"John Dalmas - Yngling 4 - The Yngling in Yamato" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dalmas John)

looked out at the Buriat khan.
"Kaidu," the Northman said loudly, in his own voice now, "I commend you to your people. In most matters you have
been a great khan. Only in the matters of the emperor and Achikh have you seriously erred, and that because the
ambassadors were wizards who laid a spell on you. I now declare you free of it.
"Meanwhile a strong force of Yakut-Russ is on its way. They can arrive tomorrow; be warned!
"And here! I have brought you a gift from Urga tonight!"
The Northman threw something toward Kaidu that landed almost at the khan's feet, then he disappeared inside the vessel
of light. The door closed behind him. After a moment, the fingers of light went out, and the glowing vessel began to ascend
back into heaven, while around Kaidu, his warriors still lay prostrate. When it had risen a short Way, it paused. One of the
fingers of light reappeared, moved, found the object the Northman had thrown. And the vessel spoke again. "OPEN
YOUR GIFT, KAIDU! THE GIFT OF FREEDOM I BROUGHT TO YOU FROM URGA!"
Kaidu bent and picked it up. It was a bag with something in it, something hard. He found the opening, reached in, and
pulled the object out.
 By its blood-encrusted hair. It was the new ambassadors head.

TWO
As the pinnace lifted, Nils seated Achikh cross-legged on the floor. Then he knelt behind him on both knees,
kneading and pummeling his neck and shoulders while Ted Baver watched. "We need to straighten your neck
and back," Nils told him. "As they are, it would be difficult to fight." After a bit, his large powerful fingers and even
his knuckles, began to explore the muscles. Occasionally they dug hard, so that the Buriat winced. It took more than
a little pain to make Achikh wince; Ted knew that from a year of close association. After a while though, Achikhs
spine was straight, and the probing stopped. Nils began to rub again, and Ted could see the residual tension drain from
the Buriat, who got down on the deck and lay slack while the Northman finished the treatment.
By that time they were 450 kilometers above the Earth, parked on the gravitic vector through the hunting
camp. Matthew had turned away from the pilots panel to watch. "Nils," he said at last, "you're familiar with the
sanny. Your friend might enjoy a session in it; it ought to feel good to him. And he may have brought some, uh,
bugs with him. Lice, maybe, or fleas. Have him strip, and you can show him how to use it while I run his breeches
through the cleaning drum. I should probably run your things through, too. You might have picked up some while
you gave him that massage."
Achikh understood Anglic, but not this; key words were unfamiliar. Nils explained, and in a minute, Achikh stood
nude. Then Nils demonstrated the sanny to him, motioned Achikh inside, and closed the door behind him. Ted
Baver waited, curious. It seemed to him the small booth might waken a latent claustrophobia in the Buriat, who was,
after all, a man of the open. A moment later they heard a muffled shout, and some
13
14
thumps against the wall. The spray took him by surprise, Ted thought. But Achikh did not come bursting out. After a
few Buriat oaths and a few more bumps, they heard only the soft hum of the water recycler till the door opened and a
dripping Achikh stepped into the cabin, a grin on his face. Nils shooed him back into the sanny, showed him how to
turn the drier on, and closed the door again.
Then the Northman too stripped, to wait his turn. Matthew handled their clothes at arm's length, tossing them into
the drum and setting it on wash and microwave. It troubled him to have Nils walking unabashedly naked in the pinnace,
certainly more than with Achikh. The Northman was always imposing, almost intimidating in his size and
muscularity, but one got used to thai. Completely naked though... It occurred to him then that it wouldn't bother
him if Nikko weren't there, even though she sat pointedly facing the windscreen. You're jealous, Matthew Kumalo! he
told himself, and thethought disturbed him. So far as he knew, Nikko never thought of Nils sexually, and surely he'd
know; there'd have been some sign. Or was it a different sort of jealousy? Perhaps he simply didn't want her to see
Nils's-equipment, so much larger than his own, as Nils himself was so much larger. And why should that trouble
him? The course in psychology he'd taken, at the university, had insisted that penis size was not an important factor
with most women. Most women; that meant not all of them. And important? How important did something have to
be, to be important? For that matter, how did the textbook's authors know?