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.''Nonsense,' said Thorrin.'Whatever may lie ahead we're forewarned now.We've had a taste of the locals' mental tricks and know they can be overcome by concentration and strength of will.''Quite right,' said the Marquis.'There'll be no turning back!'Myra thought she saw a look of dismay flicker across the face of Arnella Rosscarrino.The woods Peri wandered through, trailed remorselessly by DAVE#4, were overgrown and virtually trackless, unlike the neatly manicured glades she had seen near the Gelsandoran town.Her final descent through the upper branches had turned her around, and she was not sure in which direction anything lay.Still she trudged on in hope.If she chanced on the Falcon at least she might recover her pack.Then she could go after the Doctor and the others, though the thought of facing the trail alone terrified her even though she now knew some of its secrets.And she'd still be a couple of days behind the rest.'What you need right now, Peri Brown,' she told herself aloud,'is a friend and guide you can rely on, preferably with some faster means of transport than your own two sore feet.' She looked about her.'Unfortunately it looks like the woods are fresh out of knights on white chargers right now.Even Rin Tin Tin would be better than nothing,' she added wistfully, recalling a Hollywood canine hero of the pre-war era.'Looking for someone, are we?' said an all too familiar voice.Gribbs stepped out from behind a tree a broad grin on his mean face.Peri turned and ran, DAVE #4 swooping after her.'You stop right there or I'll shoot!' Gribbs shouted.'You wouldn't dare!' she called back, twisting between the trees.A distant curse and running feet told her that she was correct.It was her only advantage.Gribbs's legs were longer than hers, and he had as much motivation to catch her as she did to stay free.She ran as fast as she could, desperately looking for some place to hide, but all the while Gribbs was slowly cutting down her lead.He was ten yards behind her, then five.His hand was reaching out for her shoulder.'Gotya!'His tug on her shirt pulled her off balance and she stumbled and fell heavily.In a second Gribbs's weight was on her back.With a heave he twisted her over and straddled across her middle, pinning her arms to her sides with his knees.Gasping to recover her breath, she looked up fearfully into his hard glittering eyes.'Now I'm gonna make sure you don't get away from me again,'he promised, pulling out a cord and strap from his pocket.There was a rumbling growl from the bushes a few yards away.Peri had heard lions making similar noises in Africa, except this sound was far deeper, suggesting a creature of even greater bulk.Gribbs froze, and for a moment their eyes met in shared alarm.She saw his hand slowly slide down to the butt of his holstered pistol.There came a crash and swish of branches and a thud of heavy feet.Gribbs yelled as he half rose, drawing his gun.Peri had a blurred impression of a large body passing right over her and knocking Gribbs off his feet.There was a boney thud as he hit the ground and a double thump of the creature's feet setting down after him.Then there was silence, except for breath being drawn into huge lungs.Peri lay where she was, too frightened to look round after Gribbs, knowing she hadn't got the strength to run far and suspecting it would be useless to try in any case.Perhaps the creature would be satisfied with Gribbs, she thought selfishly.It would only be what he deserved after all.But there was no sound of her former jailer being torn limb from limb.Instead the great footfalls got louder.Then the creature loomed over her.She'd never seen anything like it in her life.A white, barley-sugar-twisted horn that would have graced any unicorn rose from its forehead.Its snout was as long a horse's head, but it was no herbivore as the long canines protruding from its upper jaw suggested.Its eyes were large, deep and intelligent.They looked out at her from what at first she took to be a contoured, metallic blue mask, except that she could see no straps or other means of attachment.Its neck was also armoured with overlapping metal bands and was equine in length, but more heavily muscled and covered with thick reddish fur.The great head dipped towards her, the large nostrils flared.She closed her eyes in alarm.There was a snuffling and a sensation as though a vacuum cleaner hose were being run over her body.It was sniffing her! Cautiously she opened her eyes again, just as a long wet pink tongue emerged from the fearsome jaws and licked her neck and cheek in a friendly fashion.She squirmed away, breaking into a hysterical peal of relieved laughter.Stop it - that tickles!'The beast lifted its head and regarded her with patient interest.Slowly she got to her feet.With half an eye she noticed that Gribbs lay crumpled against the base of a tree some yards away.She thought she could see him breathing, but evidently he was not going to be playing any active part in proceedings for some time to come.The beast was even more impressive seen in its entirety.If it had been a horse she would have said it stood maybe twenty-six hands high at the shoulder.Of course its broad three-clawed paws on furry white-stocking-marked legs were not at all horselike in articulation, nor was its long heavy tail, which ended in a cluster of wicked spikes.The rest of its body was covered in more of the red hair and armoured plates, but she could still see no sign of any fastenings [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]