stone Jask felt he had been turned into;
bright sunlight dancing along the brittle edge of the waves, piquing them with what might have been seafoam but was actually as insubstantial as the air, a tangible and frothy glare;
color, riotous color, reds and blues and greens and yellows, burgundy and black, orange and crimson, amber, emerald, violet, sienna, countless subtle shades both bright and pale, shimmering, writhing, moving as if they were alive, color so full of activity that it appeared to be sentient;
tunnels in the waves, winding caverns, boring holes, shelves, culs-de-sac, some large enough to admit the two of them, others only big enough to pass Jask Zinn, channels into the heart of the bright, hard sea, which made the massive structure seem, abruptly, less like a sea than like a mammoth growth of coral
Bacteria jewels, Jask said.
They stretched on either hand for several miles, glittering until they fell away beyond the curve of the horizon, a numbing extravaganza of explosive tint, related to the clump of bacteria jewels that served as a landmark between the enclave and the tainted village from which they had fled, but much larger than that tiny growth, inconceivably more
Nevertheless, he said, I wish you to return now. Upon returning to the enclave, bathe, relax and attire yourself appropriately for a late dinner in the military suite tonight.
She looked amazed and seemed to have difficulty finding her voice.
With you, sir?
Of course, with me. Who else occupies the military suite? He smiled at her to let her know that he was not being rude, but jovial. I suspect this matter will be settled by then, calling for a celebration. We will have fine wine, entertainment and several other enjoyable dinner companions to make a good night of it.
Yes, Your Excellency.
He watched her depart with the two soldiers who had pulled her from the drain, watched the provocative sharp lines of her slim, flat buttocks. He hoped she was as pretty beneath all that mud and moss as the eyes gave a hint she was. If her face matched her body, she would remain in the military suite long after dinner. Yes, long after. He was, of course, the chairman of the Committee on Fruitfulness
10
THE dense forest was a combination of tainted growths and pure strains, Jask knew, though he was not readily able to identify those varieties of plant life that were solely the handiwork of Lady Nature, nor those that had been touched by the corrupt hand of the Ruiner. He could see, though, when they were drawing near the Chen Valley Blight, for he watched the forest- partially mutated as it was, dumb and senseless as it was-wither rapidly, as if it had no desire to flourish beside that blasphemously barren land that had long ago been consigned to the rule of the Ruiner. The trees dwindled, grew sickly and bent, changed in color from fresh green to an unhealthy brown-yellow. The undergrowth, too, developed new character, became somehow threatening, thornier, laced with ropy vines like tentacles, ugly and cold and clearly mutated far beyond Lady Nature's original design.
Tedesco lead the way, carrying both of the antique rifles, which Jask, somewhat against his will, had shown the mutant how to use. He led them off the obvious paths and approached the entrance to the Wildlands as if he expected to find Pure sentries guarding the way.
Jask followed.
Shortly they came to the end of the forest, where they had to hunch over in order to remain hidden by the dwarf trees. They stared across the hundred yards of utterly bare earth to the place where the Chen Valley Blight began, and they saw all of this:
prisms rising up, towering overhead like the monstrously crested waves of an alien sea, jagged-edged against the comparably unspectacular blue of the sky, appearing to ebb and to flow, shift and wash as water on a beach, but in reality as stationary as the stone Jask felt he had been turned into;
bright sunlight dancing along the brittle edge of the waves, piquing them with what might have been seafoam but was actually as insubstantial as the air, a tangible and frothy glare;
color, riotous color, reds and blues and greens and yellows, burgundy and black, orange and crimson, amber, emerald, violet, sienna, countless subtle shades both bright and pale, shimmering, writhing, moving as if they were alive, color so full of activity that it appeared to be sentient;
tunnels in the waves, winding caverns, boring holes, shelves, culs-de-sac, some large enough to admit the two of them, others only big enough to pass Jask Zinn, channels into the heart of the bright, hard sea, which made the massive structure seem, abruptly, less like a sea than like a mammoth growth of coral
Bacteria jewels, Jask said.
They stretched on either hand for several miles, glittering until they fell away beyond the curve of the horizon, a numbing extravaganza of explosive tint, related to the clump of bacteria jewels that served as a landmark between the enclave and the tainted village from which they had fled, but much larger than that tiny growth, inconceivably more
Similar Books
