"Christopher Stasheff - Warlock 13 - Warlock's Last Ride" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stasheff Christopher)

Joy was dominant in this reunion, but beneath it lay unease, not from Allouette alone but from each

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of the Gallowglass siblings as well—unease that Magnus's homecoming might shift the balance they had
worked out between themselves, shock and concern to see how much he had aged in ten years, distress
at the obvious ordeals he had survived, a lurking worry that those trials had made his vast mental powers
even stronger than when he had left—and mystification at the tall willowy woman he had brought with
him.

Evanescent smiled, amused as always by human foibles. She tasted the change in mood and
marveled that the humans could become so somber simply at another's death, for her breed lost all
interest in their sires and dams as soon as they were grown, barely mature. In turn, their mothers and
fathers lost all interest in their offspring once they were past kittenhood. They wandered away from one
another, and if they met a few months later, scarcely remembered who each other were.

So she lay watching, intrigued all over again by the strange emotions of these foolish people and
wondering at their intensity. They cared so much, these silly two-legged creatures! Why did they let so
many things matter to them so deeply? Didn't they know that life was brief, that nothing was of any real
consequence when measured against the span of ages? She had probed the minds of her two and knew
the answer—that they suspected how insignificant they were but refused to accept it and attacked life
with all the greater determination.

She watched until the tallest one, the male whom she thought of as one of hers, turned to his
spaceship and gave an order, whereupon the ramp slid back into the ship, the hatch closed, and the huge
golden discus lifted silently from the earth, drifted up above the treetops, then shot away into the sky,
dwindling to a dot, a point of light, then vanishing.

The humans strode away, but Evanescent lay still, following them with her mind, knowing she
could trace them over hundreds of miles. She noticed that their apprehension deepened as they rode off—
apprehension over then-mother's impending death, but also over the new relationships they must forge
with one another.

She decided she wanted to be closer to their destination and rose, stretched, then turned to trot after
the riders—and stopped short, staring at the beings who confronted her, amazed that she'd had no
slightest inkling of their approach. For the first time in decades, a worm of fear raised its head inside her.

Three

THEY LOOKED LIKE HUMANS, BUT WERE VERY small, these strange creatures who faced
Evanescent, varying from a foot to a foot and a half, and the one that stood at their head was the biggest,
both in muscle and in height. He glared at the alien in anger and suspicion as he demanded, "What have
you to do with my ward?"

Evanescent blinked, surprized by the creatures' sudden appearance, then realized that she had been
so intent on the humans that she had missed the sounds and thoughts of these small ones as they came up
behind her. She smiled, amused by their audacity. "Ward? How can so tall a creature as that be under

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