[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

again
when we were climbing together out of Tartarus. He had been trying to make
some
preliminary arrangement for my formal betrothal to his sister, while I in my
black mood had been paying little attention.
And certainly I remembered where the estate of Augeus was located, whose
stables
I had once so thoroughly cleansed. And it bothered me that the trail left by
the
fleeing Giants was now tending in that direction. I thought it was quite
possible that Danni happened to be visiting her uncle there again, or that
she
had been forced by family pressures to relocate in her uncle's house.
As the suspicion grew in me that the Giants were deliberately planning to use
her, I wondered: Had word somehow already reached my enemies that Danni and I
were now formally engaged, or about to be? Some being had overheard me
talking
to her brother, down in Tartarus? Plenty of time for the word to spread,
while I
Page 414
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
was wandering around the Upper World again and wrestling with my father.
At nightfall we broke off our pursuit and stopped to rest and eat and make
plans
for the next day. Whether gods absolutely required physical nourishment or
not,
a number of them were not going to forgo it for themselves or for their
horses,
just because we happened to be at war.
By the time we stopped, Daedalus and I were both in serious need of rest. My
last sleep, just before that last battle, was a troubled one.
I dreamt that Hades had sent the Face of Death to me by a special messenger,
and
that I was free to make what disposition of it I wished.
I tried to tear the clear, glassy stuff in two, but the fabric was strong
enough
to resist even me which I found a strange sensation indeed, even in a dream.
At
last I threw the damn thing from me, into a small stream, knowing that it
would
be washed into a larger river, and then yet a larger one, eventually finding
its
way to the ocean let find it who would.
I dreamt that battle was raging again, and that Zeus had been struck down by
two
mountains hurled at him at once by two Giants, catching him between.
Where my father had been standing, there was now only a huge hole in the
earth.
I borrowed a chariot and flew desperately toward the center of the crater,
which
was almost a mile in diameter.
Desperately distressed, I dug frantically into the rubble, sending huge rocks
flying this way and that.
At the bottom lay one small human body, somehow still almost intact or at
least
recognizable.
I dreamt then that as my father lay dying in my arms, the Face of Zeus came
Page 415
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
working its way up out of his eyes and forehead, like some long-sunken vessel
rising from the deep; and with great reluctance, but a sense of
inevitability, I
picked it up and put it on.
And then for a time, still dreaming, I reveled in the powers of Zeus. My
perception widened, in a way that not even Atlas had been able to accomplish,
so
that I was granted some idea, some feel, for how great and magnificent the
earth
was the deep sky had suddenly become too frightening for me to contemplate.
Great, grumbling, black-bellied cloud masses churned their way across the
sky,
in obedience to my will. Grand crooked forks of lightning fell from them to
devastate my chosen targets. I could see Giants, now shrunken to the scale of
small and frightened humans, running for their lives.
Eventually Prince Asterion appeared in my dream and told me he had come to
help
me out of it and to wish me well in the coming fight.
I woke from my troubled sleep to find my living father standing looking at
me.
Zeus, as God of the Sky, had the governance of lightning, as well as wind and
storm in general. And his powers extended beyond the earth, somewhat above
the
thick blanket of air that Atlas had once shown me. By the commanding power of
his will alone, the Thunderer could deflect the rocks that flew unendingly in
airless space, when natural causes brought them near Earth, and then guided
them
like slung missiles against his monstrous enemies.
And the Giants on their side were far from weak and helpless. As whole new
hosts
and legions of their enormous bodies came tramping or drifting toward us over
land and sea, I realized that there were more of them in the world than I had
ever imagined. From the talk I heard around me, I understood that at least
some
of the gods were similarly astonished.
Page 416
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

  • zanotowane.pl
  • doc.pisz.pl
  • pdf.pisz.pl
  • alwayshope.keep.pl

    •