"Vance, Jack - Alastor 2 - Trullion-2262" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

the starmenter is disabled!
Hurrah! it drops back into the square. No, no! Oh horror! What horror! It has fallen upon the
market; a hundred persons are crushed! Attention! Bring in all ambulances, all medical men!
Emergency at Welgen! I can hear the sad cries . . . The starmenter ship is broken; still it fights
... a blue ray . . . Another . . . The Whelm ship answers. The starmenters are quiet. Their ship
is broken." The announcer fell quiet a moment, then once more was prompted to excitement. "Now
what a sight! The folk are crying with rage; they swarm in at the starmenters; they drag them
forth . . ." He began to babble, then stopped short and spoke in a more subdued voice. "The
constables have intervened. They have pushed back the crowds and the starmenters are now in
custody, and this to their own rue, as well they know, for they desperately struggle. How they
writhe and kick! It's the pruanshyr for them! They prefer the vengeance of the crowd! . . . What a
dreadful deed they have done upon the hapless town Welgen..."
Jut and Shira worked in the far orchard grafting scions to the apple trees. Glinnes ran to tell
them the news. "... and at last the starmenters were captured and taken away!"
*swhisk: star-drive.
"So much the worse for them," Jut said gruffly, and continued with his work. For a Trill, he was
a man unusually selfcontained
and taciturn, traits that had become intensified since the death of Sharue by the
merlings. Shira said, "They'll be sweeping off the prutanshyr. Perhaps we'd better learn the
news."
Jut grunted. "One torturing is much like another. The fire burns, the wheels wrench, the rope
strains. Some folk thrive on it. For my excitement I'll watch hussade." Shira winked at Glinnes.
"One game is much like another. The forwards spring, the water splashes, the sheirl loses her

clothes, and one pretty girl's belly is much like another's." here speaks the voice of
experience," said Glinnes, and Shira, the most notorious philanderer of the district, guffawed.
Shira did in fact attend the executions with his mother Marucha, though Jut kept Glinnes and Glay
at home
.
Shira and Marucha returned by the late ferry. Marucha was tired and went to bed; Shira, however,
joined Jut, Glinnes and Glay on the verandah and rendered an account of what he had seen. 'Thirtythree
they caught, and had them all in cages out in the square. All the preparations were put up
before their very eyes. A hard lot of men, I must say-I couldn't place their race. Some might have
been Echalites and some might have been Satagones, and one tall white-skinned fellow was said to
be a Blaweg. Unfortunates all, in retrospect. They were naked and painted for shame: heads green,
one leg blue, the other red. All gelded, of course. Oh, the prutanshyr's a wicked place! And to
hear the music! Sweet as flowers, strange and hoarse! It strikes through you as if your own nerves
were being plucked for tones . . . Ah well, at any rate, a great pot of boiling oil was prepared,
and a traveling-crane stood by. The music began-eight Trevanyl and all their horns and fiddles.
How can such stern folk make such sweet music? It chills the bones and churns the bowels, and puts
the taste of blood in your mouth! Chief Constable Filidice was there, but First Agent Gerence was
the executioner. One by one the starmenters were grappled by hooks, then lifted and dipped into
the oil, then hung up on a great high frame; and I don't know which was more awful, the howls or
the beautiful sad music. The people fell down on their knees; some fell into fits and cried outfor
terror or joy I can'tt tell you. I don't know what to make of it ... After about two hours all
were dead." "HUMmf," said Jut Hulden. "They won't be back in a hurry. So much, at least, can be
said. "Glinnes had listened in horrified fascination. "It's a fearful punishment, even for a
starmenter."
"Indeed, that's what it is," said Jut. "Can you guess the reason?" Glinnes swallowed hard and
could not choose between several theories. Jut asked, "Would you now want to be a starmenter and