In the Green Star's Glow
- Автор: Картер Лин Спрэг
- Серия: Green Star Rises #5
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «In the Green Star's Glow». Краткое содержание книги:
But he was also an Earthling, whose helpless body lay in suspended animation in a guarded mansion in New England. It was his alien mind that drove Karn through perils that no other wold dare...
In the Green Star's Glow is a science fantasy novel in the tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Written by American author Lin Carter, it is the final book in his Green Star series. It was first published in 1976.
So saying, the tall Kalood bent and picked up the bowman. Spreading his batlike wings, Zarqa sprang lightly into the air to resume his mental quest.
Niamh found to her delighted surprise that the vessel remained exactly at the place where she had left it, and had seemingly not been tampered with during her absence. Entering the cabin of the craft the girl examined the controls, anxious to be gone before other members of the ant horde might come upon her and make her their captive.
Tugging at the levers and thrusting the control studs at random, the girl straggled to find the secret of driving the aerial vehicle which earlier had eluded her. After some experimentation, she at last discovered the correct combination of actions by which she was able to energize the sky craft, and she sent it gliding into the air.
The darkness of night was still upon the world, but Niamh knew there were only a few hours until dawn. Reaching the tree nearest to the one in which she had been held captive in the Opal Tower by Quoron, she tethered the vehicle to a twig and composed herself for a brief period of slumber until dawn should drive away the dark and make further flight possible.
She could not have guessed the astounding sight her eyes would behold with the break of day.
Varda and I had taken refuge from the night in the branches of a giant tree. Here we decided to spend the remainder of the night, to fly on with morning.
We were in no danger from pursuit by the angry and vengeful girls of Varda’s band. The Amazon girls had neither zaiph nor dhua and thus could not follow us between the trees. This fact notwithstanding, I was in considerable danger from Varda, for the impetuous and amorous teen-ager insisted on snuggling up next to me while we slept the remainder of the night away.
More than once I half awoke from a doze to find her warm arms entwined about my neck. I would, on these occasions, disengage myself as gently as was possible without disturbing her. And once I woke to find her head buried in my shoulder. The warm fragrance of her breath caressed my nostrils.
I felt distinctly uncomfortable, and heartily wished for dawn.
When the first beams of the Green Star began to lighten the nocturnal gloom, we roused ourselves from our rest and prepared to resume our aerial journey. But Varda was in an obstinate mood. She pouted and glowered and refused to permit me to take off from the bough until I granted her one request.
I did not require the humid gleam in her eyes to tell me the nature of that request.
I tried to be firm.
“Listen to me, girl,” I said in a low voice. “I have already told you that I cannot love you, for my heart is foresworn and I am vowed to another. The most we can ever be is good friends. Varda, do not make our hazardous journey even more uncomfortable by insisting upon that which can never be! Try to understand that I love another girl, and must ever be true to her.”
“But—!”
“You are no longer the master of the situation, nor am I any longer your slave, and thus obedient to your every whim,” I reminded her. “The situation is now more or less reversed; I am the master of this vessel, and you must do as I say.”
“Very well, Karn,” she said meekly. Then; “Oh, Karn…”
I sighed vexedly.
“What is it?”
“I will annoy you no further,” she said in a small voice. “I ask only one favor of you… small recompense, indeed, for my having freed you and assisted you to escape. One thing only do I beg of you.”
“Very well; what is it?”
“A kiss,” she whispered. “Only one kiss … a little one, at that. To remember you by…”
I should not, of course, have given in to her wheedling, but I did. After all, she had set me loose, and fled with me, giving up everything she had possessed, her friends, her position as chieftainess, all for me. I sighed and yielded to her coaxing.
“Very well, then, but only one. Come here.”
She came joyously into my arms and her slim, vibrant body nestled within the circle of my embrace. She tilted her head to meet my lips, and her mouth was warm and tender and sweet, I kissed her quite thoroughly.
Then she broke off the kiss, stiffening in my arms with a sharp little cry.
I glanced around behind me events, she shuddered, yawned, stretched, and got to her feet.
The faint murmur of voices came to her and she froze. The voices—there were two of them—were pitched too low for her to make out the words.
Peering about, she found that she had moored the aerial craft near the terminus of one mighty bough, where the branch divided into numerous twigs from which sprang gigantic golden leaves. These leaves effectively screened from her view whatever lay on the other side.
Anxious to discover the identity of the other persons who shared this part of the branch with her, she parted the leaves and peered through at a curious scene.
Tethered to one twig floated a strangely shaped metal craft.
Standing close together on the deck of this weightless vehicle were the half-naked figures of a young boy about her own age, with shoulder-length hair the color of raw gold. His broad and suntanned back was turned to her and Niamh could not see his features.
He was holding in his arms a slim young girl perhaps a few years younger than himself. As Niamh watched, the two embraced and kissed tenderly.
Suddenly, the girl cried out and pulled away, staring at Niamh’s face through the leaves. The boy turned around and looked to see what had frightened her.
I stared at Niamh incredulously, my face crimsoning. The features of my long-lost, beloved princess whitened slowly, as the color drained from them. Her eyes were wide, and filled with shock, with hurt, and with disbelief.
Then they filled with tears. With a cold expression of disdain, Niamh looked me up and down, and turned away.
25.
The Ending of It
With dawn the sentinels perched high aloft in the tallest towers of Phaolon discovered the advance of the crawling horde of scarlet kraan. In their countless thousands the giant warrior ants approached the edges of the Jewel City, brandishing their glittering weapons.
Although taken completely by surprise, the Phaolonese were swift to arm themselves for the conflict. Silver-throated trumpets rang from the tower-tops, and the warriors of the city donned their lacquered mail, took up their slim lances, and belted their swords to their sides. Then, clambering into the saddles of their great war-zaiphs, they soared in steeply ascending spirals, and darted down upon the vanguard of the kraan horde.
Their metal sparkling in the glowing shafts of emerald radiance that streamed between the mighty boles of the world-forest, pennons of brilliant hues fluttering from the tips of their spears, mounted on immense insects with stiff wings like sheeted opals, the chevaliers of Phaolon resembled so many elfin knights flashing through the air on winged steeds to do battle with some goblin army which had crept upon them in the night, invading Fairyland.
The Phaolonese warriors had the advantage of being able to strike from aloft, while the crawling ants were earthbound. But, although the shining lances and keen edged swords of the cavaliers cut a terrible swath through the outer fringes of the advancing horde, the kraan were as numberless as the leaves of the trees. For every warrior ant which fell before the flying knights, there were a dozen ready to take its place.
Several disadvantages fought against the side of the folk of Phaolon, and the worst of them all was that the Jewel City had no walls to protect it from an invasion. This was only natural and understandable, since the humans who dwelt in the world-forest used aerial steeds, and no city can wall itself against an attack from the air. Now this factor weighed heavily against Niamh’s people, for soon the first squadrons of the ant horde were among the houses built upon the outskirts of the city, and were crawling down the narrow streets, slaughtering everyone they encountered. The flying warriors could not defend the streets of Phaolon from above with any facility, due to the breadth of the zaiphs’ wings.