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

when Koinnage, the paramount chief of the village, walked up to my boma.
"Jambo, Koinnage," I greeted him, dropping my blanket to the ground, for the
sun was now overhead and the air was finally warm.
"Jambo, Koriba," he replied, a worried frown on his face. I looked at him
expectantly, for it is very rare for Koinnage to climb my hill and visit me in my boma
.
"It has happened again," he announced grimly. "This is the third time since the
long rains."
"What has happened?" I asked, confused.
"Ngala is dead," said Koinnage. "He walked out naked and unarmed among the
hyenas, and they killed him."
"Naked and unarmed?" I repeated. "Are you certain?"
"I am certain."
I squatted down near my dying fire, lost in thought. Keino was the first young
man we had lost. We had thought it was an accident, that he had stumbled and
somehow fallen upon his own spear. Then came Njupo, who burned to death when
his hut caught fire while he was inside it.
Keino and Njupo lived with the young, unmarried men in a small colony by the
edge of the forest, a few kilometers from the main village. Two such deaths might
have been coincidence, but now there was a third, and it cast a new light on the first
two. It was now obvious that, within the space of a few brief months, three young
men of chosen to commit suicide rather then continue their lives on Kirinyaga.
"What are we to do, Koriba?" asked Koinnage. "My own son lives at the edge of
the forest. He could be the next one!"
 I took a round, polished stone from the pouch about my neck, stood up, and
handed it to him.
"Place this beneath your son's sleeping blanket," I said. "It will protect him from
this thahu that is affecting our young men."
"Thank you, Koriba," he said gratefully. "But can you not provide charms for all
the young men?"
"No," I replied, still greatly disturbed by what I had heard. "That stone is only
for the son of a chief. And just as there are all kinds of charms, there are all kinds of
curses. I must determine who has placed this thahu on our young men, and why.
Then and only then can I create strong enough magic to combat it." I paused. "Can
Ndemi bring you some pombe to drink?"
He shook his head. "I must return to the village. The women are wailing the death
chant, and there is much to be done. We must burn Ngala's hut and purify the
ground upon which it rested, and we must post guards to make sure that the hyenas,
having feasted so easily, do not come back in search of more human flesh."
He turned and took a few steps toward the village, then stopped.
"Why is this happening, Koriba?" he asked, his eyes filled with puzzlement.
"And is the thahu limited just to the young men, or do the rest of us bear it too?"
I had no answer for him, and after a moment he resumed walking down the path
that led to the village.
I sat down next to my fire and stared silently out over the fields and savannah
until Ndemi finally sat down next to me.
"What kind of thahu would make Ngala and Keino and Njupo all kill themselves,
Koriba?" he asked, and I could tell from his tone that he was frightened.
"I am not sure yet," I replied. "Keino was very much in love with Mwala, and he
was very unhappy when old Siboki was able to pay the bride price for her before he