SEARCH
0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Prev | Current Page 118 | Next

Del Rey, Lester, 1915-1993

"The Sky Is Falling"

"And I
suppose nobody knows that or dares to use it?"
There was hurt pride of the aged face and the ring of vast authority in
his voice. "Then you suppose wrong, Dave Hanson! Since this world first
came out of Duality, a Sather Karf has known that mystery! Make your
device and I shall not fail in the invocation!"
For the first time, Hanson discovered that the warlocks could work when
they had to, however much they disliked it. And at their own
specialties, they were superb technicians. Under the orders of Sather
Karf, the camp sprang into frenzied but orderly activity.
They lost a few mandrakes in prying loose some of the sun material, and
more in getting a small sphere of it shaped. But the remainder gave them
the heat to melt the sky stuff. When it came to glass blowing, Hanson
had to admit they were experts; it should have come as no surprise,
after the elaborate alchemical apparatus he'd seen. Once the crystal
shell was cracked out of the orrery, a fat-faced Ser came in with a long
tube and began working the molten sky material, getting the feel of it.
He did things Hanson knew were nearly impossible, and he did them with
the calm assurance of an expert. Even when another rift in the sky
appeared with a crackling of thunder, there was no faltering on his
part. The sky shell and world supports were blown into shape around the
world model inside the outer tracks in one continuous operation.


Pages:
106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130