"Brackett, Leigh - Skaith 3 - Reavers Of Skaith (V1.1)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brackett Leigh)

HEROIC ADVENTURE AT ITS BEST
Stark was halfway up the steps.
There were blue robes in front of him, and on either side, and behind. They were absorbed in their chanting. Victims customarily went smiling to their deaths. Only at the very end, when they had been cast into the sea and the Children had begun to share them, were there cries amid the blood and the floating garlands.
The monks did not notice that Stark had ceased to smile.
He was still beyond any rational thought. He only knew that death was coming swiftly through the silken water to claim him.
Then, like a savage beast awakening, the life within him stirred!
LEIGH BRACKET! COMBINES THE BEST OF A. MERRITT AND EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS WITH MUCH THAT IS UNIQUELY HER OWN!"
ЧLester del Rey

BOOKS BY LEIGH BRACKET! Published By Ballantine Books:
THE BEST OF LEIGH BRACKETT
THE BOOK OF SKAITH
Volume One: THE GINGER STAR Volume Two: THE HOUNDS OF SKAITH Volume Three: THE REAVERS OF SKAITH
THE LONG TOMORROW
THE STARMEN OF LLYRDIS

THE
REAVERS OF SKAITH
Volume Three of The Book of Skaith
LEIGH BRACKET!
A Del Rey Book BALLANTINE BOOKS Х NEW YORK

A Del Rey Book
Published by Ballantine Books
Copyright й 1976 by Leigh Brackett
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada, Limited, Toronto, Canada,
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 76-7345
ISBN 0-345-28654-5
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition: August 1976 Second Printing: February 1980
First Canadian Printing: September 1976 Maps by Bob Porter Cover art by James Steranko

To L. Sprague de Camp
and
Lin Carter:
Swordsmen and sorcerers Sans peur et sans reproche




THE BACKGROUND
SKAITH, dying planet of a dying star far out in the Orion Spur. Knowledge of the inevitable demise of their world has colored every facet of life for the people of Skaith, giving rise to many strange religions and customs. Over the centuries, different groups have sought salvation in different ways.
Some preferred, through controlled genetic mutationЧa science now long lostЧto worship a chosen deity with their whole being, as:
THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA-OUR-MOTHER, who
have returned to the primal womb whence all !ife sprang, losing their humanity in the process, and with it their understanding of the coming doom;
THE CHILDREN OF SKAITH-OUR-MOTHER, who worship their equivalent of the Earth-Mother, dwelling deep within her warm, protective body, safe from the creeping death Outside;
THE FALLARIN, who wanted wings, the better to adore their dying lord, the Sun. In them, however, the mutation was imperfectЧthey have wings but cannot really fly. In compensation, they have become brothers to the winds, with power to call upon the currents of the air to do their bidding. They are served by
THE TARF, who are genetic mutations from non-human stock.

The above are relatively small groups. Most of the other survivors of the WanderingЧthat time of chaos when the great cities of the north were abandoned to the coldЧhave adapted to existing conditions and lead not-uncomfortable lives in the Fertile Belt, though strange survivals still exist in the Barrens and in the Darklands of the north (such as the Harsenyi, a tribe of northern nomads, message-bearers between various groups, and the Outdwellers, a strange far-northern people given to cannibalism). The productive section of the population has been harnessed to the support of the largest body of doom-worshipers.