from the painful stiffness.
"Wow! I thought I was a better horsewoman than this!.
"Your old body's muscles were so conditioned, probably,.
he said, "but everything is new to you now. This body is drawn from the energies that are around us and those which made up your old self; it is a new body and it will need conditioning..
She whistled low and nodded, trying to shake the kinks out of her legs. "Yeah. I keep forgetting that." She looked down at the thick forest. "What now?.
Page 52 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods 62 JACK L. CHALKER THE RIVER OF DANCING GODS 63 "Huspeth never emerges from the Glen Dinig, and I can not enter it. My instructions were to bring you to this point, then direct you to walk down and into the wood. I will return to Terindell..
Again she looked uncertainly down at the forest, which was fast becoming a place of great shadow as the sun sank almost to the horizon. "You're going to leave me to walk into those woods at dusk alone?.
The Imir did not reply. Demonstrating his little trick once more, he was gone, taking the horses. She looked around but could see no sign of him or the mounts, nor hear anything except a slight whistling of a warm wind. She was alone.
She sighed and shook her head. "Well, on your own again, with not even a highway to bail you out." She considered walking back to the castle, but it was a fair distance—several miles, anyway—and most of it would be in the dark. She sighed again. "Well, I've trusted old Ruddygore this far. May as well keep doing it now." With this she walked down the hill toward the woods.
It was much cooler in the Glen Dinig, and there was the smell of the damp, with moss and rotting limbs giving it an even eerier look in the gathering gloom. Insects and occasional squirrellike creatures scampered here and there, startling her.
Having no other instructions, she just continued walking, the forest getting thicker and darker as she went. She began to grow nervous, fearing that she might be trapped alone in total dark for the night, and she started having second thoughts about going blindly through the place. She turned to make her way back, but soon realized that back looked the same as forward now. She had no idea how far she had come, nor exactly from which direction. That being the case, and considering the small size of the forest, she finally decided that the best thing to do was to press on in one straight line. Eventually she'd have to reach the edge of the forest or, at worst, the river.
In a few minutes, when things had just turned to a dangerous, nearly pitch-blackness, she came upon a small clearing; in the middle of the clearing was an earthen hut. It was a very primitive affair, looking much like a wood and straw igloo, but there was a fire burning in a pit in front of the little hut— and some sort of cauldron sat on an improvised stand above the fire, smoke rising from it.
Relieved to see any sign of life, she hurried forward.
Page 53 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods "Hold, girl!" came a voice, high-pitched and raspy, so grating that it almost sent chills up her spine. She stopped, turned, and looked for the first time on Huspeth.
The woman was not merely old, she was ancient, mostly stretched and wrinkled skin over a bare skeleton. The face was scarcely human, with a long, pointed jaw and a tremendous beaklike nose, and her eyes were like two huge, perfectly round cat's eyes set in a yellow sea that literally glowed. She was medium-sized, but bent over and leaning on a crooked stick.
She looked like everybody's bad dream of what a witch might look like, down to the black, full-length robe, scraggly white hair, and small, pointed black cap.
Huspeth looked Marge over critically, head twisting slightly first one way and then the other, as a bird might examine something before pouncing upon it. Finally she said, "So thou art the one they send.
"Wow! I thought I was a better horsewoman than this!.
"Your old body's muscles were so conditioned, probably,.
he said, "but everything is new to you now. This body is drawn from the energies that are around us and those which made up your old self; it is a new body and it will need conditioning..
She whistled low and nodded, trying to shake the kinks out of her legs. "Yeah. I keep forgetting that." She looked down at the thick forest. "What now?.
Page 52 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods 62 JACK L. CHALKER THE RIVER OF DANCING GODS 63 "Huspeth never emerges from the Glen Dinig, and I can not enter it. My instructions were to bring you to this point, then direct you to walk down and into the wood. I will return to Terindell..
Again she looked uncertainly down at the forest, which was fast becoming a place of great shadow as the sun sank almost to the horizon. "You're going to leave me to walk into those woods at dusk alone?.
The Imir did not reply. Demonstrating his little trick once more, he was gone, taking the horses. She looked around but could see no sign of him or the mounts, nor hear anything except a slight whistling of a warm wind. She was alone.
She sighed and shook her head. "Well, on your own again, with not even a highway to bail you out." She considered walking back to the castle, but it was a fair distance—several miles, anyway—and most of it would be in the dark. She sighed again. "Well, I've trusted old Ruddygore this far. May as well keep doing it now." With this she walked down the hill toward the woods.
It was much cooler in the Glen Dinig, and there was the smell of the damp, with moss and rotting limbs giving it an even eerier look in the gathering gloom. Insects and occasional squirrellike creatures scampered here and there, startling her.
Having no other instructions, she just continued walking, the forest getting thicker and darker as she went. She began to grow nervous, fearing that she might be trapped alone in total dark for the night, and she started having second thoughts about going blindly through the place. She turned to make her way back, but soon realized that back looked the same as forward now. She had no idea how far she had come, nor exactly from which direction. That being the case, and considering the small size of the forest, she finally decided that the best thing to do was to press on in one straight line. Eventually she'd have to reach the edge of the forest or, at worst, the river.
In a few minutes, when things had just turned to a dangerous, nearly pitch-blackness, she came upon a small clearing; in the middle of the clearing was an earthen hut. It was a very primitive affair, looking much like a wood and straw igloo, but there was a fire burning in a pit in front of the little hut— and some sort of cauldron sat on an improvised stand above the fire, smoke rising from it.
Relieved to see any sign of life, she hurried forward.
Page 53 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods "Hold, girl!" came a voice, high-pitched and raspy, so grating that it almost sent chills up her spine. She stopped, turned, and looked for the first time on Huspeth.
The woman was not merely old, she was ancient, mostly stretched and wrinkled skin over a bare skeleton. The face was scarcely human, with a long, pointed jaw and a tremendous beaklike nose, and her eyes were like two huge, perfectly round cat's eyes set in a yellow sea that literally glowed. She was medium-sized, but bent over and leaning on a crooked stick.
She looked like everybody's bad dream of what a witch might look like, down to the black, full-length robe, scraggly white hair, and small, pointed black cap.
Huspeth looked Marge over critically, head twisting slightly first one way and then the other, as a bird might examine something before pouncing upon it. Finally she said, "So thou art the one they send.
Similar Books
