United States or Paraguay ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Mercer could hear their words, but of course understood nothing he heard. "What do they say, Anina?" he whispered impatiently after a moment. "Baar is here with two or three of his men. He talks with Tao's men. They talk about men from Twilight Country. Waiting for them now. Speak of storm. Worried because men do not come. Waiting for light-ray." "They'll have a long wait," Mercer chuckled.
The responsibility of two women, especially the elder Lua, who could not fly, weighed suddenly upon him, and his first thought was to get back to the Great City at once. Anina helped her mother into the boat. "Wait," she whispered to Mercer. "I hear what they say. You wait here." She went to the foot of the steps and began climbing them cautiously.
She was, in very truth, the most ethereal human being I had ever beheld. And next to Miela the most beautiful. Miela pulled her forward, and she came on, blushing with the sweet shyness of a child. She was winding her silken silver scarf about her breast hastily, as best she could with her free hand. "My sister, Anina Alan," said Miela simply.
Mercer stretched himself out in the bottom of the boat, covering himself with a large piece of fabric that lay there. He felt that he would be unnoticed, even should a girl chance to pass directly overhead. But he could see nothing of the city from where he was, and soon grew restless and anxious to do something else. "I'm coming up, Anina," he said once. "Shucks! Nobody can do anything to us.
The throng was pushing close about us now, although those nearest us tried to keep away as best they could. Miela and Anina flew up over our heads, and, side by side, Mercer and I started off. The people struggled back before our advance, striving to make a path for us. At times the press of those behind made it impossible for them to give us room.
They walked as rapidly, as Anina was able, for the men had nearly an hour's start, and Mercer concluded they would be far ahead. They had gone perhaps a mile, climbing along over fallen logs, walking sometimes on the larger tree trunks lying prone rude bridges by which the trail crossed some ravine when Anina said: "I fly now. You wait here, Ollie, and I find where they are."
On such a night in February, 1942, Mercer and Anina sat together on the sand, apart from the gay throng that crowded the pavilion below them. The girl was dressed all in white, with a long black cape covering her wings.
The mouth of a broad estuary, with the waves rolling up into it, came swiftly into view. They rounded the rocky headland and entered it, running now almost directly before the wind. The river narrowed after a short distance to a stream very much like the one they had left in the Twilight Country. Mercer turned to the quiet little girl beside him. "Well, Anina, we've certainly had some trip.
The corner of a table showed, around which a number of men were gathered, eating. A woman was moving about the room serving them. Their words, from here, were plainly audible. Mercer would have gone a step or two higher, without thought of discovery, but Anina held him back. "Wait, Ollie. I hear now what they say." They stood silent. The men were talking earnestly.
They did not wait for us to attack them, but stopped stock still, flinging their arms wide in token of surrender. Miela came down among us, and we went back to where we had lain hidden in the palmettos. There we had left a number of short lengths of rope. While we were tying the arms of these two prisoners behind them and fettering their ankles so they could not run Anina joined us.
Word Of The Day