"Ursula K. LeGuin - The Ekumen - Old Music and the Slave Women" - читать интересную книгу автора (Le Guin Ursula K)

felt the wire snap down on his foot again, and again.
Darkness eased him. He slept most of the time. After a couple of days he could sit up and eat what the scared
bondswoman brought him. His sunburn was healing, and most of his aches and pains were milder. His foot was swollen
hugely; bones were broken; that didn't matter till he had to get up. He dozed, drifted. When Rayaye walked into the roo
recognised him at once.
They had met several times, before the Uprising. Rayaye had been Minister of Foreign Affairs under President Oyo
What position he had now, in the Legitimate Government, Esdan did not know. Rayaye was short for a Werelian but br
and solid, with a blue-black polished-looking face and greying hair, a striking man, a politician.
"Minister Rayaye," Esdan said.
"Mr. Old Music. How kind of you to recall me! I'm sorry you've been unwell. I hope the people here are looking af
you satisfactorily?"
"Thank you."
"When I heard you were unwell I inquired for a doctor, but there's no one here but a veterinarian. No staff at all. No
the old days! What a change! I wish you'd seen Yaramera in its glory."
"I did." His voice was rather weak, but sounded quite natural. "Thirty-two or -three years ago. Lord and Lady Ane
entertained a party from our embassy."
"Really? Then you know what it was," said Rayaye, sitting down in the one chair, a fine old piece missing one arm.
"Painful to see it like this, isn't it! The worst of the destruction was here in the house. The whole women's wing and the g
rooms burned. But the gardens were spared, may the Lady be praised. Laid out by Meneya himself, you know, four hu
years ago. And the fields are still being worked. I'm told there are still nearly three thousand assets attached to the prop
When the trouble's over, it'll be far easier to restore Yaramera than many of the great estates." He gazed out the window
"Beautiful, beautiful. And Aneos' housepeople were famous for their beauty, you know. And training. It'll take a long tim
build up to that kind of standard again."
"No doubt."
The Werelian looked at him with bland attentiveness. "I expect you're wondering why you're here."
"Not particularly," Esdan said pleasantly.
"Oh?"
"Since I left the Embassy without permission, I suppose the Government wanted to keep an eye on me."
"Some of us were glad to hear you'd left the Embassy. Shut up there—a waste of your talents."
"Oh, my talents," Esdan said with a deprecatory shrug, which hurt his shoulder. He would wince later. Just now he w
enjoying himself. He liked fencing.
"You're a very talented man, Mr. Old Music. The wisest, canniest alien on Werel, Lord Mehao called you once. Yo
worked with us—and against us, yes—more effectively than any other offworlder. We understand one another. We can
It's my belief that you genuinely wish my people well, and that if I offered you a way of serving them—a hope of bringing
terrible conflict to an end—you'd take it."
"I would hope to be able to."
"Is it important to you that you be identified as a supporter of one side of the conflict, or would you prefer to remain
neutral?"
"Any action can bring neutrality into question."
"To have been kidnapped from the Embassy by the rebels is no evidence of your sympathy for them."
"It would seem not."
"Rather the opposite."
"It would be so perceived."
"It can be. If you like."
"My preferences are of no weight, Minister."
"They're of very great weight, Mr. Old Music. But here. You've been ill, I'm tiring you. We'll continue our conversat
tomorrow, eh? If you like."
"Of course, Minister," Esdan said, with a politeness edging on submissiveness, a tone that he knew suited men like th
one, more accustomed to the attention of slaves than the company of equals. Never having equated incivility with pride,
Esdan, like most of his people, was disposed to be polite in any circumstance that allowed it, and disliked circumstance