"Grant, Charles L - Glow of Candles, a Unicorn's Eye" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grant Charles L)

"Viv," I said when Helena coughed, "one last favor. The keys to your landcar."
"What will you do if I don't? Beat me to death?"
I shook my head, rose, and after a moment's long agony, she reached into a drawer in the table beside her and tossed me the keys as though they were hot. "I'll report the thing stolen, you know."
I laughed, moved as though to kiss her, then joined Helena, who was already in the hall.
"Listen," Viv shouted suddenly from the doorway, "if you get a job, remember you're still my client!"

The vehicle was an old one, but it got us through the plex r tunnels to the outside, and once on the highway with no t Dogs in our wake, I managed to slow down a bit. But we ran,
through valleys of trees that had no hand to arrange them,
past dimly lighted villages where we dared not stop. Twice
in four hours we passed other vehicles, all going in the
opposite direction, and each time I felt as if I would strangle
until the headlights glared by and we were in darkness
again. ,
H Helena sat quietly in the passenger seat keeping watch on
the starred sky. She was pale, far more pale than I had ever

seen .her now that the excitement had given way to realization. I kept telling myself that she had done nothing wrong, that she could easily go back to Philayork and claim I had taken her by force, or some such nonsense. I kept telling myself that as though it were a prayer.
And finally her weariness caught up with me and I had to find a small clearing at the side of the road. When I did, I pulled over and, without so much as a kiss or a wink, I fell asleep.
This time, there were no dreams.

4

We rode for two days more, staying away from the main arteries, sticking to the tinier, less-traveled roads that webbed off the highway. It was difficult at first for several reasons. y The hardest adjustment was to the continuing sky, the mountains, the sudden inducement of vertigo when the road would suddenly bend and drop and we were faced with a broad and green valley several kilometers wide. And now that we were running, we abruptly realized that we had no ' place to go. No friends. No contacts. Only the certain belief ?
that should we attempt to enter a cityplex again, we would
be trapped as fast as we walked into the first restaurant for
something to eat.
Only Helena and I, then, and some half-formed hopes.
And finally, a small town called Eisentor, where we grabbed
what courage we could and stopped. With what money we
had we bought provisions, some clothes, and extra fuel for
the car. No one asked us questions, no one paid us any more
mind than they would a taxman drifting through his rounds:
When it became obvious that we weren't suddenly going to
be jumped and shackled, we relaxed, found a small eatahop,
and had us a decent meal. We said little, however, because =
the fear of the flight was still ghosting around our eyes. We
ate, only, and drank what we could. r
Then we walked awhile through narrow streets with wooden,
brick, or clayboard houses. We sat on a bench and watched
several children playing around a puddle left over from the
previous night's rain.
Suddenly, without consulting Helena, I walked over to the
children and asked them what their favorite shows on the x
comunit were. They didn't seem too eager to talk to a stranger, but they answered me anyway; and when I did a few lines from one of the plays Helena had given me, did a few lines and some comic strutting, they laughed. They were puzzled, to be sure, because they didn't really know why, but they laughed and asked for more.
I gave it to them, as much as I could, but when I saw their mother peering anxiously from behind a nearby house, I excused myself and hurried to get Helena.
"Did you see that?" I said excitedly as we made our way back to the car. "Did you see those kids?"
Helena kept nodding as I kept repeating the questions, and when she finally laid a hand across my chest to shut me up, I still couldn't stop grinning.
"Feels good, does it?" she asked smugly, as though she already knew the answer but was making me say it.
"Well, of course it does," I said. "But..."
"But what?"