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112 lines
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HTML
112 lines
6.0 KiB
HTML
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<head>
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<title>Mythlands - Chapter 8</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="imperaWeb.css"/>
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<link rel="stylesheet" type=
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<h1>8</h1>
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<p>
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He saw Corriwen arc through the rainbow, body straight as an arrow, arms spread like wings. The colours coruscated around her in dazzling shards and then
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she was gone. A dim part of Jack's mind was aware that her graceful slow curve through the colours was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
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</p>
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<p>
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Then Jack fell.
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</p>
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<p>
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He was tumbling head over heels inside the deafening roar, pummelled by the falls, gasping for a breath when there was no breath to be had. He closed his
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eyes in sheer fright at the certainty of great jagged rocks below him, saw himself broken and bloodied in the backwash of the flow. He tried to twist
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against the force of falling water, prepare himself for the end. His eyes opened involuntarily and he saw Kerry roll past him, mouth agape in a soundless
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cry. The sword in his hand flickered iridescence.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Drop it…" Jack blurted the warning but the river foamed into his mouth and snatched the words away. Kerry flipped from view and was gone. Jack fell
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and it seemed he fell forever.
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</p>
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<p>
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He hit with such force that pure white light exploded behind his eyes before everything went dark, completely dark and he felt nothing at all. He knew he
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was dead. There was no sound, no cold, no heat and no light. There was no pain.
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</p>
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<p>
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For a long time, it seemed, he floated in that limbo of nothingness.
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</p>
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<p>
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Then, as abruptly as if a light had been switched on, he was aware again. He was rolling in the water and the force of it punched him downwards, down into
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swirling depths. He gasped for air but there was no air here and he coughed the last from his lungs, feeling huge pressure on his chest and in his ears.
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</p>
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<p>
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The force of the great falls held him under, shoving him downwards with a pummelling weight. He felt rock and gravel under his feet and knew he was on the
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riverbed in a world of grey-green. A billion galaxies of bubbles swirled and spun in front of his eyes and a pain tore him from shoulder to hip.
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</p>
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<p>
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The water held him in its turbulence, flipping him over and over like a cork and then, all of a sudden, he was out of its grip, rolling through the
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undertow towards darkness.
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</p>
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<p>
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He saw Kerry then. He saw the sword first, a glimmering line of brightness in the deep and then he saw Kerry's legs wavering slowly just above them.
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</p>
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<p>
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<em>Don't you let me</em>
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<em>drown.</em>
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</p>
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<p>
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He had promised Kerry, but now he was here on the bottom, with shards of sunlight like silver pillars lancing down on him, unable to haul a breath, choking
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for air and with awesome pain screaming across his body.
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</p>
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<p>
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Don't you let me <em>drown</em>.
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</p>
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<p>
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He had promised.
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</p>
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<p>
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Drop it, he tried to say again, tried to will Kerry to loosen his grip on the sword and water went into his throat and up his nose and that jerked him out
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from the stunned paralysis. The sword was dragging Kerry down like a weight on a line, like an anchor, pinning him to the riverbed. Jack pushed against the
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rocks, feet slip-sliding on the smooth surface before he got purchase on a jutting stone and heaved upwards, lungs bursting, muscles screeching in their
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own little world of hurt as a pain as if a corkscrew dug cruelly between each his ribs.
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</p>
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<p>
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And all the time, over the deep pulsing thunder of the river's falls, in his panicked mind he could hear Kerry's voice pleading with him not to let him
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drown.
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</p>
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<p>
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He fought the grip of the water that tried to suck him back in underneath the pummelling falls, pushed with every last ounce of strength and managed to get
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clear of the frothing turbulence. For a moment he lost sight of Kerry and twisted around searching in the swirling mass of bubbles. A cry of pain and
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desperation sent the last of his air bubbling upwards and then he saw the shape in the water, waving like a rag caught on a snag.
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</p>
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<p>
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He reached and grabbed, missed, tried again and found a handful of hair. His fingers clenched on it and hauled upwards, kicking both feet as his vision
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wavered in and out.
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</p>
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<p>
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They rolled out of the frothy undertow and into a deep blue. Far above them the sunlight heliographed rods of light all around them. Jack kept hauling
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desperately, gripping Kerry's hair, trying to reach the surface as the world spun from dark blue to deeper dark and just complete exhaustion and lack of
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oxygen began to overtake him, he saw a pale shape ripple towards him.
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</p>
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<p>
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His heart was pounding so hard in his chest it could have punched through his shrieking ribs, but he was too exhausted to feel any more fear. The pale
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shape swung closer, turning over smoothly with the flow and he saw a face, wavering turquoise in the shards of light. Long hair waved like deep river weed
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in a halo around the face.
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</p>
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<p>
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It's a body, his mind told him. A <em>dead</em> body.
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</p>
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<p>
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The shape turned, and great green eyes swum up close to him as arms reached towards him. He held Kerry's hair in a death grip as the eyes fixed on his. The
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hands that touched his face were as cold as the river themselves as they brought his head closer to the pallid, deathly face, up until the cold lips
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touched his and the eyes opened wider until they sucked him into their depths and the whole strange world, the river, the waterfall, Kerry and everything
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wavered away into their translucence and he was gone.
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