"John Norman - Telnarian histories 02 - The Captain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norman John)

our own, and that the tiers of reality may exceed our horizons, which we take,
naturally enough, like the rodent and insect, to constitute the termini of being.
Perhaps there are parallel, or intersecting, universes, or dimensions. This
possibility, absurd though it may be, suggests the possibility of points of connection
with our own world, perhaps even "corridors" or "gates." Too, some speculate that
the Telnarian world, in some obscure sense, may be our own world, and not
another, that it lies somehow in our own past, or, perhaps, future. Perhaps it was
once our world, and has grown apart. Perhaps we are branches on the same tree,
and as we grow toward the stars, or doom, we can hear, from time to time, the rustle
of one another's leaves in the darkness. But such speculations are doubtless absurd.
Therefore we dismiss them. Lastly I might mention that we have, on the whole,
followed the chronicler's, or chroniclers', if that should be the case, divisions of the
manuscript.

CHAPTER 1

"Remove her clothing," said the connoisseur.

"I see," said the connoisseur.

"She is not mine," said Julian, of the Aurelianii, speaking to the connoisseur. "I would
like, as a favor, for a friend, as a surprise for him, to have her informed, enlightened."

"Trained?" asked the connoisseur.

"Well trained," said Julian.

"Exquisitely?"

"Surely."

"Until she becomes fully what she is, explicitly, manifestly, and can be nothing else?"

"Yes."

"One wonders," mused the connoisseur.
"It is my expectation," conjectured Julian, "that she might prove acceptable."

"That seems possible," said the connoisseur. "Is she alive?"

"I do not know," said Julian.

There was a sudden, soft, startled, involuntary, timid, shamed, helpless cry.

"Keep your hands at your sides," said the connoisseur.

There was an intake of breath. Then there was another small cry, suddenly, much like the
first.

"She will moan well," said the connoisseur.