Chapter 21 19

They gathered at one end of Shizuka Valley, Brown.Ramia and Martin.Cylenos was carrying as many knapsacks and bags as he could, Saul.Wen Chaobo, Consul and Father Du Hei stood silently like elders.The first shadows of the afternoon had begun to stretch eastward in the valley, stretching like dark fingers toward the shimmering Tomb of Time. I'm still not sure if it's a good idea to split things up like this.The Consul stroked his chin and said that it was hot and sweat had collected on his bearded face and down his neck. Lamia shrugged her shoulders. We all know that each of us will face the Thorn Demon God alone.So what does it matter if they are separated for a few hours?We need food, and the three of you can come if you want.

The Consul and Saul looked at Father Dohey. The priest was obviously exhausted, and the search for Kassad had exhausted what little energy he had left after the torment of resurrection. Someone should be guarding here in case the Colonel returns.Saul said.The baby looked very small in his arms. Ramia nodded in agreement.She put the straps on her shoulders and neck. Well, it would take about two hours to get to Time Fort, and a little longer to come back.Estimated it would take an hour to pack food there so we could be back before dark, probably closer to dinner time. Both the Consul and Dohey shook hands with Selenus.Thor put his arms around Brown and said softly, Come back safely.

She touched the man's bearded cheek, stroked the baby's head, turned away, and walked quickly out of the valley. Hey, you fucking wait for me so I can catch up.Martin.cried Selenus, jugs and bottles ping-pong as he ran. Together they came out of the saddle between two cliffs.Cylenos glanced back and saw that the figures of the three people had become smaller due to the distance.Between the gravel and dunes near the Sphinx, like three little colored sticks, things didn't go as planned, did they?He said. I don't know, said Lamia.She changed into shorts for the long journey, and her short and powerful legs were faintly glowing with sweat.What was the original plan?

My plan is to finish the greatest poem in the universe and go home, said Thelennus, taking a sip of the last bottle of water, fuck it, I only hope we brought enough water for the We can make it through. I don't have any plans at all, said Lamia, half to herself, her short curly hair wet with sweat against her thick neck. Martin.Cylenos sneered.You're not here because of your mod lover client.she said angrily. Whatever, it's that John.The Keats personality thought it was important that we were here.So now you've had him for so long and you're still carrying that Sloan circuit, aren't you?

Lamia blankly touched the small nerve shunt behind her left ear.There's a thin, permeable polymeric membrane that keeps sand and dirt out of that hair follicle-sized connector, yes. Cylenus laughed again.What's the point if there's no Datasphere to interact with, boy?It's no different than if you left that Keats personality in Luthers or somewhere else.The poet paused, adjusting the straps and backpack.I said, can you connect to that personality by yourself? Lamia thought of her dream the night before, in which the person felt like Johnny, but those were all images from Wanxing.com. (Memories?) No, she said: I can't connect to the Sloan circuit myself, it holds more data than a hundred implants can handle, now why don't you shut up and walk?She moved away, leaving him standing where he was.

There were no clouds in the sky, and it was as clear as a blue sky, with some different levels of azure.The front gravel stretched southwest to the edge of the barren land surrounded by sand dunes.The two walked in silence for thirty minutes, five meters apart, each with their own thoughts, with Hyperion's small but bright sun hanging on their right. The dunes on this side have a steep slope, and when they climbed up one dune and then slid down the other side, Lamia said.The ground was hot and her shoes were full of sand. Selenus nodded, stopped, and wiped his face with a silk handkerchief.His scruffy purple beret slanted over his forehead and left ear, but provided no shade.Maybe it's easier to take the high ground to the north.Near the dead city.

Brown.Lamia covered her eyes with her hands and looked in that direction. We lost at least half an hour going that way. We will lose more time if we go this way.Cylenus sat on the dune, drinking some water from his water bottle.He took off his cloak, folded it and stuffed it into the largest backpack. What did you put in there?Lamia asked.That backpack looks full. None of your fucking business, woman. Lamia shook her head and rubbed her cheek, feeling the sunburn there.She wasn't used to being exposed to the sun for so many days, and Hyperion's atmosphere offered little protection from ultraviolet rays.She found the tube of sunscreen in her pocket and dabbed some on her face.Well, she said: let's go around there first.Follow the ridge over the worst of the dunes, turn back, and go straight to Time Fort.The mountains are always on the horizon and never seem to be getting close at all.The snow-covered mountaintops seemed to tempt her with a cool breeze and fresh water.Tokitsukadani is out of sight behind the mountain, and the view is blocked by sand dunes and gravel.

Lamia moved some of her backpacks, turned to the right, and half-slid half-slid down the cracked sand dune. When they came out of the sand and came to the ridge where the dwarf goldenrods and the needleweed grew, Martin G.Cylenus' eyes were fixed on the ruins of the City of Poets.Lamia turned left and went around there, avoiding everything except the half-buried ring road, the rest of the road leading out into the barren land and disappearing under the dunes. Cylenos fell further and further behind, until he finally stopped and sat on an overturned pillar that used to be a portal where the cyborg laborers lined up every night after their work in the fields.Those fields are gone now too.The old ditches, canals, and roads are now just rockfall, hollows in the sand, or stumps surrounded by sand that once grew along the waterways or paths.

Martin.Serenor stared at the ruins, wiped his face with his beret, the city was still as white as bones emerging from shifting sand, as white as teeth in a khaki skull.From where he sat, Cylenus saw many buildings exactly as they had last been seen a century and a half ago.The Amphitheater of the Poets was half collapsed, but it stood imposingly amidst the ruins, a white, Roman amphitheater from another world, covered with vines and luxuriant climbing vines in the desert.That gigantic amphitheater with the sky on top, and the broken balconies were not because of age, Cylenus knew, but because, in the decades after the entire city was evacuated, the useless men of Sad King Billy The results of security personnel with rockets, spears and explosives.They wanted to kill Jing Demon God.They wanted to use the death ray to kill the troll after it went to defecate in the thatched cottage.

Martin.Selenos chuckled and leaned forward, suddenly dizzy from the heat and fatigue. Cylenos could see the dome of the cafeteria where he had eaten, at first with hundreds of his art-world comrades, and then, after Billy had evacuated to Keats, the few remaining The man who stays for some incomprehensible and unrevealed reason, sits apart and eats silently, and then he is left alone, truly alone.Once he accidentally dropped a cup, and the echo echoed under the dome painted with vines for half a minute. (Alone with the subterraneans,) thought Cylenus, (but not even the subterraneans for company at last, but my muse.)

③Morlocks: British novelist H. G．The family in Wells' famous book "The Time Machine" lives underground and moves quickly like a spider to kill its prey. A sound like an explosion suddenly sounded, and a dozen white pigeons rushed out from a niche in the pile of fallen towers that used to be King Billy's palace. Cylenus watched them circle and fly in the overheated sky, It's amazing how they've survived for hundreds of years on this desolate fringe. (Even I can do it, why can't they?) There are shadows in the city, sweet shades here and there.Cylenos wondered if those wells were still intact, the huge underground cisterns had sunk before the arrival of human seed ships.Still full of luscious clear water.He also wondered if the wooden workbench, an antique from Meta-Earth, was still in the little room where he had written most of the Psalms. What's wrong?Brown.Lamia came back and stood beside him. nothing.He squinted and looked up at her.The woman looked like a low tree, with a mass of black thigh-like roots, sun-burned bark, and condensed energy.He tried to imagine her exhausted, and just imagining her exhausted him.It occurred to me just now that he said: We wasted time traveling thousands of miles back to Time Fort. There is a well in this city, and maybe food is also stored. Ah︱ah, Lamia said: The Consul and I have thought about this and discussed it.The dead city has been plundered for generations, sixty or eighty years ago, the pilgrims of the Thorn Demon must have emptied the shops, and the wells are unreliable .We still go to Time Fort. Cylenus bristled at the woman's unbearable arrogance, and her immediate presumption that she was in control of any situation.I'm going to probe it, he said: maybe it can save hours of commuting time. Lamia moved between him and the sun, a circle of gold glowing around her dark curls.no.If we waste time here, we won't be able to get back before dark. Then go away, scolded the poet, startled at his own words.I'm tired, I'm going to check the warehouse behind the cafeteria.I might remember some storage place that the pilgrims couldn't find. He could see that the woman's body was tense. She must be thinking about pulling him up and dragging him up the sand dune. They went down a little over a third of the way, and there was still a long way to go to the foot of the mountain. , and then climbed the long stairs to Time Fort.Her muscles relax.Martin, she said: Everyone else is depending on us.Please don't screw this up. He laughed and sat back on the fallen pillar.Fuck it, he said: I'm tired, you know you're doing ninety-five percent of this errand anyway.I am old, woman.Much older than you can imagine, let me stay and rest.Maybe I'll find something to eat, maybe I'll be able to write something. Lamia squatted beside him and touched his backpack.Is this what you brought?The poem you wrote, the Psalms. of course.He said. And do you still think Jing Demon God will let you finish writing it? Cylenus shrugged, heat and dizziness swirling around him.That guy is a fucking killer, a Grendale made in hell out of sheets of steel.He said: But it is my muse. Lamia sighed, squinted at the sun that had already set towards the mountain, and then looked back at the way they came.She said softly: Go back, go back to the valley.She hesitated.I'll go back with you, and then come back. Cylenos opened his chapped lips and smiled: Why do you want to go back?Play cards with three other old men, and wait for the monster to come and put us to sleep?no thanks.I'd rather take a break here and do something.Go ahead, woman.You can carry as much as three poets can carry.He squirmed and brought the empty backpack and bottle to her. Lamia held the messy strap in her hand, her fist was as small and hard as a hammer.are you sure?We can go slower. He stood up reluctantly, momentarily angry at her pity and reassurance, I fuck you and that horse you came on, Lucien.Maybe you forgot, the purpose of this pilgrimage is to come here to say hello to Jing Demon God.Your friend Hoyt hasn't forgotten, Kassad knows the game, and the goddamn thorn god is probably gnawing his stupid soldier's bones right now.I wouldn't be surprised if the three of us who stayed there don't need food and water by now.Come on, get out of here.I'm tired of being with you. ④and the hors you rode in on, Lusiar is a verse quoted from Byron's poems. Brown.Lamia squatted in place for a while longer, looking up to see him swaying above her.Then she stood up, touched his shoulder lightly with her hand, put the empty backpacks and water bottles on her back, turned away, and walked faster than he had ever seen in his youth.In two or three hours I shall be returning by this road again.She yelled without looking back, remember to wait for me at the edge of the city, and we will go back to Shizuka together. Martin.Silenus watched her figure shrink and shrink without saying a word, and then disappeared into the wasteland to the southwest, the mountains were trembling in the heat, he looked down and saw that she had left the water bottle to him, he spat, Put away the water bottle and step into the shadows that await him in the dead city.