"Bova, Ben - Orion 07 - Vengeance of Orion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bova Ben)

here fighting at Troy's walls."
I took a sip of the rapidly cooling stew, trying to think of something to say.
"At least they didn't kill you," was all I could come up with.
"Better if they had!" Poletes replied bitterly. "I would be dead and in Hades
and that would be the end of it. Instead, I'm here, toiling like a jackass,
working for wages."
"That's something, anyway," I said.
His eyes snapped at me. "You are eating your wages, Orion."
"This... this is our payment?"
"For the day's work. Exactly. Show me a thes with coin in his purse and I'll
show you a sneak thief."
I took a deep breath.
"Lower than slaves, that's what we are, Orion," said Poletes, in a whisper that
was heavy with overdue sleep. "Vermin under their feet. Dogs. That's how they
treat us. They'll work us to death and let our bones rot where we fall."
With a heavy sigh Poletes put his empty bowl down and stretched out on the sandy
ground. It was getting so dark that I could barely see his face. The pitiful
little fire had gone down to nothing but embers. The wind blowing in from the
water was cold and sharp. I automatically adjusted my blood flow to keep as warm
as possible. There were no blankets or even canvas tarpaulins among the sprawled
bodies of the exhausted thetes. They slept in their loincloths and nothing else.
I lay down beside the old man, then found myself wondering how old he could
truly be. Forty, perhaps. I doubted that anyone lived much past fifty in this
primitive time. A pair of mangy dogs snarled at each other over some bones by
the fire, then settled down side by side, better protected against the night
than we were.
Just before I closed my eyes to sleep, I caught sight of the beetling towers of
Troy bulking dark against the deepening violet sky.
Agamemnon. Troy. How did I get here? How long could I survive as something lower
than a slave?
Falling asleep was like entering another world. My dream was as real as life. I
thought perhaps it was life, a different life on a different plane of existence.
I stood in a place that had neither time nor dimension. No land, no sea, no sky.
Not even a horizon. A great golden glow surrounded me, stretching away to
infinity on every side, warm and so bright that it dazzled my eyes. I could see
nothing except its radiance.
Without knowing why, I began to walk. Slowly at first, but soon my pace
quickened, as if I knew where I was heading and why. Time was meaningless here,
but I walked endlessly, my bare feet striking something firm beneath me, though
when I looked down all I could see was the gleaming golden light.
And then, far, far off, I saw a brilliance that outshone everything else. A
speck, a spot, a source of radiance that blazed pure gold and drew me forward
like a magnet draws a sliver of iron, like the fiery sun draws a falling comet.
I ran, I flew toward that burning golden glow. Breathlessly I raced to it, my
eyes painfully dazzled, my heart thundering wildly, the breath rasping in my
throat.
I stopped. As if an invisible wall had risen before me. As if my body had
suddenly become paralyzed.
I stopped and slumped to my knees.
A human form sat before me, elevated above my level, resting on nothing more