"Liz Williams - Empire of Bones" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williams Liz)

… and lastly to Sappho the cat, whose continual interruptions have saved me from RSI

Open your eyes again and look at Shiva Up there on the altar. Look closely. In his upper right hand… he
holds the drum that calls the world into existence, and in his upper left hand he car-ries the destroying
fire. Life and Death, order and disintegration, impartially. But now look at Shiva's other pair of hands…
It signifies: 'Don't be afraid; it's All Right.' But how can anyone in his senses fail to be afraid? How can
anyone pretend that evil and suffering are all right, when it's so obvious that they're all wrong?

From Aldous Huxley's Island (1962)

PROLOGUE

rvhaikurriye/ Kasasatran system

"They're all starting to die," IrEthiverris whispered, ^ wringing long, jointed hands.

"Who's dying? What are you talking about?" Sirrubennin EsMoyshekhal asked wearily. Why did
emergencies always seem to happen in the middle of the 1 night? He frowned at the wavering image of
his friend, gleaming behind a veil of communication mesh. IrEthiverris' fingers wove together in agitation.
His mouth moved but no words came forth. Sirru raised his voice, hoping he wouldn't wake the whole
house.

"Verris, I can barely hear you. I think your transmission is breaking up. Now who is dying?"

"All of them!" IrEthiverris cried. His quills prickled up from his scalp, rattling like spine-leaves in a breeze.
He looked wildly about him; Sirru wondered what his friend might be seeing, there on distant Arakrahali.
There was a shimmer of alien sunlight behind IrEthiverris' image. "The natives!"

"Well, there are bound to be a few problems at first, aren't there?" Sirru said, his heart sinking. "Not
every planet is easy to colonize—it's usual for there to be some resistance, until people realize that we've
got their best interests at heart. Things will settle down. Are the locals rioting, or what?"

"No! I think it's the communications network. It's killing them."

"I don't understand. You've got a 'thaith administrator, haven't you? Isn't she any help?"

The transmission wobbled, sending tremors through IrEthiverris' already shaky image. Fragments of
words came through.

"…'thaith administrator is doing her utmost to…none of my messages even reaching Rasasatra—using
an illegal chan-nel… Can you please find out what's going on ?"

"I'll do my best," Sirru said. "Listen, I'll need some way of contacting you. Can you—" But IrEthiverris'
image crackled, and was gone. Sirru gave the communication matrix a shake, then turned it off and on
again, but even that did not work. IrEthiverris' transmission had been swallowed by the immen-sity
between the worlds.

Sirru walked out onto the balcony and stood staring out across the city of Khaikurriye. The vast multiple
curves of the caste-domes stretched as far as the horizon, gleaming in the soft red moonlight. Rising