[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

lips he muttered, "He meant us no harm."
Relief swept over Madi, leaving her momentarily weak. "No," she replied in an
excited whisper. "He was sent to help us, a servant of Shiva to show us the
way to his shrine."
Ramja looked at her doubtfully, and she said urgently, "It's true. Tigers are
not mindless killers, but human in their own way, without the lust and greed
of man."
Madi paused for breath. Before she could say anything, a prolonged scream
knifed through the forested silence. The terrible masculine scream seemed to
go on for an unbearably long time, and then it was joined by others.
Interwoven with the shrieks was a grisly crunching and then they heard the
triple-jackhammer stutter of automatic weapons. A deep-throated cough
Sea of Plague
231
overlaid the cacophony of shots and screams. The tiger's hoarse bellow was
filled with rage, triumph and the promise of a painful death.
The shots and the screams seemed to stop simultaneously, and silence pressed
down over the jungle again, an oppressive quiet as if a giant bell jar had
been placed over it. Ramja and Madi exchanged swift, fear-filled glances, then
they began running again.
This time their flight wasn't as wild. They carefully looked for the path made
by the tiger and followed it, an almost invisible trail that zigged in one
direction then zagged in another. Within a few minutes, full night settled
over the jungle, but it brought almost no relief from the humidity.
Madi and Ramja reached a break in the foliage and stood upon a slope that
declined away to a small structure. Although the moon hadn't fully risen, the
Page 123
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
stars illuminated its flat stone roof and three walls.
The shrine wasn't large, perhaps eight feet tall and made of flat slabs of
stone. But it was draped with garlands of flowers, blossoms growing in white
profusion. From within flickered a dim radiation, probably from an oil lamp
lit by a supplicant.
By its glow Madi was able to make out the three-foot-tall statue of Shiva on
the rear wall. The god resembled a potbellied man of middle age, with four
arms and a stern but paternal face. A
crescent-moon headpiece adorned his brow, right above his third eye. When
Shiva was angry or offended, his third eye shot forth supernal flame that
destroyed everything nearby.
All of the accumulated tension and fear of the past
232 JAMES AXLER
two hours rushed out of Madi in a gasping sigh. "There it is. Shiva showed us
the way."
' 'Blessed be to Shiva,'' Ramja intoned.
They started down the slope toward the structure, the warm caress of a breeze
feeling like the touch of a comforting hand. Ramja touched her shoulder and
whispered, "Thank you, Madi."
She turned toward him just as he cried out in shrill pain. His back arched as
if he had received a blow between the shoulder blades, and he reached up with
both hands, groping for the back of his neck.
Gaping at him in shock, Madi watched as Ramja fell forward, first to his knees
and then onto his face.
His cry became a gurgle. She saw, sprouting from the base of his skull, a
feathered shaft like a short arrow or a long dart. She recognized the sticky
sap with which it was coated Tamil root extract, a poison used by the Nagas. A
full dose brought instant death, and apparently Ramja had received one.
She bent over him, trying to bite back a scream when shadows shifted around
her. Figures stole from the crest of the slope, slender dark men with black
turbans and red-and-black painted faces. There were only four of them, and two
were splashed with a wet crimson that was not paint. It was blood, either from
wounds inflicted by the tiger or that shed by their fellow soldiers.
She saw that one of the Nagas carried a short wooden bow, and he was nocking
yet another poisoned shaft into the string. With a scream, more of anger than
fear, Madi ran across the face of the slope and toward the shrine. Still, she
was encouraged a
Sea of Plague
233
little. If the Nirodha soldiers were forced to use their bows, that meant they
had either lost their firearms or emptied them.
Madi chanted a prayer to Shiva as she sprinted toward the shrine, her temples
throbbing. From the men behind her she heard a twist of cruel laughter. The
prayer changed to an invocation, a plea for him to interfere, even if it meant
bringing about the dance of Tandava.
Page 124
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Her lungs labored and her chest seemed to close in on itself as she ran.
Within a few yards, she was reeling on rubbery legs. She wondered bitterly why
she was running at all. There seemed to be no point except to provide
entertainment for the Scorpia Prime's soldiers. It was cold comfort and a
small
consolation, but she took a bit of satisfaction in the realization the tiger
had forced them to pay dearly for their sport.
Her foot struck an irregularity in the ground and she fell heavily, almost
within arm's reach of the shrine.
Lifting her head dizzily, blinking back the amoeba-like floaters obscuring her
vision, she saw the flicker of luminosity within the shrine seem to glow
brighter, increasing in intensity. Even the interior was adorned with ferns
and chains of flowers.
Then fear descended on Madi like a wave. Crooked fingers of energy suddenly
stabbed through the narrow interior. She crouched motionless, watching with
awe and dread as thousands of crackling threads of light coalesced in the
center of Shiva's shrine. A faint, high-pitched whine like that of a distant
mosquito flitted in and out on the edge of her hearing.
A tingling, prickling sensation covered her body,
234 JAMES AXLER
and she felt the fine hairs on her arms and legs stir and bristle. The damp
air pulsed like the beat of a gigantic heart. A heat-wave-like shimmer rose
from the floor of the shrine, and the blossoms of the flowers vibrated, some
of the petals coming loose and swirling about as if borne by a breeze.
They swirled about an object that appeared on the floor of the shrine, a shape
resembling a pyramid made of smooth, gleaming metal. It exuded a wavering
funnel of light that fanned out to completely fill the stone structure. Madi
could only gape at it, her thought processes paralyzed as if by a dose of the
Tamil root.
A yellow nova of brilliance erupted from the pyramid. Madi felt a concussion
slap against her face. Her eyes stung, but she couldn't look away. Through the
blurred afterimage of the flare, three shadowy shapes stepped out of the fan
of light. The edges of the shimmery fan peeled back and disappeared into the
pyramid. Three figures stood within the shrine, all of them identically
dressed in black.
The man in the lead stepped forward and spoke to her in Hindi. On the far
fringes of her awareness, Madi knew he had asked her name, but she didn't give
it to him. Instead, she flung out her arms and screamed, "Lord Shiva!
Shatterer of worlds! It is the time of the Tandava!"
Chapter 17 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

  • zanotowane.pl
  • doc.pisz.pl
  • pdf.pisz.pl
  • thierry.pev.pl

    •