The Seeker by David Bischoff & Chris Lampton

Author:David Bischoff & Chris Lampton [Bischoff, David & Lampton, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0373720300
Publisher: Laser Books (Harlequin Enterprises)
Published: 1976-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

He was floating in a vast sea of eddies and waves, an open lagoon of gentle waters lapping playfully against his naked flesh. It was peaceful there, undisturbed by the rest of the universe. He lay quietly, unmoving; clouds floated leisurely overhead.

The waters stirred and Trebar felt himself being stirred with them. A gentle current tugged against him. Unresisting, he allowed himself to be pulled along into rougher waters, flowing slowly toward the ocean mouth beyond. There was no need to fight the current. When the time came it would be easy to swim back to shore.

The air turned suddenly cold. Trebar rolled over and began stroking steadily toward the mainland, his extensors flattened like paddles—but the green strip of land in the distance seemed to recede even as he moved toward it. Panic stirred uneasily within him, but he fought it down. If necessary he would simply let the waves carry him outward toward the ocean, then moor himself to the softly curving reef that marked the edge of the lagoon.

He turned—and looked in the direction he was being swept. There, on the thin coral reef, stood Lilwey. And there was Kwaol at her side; and there—dared he believe his eyes?—was the old man who had given him The Forbidden Tome. His heart jumped at the sight. They beckoned him on, gesturing for him to release himself to the insistent pull of the current. Yes, yes, he thought. Yes, Lilwey. Yes, Kwaol. I’m coming. I’m coming now.

The water grew swifter, more violent. For a moment Trebar was afraid it would overcome him. He fought to keep his head above the savagely cresting waves. He choked on the briny water; his mouth filled with it, then his lungs. But still his friends beckoned to him and Trebar allowed himself to be swept toward them, to be dragged along like driftwood on the receding tide.

They were closer now; he was almost there. He reached out for them with an extensor. They seemed close enough almost to touch. He began swimming towards them, across the pull of the water. He had to reach them before he was swept out to sea. It wouldn’t take much effort…

And then he saw the whirlpool, yawning like the maw of some prehistoric titan, like the mouth of the sea itself.

Above him he saw Lilwey, Kwaol and the old man, still beckoning him on, still calling to him above the deafening roar of the maelstrom. And beyond them he saw the faces of the council themselves, all nine of them, even old Jokun, shriveled and dying on his hospital bed, beckoning him onward, onward.

And then he was falling into that suffocating hole…

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