Several dozen monks, wearing thick cork hats as well as their traditional robes, came running round the corner.
There was a ‘crump’ and, a few moments later, a babble of voices. The passageway opened into a wide corridor. Lobsang climbed in, hung by his fingertips, dropped and rolled when he hit the floor. A moment later there was an unenlightened curse from below. ‘Because death is what awaits you if you stay out there, too.’ ‘That’s a coincidence,’ said Lu-Tze, lowering himself to the tips of his fingers. ‘But novices aren’t allowed in there on pain of death!’ ‘It’s a bit of a drop but if you roll when you land you’ll be OK,’ he said, lowering himself into the hole. He scrambled to his feet again, headed towards an ornamental grille in the cliff face ahead of them, and with surprising strength wrenched it out of the wall. ‘Random time! Come on, come on!’ shouted Lu-Tze. An egg followed the same trajectory for a few seconds, and then smashed on the stones. He looked back and saw the last ibis tumbling in the air, shrinking, shedding feathers, surrounded by a halo of pale blue light. He heard something pass overhead with a plangent sound. He stopped, and threw himself flat on the paving slabs.īut Lobsang was already headlong. The sweeper skidded at the carp pond, which was now erupting in strange waves, and headed down a shady track alongside a stream. A high-pitched whine seemed to be coming out of the rocks. Lu-Tze hitched up his robe and scurried back down the path. ‘There will always be cherry blossom here,’ he said. ‘But carefully,’ said Wen, and sighed as Clodpool crashed down in a shower of petals. ‘I, er, I shall get down now, then, shall I?’ said a voice among the blossom-laden branches. ‘I did say you should stand back,’ he said. Wen looked up at the new tree, and smiled. There was no sound except the crack of the air as it moved aside, and a hiss of steam from the mud. ‘Stand back,’ he said, and gently let a finger touch the cylinder. Then he pointed his right hand at the pit. His lips moved silently, as though he was working through some complex puzzle. ‘Or the deep sea? We shall move it’ - he placed his left hand just above the spinning blur - ‘to where it is needed.’ ‘How much time does stone need?’ said Wen. There was practically nothing up here but mountains there were so many that sometimes they were impossible to see, because they got in the way. ‘Oh yes, master,’ said Clodpool obediently. The cylinder spun and balanced there, humming gently. ‘See those mountains?’ said Wen, tugging the rope.
He wound the frayed rope around the cylinder and tossed the pit onto a patch of mud. * * * - Thief of Time (Terry Pratchett) | Read books online free without registration and downloading Terry Pratchett « Thief of Time» Subject: Comic Fantasy/Science-fiction * * *
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