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of snapping harness leather. She just missed falling out the open tailgate,
struggled to her hands and knees in time to see Gaby leap and catch the sides
of the wagon with her hands. Cirocco helped her in.
"What the hell's going m?" Gaby held a bronze sword Cirocco had not seen
before.
"Watch out! ", Bill was tossed from his bed. Cirocco crawled to him and tried
to get him back in, but the wagon kept crashing over rocks and crevices.
"Stop this thing, goddarnn it!" Cirocco yelled, then sang it in Titanide. It
made no difference.
The two hitched in front were heading for the battle and nothing would stop
them. One held a sword which she brandished above her, shrieking like a demon.
Cirocco slapped one of them on the rump and almost lost her scalp as the sword
flashed at her.
Keeping her head low, she looked down at the knots hitching the Titanides to
the wagon.
"Gaby, give me that thing, quick." The sword came through the air hilt-first
and landed at her feet. She backed at the leather harnesses. One came free,
then the other.
The Titanides did not notice the loss. They quickly outdistanced the wagon,
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which then slammed to a halt against a boulder.
"What was that all-"
"I don't know. All anyone told me is to stay low. Give me a hand with Bill,
will you?"
He was awake, and did not seem to be hurt. He watched the sky as they put him
back on the pallet.
"Holy Christ!" he said, just loud enough to be, heard over the screech of the
Titanides. "They're getting murdered up there." Cirocco looked up in time to
see one of the flying creatures slash three parachute shrouds above one of the
descending Titanides. The chute folded. With sickening speed the Titanide
vanished behind a low hill to the west.
"Those are angels?" Bill wondered. To Titanides, they were angels of death.
Human in shape, with feathered wings that measured seven meters from tip to
tip, the angels turned the peaceful air over Hyperion into a slaughterhouse.
All the parachutes were soon cleared from the sky.
The battle went on behind the hill, out of their sight. Titanides screeched
like %emails on a blackboard, and high above was an eerie wall that had to he
the angels.
"Behind you," Gaby warned. Cirocco turned quickly.
An angel approached silently from the east. It skimmed the ground, great wings
motionless, growing larger with impossible speed. She saw the sword in its
left hand, the human face twisted with bloodlust, tears streaking from the
corners of the eyes, the muscles knotting in the arm as it brought the sword
back . . .
It passed over them, beating its wings to rise over the low hill. The tips
touched the ground and stirred gouts of dust.
"Missed me," Gaby said.
"Sit down," Cirocco told her. "You make a great target standing up like that.
And it did not miss you. it changed its mind at the last moment; I saw it stop
the swing."
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."Why did it do that?" She crouched beside Cirocco and scanned the horizon.
"I don't know. Most likely because you don't have four legs. But the next one
might not be so observant."
They watched another angel approach from a slightly different angle. It sliced
through the air, legs together, some kind of tail surface extending behind its
feet, arms at its sides, wings twitching just enough to maintain speed. In
grace and economy of motion, Cirocco had never seen its equal.
They saw another build speed by flying straight at the ground. It pulled out
at the last possible instant, kissing the ground until it vanished over the
brow of the hill. Any crop duster in the world would have been hollow-eyed and
white-faced.
"They're very good," Gaby whispered.
"I wouldn't want to get in a dogfight with them," Cirocco agreed. "They'd fly
the pants off me."
A chilly wind blew up from the east, raising dust from the dry ground.
Then the Titanides came charging around the hill, followed by a flock of
angels. Cirocco recognized Lullaby and Clarino and Foxtrot. Clarino's left
foreleg was red with blood. The
Titanides carried wooden lances tipped with brass, and bronze swords.
They were no longer giving voice to their battle song, but the frenzy was
still in their eyes.
Steam puffed from their nostrils and the ones with bare skin glistened. They
thundered by, then wheeled to face the angels.
"They're using the wagon for cover!" Gaby shouted. "We're going to be caught
in the middle. Get, off, quick!"
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"What about Bill?,, Cirocco yelled. Gaby's eyes locked with hers for an
instant. She seemed about to speak, then growled something unintelligible and
took her sword from Cirocco. With a lot more courage than common sense, she
stood at the back of the wagon and faced the oncoming angels. Once again, all
Cirocco could see was her back as she stood between her love and approaching
danger.
The angels ignored her. She stood with her sword ready, but they went around [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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