Requiem of Stars by Tracy Hickman

Author:Tracy Hickman [Hickman, Tracy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci Fi & Fantasy
ISBN: 9780553573022
Google: SPTInR4isfkC
Publisher: Bantam Books
Published: 1996-09-14T23:00:00+00:00

24

Passages

Llewellen Sector I ANCJ14496 / Brev-Kilnar Void

The Shendridan

“One-ONE. One-two; ONE-TWO. One-two-three; ONE-TWO-THREE. One-ONE. One-two; ONE-TWO. One-two-three; ONE…

“Kid, do you have to do that out loud?” Thyne’s eyes were framed by tan skin that was nonetheless several shades paler than usual. Every now and then the pain in her arm swept over her and blurred the universe. The rest of the time she simply floated in misery somewhere between anger and nausea. She reminded herself that one did not “throw up” without gravity so much as one “throws out” The prospect of graphically repeating the semantic difference between the two did little to calm her.

“…ONE-TWO-THREE. One-ONE. One-two; ONE-TWO…”

“Hey, boy! Could you not do that out loud?” Thyne’s voice thundered.

The delver with the bandaged eyes roared. “Awe, Lady, will you just shut up and leave the kid to do his job!” A half-dozen other badly wounded delvers immediately added their voices with various levels of unenthusiasm.

Trevis was too frightened to care about what they were saying—too frightened to do anything but what he had been told. He floated at the forward end of the shattered compartment, his legs locked under a bent railing. Floating before him was a huge brass lamp, its lens fit with an iris cover. The lever allowed him to close and open the aperture quickly, alternately showing and shuttering the light it projected. It was an old way of signaling—as old as delvers themselves—but it was new to the Localyte. Captain Dresiv had given him instructions on how to signal and the pattern of light to use but had left immediately after that with the mage. They were both now digging their way back into the wreckage, searching for others who could be helped and, hopefully, a way down to the remaining survivors in the Healing Ward.

In the meanwhile, Trevis followed his instructions to the letter. He’d pointed the great lens at each great blackness that passed close by, and begun the same sequence of one short flash followed by a long flash, then two short flashes and two long flashes, then a third set of three short and long flashes before repeating the sequence again. To the young priest facing death for the second time in a month, it became something of a litany prayer. It had become his faith. If he could just keep repeating this action—this phrase—then they would save him.

So the wounded behind him could say whatever they like. The captain had said that this might save them—so here he stayed, chanting with religious fervor as he worked the handle:

“One-ONE! One-two; ONE-TWO! One-two-three…”

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