The Broken Sphere by Nigel Findley

Author:Nigel Findley [Findley, Nigel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: The Cloakmaster Cycle 5
Publisher: TSR
Published: 1993-05-03T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

As he’d expected, Teldin was hard pressed to match the pace the three People were setting through the forest. All three of the creatures were walking in front of him, “chattering” back and forth among themselves – probably thinking the “not-People” couldn’t overhear their conversation. The Cloakmaster smiled wryly. With the cloak’s help, he could decipher their crosstalk … if he wanted to. But he’d quickly decided the creatures didn’t have much to “say” that wasn’t banal-comments about the position of the mini-suns, the way the foliage was growing, and such things – and had soon “tuned out” their conversation until it became nothing more than a background mental hum.

Even though they didn’t discuss him – presumably out of some sense of politeness – Teldin knew he still fascinated the creatures. When they didn’t think he was paying attention, all three of them oriented themselves so that one of their three eyes was fixed directly on him. As soon as they saw his own eyes on them, however, without breaking stride they pivoted slightly – a matter of sixty degrees or so – so they weren’t staring right at him. Each time he noticed this shift, he chuckled slightly to himself.

It’s fascinating, he told himself. I have no fear of these creatures. Why is that?

When Speaks First had made it clear that the invitation to the “Place of People” was for Teldin alone, the Cloakmaster had passed the message on to Julia and Djan. Predictably. both first and second mate had tried to talk him out of going alone with the trilateral – Julia even going so far as to call him an overtrusting, rock-headed idiot. But he’d been adamant, eventually “pulling rank” on the two of them, ordering them – as captain – to wait for his return. He shook his head. Maybe that hadn’t been such a swift move, particularly in Julia’s case. Odds were, she’d make him pay later, one way or another.

The path the creatures were following was smooth and free of obstacles, an easy walk. That allowed Teldin to let his concentration wander from the ground at his feet to the grass-trees that towered around him. At first he’d thought the foliage and underbrush were empty of life. Once he’d figured out what to look for, and where, however, he was amazed by the profusion of creatures surrounding him.

To his fascination, there wasn’t a single specimen that even vaguely resembled a creature with which he was familiar. Certainly, it was easy to pick out the niche each creature filled, or the function it fulfilled in the forest, but the details were decidedly alien.

Take the “birds,” for example. They perched on the branches of the grass-trees, feeding on the leaves or on bright purple berries, delicately picking the fruit with one delicate, three-clawed foot while clinging to their perch with the other two, and consuming it with a mouth mounted on their undersides. When they flew from perch to perch, they did so, not by

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