"Alan Dean Foster - Flinx 16 - Snakes Eyes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

Flinx murmured reprovingly at his pet, "So that's where you disappeared to." He peered past the gray-
beard to inspect the oldster's beast of burden. "A dryzam."

Yakus had thought he was beyond surprise. He discovered otherwise. "You know this creature? I
purchased it here, but it is not of this world, and few recognize it. You do."

"Yes. Oddly enough, this creature comes from the same world as my minidrag—Alaspin." He patted the
creature's flank, and it tootled in pleasure. "But that doesn't explain why Pip went to you. Minidrags are
empathic telepaths, sensitive to powerful emotions. Ordinarily Pip responds only to mine. This seems to
be an exception. I wonder why."

"I think I can explain." Yakus sounded satisfied. "I was dying, you see. Your snake sensed that, over all
this distance, and came to rescue me." He expanded his chest proudly. "I didn't know old Yakus could feel
anything that strongly."

Flinx shook his head in confusion. "No. People have died all the time around me." The way he said that
made the perceptive prospector eye him narrowly. Perhaps this boy was not the innocent he looked. "Pip


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 Foster, Alan Dean - Commonwealth 16 - Flinx - Snakes Eyes (SS) (v1.0)

never left me to save any of them. And she has reasons for staying especially close to me now. I don't
understand." Turning, he eyed Yakus. "I'd like to know why she did leave me to save you."

Yakus decided it no longer mattered. "She saved me. That is what is important. She saved me to make
you rich. Come with me, help me do a little hard work, and you will have more credit than you can
imagine."

The reaction was not quite what Yakus expected from a simply dressed lad only a few years removed
from urchinhood. "Thanks, but I already have enough credit for my needs." He seemed embarrassed by the
admission.

"However," he continued, before a stunned, disbelieving Yakus could respond, "I'll come with you
anyway. You see, it's important for me to know why Pip—my pet—left me. No offense, but I just can't
believe it was to save you. Whenever Pip leaves me it becomes a matter of intense interest. There've been
too many times when I had to have her around. So... I'll go with you." Flinx grinned. "Anyhow, I've never
seen the High Desert, much less Dead-Place-on-Map, though I've heard a lot about it. It's not a very
appealing place, I understand."

When Yakus was through laughing, he showed Flinx the crystal. Surely he had nothing to fear from this
boy, who seemed honest and deserved well, if only because he was not quite right in the head. "A hallows-
eye!" Flinx was properly impressed. "I've never seen one that big."

Yakus winked conspiratorially. "There are many more this size and larger. The emotions from the
deposit are so strong I could hardly bear to work the lode. This"—he tapped the magnificent orange gem
— "will outfit us for the work and the journey. We will bring back crystals enough to bow the back of my
dryzam. When can you come with me?"

Flinx shrugged, gestured. "When my curiosity's at stake, my impatience matches it. Come on, I'll