Mists of the Ages by Sharon Green

Author:Sharon Green [Green, Sharon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780886772963
Google: QnRDAAAACAAJ
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Published: 1988-09-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

The lack of worry lasted until that impossible door was pulled slowly and silently shut behind me, then the lack of worry became conspicuously absent. The back of the door was completely smooth, with nothing for anyone without talons like Velix’s to get a grip on, and somehow it seemed out of character for the thing to have opened and closed without making a sound.

By rights there should have been the eerie scream of protesting hinges, much like the moaning cries of lost, tormented souls …

“Are you completely out of your mind, or just a little on the weird side?” I demanded in a hiss, talking to myself the way I deserved to be talked to. “If you do any more of that, you’ll be having hysterics even before you’ve gone down the stairs! I thought you were supposed to be the one who wasn’t afraid of things.”

I conceded that an excellent point had been made, then took a deep breath and looked around a little more. Between the fog and the plain, stonelike material of walls, steps and ceiling, there wasn’t much of anything to see, so I simply started going down the stairs.

By the time I reached the bottom of the flight, I was certain I’d gone lower than the level of the transportation system that had brought us to that section of the Mists. The descent had been long, tedious, dizzymaking, boring—but it hadn’t been hard on me physically even when I’d jumped down one section of me steps. I’d done the jumping because I’d been curious about what the steps were made of, which wasn’t stone even though it looked like it. The material was unexpectedly springy while still being very firm, and the sharp edges of the steps were anything but sharp. It came to me that I probably couldn’t hurt myself on the stuff even if I tried, and when I looked more closely at the walls I saw they were made of the same material. I realized the Mists people really were being cautious about my safety, and after that felt a lot better about continuing down.

The everpresent fog didn’t thin at the bottom the way I’d been hoping it would, but the passageway I found before me was wide enough and almost wellenough lit to make that a minor problem. As I began walking I noticed there wasn’t a sound anywhere, nothing but the very soft, very faint scuff of my sandals against the not-stone of the passageway floor.

Even right on top of it I could barely hear it, and that gave me an odd sense of being absolutely alone. The thought was disturbing, and I didn’t understand why that should be. I’d been alone before, most especially on strokings, but I’d never felt the way I did right then.

The only thing I could do about the feeling was shrug, so I shrugged and just kept going. The passageway took me straight ahead for a while, and then it began curving first right, then left, then right again.

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