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Confidence pour confidence Paul Constant
Clive Cussler [NUMA Files 08] Paul Kemprecos (v5.0) (epub) id
Charles McCarry [Paul Christo The Miernik Dossier (v5.0) (epu
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Beinssen, Jan Paul Flemming Die Paten vom Knoblauchsland id
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[Hugh Corbett 14] Le livre du m Paul C. Doherty
Doctor Who The Suns of Caresh Paul Saint
Doctor Who Toy Soldiers Paul Leonard

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.The doneel stepped back to avoid being struck by her wings.She lifted into the air with his extra packs lashed firmly to her saddle.Dar watched her climb high into the cloudless blue sky and set off toward Vendela.He turned a grumpy face to Leetu Bends and Kale.The emerlindian sprang to her feet and hoisted a pack into the air.She pitched it to Kale, who caught it with a grunt.Without a word, Leetu grabbed two more bundles and swung them over her shoulder.She started down a path beside the stream.Kale scrambled to her feet just in time to follow Dar as he plodded down the trail.They trekked on, the sun warming their backs, birds singing in the towering trees, and the brook babbling among the round rocks.Occasionally, the knotted roots of giant evergreens extended into the stream.Here the water frothed and churned through the bare, brown footing of the mighty trees.Soon Dar began to hum and then sing softly under his breath.He’d regained his good humor.He sang louder, and his songs grew livelier as they marched along.Kale’s spirits responded to the happy tunes of the legendary heroes among the seven high races.Dar also sang of farmers and other ordinary folk caught in funny circumstances.She laughed and gasped at all the trials that could befall a traveler.They rambled down the mountain, then across a valley, and started climbing again.Dar ran out of breath as the path grew steeper.They could no longer step lively to his cheerful beat.Kale, though used to working hard, was not accustomed to long treks.Her legs protested.She very much wanted to rest.Dar stopped suddenly, and for a moment Kale thought she’d get her wish.But the doneel lifted his nose to the breeze and closed his eyes.Leetu stopped and turned.“Grawligs,” she said, obviously reading his mind.“How far do you think?” She looked at Dar.“Half a mile.”“Which direction?”Dar puzzled over that a moment, sniffing the air.“We’re surrounded.”Kale thought she’d been too tired to go much farther, but now a shiver of fear energized her muscles.She was ready to run as soon as Leetu gave the order.The emerlindian examined the trees and bushes surrounding the small clearing.“We’ll make our stand here.”Surely they should run.Kale opened her mouth to protest.Nothing but a croak came out.Impatient, Leetu beckoned with a brusque gesture, and Kale hurried to the emerlindian’s side.Leetu threw her own burden into the bushes, then snatched Kale’s bundle from her back and hurled it into the undergrowth as well.“Dar, you take the center of the clearing,” Leetu ordered.“Kale, climb this tree.”Kale looked at the thick trunk of a towering evergreen.She’d seen several of these imposing trees on the trail she’d taken through mountain passes.None like it grew around River Away.“This is a rock pine,” explained Leetu, again demonstrating she knew Kale’s thoughts.“Its name doesn’t come from growing in rocks.Those prickly pine cones are as heavy as stones.Climb as high as you can.Take off your tunic and wrap it around your throwing hand.When the grawligs attack, start pelting them with the rock cones.Hit anything you can, but aim for the grawligs’ ears.They’re tender.”Leetu made a boosting step with interlaced fingers.Kale put her foot into Leetu’s hands and felt herself thrust into the air.She grabbed the lowest branch and clambered up the tree.The grunts and coarse mutterings of the approaching grawligs inspired extra speed.Once perched on a high branch, she could see dark forms advancing from all sides, completely encircling them.“How many?” asked Leetu from below.Kale scanned the area.“Twelve.”“That shouldn’t delay us too long,” said Dar.Branches in a tree next to Kale swayed.She made out the slender form of Leetu as she climbed to a branch thirty feet above the ground.Below, Dar stood in the center of the clearing with his ears perked, listening to the approach of the marauding mountain ogres.Kale wanted to shout, “Climb a tree!”“He’ll be all right.” Leetu’s calm voice reassured her.“Just watch.He’ll throw up a magic shell and fight from beneath.”At that moment four grawligs crashed through a line of brushwood and entered the clearing.Dar hunched over, and a shimmering shell appeared over his body.It hovered above him like an inverted glass bowl.Kale could see the doneel’s movements within.Two daggers flashed in his hands.The grawligs gave a roar and charged.They beat on the shell and tried to pry it up.Dar’s hands whipped out from the lower rim.His daggers slashed and poked at the grawligs’ toes as well as their fingers when they gripped the edge of his protective armor.The grawligs hopped around amid yips and howls but didn’t give up.As one fell back to suck on his injured fingers, another took his place.“Now!” cried Leetu’s voice in Kale’s mind, startling her so that she almost lost her grip on the branch.More of the mountain ogres poured into the clearing.Their massive legs tore through the thick underbrush.They bellowed a war cry, and Kale clutched the tree trunk, thinking the horrendous shouting would shake her out of the tree.Dar disappeared in the middle of a dozen raving grawligs.Arrows from the emerlindian’s bow rained down upon the ogres’ heads.I can’t just sit here.I’m supposed to help.Kale wiggled out of her tunic and wrapped it hastily around her right hand.She grabbed a pine cone and had to twist at the woody, seed-bearing orb to make it come loose.Even with her hand protected, she felt the pricks of the barbs.She hurled the rock-heavy cone down wildly and managed to hit one of the grawligs on his hairy back.The cone clung to the matted hair.Over the next few minutes, her aim improved as did her ability to twist the cones in just the right way to pull them off the bushy, needle-laden branches.She climbed to different limbs several times in order to reach more clusters of the spiny weapons.Kale began to see the advantage of Leetu’s strategy.While Dar, in the relative safety of his shell, inflicted grievous wounds on the ogres, Leetu peppered them from above with arrow after arrow.The rock-hard pine cones Kale threw bruised the ogres but did not impede their attack.Nonetheless, the cones stuck, and Kale saw that was a good thing.Most of the hairy grawligs carried the extra weight of ten to twenty rock cones.She thought the beasts were incredibly stupid [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]