[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

"On the contrary! That looks very much like Cumulo Fracto Nimbus, the very worst of clouds. He
brings mischief to all good folk and even some evil folk."
"A cloud! Oh, pooh!"
But Che looked extremely worried. "I hope you do not receive more of an education than you desire,
Jenny Elf. Perhaps Fracto is merely passing by."
But the cloud was not passing by. It loomed in close, becoming darker and larger. It seemed almost to
have a nebulous face on it, with two big eyes and a bigger mouth. Then the mouth opened, and the cloud
blew-and a cold wind rocked the raft.
Waves formed, and they advanced on the raft and rocked it. The cloud swelled up denser and uglier, and
thunder rumbled within it. The wind whipped the foliage of the trees, and the first big raindrops
spattered against the raft.
"Maybe we had better pole in to shore," Jenny said, worried. "I don't want to get washed off the raft,
with those water moccasins waiting."
"Perhaps that is best," Che agreed.
Jenny lifted the pole. But she remained light, while it remained heavy; now it seemed heavier than she
was, which made poling awkward. But that was readily solved: Che flicked the pole with his tail, and it
became light.
She shoved them toward the shore. But as she did, evil little faces appeared. The goblins!
Hastily she shoved the raft back away. The goblins stood and waved their stubby fists. Some of them
had stones, but they did not throw them. There were more than there had been before-six, at least, that
she saw. They must have gotten reinforcements.
"We can't go ashore," she said.
"I fear we can't stay in midstream, either," Che said. "Maybe it's safe on the other side." She poled
across.
But the water got deeper in the center, making the poling increasingly difficult. The storm intensified, so
that the waves washed over the raft. Sammy was not keen on involuntary baths, and jumped up to
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
Jenny's shoulder to hiss at the water.
The raft spun around. Jenny lost her footing and felt herself sliding off. She screamed-but Che caught
her arm and prevented her from landing in the water. His four feet gave him a better anchorage; he had
his hooves braced against the ridges of the raft.
Still the storm raged. Jenny knew now that Che was right: this was no ordinary cloud, but a magically
malign demon of a cloud, out to get them. She couldn't guess why it hated them so, but it was doing its
utmost to dump them in the river. She had not believed in the deliberate malignancy of weather, but now
she did!
A gust of wind caught the raft and shoved it to the bank Jenny was trying to leave. She tried to stop it
with the pole, but the thing caught in the bottom muck and was twisted out of her grasp. She was after
all no big human man; she was a little elf girl, not used to this sort of thing.
The waves gathered for one concluding effort. They lifted the raft and tilted it so sharply that elf, cat,
and centaur slid off it and into the shallow water. Jenny screamed as she splashed.
But the water moccasins did not clamp onto their toes. It seemed that the storm had scared them too, and
they were either stunned or elsewhere. The goblins charged in and grabbed Jenny and Che. In a moment
both were hopelessly tied up.
"Find help, Sammy!" Jenny cried desperately, though she feared there was no help to be had.
Sammy jumped past the goblins and disappeared. Maybe he would find help-but how would the help
find them? For she knew the goblins wouldn't just leave her by the bank of the With-a-Cookee River.
What had she accomplished in her effort to save the foal? Nothing but a delay, she feared. Now she was
in just as much trouble as he.
Chapter 3. Electro's Exam
Electra watched Chex fly away with Grundy Golem. She hoped Che was found soon, but she had a bad
feeling about it all. The foal had been kidnapped, and that meant that someone was trying to hide him
away. He would not turn up innocently wandering through the forest.
Who could want to do such an awful thing? Che was the only winged centaur foal in Xanth. If
something happened to him, it would cut off the childhood of that entire species. That was even worse
than an ordinary kidnapping, bad as that was. She wasn't sure that anything like that had happened in
Xanth before.
Nada looked grim. She was such a lovely young woman in her human form that she looked terrific even
that way! Electra envied her, and had no trouble understanding why Prince Dolph liked her better than
Electra. Electra liked Nada better than Electra! She was a princess and a really nice person, too. If
Electra could have chosen any woman to compete against, Nada would have been at the very bottom of
her list. But for friends, the top of the list.
"We'd better get moving," Nada said. She became a giant serpent.
Electra got on the serpent's back. Nada moved, sinuously gathering speed. There was a certain similarity
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
to the way she walked in the human form, but then it had more effect on the eyeballs of any men in the
vicinity: they practically popped out of their sockets. As a matter of fact, the golem's eyes had bulged
similarly just now, perhaps because Nada was not wearing her clothing. Grundy had a perfectly lovely [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

dona35.pev.pl