"C. S. Friedman - Coldfire 2 - When True Night Falls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Friedman C. S)

chunk of debris had struck her.

"We've lost it," he whispered hoarsely. "We've lost it all.
You realize that. Everything we had . . ."

Ever the pragmatist, she whispered, "We still have the
settlement. A few trams. Two generators-"

He shook his head. "Won't last. Can't repair them. Oh,
my God, Lise . . ." His hands were shaking. A cinder fell to
the ground before him, extinguishing itself on the damp
soil. He struggled to think clearly, to plan. Wasn't that his
duty? "We'll have to record what we can. All the data we
can come up with . . . before people forget. Put it down on
paper, write down everything we know-"

"They won't want to do that." She said it quietly, but he
knew as soon as she spoke the words that they were true.
"They'll want weapons first. Security. They won't want to
waste time recording dead facts when there are things out
there waiting to eat them."

"It isn't a waste-"

"I know that. You know that. But will they understand?"

He shut his eyes. The sound of the explosion pounded in
his brain, a heartbeat of loss. "Then we'll lose everything
we have," he whispered. "Everything we are."

There was nothing she could say to that. Nothing she
could do but hold on to him, while the sky filled with the
black ash of their dreams. The fallout of Casca's sacrifice,
the last shattered remnants of their Terran heritage.

In the firelight it looked a lot like blood.

THE PROMISED LAND

One

Report-in-absence from Damien Kilcannon Vryce,
Knight of the Golden Flame, Companion of the Earth-Star
Ascendant

To the Patriarch Jaxom IV, Holy Father of the Eastern
Realm, Keeper of the Prophet's Law,
 Signed and sealed this 5th day of March, 1247 A.S.
Most Reverend Father,