"Gene Wolfe - Long Sun 1 - Nightside the long sun" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolfe Gene)

Most of the larger boys had already gone into Maytera Rose's room. Silk dismissed the rest with a
glance, but Horn lingered. "May I speak with you, Patera? It'll just take a minute."

"If it is only a minute." When the boy said nothing, Silk added, "Go ahead, Horn. Did I foul you?


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If I did, I apologize--it certainly wasn't intentional."

"Is it. .." Horn let the question trail away, staring at the splintering floorboards.

"Speak up, please. Or ask your question when I come back. That would be better."

The tall boy's gaze moved to the whitewashed mud-brick walls. "Patera, is it true that they're
going to tear down our

palaestra and your manteion? That you're going to have to go someplace else, or noplace? My father
heard that yesterday. Is it true?"

"No."

Horn looked up with new hope, though the flat negative had left him speechless.

"Our palaestra and our manteion will be here next year, and the year after that, and the year
after that as well." Suddenly conscious of his posture, Silk stood straighter, squaring his
shoulders. "Does that put your mind at rest? They may become larger and better known, and I hope
that they will. Perhaps some god or goddess may speak to us through our Sacred Window again, as
Pas once did when Patera Pike was young--I don't know, though I pray for it every day. But when I'm
as old as Patera Pike, the people of this quarter will still have a manteion and a palaestra.
Never doubt it."

"I was going to say . . ."

Silk nodded. "Your eyes have said it for you already. Thank you, Horn. Thank you. I know that
whenever I'm in need I can call on you, and that you'll do all that you can without counting the
cost. But, Horn--"

"Yes, Patera?"

"I knew all that before."

The tall boy's head bobbed. "And all the other sprats, too, Patera. There are a couple of dozen
that I know we can trust. Maybe more."

Horn was standing as straight as a Guardsman on parade now. With a slight shock of insight, Silk
realized that this unaccustomed perpendicularity was in imitation of his own, and that Horn's
clear, dark eyes were very nearly level with his.