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.A juggler juggling muskmelonswalked past.A trained seal flippered by, a huge beach ball balanced on itssnout."Ye gods and green salamanders."Kwip steeled himself, resettled the bags against his back, and struck out intothe melee."I don't have any luck at all," a stocky man complained in passing."I'mPage 41ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmltellin' you, it's murder."Kwip moved on.Turning a corner, he halted in his tracks.Lions!And a lion-tamer in jodhpurs and riding boots, whip in hand.There came acracking and much roaring.Kwip backstepped hastily.He found another crossing corridor, this one relatively empty, and lit outinto it.He proceeded cautiously.The din of all the huggermugger echoed inhis ears, and the smell of animal dung assailed his nostrils.Shouts andcommotion came from every quarter.He wondered, What in the name of all the gods is going on? The castle hadnever been like this in all his experience of it.It was ofttimes a place fitfor madmen, true enough; but its madness had never reached such a fever pitch.This was sheerest insanity.What lay behind it all? Witchery, he guessed.Evilspells.What else? Such was the cause of most of the trouble around here.Finda fracas, turn over the bodies, and you'd doubtless reveal one kind of magicaltrickery or another.The place was rife with sorcerers.Sometimes he had half a mind to quit itall, rush pell-mell through the first aspect that presented itself, and thedevil take the hindmost!A great maned lion came round the corner ahead.It stopped in its tracks andglowered at Kwip.Kwip halted.He smiled weakly."Nice puss," he said.The lion snarled.Then it sniffed.Fresh meat."N-n." Kwip licked his dry lips and swallowed."Nice pussy.Dearpussycat." He began to back off.The lion advanced a few steps forward, still taking Kwip's olfactory measure.Its tail swished back and forth.Kwip hurled the sacks at it and ran.At hisback, the lion roared.Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of trees and blue sky.An aspect!He altered his path and ran for it, crossing through an alcove.He streakedthrough the magic doorway.Into another world.Coming out into fresh air, he sprinted across a grassy clearing.On reachingits other side he dove into low brush, hunkered down low, and held his breath.He pushed a twig aside and looked out.The clearing was empty.The lion hadn'tfollowed.He exhaled and took off his cap, wiped his brow with his sleeve.Ye gods.Ye gods! The gold! He'd left it strewn across the castle flagstones.He'd bestget back there quickly.He looked again.No great beasts in sight.But there was plenty of cover tohide a big cat.He didn't want to risk being caught out in the open.He'dbetter wait a bit.But all he could think of was the gold.Glittering yellow metal, finelywrought into cups and plates and medallions and rings and things, allscattered about the castle, waiting for the first person to come along andscoop them up.Blast! It was likely all gone already! Where was that infernalbeast?He peered out once more.Nothing.He'd have to risk it.Now, where was theportal? There.No.There.No, wrong again.It should be directly across the clearing.Thegrass wasn't tall enough to have bent in his path; no tracks to retrace hissteps.But he hadn't run that far.The way back to the castle should be.there.Well, it was somewhere about, of that he was sure.With no lion to bother him,he would simply search until he found it.Unless.Unless this was an aspect that tended to pop in and out of existence, as somewere wont to do.In that case, the portal might have disappeared, and he'd bestranded.Best not to think of that, yet.Page 42ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlHe put on his cap.He got to his feet slowly, looking around, then cautiouslycame out from cover.He began to walk back across the clearing.He was halfway across when a tremendous explosion threw up great gouts ofearth at the far end of the clearing.The concussion knocked him down, andclods of dirt rained down on him.He was dazed, but was almost to his feet when another explosion hit in thewoods he'd just left, to the same effect.More shocks followed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]