"Alan Dean Foster - Icerigger 3 - Deluge Drivers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

deluge

I

The worst part of it wasn't that Ethan Fortune was freezing to death. The worst part
of it was that he was doing so voluntarily.

Nudity was not favored by the heavily furred native Tran. For a human being to be
standing naked on Tran-ky-ky verged on insanity. Despite this Ethan was not trying
to commit suicide. He was supposed to be celebrating, though it was hard to
pretend you were having a good time when you were turning blue and the goose
bumps dotting arms, legs, and other sections of your anatomy were well on then-
way to settling in as permanent features of the epidermal topography.

That he had company in misery was no consolation. Skua September was just as
cold, except for those portions of his face and neck that were covered by a heavy
brown and gray beard. The old giant had both arms clapped tightly to his ribs.

There was also the matter of exposure to curious eyes as well as to the elements.
Foolish to be embarrassed, Ethan told himself. He and Skua were the only the
human beings in the royal hall of Arsudun. It was only natural their nude forms
would draw attention, with their flat feet devoid of skatelike chiv, their dan-less
arms, and their largely furless bodies.

Mousokka, who was second mate on the icerigger Slander scree, commented that
he found the subtle change in color of their skin very becoming. The glares this
observation drew quickly convinced him that the change was other than voluntary
and he did not mention it again.

The hardest thing to do was simply to be quiet. Shivering was permissible:
muttering and making other noise was not. Skua leaned over to whisper to his
companion anyway.

"It's not so bad, young feller-me-lad. After a while the numbness kind of
overwhelms the cold. "

"Shut up. Just shut up, will you?" Ethan leaned forward around the nearest
member of the honor guard and looked toward the cupola. "Surely they're almost
through?"

Beneath an intricately carved dome of stavanzer ivory, a trio of elderly Arsudunian
scholars were intoning the traditional marriage ritual. Overhead arched the stone
walls and ceiling of the royal hall of Arsudun, the island-state whose corrupt
Landgrave Ethan, Skua, and their Tran friends had recently overthrown. The new


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deluge

young Landgrave, Sev Gorin-Vloga, had given his blessings to the newlyweds-to-be