Read Online Warlord of Antares by Alan Burt Akers - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Alan Burt Akers
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myself, and prowled on. The twin Suns of Scorpio, Zim and Genodras, might be shining away in the Kregan sky outside, or, for all I knew, it could be pitch dark and some of Kregen’s seven moons float refulgently among the stars. The diurnal rhythms of the world had, for the moment, been abandoned.
The noise now boomed and reverberated everywhere so that I was convinced a waterfall of some size lay in store for us.
Dampness in the air lay on the lips and tongue. The stone floor slicked with moisture. Along the walls as the green light intensified grew algaes and lichens, and the skipping figures of tiklos appeared and vanished among the crevices.
“I suppose,” said Seg in a resigned and injured tone of voice, “we won’t be able to drink the dratted water.”
“Dunno, Seg. Maybe now Csitra’s had her wings clipped natural things are back to being natural.”
“At least the she-witch did feed us from time to time.”
“Aye.”
Directly ahead the green light poured through a wide opening set at an angle so that the radiance bounced from the rock face opposite. The noise now reached a painful intensity. The women stumbled along with their hands clapped over their ears.
Deb-Lu’s figure showed to the side of the passage. A crevice in the rock, a mere jagged crack stretching from the floor up to a peak something like ten feet overhead, slashed a streak of blackness against the shining stone.
“Through there!” exclaimed Nath. “When there’s a large opening ahead?”
“The Wizard of Loh has not failed us yet.” I looked back over the mob. “Keep together.” With that I plunged into the crack of blackness.
Cobwebs slurred furrily across my face. Irritably I brushed them away and pressed on, sword extended. The floor was rough and littered with detritus fallen from the apex of the fault. The noise lessened at once.
The experience was spine-tingling and unpleasant. The crack broke to the left and then to the right, and more dinging cobwebs festooned around my head. A distant wash of green light glimmered in a vague triangular shape before me. I took a breath and smelled dampness and green growing creepers and the oily and unidentifiable smell of alien life. I forced myself on and stepped past the broken end of the fault onto brown and golden gravel.
“All clear!” I bellowed back and then moved on a few paces to inspect this new and enormously vast cavern.
Light diffused green and gentle from the unseen roof — only a radiance seeped down from overhead. Winged creatures flew and darted, streaks of blue and white, among the stalagmite-like spires clustered around the left-hand wall. The golden brown gravel gradually merged with golden sand leading to the edge of a river. The roaring of the waterfall reached through a drift of spray spilling from the tunnel mouth where the river entered the cavern. The green growing smells, wet vegetation, trailing waterweeds, and the unmistakable smell of lavender coulory blended to form a not unpleasant cocktail of scents.
“Well,” said Seg stepping out, “what have we here? Fish for supper?”
Then his fey blue eyes, surveying the scene, softened. He looked around and said: “Y’know, my old dom, this is a remarkably pretty place to find so deep underground.”
“There are even trees growing with their roots in the water. And those birds — if they are birds — look quite unthreatening and cheerful.”
The women trailed out of the crack in the cavern wall and incontinently flopped down on the gravel.
Nath deposited his pretty burdens and came over to join Seg and me.
“A forest under the ground!” he exclaimed.
“Could be an enchanted forest, my old Impenitent.”
“Very probably, Horkandur. If so, we can surely avoid it by going around it.”
“In,” said Seg waspishly, “dubitably.”
“Let the women rest for a time,” I said. “We’d better search for the way out.”
Nath heaved up a grunting sigh. “I don’t much care, Bogandur,
The noise now boomed and reverberated everywhere so that I was convinced a waterfall of some size lay in store for us.
Dampness in the air lay on the lips and tongue. The stone floor slicked with moisture. Along the walls as the green light intensified grew algaes and lichens, and the skipping figures of tiklos appeared and vanished among the crevices.
“I suppose,” said Seg in a resigned and injured tone of voice, “we won’t be able to drink the dratted water.”
“Dunno, Seg. Maybe now Csitra’s had her wings clipped natural things are back to being natural.”
“At least the she-witch did feed us from time to time.”
“Aye.”
Directly ahead the green light poured through a wide opening set at an angle so that the radiance bounced from the rock face opposite. The noise now reached a painful intensity. The women stumbled along with their hands clapped over their ears.
Deb-Lu’s figure showed to the side of the passage. A crevice in the rock, a mere jagged crack stretching from the floor up to a peak something like ten feet overhead, slashed a streak of blackness against the shining stone.
“Through there!” exclaimed Nath. “When there’s a large opening ahead?”
“The Wizard of Loh has not failed us yet.” I looked back over the mob. “Keep together.” With that I plunged into the crack of blackness.
Cobwebs slurred furrily across my face. Irritably I brushed them away and pressed on, sword extended. The floor was rough and littered with detritus fallen from the apex of the fault. The noise lessened at once.
The experience was spine-tingling and unpleasant. The crack broke to the left and then to the right, and more dinging cobwebs festooned around my head. A distant wash of green light glimmered in a vague triangular shape before me. I took a breath and smelled dampness and green growing creepers and the oily and unidentifiable smell of alien life. I forced myself on and stepped past the broken end of the fault onto brown and golden gravel.
“All clear!” I bellowed back and then moved on a few paces to inspect this new and enormously vast cavern.
Light diffused green and gentle from the unseen roof — only a radiance seeped down from overhead. Winged creatures flew and darted, streaks of blue and white, among the stalagmite-like spires clustered around the left-hand wall. The golden brown gravel gradually merged with golden sand leading to the edge of a river. The roaring of the waterfall reached through a drift of spray spilling from the tunnel mouth where the river entered the cavern. The green growing smells, wet vegetation, trailing waterweeds, and the unmistakable smell of lavender coulory blended to form a not unpleasant cocktail of scents.
“Well,” said Seg stepping out, “what have we here? Fish for supper?”
Then his fey blue eyes, surveying the scene, softened. He looked around and said: “Y’know, my old dom, this is a remarkably pretty place to find so deep underground.”
“There are even trees growing with their roots in the water. And those birds — if they are birds — look quite unthreatening and cheerful.”
The women trailed out of the crack in the cavern wall and incontinently flopped down on the gravel.
Nath deposited his pretty burdens and came over to join Seg and me.
“A forest under the ground!” he exclaimed.
“Could be an enchanted forest, my old Impenitent.”
“Very probably, Horkandur. If so, we can surely avoid it by going around it.”
“In,” said Seg waspishly, “dubitably.”
“Let the women rest for a time,” I said. “We’d better search for the way out.”
Nath heaved up a grunting sigh. “I don’t much care, Bogandur,
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