"Gardner F. Fox - Temptress Of The Time Flow" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fox Gardner F)

She whispered, staring at him, "You are one of them, aren't you? Like
Leibel and Cravath? Mani said you were..."
Leibel and Cravath were fleet men. Commanders, both of them. Trenton
had known them, and served under Cravath in his lieutenancy. He said
swiftly, "I know them. Where are they? What took them? What--?"
"Drayatha has them," the girl said. A cloud of hate rested on her face at
mention of that name, then faded. "She took them as she took others who
find this Blotch. Those she cannot use, she destroys. She has killed many.
You see, Drayatha is Min-dir, and heiress to the Altar. She hopes to use
the Altar to make herself the mightiest weapon ever devised."
She paused a moment, put a hand to her yellow hair. She smiled, "I am
Kiryla, of the Llinana-kir. We are the people of the hilltops. We grow food
and make clothing for the Min-dir."
Trenton said softly, "So Drayatha has them." He saw the hate-mist
cloud her violet eyes again.
"Yes! She and bloody Theg. They have the people of your race. One by
one they captured them; as they came to explore the Clot. Beutel first.
After him, those who came seeking him."
Trenton took out a glowette and lighted it. Blowing smoke, he watched
the shadows of the temple columns lengthen along the tumbled stones. He
asked, "Is there any way to--help them?"
Kiryla brooded, thrusting her lower lip outward, lowering her long
lashes. "No way, unless you rouse the Llinana-kir."
 He faced her; asked again, "Will you help me rouse them?"
The girl faced him calmly. The violet eyes clouded with the raw hate in
their depths. Her voice cracked as she whispered, "I will help you. Kiryla
will do what she may--and Kiryla has power! Only by overthrowing the
Min-dir can we strike at the Altar. At Drayatha and her Altar."
"An altar? She's worshipped, then. Like a goddess?"
Kiryla smiled, and the twisting of her lips made Trenton shudder. "The
Altar is what makes-that!" Her hand gestured at the black blotch. "She
calls it a weapon."
Puzzled, Trenton followed her up the flat stones. She put out her hand,
wrapped warm fingers his. "Step swiftly. Mani will help us. Come. . ."
It was like going through a dark cloud. Just one step forward and the
ruined Thaman temple was gone, and all around them were fields and
browsing goats. A ring of fir trees towered in the distance, forming a dark
green band that wound up over the hill. Higher up, where faint traces of
snow still lingered, there were slender buildings of sedge color. They
resembled, to Trenton's eyes, nothing more than the flat, long dwellings of
the ancient Martians. Kiryla lifted a tiny gold whistle to her lips; blew
lilting notes from it. She dropped the whistle and smiled, "The Llinanakir
will come soon. They will come and take us to their stronghold. There we
will plan, with Mani.
THE LLINANA-KIR were tall men, strait of back and muscular of arm
and leg. They rode an animal unlike any Trenton had ever seen. It seemed
a cross between a horse and a gazelle. Four-legged, its shapely head was a
bloom with sharp, ugly horns. Its tail was stumpy, and hung with leathern
thongs at the ends of which were attached circular knives.
A half-naked man spoke to Kiryla in a bubbling language that consisted