"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Dancers Like Children" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

"This is it," Latona said.
I stared at the tents, the scattered possessions, the Dancers huddled
around me like shadows in the late-afternoon sunlight. "Which ones are the
children?"
"The children live elsewhere. Let me ask permission to see them."
Latona turned to a Dancer beside her and spoke. The Dancer whistled and
churred in response, gesturing at me. Latona nodded once, and then the Dancer
walked forward. "Come on," Latona said.
I followed. The hard-packed mud curved inward, as if feet had worn a
smooth path through the trees. There were no tents here, and the vegetation
had grown lush. I realized then that the land behind us had been tended, that
the Dancers did the opposite of the colonists. The Dancers removed vegetation
except for the thin, spindly trees.
Sunlight began to break through the overhead canopy. We reached a
sun-mottled area where the undergrowth had again been thinned. Here the canvas
material had been tied to the trees sideways to form a gate. We approached the
gate and stared over the edge. Inside, small, dark creatures scrabbled in the
dirt, tussling and fighting. Some sat off to the sides, leaning on the gate --
sleeping, perhaps. Toward the back, larger children lay on the ground, their
skin gray in the filtered sunlight. Their fingers seemed claw-like, and their
eyes were dark, empty, and hollow.
I nodded toward the children. "Are they ill?"
"No," Latona said. "They've hit puberty."
"Do these children ever interact with the adults?"
"Not really. The adults treat them like animals. Education into the
life of a Dancer begins after puberty."
I shivered a little, wondering at life that began in a cage under a
harsh sun. The gray-skinned children did not move, but lay in the sunlight is
if they were dead.
The Dancer churred and hovered over us. I glanced at it. Latona spoke
briefly, then said to me, "We have to leave."
The Dancer corralled us, as if pushing us away from the children.
Latona took my arm and led me in a different direction. The Dancer watched
from behind.
"This is a quicker way back to the dome," Latona said. Some of the
cream had melted off her face, making her appear lopsided and slightly alien.
The gray-skinned, sickly-looking creatures with the clawed hands
haunted me. "You never told me why you brought the children here."
"I wanted them to learn respect for the Dancers." Latona kept her head
down. We moved out of the trees.
"Why? The arrangement seems to be working."
"They're living beings," Latona snapped. "Humans have a history of
mistreating beings they don't understand."
"And you think the colonists are mistreating the Dancers."
"Yes." Latona pushed a ropy branch aside and stepped into a patch of
sunlight. Her sand scarf glowed white. "But I don't know what the Dancers
think."
"That's why the Alliance is here, to find out what the Dancers think?"
"And to negotiate an agreement over the Salt Juice herbs."
I frowned. I stepped into the sun, and the heat prickled along my back.