[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.He'd gotten used to seeing them in the last few weeks--;as used as you could get, anyway--;but ashe headed east, he realized that the ones in his neighborhood were just the tip of the iceberg.Ashe left Yuppieland and entered the area of clinics, flophouses, and SROs6 the tribe of thedisenfranchised seemed to multiply, and for the first time Eric realized how very many people inthis city had no other home than the streets.Not hundreds.Thousands.And not just people living in slums or in welfare housing, but people who didn't have any place togo at night at all.He walked past a man in a tattered overcoat who might have been any age fromforty to seventy and was carrying on an angry, animated conversation with the empty air.His handswere covered with small unhealed sores, and there were flecks of spittle on his cheeks.Greyishstubble covered his cheeks, and even in the cold he stank of urine, unwashed body, and illness.Isn't anybody helping these people? That guy shouldn't be out on the street.But even as hewondered, Eric knew the answer.These were the "borderline" people, the ones who'd been dumped outonto the streets from the institutions where many of them had spent their entire lives to maketheir way as best they could in the world.The idea was that they'd have caseworkers and live insupervised housing, but there weren't enough beds or caseworkers to go around, and so most ofthese walking wounded ended up alone on the streets.Add to that the junkies who stayed away fromsocial services for fear they'd be jailed, the street kids damaged by predators or the homesthey'd run from, and you had thousands and tens of thousands of people living on the streets--;thepopulation of an entire shadow city living invisibly in the cracks of the city most people saw.A bright flare caught his attention out of the corner of his eye.Magic--;the same magic he'd beenfollowing.It ended at a brick wall, the glare of it so bright it nearly hurt his eyes.He touchedthe flaking brickwork, and recoiled when his fingers came away sticky and dark.He rubbed hisfingers together.It was blood.Old, but not that old.This wasn't Unseleighe magic he'd been following, but human magic.Eric blinked, bringing up theimage of the human city to overlay his mage-sight, and bent over to inspect the wall and thesidewalk.Now he could see that there were bloody handprints on the concrete.The wall itself wascovered with blood, great arcing gouts of blood, as if somebody had tried to batter his waythrough the bricks with his body.And I'm betting that's exactly what happened, Eric thought grimly, straightening up.He feltnauseated.Echoing through his mind, preserved in the stone, were ghostly screams of fury, as ifthe raging spirit were still trapped here.He scrubbed his hand on his jeans and raised the fluteto his lips, playing the first tune that came to mind, an old folk tune called "She Moved ThroughThe Fair," the sweet wistful lament seemed to soothe the energies here, sending the spirit on itsway in peace, washing away the death-fury that had happened here."Mister? Hey, mister?"Eric lowered his flute.He'd put so much of himself into the music that he'd lost his cloak ofmagic, and with it, his invisibility.He turned in the direction of the voice.There was a manwatching him, a man only a few years older than Eric with haunted, lost eyes.That could be me,Eric realized in pitying horror.A little more bad luck, a few more missed chances.notmeeting Beth, or Kory.Missing out on the Faire-circuit.That could be me."That's pretty music," the man said, when he had Eric's attention."I'm Gary.""Hello, Gary," Eric said quietly, so as not to startle his new friend.Though his body was fullgrown, it was clear that the mind behind the eyes was much younger."Do you know what happenedhere?"Gary's face turned sad, as transparently as a child's."Fury died.We always used to call himthat.He got sick and yelled at everybody, and then he started to fight with the wall." Easy tearsglinted in Gary's eyes."Nobody fights a wall," he said sadly.Not with any chance of winning, Eric thought, glancing at the bloodstains.He was tempted to slipback into his magic and leave, but he'd already seen enough to know that he had a lot of urgentquestions without answers.Maybe Gary had some of the answers."Have a lot of people died lately? In just the last couple days? People likeFury?"Gary stared at him blankly, a sudden sourceless fear growing in his haunted eyes."The angels takethem--;the night angels.I have to go," he said suddenly."Hey--;wait! I didn't mean to--;"file:///G|/rah/Mercedes%20Lackey/Lackey,%20M.%20Rosemary%20-%20Beyond%20World's%20End.txt (97 of 124) [2/2/2004 1:21:14 AM]file:///G|/rah/Mercedes%20Lackey/Lackey,%20Mercedes%20&%20Edghill,%20Rosemary%20-%20Beyond%20World's%20End.txtGary turned away and scuttled quickly down an alleyway, vanishing from sight."--;scare you," Eric finished, gazing at the empty street [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]