"Andre Norton - Breed To Come - uc" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

out a pause.

"The fact is that our Ancestor"—and he did not
say Honored Ancestor or use any title of respect—"is
so engrossed by this fear of returning Demons which
has settled in his head that he raises voice to unite all
People—as if they were of one family or clan! All Peo-
ple brought together!" Fal-Kan's whiskers bristled.

"All warriors know that the Demons are gone. That
they slew each other, and that they could not make
their kind any more, so they became fewer and fewer
and finally there were none. Whence then would any
come? Do old bones put on flesh and fur and come
alive again? But the Ancestor has this fear, and it
leads him in ways no prudent one would travel. It was
learned the last time his messenger came that he was
giving other People the same things he had sent here
to the caves.

"And—with greater folly—he even spoke of trying
to make truce with the Barkers for a plan of common
defense, lest when the Demons returned we be too
scattered and weak to stand against them. When this
was known, the Elders refused the gifts of Gammage
and told his messenger not to come again, for we no
longer held them clan brothers."

Furtig swallowed. That Gammage would do this!
There must be some other part of the story not known.
For none of the People would be so sunk in folly as to
share with enemies the weapons they had. Yet neither
would Fal-Kan say this if he did not believe it the
truth.

"And Gammage must have heard our words and
understood." Fal-Kan's tail twitched. "We have not




BREED TO COME

seen his messengers since. But we have heard from
our truce mates in the west that there were truce flags
set before the lairs in the north and strangers gath-
ered there. Though we do not know who those were,"
Fal-Kan was fair enough to add. "But it may well be
that, having turned his face from his own kin when
they would not support his madness, Gammage now