"Duncan, Dave - Strings" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duncan Dave)

The hibiscuses were dying. Leaning on the half-rotted rail, staring back down the lush slope between the trunks of the higher trees, Alva wondered about the hibiscuses-why them? She would miss their beauty, joyful and transient ...
Then tootsteps sounded on the platform behind her. She wheeled and saw Kas, and instantly suppressed a frantic desire to rush at him. She turned away quickly.
He paced over to her side, tall and dark and solid as a stone pillar. Something unmoving in a shifting world was Kas, her much-older brother, deep-spoken Kas. "Little sister?" "Kas?" "Is anything wrong?" "No! I mean ... I'm a little worried about the weather-the air's so dead. Just the weather. 'Norried about a typhoon." "We never get typhoons here."
She forced her hands to release their death grip on the rail before he could notice. She was not a child, she reminded herself. She had lived on every continent, visited most of the great cities-had made her first trip around the world alone when she was only thirteen. She was not a child! She was not going to weep, and she did not need to be hugged by a big brother-that would be ridiculous. A lover, fine . . . but there was none handy at the moment. "There was a typhoon here in 1717,", she told the hillside. "It did a lot of damage. Think what one would do now, with no reef to stop it"' She did not look around. "The forecast is good. Do you feel better on the shot-- than you do up here?"
Keeping her face as impassive as she could, Alva turned. "What do you mean, Kas?" He smiled sadly. She noticed with surprise how much
gray there was in his beard, how many wrinkles in the dusky face and how deep they were, Even in the tropics he Pts stupid to come outdoors without sun block and goggles. "It started on the fifth, didn't it?" he said. "On Tuesday?"
Alva felt a mighty rush of relief. "You, too? You feel it, too?" She was not alone, not going mad. "A little. Always I feel it a little @ Not like you're doing."
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So much for inscrutability! Then she did throw herself at Kas. and he squeezed her tight, crushing all the air out of her, and that was wonderful, just what she had needed. For a time she sniveled mutely against his shoulder. And Kas had the sense to say nothing at all. "It's never been this bad." she said. "Nevert It gets worse every time. When Omar went it was bad. Tal's time was worse yet-but not like this." "This one is your call. Your kismet. That's why."
She had known that, really, but she wailed in horror when he put it into words. "No! No! I won't leave you. I won't go!"
He steadied her head with a big, strong hand. "Alva, dear Alva! They all said that at first, every one of them. You've been squirming like an eel for days. Don't fight it."
She mumbled stubborn refusals, but she could feel her resolution failing already. "I've talked to Nauc," he said. "I called them on Tuesday." "You-Tuesday?" "I feel it, too, remember. You were smiling like an idiot, but you'd turned such a pretty shade of green----"
She pummeled him. "I did not!- "Turquoise, actually." "Swine!" "Avocado in some lights. Anyway, they say yes." "Yes what?" she demanded apprehensively, pulling back. "They've got a whole basketful of candidates. They want your help to-" "No!" She was aghast. "Suppose I make a mistake? Suppose I'm wrong?"
He shook his head in reproof. "Been bothered by snakebites lately?"
She twisted her face away from him. "When'," she whispered. "Alva ... Little sister, why not go now9- "Now? Todalv? But packing., ." "Leave right now," he said, "You won't sleep or eat until you start. Lon,4 farewells are sad farewells. You can Just change and go.-
Panic choked her, and she could only stare. He smiled cheerfully, but his eyes were glistening. "Moala's finished your packing. The Air Force is standing by." That was a family joke, the government's only plane. an
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ancestral turbofan that had ferried tourists, back in the days when Banzarak had boasted one of the world's great beaches. "By air across to Singapore," Kas said. "Then super to Nauc. You'll be there by dark-except it'll be early morning their time. 11
"Oh, you have been busy!" Alya said, struggling to match his counterfeit smile. Her heart was pounding insanely, and her knees wanted to liquefy. "I can't just rush off -"
"There may not be much time. You know that. Even one day might make much difference-for many people."
She felt drowned in a sudden flood. "The old man? Is it fair--2'
Kas shook his head. "He's not going." "Oh!" Alya bit her lip. All her life Or. Piridinar Chan had been prime minister of Banzarak. She had no idea how old he was-she suspected she would be shocked to find out. A dear, gentle old man, Pirie had always headed up the Banzarak delegations to Cainsville. "Dr. Jar Jathro," Kas said cautiously. "You know him?"
Alya pulled a face and nodded. "He just divorced his second wife, or was she his third?" "He's a very acute politician, which is what matters. Piridinar took him along the last two or three times, so he knows how the negotiations are done. He'll have a couple of backups with him."
She nodded. If that was what Kas thought best, then she would not argue; but she wished that Jar Jathro did not always make her think of lizards.
When she said nothing, Kas added, "I didn't tell you because. . ."
Because he had not wanted to worry her? But it felt right. Oh, God! How right it felt!
No. She saw that Kas had been testing, making sure, watching tier agony grow until there could be no doubt, because this was hellishly important. His eyes were anxious now that she might resent the testing. She grabbed her brother's beard in both hands and pulled his face down to kiss.
Hard and long. "Allah and Krishna and Holy Etceteras!" he said afterward. "A sister is not supposed to kiss her brother like that!" But his eyes were gentled by relief that she was not mad at him. She tried to do it again, and he took hold of her wrists. "Wanton!" he said. "Pervert!"
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"Why not? You enjoy it, don't you?" "Certainly not! I keep wondering what the cabinet would say if they saw us. Besides, I have to keep my eyes open in case I forget who you are." "An old family tradition," she said. Nauc tonight! Cainsville tomorrow, she supposed. What did she have to wear? "Don't ever talk about that! You find a good strong pioneer type. "Tall, dark, and handsome?" It only hurts when I laugh. "Well, pick one of the above."' "Tall, then ... Oh, Kas!" Her voice broke in remorse. "Oh Kas, come with me?"
He shook his head in silence. "Your kismet, Alya. "Just come to help me choose, Not- " She felt a twist of nausea. "Not all the way. Just come and hold my hand."
He pulled a face. "And have to come away after-ward?" He was suffering much more than he had admitted, then. Alya squeezed him once more.
She was the last. Brothers, sisters, cousins-ten of them had gone, and now the buddhi was calling her, too. And then there would be only Kas, and Thalia. He was much more than a figurehead sultan, in spite of what the constitution said, but he would be the last of their generation.
Thalia was a cousin and had the buddhi, also. What of their children? Alya wondered. Kani was ten. Who would next feel a satori? Kas himself? Or would it start in on the youngsters? She shivered. "I'll make my choice-and then come back here."
He smiled sadly. "That might not work. Others might accept it, but what of our own people? They won't go if you don't."
She shivered again. fear of the future looming very big. "How many')" "As many as possible. You know that."
Cold, cold terror froze her bones. Thousands of lives I What ;if she chose wrong? What if they had all chosen wrong, all the others before her? Where could she find the courage to gamble so many human creatures? "The buddhi," she whispered.
Again he smiled his sad smile. "You were certainly born with it. "
That was another family joke: "You were certainly born with
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it; you will certainly die with it; and you would certainly die sooner without it."
I hate it!" she shouted. "The family curse." "The family blessing," Kas insisted. High above the royal residence a very faint breeze nudged the limp flag, the bloodred flag of Banzarak hearing the national emblem, a cobra entwined with a silken string.
Nauc, April 6- 7
How DID A caterpillar feel when it opened up in the butterfly business?
Small, Cedric thought. Lonely. The hotel room was cramped and dingy, stinking worse than the streets outside. Fungus flourished around the shower pad. The wallpaper looked like beans fried in blood. The single chair was hard and unsteady, and the bed would be too short for him.
For the third time he checked his credit. He had a clear choice: he could either call home to Madge at Meadowdale, or he could eat breakfast in the morning. That was not a hard decision. He pulled his chair closer to the corn, but then he got distracted again by the action. God in Heaven! Were they go-Ing to. @ . Yes, they were. AgaW He squirmed with embarrassment. But he watched. Holo shows at Meadowdale had never been like this. And the, quality nf the image was so goodf He could have swom that he was looking through a window into the next room where a couple was-was doing certain things he had never seen done before. Doing, in fact, some things he had not known were possible. Great Heavens! At Meadowdale the images had been fuzzier, and there had been long periods of fog, on one channel or another, with nothing visible at all.
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