"Andre Norton - Breed to come" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

Before they had died, the Demons had gone mad,

10

BREED TO COME

even as sometimes the Barkers did. They had fallen
upon one another in rage, and were not able to mate
or produce younglings. So without younglings and
with their terrible hatred for one another, they had
come to an end, and the world was the better for their
going.

Gammage had learned this in the lairs, but he also
feared that someday the Demons might return. From
death? Furtig wondered. Great learning they had


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had, but could any living creature die and then live
again? Perhaps the Demons were not rightly living
creatures such as the People, even the Rattons. Some-
day—someday he would go to Gammage to leam
more.

But not today, not until he had proven himself,
shown all the Five Caves that the blood of Gammage
was not to be ill-considered. And he would waste no
more time in spying on the dead lairs of Demons ei-
ther!

Furtig swung out of the tree, dropping lightly. This
was the outpost of a small grove which angled back to
become an arm of the forest country, the hunting ter-
ritory of the Five Caves. Furtig was as at home in its
shade as he was in the caves.

He stopped to tuck his hunting claws more tightly
into his belt so that no small jangle would betray his
passing, and then flitted on, his feet making no sound
on the ground. Since he wanted to make speed he
went to all fours, moving in graceful bounds. The Peo-
ple stood proudly upright when it was a time of cere-
mony, thus proving that the Demons who always
walked so were no greater, but in times of need they
fell back upon ancestral ways.