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.The woodcutter had to remove his bundle of tools from the back of his little load beast, and then stand precariously balanced on the animal's back himself, to bring his right hand within reach of the black hilt.He thought he felt a faint vibration in the Sword when he first touched it, but in a moment the sensation vanished.Getting the Sword out of the green, tough trunk took even more wrenching and tugging than the man had expected.But eventually, with Talgai's strong grip on the black hilt, the keen blade cut itself loose.After hopping down from the load beast’s back, the woodcutter inspected his find with wonder.The black hilt, he now discovered, was marked with a small white symbol, depicting two dice.Talgai, who seriously disapproved of gambling, frowned.And the symbol explained nothing to him.He thought of himself as a practical man, one who stayed close to home in mind as well as in body.He had barely heard of the gods, whose disappearance a few years ago had caused much excitement in the world's more sophisticated circles.And Talgai had never heard at all of the gods' twelve magic Swords.Well, what ought he to do now? The woodcutter looked around him rather nervously.To him the presence of any sword, especially when unsheathed, suggested combat.And surely a weapon like this must belong to some wealthy owner, who, if he was not lying slaughtered in the bushes nearby, was bound to come looking for it eventually.Talgai was too honest to even think of keeping the weapon if he could find its owner.But he could look forward hopefully to a substantial reward.The fact that this precious length of steel had been stuck so forcefully in a tree created in Talgai's mind the vague suggestion that other violent events Page 42ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlmight have occurred nearby.But his widening search, peering and hacking his way among the trunks and undergrowth, discovered no evidence to support this idea.His calls, first soft, then loud, all went unanswered.And no sign anywhere of recent travelers.There was in fact no indication that anyone except himself had passed this way in a long time.Presently the woodcutter gave up the fruitless search and returned, Sword in hand, to his patient load beast.Standing in one of the rare beams of sunlight that reached the ground through the thick cover overhead, he fell to examining his find more closely.The Sword's supernaturally keen edge did not appear to have been damaged in the least by the rough treatment it had received, and Talgai could not resist trying it out on some nearby brush.The tough twigs fell off cleanly, mown as neatly as if they had been tender grass.He whistled to himself.This was a better tool than any brush knife or machete he had ever owned!He reloaded his other implements upon his beast and began to move along the trail again in his original direction; he could usually think better when engaged in some kind of physical action.As he walked, he slashed with his new tool at obstructing twigs and branches.Long and heavy as it was, the bright blade balanced very neatly in his hand-And then the handle seemed to twist.His foot slipped at the same instant, and he dropped the blade.Bending to pick it up, he thought himself lucky that he had not gashed his leg or foot with it.While he was still bent over, he happened to glance under some nearby branches, through a gap in the greenery opened by his last random slash.Thirty meters or so away, leaves of a unique coppery color shimmered, dancing lightly in a random breeze, glowing in one of the slender, random beams of sunlight that managed to find their way down through the high green canopy above.The woodcutter made a sound like a long sigh.He did not straighten up, lest he lose sight of what he had discovered.Instead, stooping and crawling under other branches, he maneuvered his way closer to his find.It was, as he had known from his first look, a rare tree, one of the species Talgai was always looking for.Its heartwood, highly prized as incense, made this tree worth more than any other Talgai could have found.After making his way back to his load beast and his tools, Talgai needed only a brief time to hack a good path through to the tree, and a little longer to fell it with his axe and then despoil it of its central treasure.With such a small though worthwhile cargo packed in his load beast’s panniers, he needed work no more today-or indeed for several months.Not that he was really able to imagine such a period of inactivity, unless it should be enforced by illness or injury.But certainly he would range the forest no more today [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]