"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 02 - Derai" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

head. When he stood up he heard the mournful booming. High
above, drifting among the scattered clouds, a beast was dying.

Already most of the auxiliary pods had been punctured and
hung like ragged ribbons of mist at the edge of the great,
hemispherical body. Even as he watched, a swarm of the local
skylife darted from the clouds to tear at the intruder: rats
worrying a dog. It fought back with the fringe of tentacles
hanging from beneath its body, seizing its tormentors, sending
them plummeting with ruptured gas-sacs. Others of their own
kind ate them before they could hit the ground. Still others
continued the attack.

"It hasn't got a chance," said Nada. "Not one." Her voice was
thick with anticipation.

Abruptly the creature vomited in a desperate effort to gain
height. A cloud of water vapor and ingested food sprayed in a
kaleidoscope of colored smoke. It rose a little, booming with
terror and alarm, almost helpless here over flat country away
from the strong thermals of its mountainous browsing grounds.
High and to one side the keepers who had driven it to the city
with air-blast and electric probe watched from the safety of their
floating platforms.

"Soon," gloated Nada. "Soon!"

The attackers darted in for the kill. They tore at the lashing
tentacles, at the soft underparts, at the tough skin of the main
gas-sac. The creature vomited again and then, as natural
hydrogen spurted from its punctured hide, spored.
 Its death-scream echoed over the city as a cloud of glittering
fragments sparkled in the air.

"Nice." Nada stared thoughtfully at the falling remnants of
the creature. Around it the attackers were busy feeding. Little if
any of it would reach the ground. "They're bringing in another
for the finale," she said. "I was talking to the keepers. It's a real
big one. They're going to burn it," she added. "At night."

Dumarest plunged his head again into the water. He rose,
squeezing his hair. Droplets clung to his naked flesh like colored
dew. "Do they always do that?"

"Burn one? Sure. It makes a good spectacle," she explained.
"Something to give the tourists a big charge. A highlight, sort
of." She smiled at her own joke. "This your first time on Kyle?"

Dumarest nodded.