Icerigger by Alan Dean Foster

Author:Alan Dean Foster [Foster, Alan Dean]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780345333957
Amazon: 0345333950
Publisher: Del Rey
Published: 1985-10-12T00:00:00+00:00

He remembered vanilla wafers. Then he opened his eyes and saw a familiar

fair-framed face with a unique nose. September was staring at him anxiously.

Other memories hooded in and he sighed. Likely there wasn't a vanilla wafer

within half a dozen parsecs of where he lay.

Where he lay was in his bed in his room in Wannome Castle. He tried to sit up

and was made aware of a fascinating phenomenon. Every square centimeter of his

body was putting in an impolite claim for attention.

"I," he announced slowly, falling back onto the fur blanket someone had bunched

beneath his head, "hurt. All over."

"Not surprising, young feller-me-lad," said September, the concern vanishing

from his face. "But other than that, how are you feeling?"

Ethan chuckled. It was mentally satisfying, but it also compelled certain

sections of self to protest violently. He followed the ensuing silence with a,

question of characteristic wit, scintillating brilliance.

"What happened?"

"Why didn't you let go your latch when Hunnar gave the signal?" the big man

asked instead of answering.

Ethan thought, remembered. "We would have missed. It was turning the wrong way

and we would have missed. Shot right past ... " He tried to rise again.

September put a hand on his chest and gently forced him back.

"'That particular beastie is no longer a problem. Lord, what a sight! I've seen

a lot of big and biggests, lad, but that hunk of ugly meat tops them all.

Couldn't believe how fast something that big can move."

"Hunnar told nee, before."

"I thought we'd seen the, last of you for sure when you didn't let loose with

the rest of us," September continued. "Gone forever down that unholy gullet. Oh,

by the way, you turned it fair and proper. Took off southward with a roar you

wouldn't believe. Near to shake a man's skin off, what? Though how it could even

move with that log down its pipe I don't know. Tough? Oh my, yes!"

"I don't mean what happened to it. 'hat about me?"

"Oh, you? Well, I didn't see much myself, being a-scooting fast in the opposite

direction. But there was a well-positioned lookout in the front-running raft.

Said when the thing rose off the ice ... unheard of thing to do ... and whacked

down, it tossed you into the air like a ballooning spider.

"You came down on the other side of the beast in the high. pedan. That and the

padding in 'the boat probably saved you. After contact, though, it was every

chip and splinter for itself. If you'd landed on bare ice I expect we'd still be

scraping up pieces of you. As it developed, you should have seen how much wood

they pulled out of your skin. Good thing those survival parkas are tough. How

you got out without busting anything, let alone everything, I'll wonder over til

my last days. You took a powerful sock in the head."

"I feel tolerable now," he lied. "How long have I been out?"

September grinned. "Off and on, about a week."

"A wee-!"

"Twas a near thing, I don't mind telling you, lad," he said solemnly. Then, more

cheerfully, "Sure didn't hurt our standing with these folk, though. I expect

they consider you the greatest thing to come along since warm.

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