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followed Hazard in a crawl across the grass that led them to the huge stone that had held the cook-fire.
The fire was out; the very logs gone, washed or blown away. Now it held a huddle of miserable humans,
their eyes wide, their hair and clothing plastered to their skins. She could not count them; the lightning
made counting uncertain. There were not as many as there should be; that was all she knew.
"This only started a few moments ago," Hazard shouted, as she took her place among them. "One
moment everything was fine, then this storm blew in out of nowhere! The tents went flying, lightning hit
Lisle and Stef and killed them where they stood, the livestock panicked-Ware went after the mules and
his horse, and Faro has been collecting us here-half of us were already asleep, and the first thing we
knew was that we were being half-drowned and bombarded with hailstones."
Well, that explained why no one had tried to awaken her; they hadn't had time. Their experience
matched hers.
Right now what they all needed most was a shelter that would stand against the wind and rain. And the
lightning. She closed her eyes for a moment, gathered her concentration, and began to conjure.
She was afraid to construct anything too tall; it would be a target for lightning. What they needed was
fairly basic, a shelter that wouldn't blow away-
Wait a moment; she remembered something. Lightning went to metal; that was why they made fighters
take off their armor in a lightning-storm. If she could create a tall metal pole out there-maybe she could
get the lightning to hit something besides people.
Quickly she switched her focus, concentrating on the tallest stone in the ring, and creating a thick, heavy
rod of metal projecting up from the top of it. She had to work quickly, for she was not certain what the
effect on her would be if lightning stuck her creation while she was still conjuring it. So what she made
was quite crude, but it did not need to be anything but functional. And it needed to be able to withstand
multiple lightning-strikes, for she had the feeling that after this storm was over she would discover it
more than half melted away by the power of those bolts.
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It was one of the fastest bits of conjuration she had ever performed. And she finished just in time, for no
sooner had she pulled her concentration away from her creation, than it became the target for every
lightning-bolt for furlongs around. Now they truly did have their very own source of light, as lightning
lashed the top of the stone and thunder became a continuous roar. So many bolts struck the stone-slab
that it crackled with energy. Their hair stood on end despite being plastered down by the rain, and little
blue lightning-snakes and sulfur-yellow balls ran down the stone and into the ground. The air was sharp
with the scent of ozone. The men stared in fascination as she turned her attention to getting them some
shelter.
Something basic, she told herself. Four-no, eight supports. Heavy stone would be best, something the
wind could not pull up or push over. She built eight square, squat pillars of stone, wider at the bottom
than the top, and just a little taller than the tallest of the men. Then the roof-a slab of heavy wood, as
thick as her waist. Nothing to attract an errant bolt of lightning that was not obeying the laws of nature.
She built a wall only on the side the wind was coming from-another heavy slab of wood. She was afraid
to try to put up any more walls; it would be too easy for the wind to topple them. She had no way of
bracing them, other than by their own weight.
Shortly after she completed that wall, Faro came dashing in at a bent-over run and cursing under his
breath, followed by Horn who was cursing quite audibly; from the other side of the compound Ware ran
in under the shelter as well, with the lead-ropes of his stallion and three of the mules in his hands. The
animals rolled their eyes in terror every time a bolt struck nearby, and they were pathetically eager to get
in out of the rain. Xylina noticed one thing with a sinking heart. None of the three were the two riding-
beasts; she and Faro would either have to ride in the wagons or walk unless the two riding-mules turned
up. The heavy odor of wet equine filled her nose, but the mules and the horse were warm, and unlike a
fire, they were not going to blow out. The wet humans and animals crowded together into the minimal
shelter, and Xylina reached for Ware's arm, to bring him near enough for her to ask him for advice-
This storm could not be natural. Was this why she had the headache? Was that a harbinger of the storm?
She remembered how her mother used to get headaches before storms. She had a dozen questions to ask
Ware, but she never touched him, for at that moment, one of the men screamed, a sound so shrill with
terror that it carried even over the pounding of the thunder.
All eyes went to him, blanched and wild-eyed, then followed where he pointed.
What they saw was more terrifying than any of the monsters they had thus far encountered. As if the
storm, not content with blasting them with lightning, had decided to grow tentacles to seize them, a
dozen groping, black funnels eeled their way across the grassland towards them, moving impossibly
against the wind. They towered into the lightning-lit sky, hundreds of cubits tall, larger than anything,
living or not, that Xylina could remember. As they drew closer, Xylina made out the shapes of entire [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]