Mountain of Black Glass by Tad Williams

Author:Tad Williams [Williams, Tad]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
ISBN: 0886779065
Publisher: Daw Books
Published: 2009-02-06T05:00:00+00:00

It was long moments before Renie could feel anything again. The deep cold had gone, replaced by the lesser chill of the wind swirling in the turrets outside. Outside, evening had turned into night; the only light remaining in the high chamber was the inconstant flicker of the oil fire.

The bandit chieftain Viticus was sitting flat on the floor as if blown there by a great gale, his rouged face slack with surprise. “That . . . that is not what usually happens,” he said softly. Most of the rest of the bandits had fled; those who remained were facedown on the floor in positions of supplication. Viticus hoisted himself onto his trembling legs and purposefully dusted his breeches. “I think it likely we will not come here again,” he said, and walked to the doorway with careful dignity, although his shoulders were tensed as though he expected a blow. He did not look back. As he passed through, the remainder of his Attic Spiders clambered to their feet and hurried after him.

!Xabbu was tugging at Renie’s arm. “Are you well?”

“Enough, I guess.” She turned to look for the others. Florimel and T4b were both sitting on the floor, and Factum Quintus lay on his back talking to himself, but Emily was in a limp tangle near the far wall, just beneath one of the broken windows. Renie hurried to her side and reassured herself that the girl was still breathing.

“She’s just fainted, I think,” Renie called over her shoulder to the others. “Poor child!”

“Priam’s Walls, is it?” Hideki Kunohara was sitting cross-legged beneath the jagged likeness of the Mother, his expression distant. “You are indeed in the center of the story, it seems.”

“What are you talking about?” Florimel snapped, regaining a little of her composure. She came to join Renie at Emily’s side, and together they turned the girl until she was resting in what seemed a more comfortable position. “That means Troy, does it not? The fortress of King Priam, the Trojan War—no doubt another one of these damned simulations. What does it mean to you. Kunohara, and what do you mean, ‘center of the story’?”

“The story that is taking place all around you,” he said. “The Lady has appeared and given you a summons. Quite impressive, even I have to admit it. You are wanted in the maze, I suppose.”

“Maze?” Renie looked up from Emily, who was beginning to show signs of waking. “Like with the Minotaur?”

“That was in the palace of Minos, in Crete,” Florimel said. “There was no maze in Troy.”

Kunohara chuckled, but it was not a particularly pleasant sound. Again Renie felt something wrong about him, a certain febrile wildness. She had thought it was liquor, but perhaps it was something else—perhaps the man was simply mad. “If you know so much,” he said, “perhaps you can answer all your own questions, then.”

“No,” Renie said. “We’re sorry. But we are confused and frightened. Who was that . . . that. . . ?” She gestured at the window where the face had appeared.

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