"Ann Maxwell - Concord 1 - The Singer Enigma" - читать интересную книгу автора (Maxwell Ann)

“You must be strong, to hold her weight so easily,” said Lyra, measuring the slake with her eyes.
“She’s nearly as long as you, though very thin.”
Tarhn wondered how Lyra had known n’Lete’s sex, but let it pass.
“Slakes have a low density,” said Tarhn, stroking n’Lete’s long neck. “On Tau they glide and, when
forced, fly on the shoulders of the wind. And the wind always moves, swift and deep. So they have little
need for heavy muscles to power their wings. Their bones are hollow and their skin and flesh are light,
resilient, yet very strong.”
N’Lete opened her mouth wide and air rushed hissing through serrated teeth. Two long fangs folded
down from the roof of her mouth.
“Yes, n’Lete,” he said, chuckling, “I was just leading up to that.” Then Tarhn stopped smiling and
looked at Lyra. “Perhaps you won’t find them so beautiful when I tell you how and what they eat. If my
description ... disturbs you, I’ll stop.”
Lyra said nothing, waiting and watching him with clear amber eyes.
“The two long teeth (fangs) are hollow. When she bites, a drug flows through the teeth into the veins
of her prey. The prey immediately is paralyzed or tolled, depending on the amount of drug n’Lete pumps
in.” Tarhn watched, but other than a slight dilation of gold Lyra showed no reaction.
“Why,” she said slowly, “do they kill?”
“Food. Slakes must eat.”
“Are there no plants for them? No ... you have no word for it!” she said wonderingly. “Symbiosis?
Yes. No.” Lyra paused, searching. “Let me describe what I mean. On my home planet, there are many
plants. Some of them are fulfilled by nurturing us. Slow trembling delight that the fruit of their bodies
mingles and becomes one with ours. Is it like that out here?”
Tarhn hesitated, then plunged. “Yes and no, Lyra. Some Galactics are sensitive enough to the lives
and needs of plants to sort out which plants give willingly and which give only because they can’t get
away. But most Galactics don’t have that sensitivity. All they have is their rumbling stomachs. If a plant or
animal isn’t lethal or very quick, it is eaten. It has always been this way. The survival imperative. The
biosystem of every known planet is based on it, civilizations are based on it, and individuals accept it with
varying degrees of distaste or pleasure.”
Lyra said nothing for a long time; her mind and body fairly hummed with concentration. In the sudden
silence, he remembered the lyrical voice, subtle music that should have been alien but was more familiar
than the texture of n’Lete’s tongue sucking soothingly against his palm. Once he thought he heard music,
a rhythmic exchange, dispersing. But it must have come from outside the cabin, for inside all was quiet.
With utmost delicacy, he attempted to eavesdrop on Lyra’s thoughts, but the rhythmic music disturbed
him.
“Teach me more.”
Tarhn started. “About the slakes?”
“Any aspect of unity describes the whole.”
“What?” said Tarhn, then as he felt the mist of sweat on his skin he realized just how hard he had
tried to penetrate Lyra’s thoughts.
Unsuccessfully.
He gathered his fraying concentration and returned to the slakes.
“Tongue ... yes .... her tongue is basically a straw with rasping edges. She sucks the blood from the
paralyzed prey, then shreds the flesh finely and swallows it. Not all of the flesh, unless the wind is strong
enough to lift her and her meal to a safe place, a place where she may lair up until her body transforms
enough of the prey that she can lift and glide on a normal wind.”
“Safe? Then slakes, too, are hunted as food?”
“A grounded slake is as good as dead. There are many predators on land, all of them hungry.”
“And the plants ... ?”
Tarhn turned his hand palm up. “It takes energy to live. Few plants offer as much energy, unit for unit,
as flesh. Survival again.”