吉斯之眼

                                      

The Eyes of Gith

吉斯之眼

作者： James Wyatt
翻译： Zeranix

They were nearby -- Kejira could smell them.

他们就在附近——凯吉拉能闻到他们。

A grim smile tugged one corner of the warrior's mouth. She remembered a time when any creature of evil gave her that warning scent -- a burning stench like the echo of brimstone from some nether plane. That was before.

她的嘴角挤出一抹冷酷的微笑。她回想起曾经有一段时间，任何邪恶的生物都会使她产生这种警告式的嗅觉——一种燃烧的臭味，如同来自某些下层位面的硫磺余味。以前曾是这样。

Now, it was only the githyanki that rankled in her nostrils. But she said she could smell them a mile away, and it might not have been boasting. More than once, she'd been ready to meet them, her sword in her hand, when they stepped out of the Astral to attack her.

现在，只有吉斯扬基才能刺激到她的鼻腔。但她说自己可以在一里开外就闻到他们，而且这可能也不仅是夸口而已。不只一次，当他们走出星界想要袭击她的时候，她都已经利剑在手，做好了对付他们的准备。

Yes, she had lost her unerring sense for the reek of evil. She had lost the holy power that used to flow through her arm and her sword and her heart to smite the servants of evil. She had lost much that she used to rely on.

是的，她已经丧失了对邪恶气息的敏锐嗅觉。她已经丧失了曾流淌于手臂、利剑以及心中的神圣能量，无法打击邪恶的奴仆。她已经丧失了许多她曾经依赖的东西。

She had lost Paulon, her oathmate of ten years and ten dozen adventures.

她失去了保隆，陪她走过十年岁月和成百次冒险的忠诚伙伴。

And in return she had gained -- what? She spat silently, only vaguely noticing the blood that spattered onto the cold stone at her feet.

作为回报，她得到了——什么？她静静地啐了一口，只是模糊地注意到，吐到脚边冰冷石头上的鲜血。

She had gained a hatred so strong it seemed to flow in her veins like holy power once had. She had gained a thirst for vengeance that would never be quenched.

她得到了一种强烈的仇恨，流淌在她的血管里，如同之前拥有的神圣能量。她得到了一种从不熄灭的对复仇的渴望。

She had gained a fury like the whirling blade of an erinyes, that made even the brutal githyanki quail when she howled her rage at them and began cutting them down.

她得到了如同复仇女神飞舞的刀锋般的暴怒，当她把自己的满腔怒火宣泄而出并开始战斗中横冲直撞的时候，即使最凶狠的吉斯扬基也开始颤抖。

She had gained a hatred that was eating her from the inside.

她得到了一种从内部侵蚀她的仇恨。

Kejira crept forward, ears straining for any sound. She held her sword in her right hand as she moved, and her eyes absently noted the baroque carvings that lined the tunnel wall. She doubted the githyanki had built this underground fortress, but they had certainly made it theirs. The images passed by the corners of her eyes, only occasionally making an impression -- they were familiar subjects, depicting the githyanki's revolt against their mind flayer masters in scenes of fierce brutality.

凯吉拉蹑手蹑脚地前进，侧耳捕捉着一切声音。她在移动时用右手持剑，双眼则茫然地观察着通道墙壁上蔓延着的巴洛克式雕刻。她怀疑这座地下堡垒不是吉斯扬基们建造的，但他们已将其据为己有。画像在她眼角不断闪过，只是偶尔给她留下印象——它们都有类似的主题，用充满血腥暴力的场景描述着吉斯扬基对夺心魔主人们的反抗。

She stopped suddenly. One relief stood out from the others: a richly detailed depiction of Gith, the warrior who led the revolt. Kejira had never seen githyanki art like that before. Most was flat, stylized, but not this. Gith looked like a real woman, down to every detail of her battle-scarred armor.

她突然停了下来。一幅浮雕与众不同：对领导起义的战士吉斯的特写。凯吉拉以前从未见过有如此图案的吉斯扬基艺术品。它们大多表现乏味、程式化，但这个不是。吉斯看起来就像一个真的女人，包括她那件伤痕累累的盔甲的每个细节。

It was the eyes that caught Kejira's attention, though. They burned with hatred, with the violent passion that fueled the revolution. For a long moment Kejira lost herself staring into those eyes.

不过真正吸引凯吉拉注意的是那双眼睛。它们在仇恨中燃烧，在充斥整个反抗过程的暴力激情中燃烧。在很长一段时间里，凯吉拉忘我地凝视着那双眼睛。

She clenched her sword tightly in both hands before she realized why she was doing it. The githyanki appeared on either side, two and two, stepping out of the air a few feet away from her and hurtling forward, their silver swords gleaming in the light of Kejira's lantern. Kejira brought her sword down toward the head of the nearest one, but he deflected her blade. She grimaced. Her blow would have cut a lesser warrior in half. She was in for a real fight this time.

在她还没有意识到自己在做什么之前，她已经用双手握紧了剑。吉斯扬基从她两边出现，每边两个，他们在空中现身，从离她几尺的地方冲锋而来，手中的银剑在凯吉拉的提灯灯光照射下闪闪发亮。凯吉拉把她的剑向最近的一个对手头上劈了下去，但他挡开了她的剑刃。她不禁苦笑。她的攻击应该可以把一个低等战士劈成两半。这次要苦战一场了。

Even as she whirled around, parrying four silver swords in an intricate dance of steel, two more githyanki appeared behind the first wave -- blackweave warlocks, Kejira guessed. The casters were necromancers who would support the knights with their vile spells. Her pulse began to quicken, even as she cut down one knight and hurled his bleeding body toward one of the spellcasters.

她展转腾挪，在错综复杂的钢铁之舞中招架着四把银剑，但另外两个吉斯扬基又随后出现——是黑网魔巫（blackweave warlock），凯吉拉猜。他们是些用邪恶法术来支援这些骑士的死灵法师。她的脉搏开始加速，尽管她已经干掉了一名骑士，并把他流血的尸体抛向了一名施法者。

The rage exploded in her head, surged into her muscles, and burst forth from her mouth in a wordless scream.

暴怒在她头脑中炸开，涌如她的肌肉，并从她嘴中以不成语言的尖叫爆发出来。

All the githyanki were visibly shaken -- the nearest ones took a step back, and Kejira pressed that advantage, cutting them both down in quick succession. Only one knight remained now, and he circled warily as the two warlocks hurled bolts of crackling purple-black darkness at Kejira.

显然，所有的吉斯扬基都开始颤抖——最近的两个退了一步，凯吉拉乘势追击，如疾风般砍倒了他们。现在只剩下一个骑士了，他小心翼翼地兜着圈子，同时两个魔巫向凯吉拉射出滋滋作响的紫黑色的黑暗箭。

The darkness gnawed at her body and soul, sending a wave of emptiness and despair through her body. As she threw her head back in pain, her eyes fixed for an instant on Gith's eyes again, and she felt her rage surge in her once more, fighting back the darkness. She shouted a few words of magic -- words that would have defiled her ears when she still clung to the virtues of paladinhood -- giving voice to her despair and placing it like a heavy load on the backs of her opponents. She could see them sag under the weight of it, and she smiled.

黑暗侵蚀着她的身体和灵魂，在她身体中散发出一阵空虚和绝望。她在疼痛中转回头，一瞬间，她的眼睛又凝固在了吉斯的眼睛上，之后她觉得狂暴的感觉在她身体里再次爆炸，击退了黑暗。她喊出了一些有魔法的词语——在她还沐浴在圣武士的神恩中时，她一定会觉得这些词污辱了她的耳朵——吐出她的绝望，并把这副重担丢到对手背上。她可以看到他们在重压之下萎靡不振，于是她笑了。

The knight was making his approach now, and Kejira ran to intercept him. She lowered her head and drove her shoulder into his gut, knocking the wind out of him and lifting him off the ground, slamming him into the wall beside Gith. She stepped back and drove the point of her sword into his chest until it clanked against stone.

那个骑士现在正在接近，凯吉拉冲过去截击他。她压低头，用肩膀撞他的腹部，猛击他的肠胃，然后把他举离地面，向吉斯旁边的墙扔去。她退后一步，把长剑插进他的胸膛，直到铛地一声打到石墙。

"Gath-kaa du'shakhut ka-Gith'shai," one of the warlocks hissed, his eyes wide. Kejira had never studied the language of her sworn foes, but something in the warlock's face conveyed the import of his words. She shot a glare at the warlock who had spoken, then ran to the other one, slicing his throat as he tried to speak another spell.

“加斯-卡啊 度’沙克乎特 卡-吉斯’沙伊，”一个魔巫喃喃道，他的眼睛睁得很大。凯吉拉从未学习过誓敌的语言，但魔巫脸上的某些东西从侧面说明了这些词语有多重要。她对咏诵咒语的魔巫怒目而视，然后跑向另一个，在他妄图施展另一个法术的时候割断了他的喉咙。

She turned to face her last foe. He had backed away as she killed his compatriot, and stood near the edge of her lamplight. His face was shrouded in a shadow Kejira's eyes could not pierce. She held her sword straight in front of her, its point aimed at the warlock's heart.

她转身面对最后一个对手。在她杀死他同胞的时候，他在后退，现在已经接近她手中灯光的边缘。他的脸藏在阴影里，凯吉拉的眼睛无法看透。她把剑握在身前，遥指魔巫的心脏。

"What did you say to me?" she demanded. "Tell me before you die on my sword." The githyanki didn't answer, and Kejira took a step forward, the lantern suspended above her shoulder bringing its light to his face.

“你刚才对我说什么？”她命令道。“告诉我，在你死在我剑下之前。”吉斯扬基没有回答，凯吉拉前进一步，吊在她肩上的提灯将光线投到他脸上。

His eyes flicked from Kejira's face to the carving beside her.

他的眼睛从凯吉拉脸上转开，朝向她身边的雕刻。

"Tell me!" Kejira roared.

“告诉我！”凯吉拉吼道。

The warlock's lips moved silently for a moment, then he found his voice and began again. "You fight with the fury of Gith herself," he whispered.

魔巫的嘴唇无声翕动了一会，然后他再次开口说道：“你在与吉斯本人的愤怒战斗。”他悄声说。

Kejira lunged forward, and the last githyanki died.

凯吉拉向前突进，于是最后一个吉斯扬基也死了。

Her rage refused to subside, and she whirled on the exquisite carving. "You!" she shouted, pointing her sword at Gith's heart. "The whole cursed race is your fault!" She glared at the relief as if she expected some retort, but the eyes of Gith just glared back at her, their fury a mirror of her own.

她的愤怒却没有平息，她冲回高雅的雕刻前。“你！”她喊到，用她的剑指着吉斯的心。“整个该死的种族都是你的错！”她怒视着浮雕，好像在等着对方反驳，但吉斯之眼只是对她回视，它们的愤怒像镜子一样反映着她自己的愤怒。

She lunged again, driving her sword point into the chest of the carving. Cold fear dampened her rage as the sword sank into the stone, pulling her in behind it. The last thing she saw before the darkness closed in on her was the carved eyes, their pupils wide with rage.

她再次向前冲，把剑插进雕刻的胸膛。当剑深入石墙，冰冷的恐惧感抑制了她的暴怒，把她拉进其后。在黑暗淹没她之前，她看到的最后一件事物，就是雕像的眼睛，它们的瞳孔因暴怒而张大。

Kejira floated in a cold darkness her lantern could not light. It pressed against her skin like cold flesh. She couldn't tell whether her limbs responded to her commands to move. She tried to turn, to run, just to put her hand to her face. The darkness did not change, and neither did the constant pressure enfolding her. She began swinging her sword wildly -- or at least she tried to. She didn't know whether her limbs responded.

凯吉拉漂浮在冰冷的黑暗中，她的提灯也无法照亮。黑暗像寒冷的血肉压迫着她的皮肤。她无法分辨自己的肢体是否还能回应大脑的命令。她试着转身，跑动，以及把手放在脸上。黑暗毫无变化，包裹着她的持续的压力也是如此。她开始四处划动她的剑——或者她至少试图这样做。她仍然不知道肢体是否有所回应。

Kejira deGannevar. The voice might have been in her mind or in her ears, she could not tell. It was quiet but harsh, rasping, dry. It sounded like the impossible voice of a shriveled dead thing, a mummy or a lich that, by rights, should have no voice at all.

凯吉拉·德·冈内瓦。这个声音可能来自她脑中，或是她耳中，她不能分清。那声音很安静，但干瘪刺耳、令人烦躁。它听起来就像是枯萎的已死物体，比如木乃伊或者巫妖的声音，但事实上，它们是不可能有声音的。

"Who are you? Show yourself!" Kejira could not hear her own voice.

“你是谁？出来！” 凯吉拉连自己的声音都听不到。

How long have you hunted me, and you do not recognize me?

你追踪我许久了，可是你不认识我？

"Gith?" Kejira tried to spit again, and wondered if blood came from her mouth, and where it might land. "You expect me to believe that? Not even the githyanki believe you're still alive."

“吉斯？”凯吉拉试图再啐出一口，她很想知道她嘴里是否有血可以吐出来，还有它将会落在哪里。“你希望我相信吗？就算吉斯扬基也不相信你还活着。”

Some do.

有些相信。

A fresh wave of fear rose in Kejira's throat. She knew the githyanki legends of Gith: The leader of their rebellion had disappeared into the pits of Hell and never returned. In her place, a dragon-fiend had emerged to announce a pact between the githyanki and red dragonkind. Most githyanki assumed that the pact had been sealed with Gith's lifeblood, but a few believed that she survived and would someday return to lead her people again.

一阵新的恐惧感在凯吉拉的喉部涌起。她知道吉斯扬基中关于吉斯的传说：他们的反抗军领袖失去踪影，去了地狱深处，而且再也没有回来。在她那里，一个半龙半炼狱魔宣布吉斯扬基和红龙种族达成了一份协议。大多数吉斯扬基认为这份协议已由吉斯的生命之血密封，但也有些坚信她幸存了下来，而且有朝一日将会重新回来领导她的人民。

So am I in Hell? Kejira thought.

那么我在地狱吗？凯吉拉想。

Is this what Hell feels like? The soft darkness pressing against her skin transformed into razor-sharp blades, and Kejira screamed. She felt as though her body were one great wound, as if blood were leaking from every pore, as if she had turned to pain.

这里的感觉像是地狱吗？压在她皮肤上的柔软的黑暗变化为锯齿状的利刃，这使得凯吉拉尖叫。她觉得自己的身体叫好像一个巨大的伤口，血液从每一个毛孔渗出，她自己就变成了痛苦本身。

She had no idea how long it lasted. She screamed and screamed without ever pausing to draw breath. She thought she must die, but death never came. An eternity of torment passed, and then it was gone. Her nerves tingled with the memory of it, rebelling at the renewed touch of the soft, chill darkness.

她不知道持续了多久。她不断地尖叫，连喘息的机会都没有。她想她一定会死，但死亡没有降临。一阵永恒的折磨来临了，然后它结束了。她的神经在这种记忆下兴奋起来，反抗着黑暗重新变得柔软寒冷的触碰。

Then a blast of fire shattered the darkness. Kejira's senses registered the light an instant before the pain, and the face of Gith was burned into her eyes even as the flames seared her flesh. It took a second for Kejira to realize that the face she had seen was the carving on the wall, not a living Gith somewhere in the Hells -- and with that realization came a long-delayed awareness of the danger she was in. She fumbled at her belt for a sunrod and sparked it to life, even as a githyanki sword bit deep into her shoulder.

然后火焰在黑暗里爆炸。凯吉拉的感官认为，在痛苦面前，这光亮只是一瞬间，即使火焰在灼烧她的皮肉，吉斯的面容仍然映刻进了她的眼中。凯吉拉花了几秒钟才意识到，她看到的脸是墙上的雕刻，而不是活在地狱某处的吉斯——随这种意识而来的，是对她当前所处危险的警觉，它来得很迟了。她从腰带上摸索出一支日光棒，并把它点燃，尽管此时一个吉斯扬基的剑咬进了她的肩膀。

She was in the tunnel, crumpled on the floor before the carving. Had she ever left? Her lantern had gone out, and her greatsword lay shattered at Gith's stone feet. She was covered in blood from countless wounds -- not, it seemed, the cuts of a million tiny razors, but a few blows well-placed while she was apparently helpless to defend herself. Her skin and gear were scorched, but she was not dead yet.

她还在通道里，倒在雕刻前的地面上。她曾经离开过吗？她的提灯已经熄灭了，而她的巨剑已经破碎，掉在吉斯的石头脚下。她身上千疮百孔，鲜血淋漓——不，只是看起来像，像数以万计的微小剃刀的成果，但其实只是在她明显处于无助状态时，几次准确的打击造成的。她的皮肤和装备都被烧焦，但她还没死。

The light of her sunrod revealed another half-dozen githyanki ranged around her: four knights standing close, two or three spellcasters hanging back out of reach. She snatched the hilt of her broken blade from the floor and leapt to her feet, mumbling a prayer to any god that might still listen to her that she had not regained her senses too late. The githyanki seemed taken aback by her sudden coming to life, stumbling backward in surprise and perhaps a hint of fear.

她手中日光棒的光亮暴露了她周围的一群吉斯扬基：近处有四个骑士，远处攻击范围之外迂回着两个或三个施法者。她从地上拣起断剑的剑柄，跳着站了起来，同时向任何可能还能听到她倾诉的神祈祷，希望自己的感觉恢复得还不太晚。吉斯扬基们似乎对她的突然苏醒有些迷惑，在惊讶可能还有一点恐惧中蹒跚后退。

Kejira glanced down at the shattered sword in her hand. First things first, she thought. Leaping suddenly at the nearest knight, she drew the broken blade across his throat and snatched his silver sword from his grasp as he fell. To her surprise, she felt it flow in her hands, balancing itself against her swings -- just the way it had when its githyanki master had wielded it. She had no time to question this unexpected good fortune, though. The other three knights hurtled forward in outrage at her presumption. The githyanki considered their silver swords a sacred trust, Kejira knew, and would not tolerate her wielding one against them.

凯吉拉愤怒地盯着手中破碎的巨剑。先解决最重要的问题，她想。她突然跳向最近的骑士，挥舞着断刃划过他的咽喉，然后在他倒下的同时从他手中抓过银剑。令她意外的是，她感到那柄剑在她手中飘动，在她挥舞的时候，它自己会保持平衡——就像它的吉斯扬基主人运用的时候一样。不过，她没有时间探究这个意外的好运了。其他三个骑士看到她的暴行，怒不可扼地围了上来。吉斯扬基认为他们的银剑是神圣的信物，凯吉拉知道，他们更不会容忍她用银剑向他们反戈一击。

"Try and stop me," she muttered as she cut the three knights down. The silver sword practically sang in her hands. The spellcasters hurled fire and black lightning at her, but she shrugged their feeble spells off, closing with each one in turn until all her foes were dead.

“试试阻止我，”她边嘟囔着边砍倒了三名骑士。银剑在她手中简直就像歌唱一样。施法者向她掷出火焰和黑色的闪电，但她轻松甩脱了他们软弱无力的法术，按顺序一个个接近他们，直到所有的敌人都倒下为止。

She stood over the body of the last to fall as he looked up at her, his strength ebbing out onto the floor. His voice was the faintest whisper, but Kejira heard every syllable as clearly as she had heard the voice of Gith in her mind.

她站在最后一个倒下的敌人身上，他则抬头看着她，他的力量正在向地面上倾泄。他的声音是最微弱的低语，但凯吉拉听到了每一个音节，清晰得就像她在头脑里听到的吉斯的声音。

"Danaav'ae-kaa an-talman'ukha."

“达那阿乌’艾-卡阿 安-塔尔曼’乌克哈。”

Kejira drove the silver sword deep into the warlock's bony chest, then threw her head back and let out a long wail of rage and grief. Kicking the body of the githyanki warlock aside, she dropped to her knees where it had lain, clutching the captured silver sword to her breast.

凯吉拉挥起银剑，深深插入魔巫瘦骨嶙峋的胸膛，然后转头向后，同时发出一声充满愤怒和悲痛的长啸。她一脚把吉斯扬基魔巫的尸体踢开，跪倒在地，把夺来的银剑插进了自己的胸口。

The eyes of Gith looked down on her with contempt, mirroring Kejira's rage. But their stone showed nothing of her pain, the grief that cut far worse than a million razors or a thousand silver swords. For she understood the warlock's dying words, far worse than any imprecation:

"You have become one of us."

吉斯之眼充满蔑视的俯视着她，映射着凯吉拉的愤怒。但这些石头没有展现出她的痛苦和悲痛，这些感情的力量所能造成的伤害，远比上万的刀锋或者成千的银剑所造成的更强。因为她明白了魔巫的遗言，比任何诅咒都恶毒：

“你也已经是我们中的一个了。”

【作者: zeranix】【访问统计:】【2006年04月14日 星期五 02:51】【 加入博采】【打印】