"Jean and Jeff Sutton - The Boy Who Had The Power" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sutton Jean and Jeff)

The rancher outlined Jedro's duties while giving him a quick tour of the
yard and barn. From early spring until late fall he would pasture Krant's
flock of gran in the Ullan Hills, moving the animals along the rolling slopes
to keep them from cropping the grass to the roots. Sleeping and eating in the
open, he would return to the ranch house only occasionally to get food; the
rest of the time he would be alone. He savored that.
Before the onset of winter the fattened gran would be herded into the
fenced yards to await the chain of relkdrawn wagons that would take them to
market in a distant town. Relks, Jedro learned, were large, flat-headed
quadrupeds that served both for transportation and as beasts of burden. Krant
owned two of the creatures, thin, nervous animals that were kept locked in
small stalls in one corner of the gloomy barn. They reared, snorting with
terror, whenever Krant entered. Their large, dark eyes rolling wildly, their
brown and white bodies would tremble. Sight of them evoked a deep stirring in
some hidden part of Jedro's mind, although he was quite certain he had never
seen such animals before. He could sympathize with them and understand their
fear.
"Not worth their feed," explained Krant. "Only use 'em a few times a
year to go to town or ride out to pasture. The rest of the time they're dead
weight."
"What are their names?"
"Names? They haven't any. They're just animals."
"They look hungry," he ventured timidly.
"No work, no food," snapped Krant. "That's the policy around here and
don't ever forget it."
He gulped, feeling a surge of pity for the animals. He could see no
reason why they couldn't be pastured in the nearby panda grass, especially
when the relks were only ridden a few times a year. He wanted to suggest it
but didn't dare.
The rancher pointed out the various tools and pieces of equipment,
explaining how each was to be used. "I'd better not catch you breaking
anything," he warned. It struck Jedro that almost everything he'd seen already
was broken, but he didn't say so.
As he followed the rancher outside, he glanced at the sky, then jerked
straighter. Two Suns! The big alien yellow sun and another -- a small orange
sun just lifting above the horizon. Fright stabbed at his mind.
"What are you gawking at?" growled Krant.
"Two suns," he exclaimed.
"What did you expect?" asked the rancher sarcastically. Caught with a
deep sweeping incredulity that told him that such a thing could not be, Jedro
scarcely heard him.
"An orange sun," he whispered.
"You'd better give me your attention," grated Krant, "because I'm not
going to tell you anything twice. You'd better remember that."
"Yes, sir." Jedro wrenched his gaze from the sky, his mind in tumult.
Again he had the impression of living a hideous nightmare. He could recognize
things that he was certain he'd never seen before, even read the words on the
supply containers he'd seen in the barn and know what they meant, although he
couldn't remember ever having seen a written word before. Yet he knew his
name, the individual letters that composed it. How was that? But a sky with