"Jo Walton - The Rebirth of Pan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Walton Jo)

"There were six in the real battle." said Manoli, handing Evadni the little can. "But they're going to
manage with two. It will all be done on a smaller scale. And it will be right out there." He gestured. "The
Turks will come from there—" he pointed to the bay of Nafpaktos across the water, "And the Crusade
will come from there." He pointed South. "Our two ships will be part of the Crusade, of course. The
Turkish galleys are being built in Algeria. Boat builders all round the Mediterranean are giving thanks to
Ag. Nikolaos for the opportunity."

"I thought I'd seen you in church more often recently," said Pappa Andros, smiling. "Who is paying
for all this?"

"Some American millionaire, apparently," said Evadni, "But it is being organised by some
Roumanian Church." She laughed, taking the lid off the can and filling the air with a pungent odour. "Mad
idea, isn't it? But it wouldn't be a Greek one. Nothing to us, really. Even though the battle was fought
right here whenever it was—" she glanced down at Manoli.

"1571." he said, sighing as he picked up a chisel. "Why do you always forget?"

"Well, 1571, by then Greece was pretty thoroughly lost to the Turk already." She spat. "Four
hundred years before we were free of them. My grandfather used to tell me about when they pulled
down the mosque in the town. He said when he was a boy he used to go outside the mosque when they
were praying and jumble up their shoes. Or maybe that was his father did that, when he was a boy. He
knew Byron, you know."

"If the Turk had won at Lepanto there would have been no Byron. No help from the rest of Europe
in 1832, if it had all been Ottoman." said Manoli, in the tone of one who had said the same thing before.

"We would have won free anyway," his sister said. "That was destiny, that we would lose and then
win free again. Battles, dates, details, what is all that to us? The good thing about this battle is that they
are playing at doing it again and paying us to build the boats for it. But people will come from all over the
world to sail on both sides. A great Christian victory, they are calling it. The Last Crusade. And
afterwards the ships will go to California, to San Francisco for another re-enactment there." Pappa
Andros looked out at the quiet waters of the gulf in front of them. It was hard to imagine them full of ships
fighting each other. He looked back, and saw the hired stranger limping back towards the fishing boat
from the warehouse, another fold of fibreglass lying across his arms.

"In any case," said Manoli doggedly, catching Pappa Andros' eye. "It was an important battle. It
proved that sailing ships were better than rowed galleys. These—" he slapped one of the timbers of the
ship. "won the day for Don John of Austria. After that nobody built any more galleys, and all the slaves
that used to toil rowing them were free." He looked up at Evadni. "A change in the style of ships! Is that
important enough for you?" Evadni laughed again, leaning forward into the framework.

"It must be nice for you to have a chance to build a wooden ship in the old way," said Pappa
Andros diplomatically. This time it was Manoli's turn to grin up at Evadni.

"I have been saying that," he said. "But she doesn't like it so much. Ever since she went to Athens to
learn it she has wanted to work in fibreglass all the time."

"It is the way of the future." she said, firmly and decisively, leaning back and handing the can back
down to Manoli. "Fibreglass and steel."
 "She's just frustrated because she wants to design battleships and she only ever gets the chance to