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.But Icertainly wasn t going to point any of that out now.I especially wasn t going to point it out when I knew Iwasn t being completely truthful about why I wanted to gowith Wash and the others.Oh, I wanted to keep an eye onLan, right enough, but if the only thing I d wanted to do waswatch out for him, I d have put my energy into making himstay behind.What I really wanted was to go along, too.Iwasn t sure why.I didn t have anything to prove to myself,the way I had with the saber cat hunt the previous summer,and I knew this would be even more dangerous.We wouldn t have anything like as many people; the settlement couldn tspare them, and Wash wouldn t wait for messengers torecruit folks from nearby settlements.We didn t even knowwhat we were hunting, much less how long it would take tofind.Even so, I wanted to go.I looked hopefully at Wash andProfessor Torgeson. That seems reasonable, Professor Torgeson said briskly. Who else, Mr.Morris? We don t want too many people, orwe ll move too slowly. Pierre, if he ll come, Wash said. And if Mr.Macleodcan spare us a marksman who s willing to come, I think thatwill do. Wash, you Mr.Macleod shook his head. All right, Ican t stop you.I suppose the only questions left are, what doyou need and how soon do you leave? Tomorrow morning, for leaving, Wash said. I don tmuch fancy spending the night outside walls when there swildlife about that laughs at the travel protections.As to whatwe need, I was hoping you d have some suggestions. The two of them walked off, deep in discussion.ProfessorTorgeson looked at Lan. Mr.Rothmer Yes, I m sure I want to do this, Lan broke in. Just &I m sure, all right? I was going to ask about your experience with the mirrorbugs, the professor said mildly. Mr.Anderson indicatedthat whatever interfered with his spells was similar to anabrupt blow, but the accounts I ve heard of the mirror bugssounded more like a slow draining. Oh, Lan said. I well, the mirror bugs were small.One at a time, or spread out the way they normally were,they didn t absorb enough magic for anyone to notice. He went on describing what had happened at the Little Fogsettlement, with the professor asking pointed questions everyso often, and I could see some of the stiffness fade out of hisshoulders.He didn t expect it to be so easy to get included in the huntfor the medusa creature, I thought.I couldn t figure out why,though, much less why he d been so keen to go in the firstplace.He was up to something, and I was pretty sure Iwouldn t like it once I figured out what it was.The news that there was a hunting party being sent out gotmost of the settlement folks calmed down.There was stillsome quiet talk of leaving, but it had more the sound ofplanning for the worst than panic.Some of them evenlaughed a little at Greasy Pierre s posturing when he agreedto help hunt for the creature.I didn t sleep too well that night.Growing up in Mill City,and later on working with the professors and coming out tosurvey the plants around the settlements, had given me apowerful respect for the wildlife of the West, and there was asight of difference between running afoul of a cloud of mirrorbugs or even coming across a pride of saber cats, and goingout looking for trouble.But I couldn t let Lan go alone.We left early the next morning.There were six of us:Wash, Professor Torgeson, Greasy Pierre, a settlement mannamed Sven Grimsrud, Lan, and me.It had been over a dayand a half since the Anderson brothers and Pierre had theirrun-in with the medusa creature at the ford, and we didn tknow how close it might be if it had followed them, so Washand Pierre and Mr.Grimsrud had their rifles ready.After some arguing, we d settled it that we would ride a lotfarther apart than folks usually did when they traveled out insettlement country.The idea was to make sure the medusa thing couldn t catch us all at once, the way it had with theAndersons packhorses.We had two sets of travel protection spells going, one thatwas mostly to detect anything alive that stretched out as faras Professor Torgeson could stretch it, and one that doubledup the standard traveling spell with one to keep off magic thatwas as close in and as strong as Lan could make it.I waspaying extra-close attention to my Aphrikan world-sensing,and I was pretty sure Wash was, too.Greasy Pierre had the job of backtracking the route he andthe Andersons had taken.It wasn t hard; even I could sensethe residue of the speed-travel spell he d used to get them allsafely back to the settlement.Wash rode next in line, then theprofessor, Lan, and me, with Mr.Grimsrud bringing up therear.We rode for about three hours, then stopped for a break.You d think that just riding along keeping a sharp lookoutwouldn t be much harder than the normal kind of ridingthrough settlement country, but it was.I was glad to dismountfor a minute or two.Two hours later, Professor Torgeson signaled for a stopand motioned everyone to come close enough to hear. There s a & blank area over that way, she said, pointing ata slight angle to the direction we d been traveling. Noanimals, hardly any birds. This is suspicious, Pierre said solemnly. Is it moving? Mr.Grimsrud asked.Professor Torgeson looked irritated. There are animalseverywhere else, and they are moving.Up that way, there isnone. How large is the quiet area? Wash asked. About ten degrees at the far edge of the spell, the professor replied. We re about a mile and a half away, asbest I can estimate.It doesn t exactly have sharp edges. We ll head in that direction, Wash said. Let us knowwhen we re close, or if anything changes, Professor. We rode a lot more cautiously after that.Wash took usnorth and around, hoping to come up behind the critter, ifthat was what it was that had caused what the professor sspell had detected.I was a bit annoyed because even with myAphrikan world-sensing, all I could tell was that the animalsnearby were more nervous than usual.It wasn t until we werenearly right up to the quiet area that I felt anything different.Right about then, Wash stopped and signaled everyone todismount.He and Pierre had a quick talk in low voices, andthen Wash took the lead.The forest was dead quiet, exceptwhen a breeze rustled the trees [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.But Icertainly wasn t going to point any of that out now.I especially wasn t going to point it out when I knew Iwasn t being completely truthful about why I wanted to gowith Wash and the others.Oh, I wanted to keep an eye onLan, right enough, but if the only thing I d wanted to do waswatch out for him, I d have put my energy into making himstay behind.What I really wanted was to go along, too.Iwasn t sure why.I didn t have anything to prove to myself,the way I had with the saber cat hunt the previous summer,and I knew this would be even more dangerous.We wouldn t have anything like as many people; the settlement couldn tspare them, and Wash wouldn t wait for messengers torecruit folks from nearby settlements.We didn t even knowwhat we were hunting, much less how long it would take tofind.Even so, I wanted to go.I looked hopefully at Wash andProfessor Torgeson. That seems reasonable, Professor Torgeson said briskly. Who else, Mr.Morris? We don t want too many people, orwe ll move too slowly. Pierre, if he ll come, Wash said. And if Mr.Macleodcan spare us a marksman who s willing to come, I think thatwill do. Wash, you Mr.Macleod shook his head. All right, Ican t stop you.I suppose the only questions left are, what doyou need and how soon do you leave? Tomorrow morning, for leaving, Wash said. I don tmuch fancy spending the night outside walls when there swildlife about that laughs at the travel protections.As to whatwe need, I was hoping you d have some suggestions. The two of them walked off, deep in discussion.ProfessorTorgeson looked at Lan. Mr.Rothmer Yes, I m sure I want to do this, Lan broke in. Just &I m sure, all right? I was going to ask about your experience with the mirrorbugs, the professor said mildly. Mr.Anderson indicatedthat whatever interfered with his spells was similar to anabrupt blow, but the accounts I ve heard of the mirror bugssounded more like a slow draining. Oh, Lan said. I well, the mirror bugs were small.One at a time, or spread out the way they normally were,they didn t absorb enough magic for anyone to notice. He went on describing what had happened at the Little Fogsettlement, with the professor asking pointed questions everyso often, and I could see some of the stiffness fade out of hisshoulders.He didn t expect it to be so easy to get included in the huntfor the medusa creature, I thought.I couldn t figure out why,though, much less why he d been so keen to go in the firstplace.He was up to something, and I was pretty sure Iwouldn t like it once I figured out what it was.The news that there was a hunting party being sent out gotmost of the settlement folks calmed down.There was stillsome quiet talk of leaving, but it had more the sound ofplanning for the worst than panic.Some of them evenlaughed a little at Greasy Pierre s posturing when he agreedto help hunt for the creature.I didn t sleep too well that night.Growing up in Mill City,and later on working with the professors and coming out tosurvey the plants around the settlements, had given me apowerful respect for the wildlife of the West, and there was asight of difference between running afoul of a cloud of mirrorbugs or even coming across a pride of saber cats, and goingout looking for trouble.But I couldn t let Lan go alone.We left early the next morning.There were six of us:Wash, Professor Torgeson, Greasy Pierre, a settlement mannamed Sven Grimsrud, Lan, and me.It had been over a dayand a half since the Anderson brothers and Pierre had theirrun-in with the medusa creature at the ford, and we didn tknow how close it might be if it had followed them, so Washand Pierre and Mr.Grimsrud had their rifles ready.After some arguing, we d settled it that we would ride a lotfarther apart than folks usually did when they traveled out insettlement country.The idea was to make sure the medusa thing couldn t catch us all at once, the way it had with theAndersons packhorses.We had two sets of travel protection spells going, one thatwas mostly to detect anything alive that stretched out as faras Professor Torgeson could stretch it, and one that doubledup the standard traveling spell with one to keep off magic thatwas as close in and as strong as Lan could make it.I waspaying extra-close attention to my Aphrikan world-sensing,and I was pretty sure Wash was, too.Greasy Pierre had the job of backtracking the route he andthe Andersons had taken.It wasn t hard; even I could sensethe residue of the speed-travel spell he d used to get them allsafely back to the settlement.Wash rode next in line, then theprofessor, Lan, and me, with Mr.Grimsrud bringing up therear.We rode for about three hours, then stopped for a break.You d think that just riding along keeping a sharp lookoutwouldn t be much harder than the normal kind of ridingthrough settlement country, but it was.I was glad to dismountfor a minute or two.Two hours later, Professor Torgeson signaled for a stopand motioned everyone to come close enough to hear. There s a & blank area over that way, she said, pointing ata slight angle to the direction we d been traveling. Noanimals, hardly any birds. This is suspicious, Pierre said solemnly. Is it moving? Mr.Grimsrud asked.Professor Torgeson looked irritated. There are animalseverywhere else, and they are moving.Up that way, there isnone. How large is the quiet area? Wash asked. About ten degrees at the far edge of the spell, the professor replied. We re about a mile and a half away, asbest I can estimate.It doesn t exactly have sharp edges. We ll head in that direction, Wash said. Let us knowwhen we re close, or if anything changes, Professor. We rode a lot more cautiously after that.Wash took usnorth and around, hoping to come up behind the critter, ifthat was what it was that had caused what the professor sspell had detected.I was a bit annoyed because even with myAphrikan world-sensing, all I could tell was that the animalsnearby were more nervous than usual.It wasn t until we werenearly right up to the quiet area that I felt anything different.Right about then, Wash stopped and signaled everyone todismount.He and Pierre had a quick talk in low voices, andthen Wash took the lead.The forest was dead quiet, exceptwhen a breeze rustled the trees [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]