"Ann Maxwell - Concord 3 - Name of a Shadow" - читать интересную книгу автора (Maxwell Ann)

dreams at bargain rates.
*Scavengers.*
Kayle’s scathing thought echoed in Ryth’s mind, along with the implications of such people appearing
on Vintra.
*How do they know?* mused Ryth.
*They have the instincts of carrion eaters.* Kayle twitched the hem of his robe aside as though to
avoid contamination. *They must be going to the kla’rre district. There was an outbreak of pekh there
ten days ago. The survivors will need money to mourn their dead.* Kayle’s lips thinned in a silent snarl.
*Malia has much to answer for.*
Ryth watched the scavengers vanish into Sima’s seething lavender brick streets.
“Why Malia?” asked Ryth.
“Maia is the cause of Vintra’s drastic decline. Vintra never recovered from the Undeclared War.
Worse, Malia is sabotaging Vintra even as we walk these streets.”
“Why?”
“If I knew, my work would be over. The Carifil asked me to study Malia and Malians before they
are destroyed by the Concord. Unfortunately, Malia forbids alien visitors and Malians rarely leave their
planet.”
“Some aliens must be permitted,” said Ryth. “No pattern is perfect.”
Kayle laughed. “Maybe, pattern-man. But the Carifil never found the exception. That’s why I’m here
on Vintra, Malia’s colony, learning by inference and extrapolation about the Malian mind.”
“What have you learned?”
“That Malians have earned their extinction.”
Yet Ryth sensed an echo of anguish that was the name F’n’een.
“If Malia’s pattern is so obvious and so guilty, why do you need my skills?” said Ryth softly.
Kayle looked casually around the street. There were many people out and they walked too close for
privacy.
*The Carifil want to know why Malians could not adapt to the Concord’s Sole Restraint. When we
know that, the First Contact teams can look for the Malian syndrome in newly discovered cultures. Then
we can simply proscribe that type of culture, rather than admitting it to Concord and then eventually being
forced to eradicate an entire genepool.*
Kayle’s mindspeech slipped beyond the conversational level and became information wrapped in a
rich complex of emotions.
*Malians are too beautiful to destroy—yet we must, for they have twice ignored the Sole Restraint.*
Then the emotions vanished, leaving echoes of sadness.
*Yesterday, a Vintran spoke to me from behind a door, whispering about a strong man and a
black-haired woman with eyes like ice. He said they were Malians who came to Vintra often. He said
that when they were here, death followed Like the long shadow of night.
*He said they would be in Old Sima tonight, on the Street of the Purple Blossom, in a cellar called
Regret.*
Kayle glanced sideways, but whatever reaction Ryth might have had was concealed within the folds
of his Sharnn cape.
*If what the Vintran said is true,” continued Kayle, *the Concord will have all the proof it needs to
destroy Malia.* There was weariness rather than triumph in Kayle’s thought, resonances of regret that
tore at Ryth’s mind. *And I pray,* added Kayle, *that the Allgod forgives my part in Malia’s
annihilation.*
Kayle’s mind withdrew. Ryth walked soundlessly, his green eyes noting and naming and correlating a
range of details that would have astonished Kayle if he had known. Finally, Kayle emerged from his dark
thoughts.
*This Vintran,* began Ryth slowly, feeling his way through a maze of pattern possibilities. *Where is
he now?*