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across and
gaped.
"Shit!"
The prisoner's head had gone. Blown off like a ripe melon. Blood now
gouted from
his neck and his arms hung limp.
One of his own men was down, clutching his stomach. Clearly he had
taken the
full force of the blast.
"Master?"
Egan put a hand up, stopping the other two from touching him, from
helping him
to his feet "If s okay," he said, Tm not hurt"
He pulled himself to his feet, brushing the bits of brain and bloodied
tissue
from his apron, then shook his head and pointed to the injured man.
"See to him. Make sure he gets to a surgeon quickly. Then come back and
clear
this up."
They did as they were told, leaving him alone in the cell with the
headless
body. Egan stared at it a while, then, in a fit of anger, he stepped
closer and
kicked it hard in the chest
The body swung back and forth, blood dribbling still from the neck,
pooling on
the tiles below.
"Egan, thaf s the fucking name you were supposed to say! Mark-fucking-
Egan!"
Then, turning away, he left it
Damn the boy! Damn him for ever existing.
They stripped Li Yuan and bathed him, then rubbed him down with
aromatic oils,
their touch so pleasurable that he felt hewould burst unless he had one
of them.
But that, so they said, was not allowed.
Finally, when they were done with him, the eldest of them -the one who
called
herself Ishtar - came and knelt before him, offering him a bowl.
It seemed at first a perfectly ordinary ceramic bowl, dark blue in
colour and
round, like a cut section of a fruit, but as he handled it he felt a
strange
tingling go through his hands and arms and, looking inside, he felt a
sense of
vertigo, for it seemed as if he looked right through the bowl into the
depths of
the universe itself.
The inner surface of the bowl was studded with what looked like a ring
of tiny
metallic pegs, between which a silk-fine web of force seemed to dance,
giving
off the faintest glow. Beneath it, almost touching it, and yet it
seemed a
thousand ti away, a second, equally insubstantial layer could be
glimpsed,
shimmering wetly in the half light
He sniffed at it, then looked up at Ishtar. "But this is ..."
She laughed. "Water, yes." Her dark eyes smiled at him. Still she
offered the
bowl. "You must drink, Li Yuan. It is important. Only then will you be
ready."
"But..."
"No buts. The time for hesitation is past A new life beckons you, Li
Yuan. But
you must first cross over. This will help you."
"Help me?"
"Yes. It will help you lose your old self. And afterwards..."
He stared at it a moment longer, uncertain. There was no scent to it at
all, but
could he be sure? What if it was a poison?
Ishtar waited, as patient as the rocks, holding out the flickering
bowl. Again
she smiled. "If we had wanted to kill you, Li Yuan, we would have
killed you
days ago. This uriH help. But only if you surrender to it"
It was true. And to be honest, he had nothing to lose, only his old
self, and
what good was that? Tuan Ti Fo was right His old self had been
responsible for
the death of millions, yes, and had lost an empire in the process!
He took the bowl and, holding it to his lips, drained it at a go, then
handed it
back
At once he felt the change. It was as if, suddenly, every part of him
was
doubled. And yet there was no physical change, no sense that he was
drugged. The
liquid had had no taste, no warmth to it, and yet he felt completely
different,
two bodies in the space of one, each coexistent with the other, their
atoms
shared.
"Good," Ishtar said, setting the bowl aside. "Now come. The ceremony
can begin."
She stood, facing him, then, to his surprise, slipped off her gown, so
that she
stood there, naked before him.
Li Yuan stared, awe-struck. She was magnificent. Perhaps the most
beautiful
woman he had ever seen, Han or Hung Mao.
"Throw off your gown, Li Yuan," she said as he stood. "For we must come
to the
pit naked as we were born."
He did as she asked, letting his cloak fall from him.
She reached out, taking his left hand in her right, the simple touch of
her
making him shudder violently.
The drug - if drug it was - was coursing through him now, making his
nerves
spark and tingle, as if firecrackers were going off inside his blood.
He felt
his consciousness expand to take in not merely the room in which he
stood, but
the whole of Nineveh. And as it did he saw the spire and with it, next
to it,
the great pit into which we was to descend.
Yes, a voice inside him said. You must go down inside yourself, Li
Yuan. Only
then can you make the journey up into the light.
He laughed, but the laughter was only in his head. And then he was
walking,
Ishtar at his side, like the Queen of the Night, proud and terrifyingly
beautiful. Out they went. Out from the caverns where they had prepared
him and
up into the great bowl of Nineveh.
Crowds had formed to watch his passing - a whole host of people, naked
as
himself - and as he passed so their hands brushed against him and on
all sides
faces smiled and voices wished him well. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]