Gordon Dickson Childe 08 The Chantry Guild

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sight of the walls surrounding giving the illusion of the outdoors on the
world below-an illusion reinforced by the small stream wandering down the
Center of it, among the massively overstuffed easy chairs that --mere
scattered around what seemed to be the grass of a tiny ineadow. Two people
were already there. One was Ajela. She was seated, holding one of Tam's veined
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hands in both of hers, as he occupied the chair opposite.
Tam sat with the utter motionlessness of extreme old age. He was dressed as if
for the day's work, in a business suit of the sort he had worn all his life.
If the heavy cloak, red and white on one
side and with a dark inner lining, of an interplanetary journalist had been
added, there would have been no difference in his dress 'now from the time
when he had been just such a newsman, with no plan to ever set foot in the
Final Encyclopedia again, after his single early visit to it. Like Hal, he had
needed to leave the Encyclopedia in order to find it again. But it had been
over a
century now since he had been the young man who had made that single visit, at
his sister's insistence, and heard the voices as
Hal and Mark Torre had done.
Only they three had heard, as they passed through the centerpoint of the globe
that was the Encyclopedia; but in the case of each of them, that hearing had
changed their lives.
Now Tam sat waiting, holding on to life that had become a
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Gordon R. Dickson
burden rather than a pleasure, trying to endure just enough longer for Hal to
reach him-and now Hal was here. For the Encyclopedia's sake, he waited for
Hal. For Ajela's sake, he would wait as long as he could.
It was Ajela that caught Hal's eyes now. Physically, she had not changed since
he had seen her last, but what Tam's steady and obvious weakening was doing to
her was made clear in her dress. Whatever the Final Encyclopedia had
automatically laid out for her to wear this day, in the program she had set up
in it long since to save her time in dressing, as she had come to save time
whenever possible, could not have been what she was now wearing. Her choice
had clearly been dictated by an unconscious desire to rouse the dying man
through his male instincts, if nothing else.
She had chosen to put on a sari-like garment that wound tightly around her
waist and hips. It was a hot pink, with yellow flowers imprinted over the base
color. Above the sari there was a space of bare midriff, and above that a
small, short-sleeved, tight blouse of the same material; while on her arms
were multiple slim bracelets and in her ears earrings made of multiple small
chained pieces-all these ornaments of bronze-which chimed and jingled at her
slightest movement.
But the sari was carelessly draped; and the sound of the bracelets and
earrings were lonely in the room as she turned to look, with a shadow of
desperate appeal on her face, at Hal and Amanda as they entered.
Clearly, on his part, Tam did not see them enter. Plainly he saw Ajela beside
him, but equally plainly he no longer noticed what she wore. His eyes were
fixed on something among the trees, or upon his own dreams, or perhaps upon
nothing at all. It was not until Hal had walked up to stand almost before his
chair, and knelt on both knees, so their faces should be on a level, that
recognition came.
Even then, it came slowly; as if it was a great labor for Tam to rouse himself
to what he saw before him. But it dawned in his eyes at last and the hint of a
smile liftcd the corners of his mouth. His lips parted and moved, but whatever
he meant to say was not voiced loudly enough for Hal, or any of the others, to
hear it.
Hal reached out and took Tam's free hand between his own two, so that he held
it as Ajela was holding the other one.
THE CHANTRY GUILD
379
"I'm here, Tam," he said softly. "I'm back; and I've found now. Can you hold
on just ::,@@4omethiinig I needed. The way's clear _@a matter of hours more)
It won't be long. Not long at all." Is small smile saddened. Barely
perceptible, but with Tam
enough to see, his head moved twice, a few centimeters from side to side.
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"I know, Tam," said Hal "I'm not trying to hold you here. I'll only try to
work very fast, just in case you're still with us
when I reach what we've been after all this time. But it's a solid promise [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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