[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

orange with a lust for flesh.
'They're not attacking,' Michael murmured to Randolph in perplexity. 'They've
Page 201
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
got us cornered but they're not attacking.'
Randolph did not know what to say. He simply held on to Marmie and shook his
head.
It was then that they felt a deep, resonant rumble. The leyaks gnashed their
teeth and raked their claws in the air but seemed disinclined to come any
closer. As the rumble grew louder, some of the marble urns began to rattle and
the lids on the tombs started to vibrate. A marble angel toppled from her
pedestal and fell to the ground, breaking in two.
Randolph turned to Michael and shouted, 'What's happening? Michael! What's
happening!'
But Michael had covered his face with his hands and was slowly sagging to his
knees, and even Waverley was wheeling around in terror.
'Daddy! What is it?' Issa screamed.
And for a second time Randolph thought, I've failed her. For a second time
I've allowed her to suffer. Oh, God, take care of my precious children. Oh,
God, preserve their souls.
The rumbling grew so loud that they could hardly bear it. Their teeth vibrated
and their bones seemed to buzz,
414
and it seemed as if the whole cemetery was going to be split apart. A huge
granite tomb cracked with a report as sharp as gunfire and a tall spire
shattered into pieces and collapsed. Dust rose into the air, the dust of
broken marble mixing with the dust of long-dead lives.
Michael was shouting, 'Barong Keket! Barong Keket! Save me, Barong Keket!'
But the holy name of the Lord of the Forests was not enough to hold back the
huge, dark apparition that now bore down on them. Across the cemetery,
blotting out the twilight, blotting out the skyline, massive and black and
rumbling and stinking of death, came something as huge as a tidal wave and as
terrifying as hell itself.
Issa screamed. Marmie held her hands to her head and stared in hypnotic
horror.
The apparition approached them and rolled back the darkness that covered its
face. Then it roared - an appalling, shuddering roar - and more tombs
collapsed.
Randolph had seen the face on the mask but he had not been prepared for
anything like the face itself. A face as wide as a car, with bulbous eyes that
were not painted this time, not varnished, but glutinous and real. A nose with
cavernous, gaping nostrils. A dripping mouth with vicious fangs that were
curved and gleaming and as strong as elephant tusks.
Most frightening of all was the apparition's crown. Around her forehead,
instead of hair, hundreds of human heads protruded, living human heads, each
screaming and weeping in endless torment. For one moment Randolph glimpsed the
screaming face of Dr Ambara among them, and he knew that what Michael had said
earlier had been true. Dr Ambara, rest his soul, had brought the leyaks here.
'What is it?' Waverley asked querulously.
Michael slowly took his hands from his face. 'The Witch Widow Rangda,' he said
over the rumble of the apparition's arrival. 'It looks like she has come to
collect her souls in person.'
415
Waverley was white. 'It's a stunt! It isn't true! It's a nightmare!'
Michael tautly shook his head. 'It isn't a nightmare, my friend. It's real and
it's going to eat us.'
'God in heaven!' Waverley cried. He covered his eyes with his hand.
At that moment, however, Ilona appeared beside him, materializing out of the
darkness as if she had stepped through a photographer's curtain. She held out
her hands and touched him, and he jumped and stared at her in terror.
She mouthed something, but the noise of Rangda's approach was so devastating
that at first he couldn't hear her.
'What? What did you say? Ilona, for God's sake, help me!'
'Only you can save these people now,' said Ilona. 'Only you can save my son.'
Page 202
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
'Me? What do you mean? Ilona, for God's sake!'
'// was your crimes that brought them here, Waverley. Only your sacrifice can
save them.'
Waverley looked around in absolute horror; then up at Rangda. The Witch
Widow's breath was stomach-churning, like a railroad car filled with rotten
meat. 'You don't seriously expect me to -?'
Ilona was expressionless and white, a living statue. 'It's the only way,
Waverley. It's the only way to prove that you love me. It's the only way that
the gods of heaven and hell will ever forgive you, for what you've done. If
you let my son die, I will never forgive you, not for all eternity. But if you
sacrifice yourself now, and save him, then you and I will always be together,
always at peace.'
Waverley was shaking. 'Ilona, you can't ask me that.'
Her face shifted and flowed as if they were looking at it through clear
running water. 'I can, Waverley, it's the only way. Without this, you will
never know any peace, ever; and you will never see me again.'
Without saying anything else, Ilona vanished.
416
Waverley looked at Randolph and then at Michael. At last, turning his back on
the huge black bulk of Rangda, he approached Marmie, and John, and Mark, and
Issa. He was pale but calm. He took off his glasses and tucked them into his
pocket.
'I beg your forgiveness,' he said huskily. 'If it were not for me, you
wouldn't be here now, exposed to this danger. I cannot change myself; I cannot
feel contrite. But I have been the author of everything evil that has happened
to you, and if it is possible for me to put it right, I shall.'
He held out his hand to Randolph and said softly, 'Forgive me if you can. It
may be no use.'
Waverley then turned back and directly confronted the huge, glaring presence
hovering over them. The ground began to shake and thunder rumbled through the
cemetery. Lightning crackled everywhere, illuminating in fitful flashes the
distended, staring eyes and the long, curved teeth and the mouth that dripped
with a distillation of human juices. Rangda, the goddess of death, the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

forum-gsm.htw.pl