[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
pant anymore. We get to sweat instead."
Page 51
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"I prefer panting--it is a far more elegant way of dealing with elevated body
temperature." Cezer was sipping from his water bag. In the absence of
commonplace mountain and forest streams, the water they carried with them had
suddenly assumed real importance.
Of them all, Samm, with his mottled, patterned skin, had taken on the most
interesting appearance. "You look like you were designed instead of born," Taj
commented. The songster was fortunate in having a relatively uniform skin
tone. In this place it was no more striking than a pale reddish tan.
"Where are we?" Kneeling, the tip of her scabbard scraping the hard ground,
Cocoa fought down the urge to go and chase the beetles. Instead, she picked up
a handful of red-tinged pebbles. They filled the delicate bowl of her palm
with more than gentle warmth, and she quickly cast them aside. "Not anywhere
near the Eusebian Gorge, I'll wager."
"Nor anywhere known." Mamakitty studied their surroundings, searching for
signs of life. "I believe we have gone into the rainbow."
"It being formed of moisture, I would've thought the inside of a rainbow would
be cooler than this." Reaching up to caress his forehead, Samm marveled
silently at the unfamiliar perspiration that beaded his skin.
"We're inside color, not moisture." Oskar squinted at the sky, his bushy
eyebrows affording him some protection from the unrelenting glare. "We fell
into the near end, which is red, and were carried by a current of red all the
way up and over and down the other side--where I am guessing we fell out.
Which I suppose explains the restricted variation in the coloration of our
surroundings."
"Is this enough to take back with us, do you think?" Cocoa tried to grasp a
handful of red air, with no success.
Mamakitty shook her head. "Even if we knew how to confine some of it, I don't
see how it could be sufficient. The Mundurucu hex stole all color from our
world, so we must somehow get all of it back. How we are to do that I still
haven't figured out."
Silence greeted her observation until Oskar avowed, "I once saw Master Evyndd
break up ordinary light into rainbows with a special piece of glass he called
a prism. If ordinary white light contains all colors, then that is what we
must bring back to our world."
To his dismay, Cezer found himself agreeing with the other man. "You make good
sense, snot-nose." He gestured with one hand. "Trouble is, we are entirely in
the red here. I see no ordinary, or white, light in this place."
"Then we must search until we find it," Mamakitty declared firmly. "And along
the way, we must look for a means to capture and carry some of it back with us
after we have found it, in the event our water bags do not serve." She kicked
at the hardscrabble ground with one foot. An awkward place for a cat to go to
the bathroom--but not, she reminded herself, a human. "It is fortunate only I
emptied my bag, or else we should be in truly desperate circumstances."
"Maybe," Cocoa wondered hesitantly, "we should leave this place and look
farther afield in our own world. Maybe we should try harder to acquire color
from the whole rainbow that spans the gorge."
"A fine notion." Eager to return home, Cezer was in ready agreement. "Taj,
you're the one who led the way in here. Now you can show us the way back."
The songster lowered his eyes. "I'm afraid I can't do that. I thought I saw a
path leading behind the falls. I ran for it, and instead found myself caught
up in the rainbow and dumped here. I certainly don't know how to get back."
Cocoa looked over at Samm. "You always said that color smelled hot. It
certainly fits this place!"
In the stricken silence that ensued, Oskar was moved to point out that there
was no sign of their malevolent pursuers, either.
"If Taj doesn't know the way back," Cocoa observed with inexorable logic,
"then even if we can find and collect some white light, how are we going to
return it, and ourselves, to our home?"
Mamakitty was ready for that one. "First things first, my dear. One impossible
task at a time." Bending forward to shake sweat from her face, she
Page 52
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
straightened and scanned the horizon. "First we must find a way out of this
dreadful heat. I like lying in the sun as much as the next cat, but not the
whole day long."
"I don't know what you're all so worried about." Eyebrowless Samm inhaled
deeply. "I think it's quite pleasant here."
Oskar found himself envying the giant his natural tolerance for heat. "I
wonder if anything lives here besides misshapen plants and flat-backed bugs?
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]