"01 - The Lion of Farside" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dalmas John)

The Lion of Farside
John Dalmas


Copyright й 1995 by John Dalmas

This is a work of fiction. All the characters portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original

Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471

ISBN: 0-671-87674-0

Cover art by Paul Alexander

First printing, July 1995

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Production by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH
Printed in the United States of America

This book is for
Jerry Simmons and Sarge Gerbode
and for the
Spokane Word Weavers

My thanks to (alphabetically) Eileen Brady, Mary Jane Engh, Jim Glass and David Palter, for their perceptive critiques. And most especially to Hank Davis at Baen Books, for a critique which will prove of lasting value to me as a writer.

PART 1: To Waken The Lion
1: Varia
None of my family knew where Aunt Varia really came from. Evansville, we figuredЧthatТs what sheТd let on. Uncle Will had met her at Salem, at the Washington County Fair, and it was love at first sight, he told me once. For him, anyway. УAnd at second sight and third,Ф laughing when he said it. He claimed she was the best wife a man ever had.
Sometimes she seemed a bit peculiar, but of course she wasnТt the only peculiar one in Washington County. Not even the only peculiar Macurdy. Fact is, she had to be a little strange to have married Will. For one thing, from his eighteenth birthday on, the only time he stuck his nose inside church was for his own wedding. Unless you count his funeral, and I donТt think he had any nose then. Of course, Ma and Gramma were the only ones in the family that were really churchy; most of us were semi-churchy.
Plus heТd get strange notions from time to time. One time Max tells about, before Varia came on the scene, he and Will were helping Dick Fenton butcher steers, and Will caught some hot blood in a tin cup and drank it down like milk. Said it was good for the muscles and glands. Dick said considering how Will didnТt have any girl friend, his glands werenТt doing him much good anyway, unless he was servicing the livestock. Strong as the Macurdies are, especially Will, we had a reputation as easy going, which no doubt was why Dick figured he could get away with saying that. But just then Will took another notion: He punched Dick right between the eyes, which also broke his nose.
But whenever the family gathered on a holiday, or Ma and Gramma would be feeding a harvest crew, Aunt Varia would be in MaТs big kitchen, or sometimes JulieТs in later years, helping do the things women do when a big feed is getting fixed. Fact is, Gramma and Ma both said Varia was a magician in the kitchen. And she was always easy to get along with. When folks were gathered around the table or in the sitting room, Varia would sit there not saying much. Not shy; only quiet and watchful. SheТd just sit there, the really really pretty one, listening and smiling.
She had two smiles, actually. The usual one was purely friendly and cheerful, but the other one, which IТd only see now and then, seemed kind of spooky to me. As if she knew things other people didnТt, and sometimes I wondered what they might be.
I wasnТt the only one. I remember Ma saying once she wondered what Varia thought about behind those peculiar eyes. Not the Bible, sheТd bet; Aunt Varia didnТt go to church any moreТn Will did. She did read a lot of books, though. Library books about history and science, Will said. I remember once he laughed and said that if he died, she could go off to Bloomington and be a professor, after all sheТd read. He told me sheТd even read DarwinТs book on evolution, but not to tell Ma or Gramma or heТd kill me.
Another thing about VariaЧshe wore her hair long. Not braided, but in two bunches like a pair of shiny copper-red horsesТ tails, only kind of out to the sides. That was a time when women hardly ever wore their hair long. Some old ladies GrammaТs age let theirs grow long, but they tied it up back of their head in a bun. Ma wished sheТd wear it different; the way it was showed her ears, which were kind of pointy. I always thought it looked pretty, though I didnТt say so, and her ears went with her eyes just fine.
When I was young, I always thought that what was oddest about Aunt Varia was how sheТd laugh, now and then, when no one else did. I remember once we had a new preacher over for supper, and he was standing up saying the blessing when Varia laughed like that. First thing he did was look down to see if his pants were unbuttoned or anything. Most of us saw him look, and Frank and me laughed. CouldnТt help it. Threw the reverend off his prayer so bad, he just sort of limped on through to the amen. A lot quicker than he might have, which was fine by Frank and me.
Varia was still pretty young then. I mean actually, in years.
But what folks noticed first about her was her eyes. She had two, just like the rest of us, but they were different. Big and leaf greenЧleaf green!Чand tilted up at the outside corners. Made her look foreign. She was a pretty woman though, the prettiest around, and those eyes were part of it. They suited her just right, as if any other color or size or shape would have spoiled her looks.
Along with her eyes, her build was what caught the eye most, even among women I think. A little slim, maybe, for some tastes, but not where it counted. When I was thirteen, fourteen years old, sometimes IТd get a hardon when I looked at her. Whenever I did, sheТd look at me and laugh, as if she knew. That killed it every time.