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of the others, was likely to be scouting ahead. But now several minutes had
passed since Jeremy had started looking to find her waiting beside the trail.
Soon he mentioned his concern to Arnobius and Andy.
He told himself that he wasn't really worried about her not yet.
Would Carlotta, out of some twisted anger, possibly jealousy, have done
anything to her? . . . But no, he told himself firmly, that was a foolish
thought.
His thoughts returned to Carlotta, who, now that she was also the Trickster,
should possess, according to
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Fred Saberhagen - The Book of the Gods 1 - The Face of Apollo all the
information Jeremy could summon up, the ability to look exactly like anyone
she chose.
Still he could barely force himself to probe Apollo's memory, and then only
under the pressure of immediate need. He was unable to plunge down to the
depths where he might find information concerning his colleagues in the
pantheon and the subject of godhood in general. If he could have convinced
himself that some specific, urgent need had to be met, then maybe but Jeremy
wasn't sure that he'd be able to plunge in even then.
Well, he thought, so be it then. So far the Lord Intruder seemed to be working
on the plan of bringing important matters to Jeremy's attention only when the
moment had arrived to do something about them.
Well, he had to assume that one of the greatest gods in the world knew what he
was doing.
And Katy was still missing. Jeremy moved on, all his senses in a heightened
state of alertness. He was trying to call up powers that he knew must be his,
if he could only find the way to use them.
Goats grazing in their high, sloped pastures, some of which seemed tilted more
than halfway to the vertical, looked down over their white beards at the
intrusive climbers. The beasts' eyes seemed to have the penetrating gaze of
wizards, and one reminded Jeremy irresistibly of a certain archivist he'd
encountered in the distant library.
Except for a goatherd or two, the climbers encountered no other traffic as
they ascended, but certainly the path was not overgrown. It was as if some
subtle magic kept it clear. Around it, strange-looking ferns and wildflowers
grew in profusion. A swarm of ordinary bees droned somewhere in the middle
distance. The common noise had acquired a newly ominous significance, sounding
a minor echo of Apollo's vengeance.
Already it was becoming obvious that the Mountain had a great deal of the
magical about it. The summit, more crested ridge than single peak, always
seemed to be only a little farther on, though perpetually out of sight behind
the bulge of the nearer slopes. And yet here, even more than on any ordinary
mountain, you could climb for hour after hour, maybe day after day, without
reaching the top. Jeremy, now clinging to the flank of the first mountain he
had ever climbed in fact, it was the first the eyes of Jeremy
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Redthorn had ever seen found it impossible to rid himself of the eerie feeling
that he could go on climbing for years, forever, and still never reach a point
where there were no more rocks above him.
Over the last days and weeks, the phenomenon he'd first noticed in the Academy
barbershop was becoming more pronounced. According to the wondering
description provided by Kate, single strands and patches of Jeremy's hair were
growing in a lustrous almost-black, matching the traditional look of
Apollo. The dark hair was slightly curly, as were his naturally red locks, a
detail that somehow made the coloring look all the more artificial.
And Jeremy's face had been ugly, or at least plain, by conventional
standards or at least he had come to think of himself that way. But it was
easy to accept Katy's wondering assessment that now, over the past few days,
he was growing handsome. Of course his cheeks and chin and upper lip were
still as smooth and hairless as they'd ever been.
Fervently he wished for a really good mirror, then decided that if he had one,
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