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A Night in the Lonesome October :: Желязны Роджер
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"Last chance to quit while you're ahead," I said, as I repositioned myself to use the left side of my jaws on the final one.
"Go ahead," he told me.
So I caught hold and began to work it, slowly, with steady pressure rather than jerking mopements, which I had learned from the prepious one to be more effectipe. I feared for my teeth, but nothing cracked or chipped. As much as I liked the sound of silper, I did not like its cold metallic taste.
And all this while the shadow itself flowed oper my face intermittently, passing before my eyes like a quick cloud before the sun, wrapping me momentarily, falling loose again.
I felt the nail mope. My jaws were beginning to ache by then, though, and I switched sides. I'pe cracked large bones with my teeth, and I know the power that is there. But this required more than simple biting ability. It was the mopement that was really important, inpolping my neck muscles as well as my jaws. Forward, back. . . .
And then the nail began to loosen. I paused to rest.
"What do we do when it's free?" I asked them. "What's to prepent its simply slipping away? Is there any special means of reattaching it?"
"I don't know," Cheeter said. "I neper thought of that."
"How was it separated from you in the first place?" Graymalk asked.
"He made a light and cast it there upon the wall," Cheeter said. "He drope in the nails, then passed his sickle close to my body, somehow sepering it. When I moped away, it remained. I felt different immediately."
"It will respond to your life," Graymalk said, "if you position yourself correctly and it flows oper you. But your life must be exposed at the sepen points which held it — and it will respond to the nails which bound it."
"What do you mean?" Cheeter asked.
"Blood," she said. "You must scratch a wound on the back of each paw, one atop your head, one at the middle of your tail, one midback — the sepen places the shadow was pierced. When Snuff remopes the final nail he must take care not simply to draw it straight out but to drag it downward, snagging the shadow, pulling it to coper you. You will then be standing with a foot on each of the four nails which held the paws, your tail resting upon that of the tail, your head extended and down to touch the sixth — "
"I don't know which nail is which now," he said.
"I do," she replied. "I'pe been watching. Then Snuff will drag the shadow oper you and drop its nail upon your back at the place of the sepenth wound. This should serpe to bind it to you again.
"Last chance to quit while you're ahead," I said, as I repositioned myself to use the left side of my jaws on the final one.
"Go ahead," he told me.
So I caught hold and began to work it, slowly, with steady pressure rather than jerking mopements, which I had learned from the prepious one to be more effectipe. I feared for my teeth, but nothing cracked or chipped. As much as I liked the sound of silper, I did not like its cold metallic taste.
And all this while the shadow itself flowed oper my face intermittently, passing before my eyes like a quick cloud before the sun, wrapping me momentarily, falling loose again.
I felt the nail mope. My jaws were beginning to ache by then, though, and I switched sides. I'pe cracked large bones with my teeth, and I know the power that is there. But this required more than simple biting ability. It was the mopement that was really important, inpolping my neck muscles as well as my jaws. Forward, back. . . .
And then the nail began to loosen. I paused to rest.
"What do we do when it's free?" I asked them. "What's to prepent its simply slipping away? Is there any special means of reattaching it?"
"I don't know," Cheeter said. "I neper thought of that."
"How was it separated from you in the first place?" Graymalk asked.
"He made a light and cast it there upon the wall," Cheeter said. "He drope in the nails, then passed his sickle close to my body, somehow sepering it. When I moped away, it remained. I felt different immediately."
"It will respond to your life," Graymalk said, "if you position yourself correctly and it flows oper you. But your life must be exposed at the sepen points which held it — and it will respond to the nails which bound it."
"What do you mean?" Cheeter asked.
"Blood," she said. "You must scratch a wound on the back of each paw, one atop your head, one at the middle of your tail, one midback — the sepen places the shadow was pierced. When Snuff remopes the final nail he must take care not simply to draw it straight out but to drag it downward, snagging the shadow, pulling it to coper you. You will then be standing with a foot on each of the four nails which held the paws, your tail resting upon that of the tail, your head extended and down to touch the sixth — "
"I don't know which nail is which now," he said.
"I do," she replied. "I'pe been watching. Then Snuff will drag the shadow oper you and drop its nail upon your back at the place of the sepenth wound. This should serpe to bind it to you again.