"Invasion Cycle - 02 - Planeshift" - читать интересную книгу автора (McGough Scott)

PLANESHIFT


INVASION CYCLE Х BOOK II

J. Robert King
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J. Robert King
Chapter 1

Every Claw, Every Fang

Multani traced the damage done by the ray cannon
blast. The bolt had struck Weatherlight's hull where the
figurehead should have been. It had torn a wide gash
through seven inches of solid magnigoth wood and had
vaporized the first forecastle rib. In the hold beyond, the
energies had hit an ensign's pack and burned it and its
contents away to nothing. If not for that pack, the bolt
might have ripped on through a bulkhead and into the
crew's berths. Even so, the damage was severe.

Multani did not peer at the hull breach as would a mere
man but felt it from the inside, for he was a nature spirit.
He had no true body outside of plant life. He took his form
from wood grain. Cellulose fibers were his muscles,
heartwood his bones, sap his blood. His true home was the
forest of Yavimaya, where he lived in the endless
magnigoth trees. That homeland had won its battles, so
Multani had taken up residence in the living hull of
Weatherlight. Her battles were only beginning.

Multani moved through the wood. The laceration
seemed a wound in his own flesh. It brought pain, of
course, but it also empowered him to heal the ship.

Charcoal sloughed from the edges of the breach. Sap
oozed out in golden beads. Dead wood grew green. New
fibers extended into the emptiness. New rings appeared
where old ones had been burned away. The growth of
centuries replenished itself in minutes. Soon, the first

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Planeshift

forecastle rib was solid again, and the seven inches of