"Mike Resnick - The Lotus and the Spear" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

"Because that is not really what I wanted," he replied. "But it was all I could
think of to answer."
"Think harder," I said. "Take as much time as you wish, for this is very
important. I will wait."
We sat in silence for a long moment, and then he turned to me.
"I do not know. But I would not have wanted to live as my father and my
brothers live."
"What would you have wanted?"
He shrugged helplessly. "Something different."
"Different in what way?"
"I do not know," he said again. "Something more..." — he searched for the
word — "more exciting." He consider his answer, then nodded, satisfied. "Even the
impala grazing in the fields lives a more exciting life, for he must ever be wary of the
hyena."
"But wouldn't the impala rather that there were no hyenas?" I suggested.
"Of course," said Ndemi, "for then he could not be killed and eaten." He
furrowed his brow in thought. "But if there were no hyenas, he would not need to be
fleet of foot, and if he were no longer fleet of foot, he would no longer be an
impala."
And with that, I began to see the solution.
"So it is the hyena that makes the impala what he is," I said. "And therefore, even
something that seems to be a bad or dangerous thing can be necessary to the
impala."
He stared at me. "I do not understand, Koriba."
"I think that I must become a hyena," I said thoughtfully.
"Right now?" asked Ndemi excitedly. "May I watch?"
I shook my head. "No, not right now. But soon."
For if it was the threat of the hyena that defined the impala, then I had to find a
way to define those young men who had ceased to be true Kikuyus and yet could
not leave Kirinyaga.
"Will you have spots and legs and a tail?" asked Ndemi eagerly.
"No," I replied. "But I will be a hyena nonetheless."
"I do not understand," said Ndemi.
"I do not expect you to," I said. "But Murumbi will."
For I realized that what he needed was a challenge that could be provided by
only one person on Kirinyaga.
And that person was myself.
###


I sent Ndemi to the village to tell Koinnage that I wanted to address the Council
of Elders. Then, later that day, I put on my ceremonial headdress, painted my face to
look its most frightening, and, filling my pouch with various charms, I made my way
to the village, where Koinnage had assembled all the Elders in his boma. I waited
patiently for him to announce that I had important matters to discuss with them —
for even the mundumugu may not speak before the paramount chief — and then I
got to my feet and faced them.
"I have cast the bones," I said. "I have read the entrails of a goat, and I have
studied the pattern of the flies on a newly- dead lizard. And now I know why Ngala
walked unarmed among the hyenas, and why Keino and Njupo died."