[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
she could see dragon-shapes behind a cactus.
"Lost!" He turned to the others behind him, shouting, "She says she's
lost! Can you believe it? The child is out here in the middle of nothing, and
says she's lost!"
They, too, roared with laughter. Shana felt as if she were being left
out of something, and wondered sullenly what on earth she had said that struck
them as so very hilarious. But then, the Kin had always had an odd sense of
humor.
Then she remembered one of the stranger pastimes of the Kin, a
pastime neither Myre nor Keman had been old enough to join the games they
would play, half story, half puzzle, with each participant taking a part. Much
of the challenge lay with the individuals making chance encounters work as
best he could with the ongoing story. Those who extemporized the best and most
creatively won; those who were thrown off by deviations in the story lost.
They did act as if they were working some kind of puzzle, or in a
drama-game. That had to be the answer; they were acting something out, and she
had given them some kind of clue. She'd better play along and work herself
into their story. Once she'd done that, they'd take her with them, and once
she was where she could fend for herself, she'd slip off.
"So, lost child, who are your people, eh?" the stranger asked,
putting his arm around her shoulders in a friendly fashion, and drawing her
back towards the rest of the group. Shana went with him readily enough; so
long as he was disposed to be friendly, she was content.
Page 131
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"The Kin, of course," she said reasonably. "Please, I'm awfully
hungry "
In fact, she began to feel as if she were likely to faint at any
moment. But the others looked at her in a very strange way when she said that,
as if she had spoken nonsense. She intercepted those wary looks, and frowned
as she tried to fathom their meaning.
Maybe she wasn't supposed to mention the Kin. Or maybe this other
Lair didn't call them the Kin. "You know, the Family." She pointed at the
cloth dragon, and instantly the others were all smiles again.
She sighed with relief. Isaid the right thing
"Well, if you have lost the Family, child, we must certainly help
you," said the smiling man. "You say you are hungry? Come, we will feed you.
And" he got an odd, acquisitive expression "where did you find this garment
you wear?"
"Garment?" she asked, confused again. "My tunic? I made it. I got
the "
Now she was stymied, for she had no notion how to explain "shed skin"
in this other tongue. "I found the bits and I made it," she finished lamely,
looking down at her feet, and hoping she had not failed a test that would make
them abandon her as quickly as they had adopted her. The games could be like
that; she'd watched enough of them to know.
"Here, child, eat " Something dry and brown and shaped like a stone
was thrust into her hands. She looked at it doubtfully before taking a
tentative bite.
To her surprise, the thing had a tough but tasty outside, and an even
tastier middle. She devoured it with enthusiasm, drank the metallic-tasting
water they gave her, and smiled shyly at her new friends from under her
lashes. They crowded around her, moving carefully, as if she were some kind of
wild animal that they thought they might frighten.
"Shana, your name is?" said the man who had befriended her first. She
nodded, and he moved closer to her, looking at her tunic, but not touching it.
"Shana, this thing you wear would you have this instead?"
He held up a longer tunic than hers, of a beautiful crimson and of
material like the cloth dragon. It looked exactly like the ones the rest of
them wore; all one piece and one color, not patched, cast-off skin as hers
was. She wanted it, wanted it nearly as much as she had wanted the jeweled
band, and could hardly believe that he wanted hers in exchange. It did not
seem an equal exchange to her.
Maybe he was just being kind, giving her this as a trade so she
didn't feel badly about taking the new one. That must be it. Or else she had
to dress like them to play in this game; that could be it, too. Well, she
didn't care, so long as they would give her that new tunic.
"Please?" she said, and the man laughed and handed it to her. She
started to strip off her old tunic, and he suddenly grew alarmed, and stopped
her.
"There " he said, pointing to a building made of cloth. While she had
been eating, some of the others had put it up, all in the blink of an eye. "Go
Page 132
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
there, take off the old garment, put on the new."
She looked at him with her mouth open in surprise, but he was
insistent. She obeyed, but wondered what kind of game they could possibly be
playing. It certainly seemed very odd&
But as she slipped out of the old tunic and into the new, the
silk-wrapped bundle of the jeweled band thudded against her breastbone, and
she was suddenly very glad that theywere playing such an odd game.If they see
this, they'll want it. I can't let them see it. If they do, they'll take it
for their own hoards, just like the others took away the gems Keman gave me &
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]