"Jack Vance - The Languages of Pao" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

Eban Buzbek took his ten thousand men to Donaspara, first city of
Shraimand; and there was no one to dispute him. Six days after he landed
on Pao he entered Eiljanre. The populace watched him and his glory-
flushed army with sullen eyes; none made any resistance, even when their
property was taken and their women violated. Warfare--even hit-and-run
guerilla tactics--was not in the Paonese character.
night, Beran felt as if he were living a nightmare. A sudden weightlessness-
-they were falling! His stomach contracted; the breath rose in his throat. He
squirmed and cried out in fear. Falling, falling, falling, when would they
strike?
"Quiet," said Palafox shortly.
Beran's eyes focused. He blinked. A lighted window moved past his
vision. It passed below; they were not falling; they were rising! They were
above the tower, above the pavilion! Up into the night they drifted, light as
bubbles, up above the tower, up into the star-bright sky. Presently, Beran
convinced himself that he was not dreaming; it was therefore through the
magic of the Breakness wizard that they wafted through the middle-air,
light as thistle-down. As his wonder grew, his fear lessened, and he peered
into Palafox's face. "Where are we going?"
"Up to where I anchored my ship."
Beran looked wistfully down to the pavilion. It glowed in many colors,
like a sea-anemone. He had no wish to return; there was only a vague
regret. Up into the sky they floated, for fifteen quiet minutes, and the
pavilion became a colored blot far below.
Palafox held out his left hand; impulses from the radarmesh in his palm
were reflected back from the ground, converted into stimulus. High
enough. Palafox touched his tongue to one of the plates in the tissue of his
cheek, spoke a sharp syllable.
Moments passed; Palafox and Beran floated like wraiths. Then a long
shape came to blot out the sky. Palafox reached, caught a hand-rail, swung
himself and Beran along a hull to an entrance hatch. He pushed Beran into
a staging chamber, followed and closed the hatch.
Interior lights glowed.
Beran, too dazed to take an interest in events, sagged upon a bench. He
watched Palafox mount to a raised deck, flick at a pair of keys. The sky
went dull, and Beran was caught in the pulse of sub-space motion.
was tall as a fire-demon, magnificent with pent energy. A wizard, a
Breakness wizard!
Palafox glanced down at Beran. "How old are you, boy?"
"Nine years old. "
Palafox rubbed his long chin. "It is best that you learn what is to be
expected of you. In essence, the program is uncomplicated. You will live
on Breakness, you shall attend the Institute, you shall be my ward, and the
time will come when you serve me as one of my own sons."
"Are your sons my age?" Beran asked hopefully.
"I have many sons!" said Palafox with grim pride. "I count them by the
hundreds!" Becoming aware of Beran's bemused attention, he laughed
humorlessly. "There is much here that you do not understand....Why do you
stare?"
Beran said apologetically, "If you have so many children you must be