[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
between gods and Giants is not something that most humans will want to watch
at
close range."
There were also penned and pastured animals, doubtless being bred for food,
that
we dispersed by breaking down the fences. I also caught a glimpse of a few
centaurs galloping away, but all my thoughts were on other matters at the
time.
Page 403
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"I don't suppose this place is the Giants' headquarters," the Artisan
observed
to me. "But it must be the nearest thing to one that our scouts could find."
"I suppose they must have other orchards elsewhere," I agreed. "There
certainly
can't be many Giants in the world, if this is their biggest town."
He nodded. "It seems a fair assumption that somewhere they have other
settlements and orchards, ten times the size of these."
And then we were on the ground, the silence shattered by a loud rumbling of
wheels while our vehicle jolted to a stop. Daedalus prudently stayed with
Apollo's chariot, while I jumped out and joined some of the bolder gods in
prowling through the buildings, seeking for our foes. They were not to be
discovered in that place, but their property was everywhere, in the form of
gigantic tools and furnishings.
One of our more bellicose gods was shouting: "Come out, Alkyoneus, come out
and
play! Where are you hiding?"
But no one, it seemed, was ready just then to join us in another game.
"These are the Apples of the Hesperides," cried Zeus, pulling open a huge bin
of
fruit, calling everyone's attention to the fact. Everyone could recognize
them,
from the sample I had earlier obtained. It was impossible to mistake them for
any other kind of fruit or vegetable. The yellow, melon-sized fruit were in
all
the buildings, arrayed on racks or snuggled one or two in a nest, like the
eggs
of barnyard fowl.
As we broke into the place and battered our way through it, my companions and
I
stumbled upon an indoor nursery for seedlings, roofed with a kind of oiled
paper
that let in much sunlight. I pounded the trees and their containers into
splinters with my club, and the gods to the right and left of me wrought
similar
Page 404
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
destruction.
"If Hades were here," some minor god suggested, "he might generate a nice
earthquake and tumble these walls down."
"It seems we'll have to do as best we can without him," cautioned Zeus.
We also found another huge building, in which the balloons used in the attack
on
the island had evidently been manufactured.
But we were not going to be allowed to pillage and ruin the enemy stronghold
unopposed: In a nearby grove of towering trees forces had been gathering to
oppose our invasion, and now they were ready to strike at us. The
counterattack
was signaled by a new barrage of flying rocks.
The counterattack did not really take us by surprise, but we were too near
that
situation to feel comfortable about it. Yet another Giant now advanced on me
with murderous intent.
Apparently some of our enemies were still ignorant about me. Certainly this
advancing Titan, like the others I had faced, must have believed I was a
god or
he would not have wasted his special weapon trying to disable me.
Like the others I had so far confronted, this one misplaced his confidence in
the magical beams he could project from his fingertips.
As the long day of fighting wore on, I saw some minor goddess struck down,
whose
name I did not know. Her head was shattered, a sickening display of colors
punctuated with pieces of white bone, making a portrait of beauty and power
brought low by overwhelming brutal force. If she had been wearing a bronze
helmet, it had offered no protection against such a ferocious blow.
I looked at her feet for flying Sandals, thinking that I might gain speed
enough
to let me catch up with my opponents.
But either she had not been wearing Sandals, or someone else had taken them
ahead of me.
Page 405
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Moments later, I saw something I truly had never expected to behold: a
momentarily victorious Giant, still feeling desperate enough, or perhaps
simply
adventurous enough, to try on a Face. He picked it up from the body of his
comparatively diminutive slain opponent.
In the hand that raised it, the Face was a tiny, insignificant thing. At a
little distance it looked like nothing more or less than a translucent mask
designed to fit a mortal human head. It was no match at all for the Giant's
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]