[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
watching from the ship. Colette had already confessed a fear of the dark; it
was the only thing that seemed to faze her. Naturally he had to go in.
It was a good thing he had no time to work on the logic of his thinking or he
wouldn't have been terribly happy with the resultant picture.
They walked at a leisurely pace, moving deeper and deeper into the mountain.
The walls, ceiling, and floor had been scoured almost slippery smooth. There
were places where the ceiling rose to two and three times the height of a
tran. And here and there there were vents of green clay. Green clay in
volcanic vents. Now, where had he seen that before? He puzzled over it.
The glowing plant life grew no more luxuriantly as they moved down the tunnel,
but it didn't grow dimmer, either. And it supplied enough light to show
occasional boulders and rocks that had fallen from the roof (green clay in
volcanic vents?). The number was small, Ethan noted gratefully. He moved ahead
to listen to the schoolmaster.
"Lava has gone through this passage fairly recently," Wil-liams explained,
"which accounts for the smooth sides."
"Now that's a comforting thought," grinned Ethan. He thought of the millions
of tons of hot magma beneath their feet, whose outlet had once been the tube
in which they now trod.
After an hour's hike Hunnar finally declared a halt. The wizards gave no sign
of tiring and the tunnel no signs of ending.
"Scientific exploration is all very well and good," the knight said, crouching
against the cold gray wall, "but we've brought no provisions with us. I do not
believe further exploration of this hole, which could run clear through the
mountain, is worth missing the midday meal."
This opinion was seconded immediately by September, Ethan, and both squires.
Outvoted, the two scholars capitulated gracefully.
file:///F|/rah/Alan%20Dean%20Foster/Foster,%20...20Dean%20-%20Icerigger%201%20
-%20Icerigger.txt (173 of 179) [1/16/03 7:07:12 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Alan%20Dean%20Foster/Foster,%20Alan%20Dean%20-%20Icerigger%201%
20-%20Icerigger.txt
"I, too, confess to being somewhat wearied and hungered," admitted
Eer-Meesach. "And we seem to have learned all that we might. Yet it would be
interesting to know if this tube opens nearr the central vent itself."
"I'm cold," September quipped, "but not that cold." He sat down across from
Page 178
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Hunnar and began flipping pebbles against the far wall.
Ethan took a few steps forward and prepared to rest also. He squinted hard
down the tunnel.
"Hey ... it does seem to get a little brighter ahead."
"Your eyes are tired from straining in this light, lad." The big man glanced
down the tunnel without getting up. "Looks the same to me."
"No, really, it does," Ethan continued. He took another couple of steps
forward. "It does." He started to walk down the tunnel.
"Don't go too far," September warned him. "Don't go out of voice range. I
don't want you making a wrong turn into some endless maze. If you do, I'm not
coming after you, what?"
"Don't worry, Skua. I'm not going to go far." The tunnel made a sharp turn to
the right, just ahead. That would be far enough.
He turned and stepped into the chamber.
It was larger than the tunnel, perhaps three or four times as wide as the
passageway and equally as high. There were no more phosphorescent plants here
than behind him, but the light was blinding. Blinding, dazzling,
overpowering-and green.
Now he remembered where he'd read of green clay in volcanic vents.
Ozmidine was mined in only two places in the known uni-verse. One was on a
tiny island in the middle of a lake on the thranx world of Drax IV. Drax IV
was a hell world, a steam-ing, sweltering moldy ball of corruption that would
drive a man insane if the Po'pione or Turabisi Delphius didn't get him first.
The thranx could survive the heat and humidity, but the local flora and fauna
made no species distinctions when it came to dinner.
But there was ozmidine there, so they stayed.
The other lode had been found on Mantis, one of the first worlds settled by
humanity after the discovery of the KK-drive. It had been discovered, not by
lonely prospector, nor by mining combine, nor by official survey. A driller
pushing a new subway tunnel through the heart of downtown Locust had come on
the first deposits. Now there was an ugly, dark, smoky hole in the middle of
the planet's capital city. But the inhabitants didn't mind. It made them rich.
On the scale of comparative hardness for minerals, dia-mond is the hardest at.
10. Or rather, it was until ozmidine was found to have a hardness rating of
about 14. And the crystals of the raw mineral were of a deep green shading to
violet that made the finest emeralds look like soapstone.
Ozmidine was only found in igneous rocks, in vents of greenish clay.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]