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of who they would be doing this against."
Dorion nodded. "Yeah, that's a real question, all right. A lot of the hubs
have fencing, but it's mostly to keep animals from wandering in. It's easier
and cheaper to barrier the small section of overlap with the colonial worlds
than entirely ring a hub. Besides, where would they get the kind of power a
fence like this would require? They can barely power the central district of
the
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He thought a moment, then mused, "But if there was a very low-level charge, a
trickle, of any sort of energy, even a bit of the null bled into it if
somebody figured out how, then it would be enough to close a circuit. It
wouldn't keep anybody in or out, but you'd know when your border was breached,
and roughly where. Yes, I'll bet that's it. Probably just a test section now,
but nobody goes to all this trouble to prove a theory. I wonder who or what
they're suddenly afraid of."
"Does it matter?" Charley asked him impatiently. "Let's get someplace where we
can cross out of this place and begin to relax and maybe have time enough to
sleep in a real bed and take a bath ..." She added the last less wistfully
than reverently. She knew how she had to look and she knew how her hair felt
and she certainly knew how everybody smelled. These Akahlar people didn't seem
to take too many baths, but that was an area too gross for her to compromise,
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and gross was the word for all of them by now.
Dorion thought it over. "Well, here's as good a place as any, although who
knows how long we're going to have to wait out there until a world we can live
with comes up? If we go any farther north we'll hit the exit station area, and
if we go south we're going to probably wind up cutting holes in their nice,
shiny new fence that isn't even ready yet. That would sure tell them where we
exited and give them something of a lead. All right here it is. Boday mount up
and stay behind Charley as usual. We're going across!"
They went in; Dorion in the lead, Charley almost slipped once as the horse
tried for a decent balancing act, but she hung on and felt the horse suddenly
level out and speed up as they went out onto the null.
She liked the null because she could see it, and, more to her surprise, she
seemed to also see the sky, although it looked kind of weird, like some trick
photography or something, the swirling clouds outlined in dim and unnatural
colors and hues and crackling with a dark, demonic energy.
Shadowcat, in his harness and perch, gave a sudden yowl that would wake the
dead, and Dorion whirled and yelled, "Stop! Turn around and head back for the
bank! It's a trap!"
Charley didn't react at first; the demon clouds seemed suddenly to take on a
shape, and then out of those clouds, or perhaps of the clouds, a giant and
horrible vision formed.
The giant was outlined in hellfire; a great pterodactyl with hollow, burning
eyes and a mouth that seemed filled with flame. The rider was even more
terrifying, outlined boldly in whites and crimsons, a gigantic figure who rode
the flying beast as comfortably as they did horses. The Stormrider was easily
ten or twelve feet tall and proportioned to match, and there was a semblance
of armor in the magical energy outline, and of a helmet with visor up inside
which burned deep crimson flame out of which two dark, demonic eyes peered.
She didn't need any more encouragement. She couldn't see the hub itself but
the very lack of vision was enough of a visual cue. She kicked the horse and
let it take her back.
The great giant screamed at them, its cry echoing off the land and piercing
their very souls as it did so. Charley could only hang on for dear life and
pray that she could make it back before that thing could single her out and
its talons take her.
Clearly, though it was a creature of sorcery, this was no invisible monster to
anyone, cursed with the magical sight or not. Boday tried to keep pace with
Charley and keep her on the right track, but she turned, watching the great
Stormrider on his giant pivot, turn, and start to dive in towards them; and
she reached for a gun, turned in the saddle, and, certain she couldn't miss
something that big even at this distance and under these conditions, fired.
The bullet found its mark but it had no effect, cutting right through the
fearsome apparition as if it did not represent anything real.
An incredibly deep, resonant mate voice filled the air with mocking laughter.
Furious but frustrated, Boday watched Charley's horse make it to the edge of
the hub once again and scramble up that short but irregular ledge. The horse
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file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20Changewinds%202%2
0-%20Riders%20of%20the%20Winds.txt slipped, and Charley suddenly found herself
thrown, falling into the mist and hitting the soft, mossy ground of it hard.
She managed to get up quickly, adrenaline pumping and masking any pain or
injury, but she was shocked, confused. Turning, she watched as the great
horror swooped down on her, perhaps only seconds away.
Suddenly she felt herself being picked up and held against a horse, then
bounced as the horse made it up the side of the hub to the ground above. She
felt something touch her, sting her thigh, and there was a rush of air and a
foul stench, and then suddenly she was dropped onto the dirt of the hub.
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Boday was breathing hard. "Hurry! Do not delay! We shall find your horse
later, but, for now, come up with me and get away from the edge!"
But Charley just lay there, hurting, unable to move. She looked down at her
thigh and saw it shining a burning crimson, the same as what had been inside
that creature's armor. Her leg was suddenly numb, paralyzed, without feeling
or the ability to move except for the burning.
She could only sit there and look out and watch the horrible thing finish its
circle and come in close again. There was nothing she could do, no place she
could run, and she just watched it come closer, ever closer until it was
virtually at the hub border.
Suddenly the rider pulled up, and the giant and rider remained suspended in
the air just a few feet away from the border, the great flying creature's
wings going gently up and down in an apparent attempt to keep it mere.
Charley abruptly realized that for some reason the thing couldn't come in.
Perhaps the same power that kept out the colonials and the nasties prevented
even this form from crossing into one of their sacred hubs.
The two deep, burning eyes fixed upon her.
"The power of the storms in a null is great," said the Stormrider in that low,
resonant bass. "Because of the mixing of the air masses and the constant shift
in access to the colonial worlds it is always turbulent. Even now forces
obedient to me have cut off access and soon will be closing in on you from all
sides but this. You cannot win. You cannot escape. Rise and come to me!"
Charley felt will in her burning leg, but it wasn't her will. It tried to
stand, tried to force her into motion, but it was simply not enough.
Suddenly Boday was there, pulling her back from the edge, pulling her back
behind cover.
"I have fifty men who have no morals or scruples at all and whose reward is
great when they bring you to me," the Stormrider chided them. "They also do
not care for the lives of your companions. You cannot cross except through me,
and your pitiful weapons mean nothing to a prince of the clouds."
Dorion came up beside them, crouching low. "Damn it, he might be right," the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]