"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 31 - The Temple of Truth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

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The Temple of Truth by
E.C. Tubb
Chapter One


Karlene shivered. Thirty dozen perlats had been slaughtered
to provide her furs yet still she felt the cold. An illusion—born of
snow and ice and the pale azure of an empty sky. The visual
effects overrode the electronic warmth cosseting her body and
she lifted her hands to draw the soft hood closer about her face.

"Cold?" Hagen had noticed the gesture. "Are you cold?"

"No."

"Then—"

"Nothing." An answer too curt and she expanded it as she
swept a hand at the vista before them: a landscape of white
traced with azure and flecked with motes of nacreous sheen. Out
there perspective was distorted so that the mound she looked at
could have been a hundred yards distant or a thousand, the dune
a thousand or ten.

"There's no warmth," she complained. "No shelter. It's all so
bleak. So inhospitable."

He said, "Erkalt is a frigid world, but it has its uses."
 "Such as?"

"Low-temperature laboratories. Some mines. Some—" He
broke off, knowing she knew the details. "As a site for the
games," he said. "As a frame for your beauty. An ice queen
should rule over a world of ice."

Empty flattery but she restrained her annoyance. Instead she
walked to the edge of a shallow ravine, one barely visible against
the featureless expanse. It was empty; a gash cut deep into the
snow, pale shadows clustered in its depths. No trace of life yet;
looking at it, she felt the familiar touch in her mind.