"George R. R. Martin - Dying of the Light" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin George R R)

Fat Satan's disc.
Gwen reached out and touched him on the shoulder. "No," she said softly. "I'm sorry. I forgot too. It was almost
like Avalon."
He looked at her and forced a faint smile, feeling lost. "Yes. Almost. I've missed you, Gwen, despite it all. Or
should I be saying that?"
"Probably not," she said. Her eyes avoided his again and went wandering from him, out across the lake. The far
side was. lost in haze. She gazed into the distance for a long time, not moving except once, when she shivered briefly
from the cold. Dirk watched her clothing slowly fade to a mottled off-white and green to match the shade of the
ground she sat upon.
Finally he reached to touch her, his hand unsure. She shrugged it away. "No," she said.
Dirk sighed and picked up a handful of cool sand, running it through his fingers as he thought. "Gwen." He
hesitated. "Jenny, I don't know . . ."
She glanced at him and frowned. "That's not my name, Dirk. It never was. No one ever called me that except you."
He winced, hurt. "But why-"
"Because it isn't me!"
"No one else," he said. "It just came to me, back on Avalon, and it fit you and I called you that. I thought you liked
it."
She shook her head. "Once. You don't understand. You never understand. It came to mean more to me than it did
at first, Dirk. More and more and more, and the things that name meant to me were not good things. I tried to tell
you, even then. But that was a long time ago. I was younger, a child. I didn't have the words."
"And now?" His voice was edged with overtones of anger. "Do you have the words now, Gwen?"
"Yes. For you, Dirk. More words than I can use." She smiled at some secret joke and shook her head so her hair
tossed in the wind. "Listen, private names are fine. They can be a special sharing. With Jaan it is like that. The
highbonds have long names because they fill many roles. He can be Jaan Vikary to a Wolfman friend on Avalon, and
high-Ironjade in the councils of Gathering, and still Riv in worship and Wolf in high-war and yet another name in
bed, a private name. And there is a rightness to it, because all those names are him. I recognize that. I like some of
him better than other parts, like Jaan more than Wolf or high-Ironjade, but they are all true for him. The Kavalars
have a saying, that a man is the sum of all his names. Names are very important on High Kavalaan. Names are very
important everywhere, but the Kavalars know that truth better than most. A thing without a name has no substance. If
it existed, it would have a name. And, likewise, if you give a thing a name, somewhere, on some level, the thing
named will exist, will come to be. That's another Kavalar saying. Do you understand, Dirk?"
"No."
She laughed. "You're as muddled as ever. Listen, when Jaan came to Avalon he was Jaantony Ironjade Vikary.
That was his name, his whole name. The most important part of it was the first two words-Jaantony is his true name,
his birth name, and Ironjade is his holdfast and his alliance. Vikary is a made-up name he took at puberty. All of the
Kavalars take such names, usually the names of highbonds they admire, or mythic figures, or personal heroes. A lot
of Old Earth surnames have survived that way. The thought is that by taking the name of a hero the boy will gain
some of the man's qualities. On High Kavalaan it actually seems to work.Э
"Jaan's chosen name, Vikary, is a bit unusual in several respects. It sounds like an Old Earth hand-me-down, but it
isn't. From all accounts Jaan was an odd child-dreamy, very moody, much too introspective. He liked to listen to the
eyn-kethi sing and tell stories when he was very little, which is bad for a Kavalar boy. The eyn-kethi are the breeding
women, the perpetual mothers of the holdfast, and a normal child is not supposed to associate with them any more
than he has to. When Jaan was older he spent all his time alone, exploring caves and abandoned mines in the
mountains. Safely away from his holdfast-brothers. I don't blame him. He was always an object of torment,
essentially friendless, until he met Garse. Who is notably younger, but still wound up as Jaan's protector through the
later stages of his childhood. Eventually that all changed. When Jaan approached the age when he would be subject
to the code duello, he turned his attention to weaponry and mastered it very quickly. He is really a fantastic study;
today he is terribly fast and considered deadly, better even than Garse, whose skill is mainly instinctual.
"It wasn't always like that, however. Anyway, when it came time for Jaantony to choose a name, he had two great
heroes, but he did not dare name either one to the highbonds. Neither of them were Ironjades, and worse, both were