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

I shook my head. УThatТd cost a lot of money. Especially that Illinois black land.Ф
УLand prices are way down. I talked to them at the bank before I sold out to your father. And my grandmotherТs got money that belongs to me.Ф
Her grandmother. I supposed IТd meet her. I wasnТt sure I wanted to.
УShe looks a lot like me,Ф Varia said without my asking.
УJust as young?Ф I was a little scared of what the answer might be.
Varia laughed. УA little older. Maybe twenty-one.Ф Light danced in her eyes when she said it. She was so bright and lively, I couldnТt help thinking sheТd be a wife like no one ever had before, except Will. But stillЧ
УHow about when IТm fifty,Ф I said, Уand you still look twenty?Ф
She looked at me a long time before she answered. УYou wonТt need to look fifty, if you donТt want to. Not you. You can look just as young then as you do today.Ф
The first thing that hit me was, IТd have to sell my soul to the devil. IТve never actually believed in the devil, but thatТs the thought that came to me. I set it aside. УWill aged,Ф I reminded her.
УWill never had the choice. I tried. He was a nice man, a gentle man, and he had some unusual genes we need. But not the talent; not enough. I planned to stay with him till the situation here got dangerousЧfrom my not aging, I meanЧhave sixty or seventy children by him, then disappear. IТd leave a note that I was afraid to stay, because I wasnТt aging. That I was going somewhere where people thought I was twenty.Ф
I guess I must have looked troubled, because she put her hand on my cheek again, soft as goose down, and said: УI never actually loved Will, as fond of him as I came to be. ItТs you IТve loved. For a dozen or more years now, since I realized what you might be. Or who.Ф
For a dozen years! That was a stopper. But she wasnТt done. УAnd in the Sisterhood,Ф she said, Уwe learn self-control.Ф Her mouth twisted a bit. УSelf-abnegation, really. ItТs not always easy, even though weТre from selected stock. ThereТs a lot about a person thatТs not genetic.Ф
ItТs funny how much I remember of what she said, considering I didnТt understand half of it then. The biggest puzzles were who this we was she talked about. And WillТs jeans? I never knew him to own a pair of jeans. HeТd always worn overalls, like most farmers.
Anyway, the upshot of it was, weТd tell Ma and Pa that we planned to get married and go somewhere else to live. And when we got there, weТd tell folks I was twenty-five and she was twenty. Then, in twelve, fifteen years weТd move again. Might be interesting to live different places.

We got married ten days later. The family didnТt announce it beforehand; Varia asked them not to. We just got the blood tests and license, and one evening after supper, my folks went with us to the parsonage. Took Reverend Fleming totally by surprise. I suppose he thought IТd got Varia pregnant. Anyway he took us next door to the church, turned on the lights, and married us in our coats, it being cold out and no fire in the furnace. When it was over, we all went homeЧMa, Pa, Frank and Edith to their house, Max and Julie to theirs, and me and Varia to ours. Varia Macurdy. She didnТt even get a new name out of it, nor much in the way of wedding gifts. The ring was the one Will gave her.
I said something about it when we went inside. She said none of it mattered, that sheТd got me, and that was what counted. Then we went upstairs to bed. We hadnТt been to bed together except that one night, but we made up for it before we went to sleep.
WeТd already packed most everything she wanted to take with usЧnot a whole heck of a lot. The week before, IТd hammered together sort of a shed for the back of the Model A, with stakes for the stake pockets, that we could use to move. So by ten the next morning we were sitting in the cab together, headed south for the Ohio River, happy as two worms in an apple.
We didnТt have a notion of what we were getting into.

2: Idri
Evansville actually was where her gramma lived, except her gramma wasnТt her gramma. More like her cousin. And almost as good-looking as Varia. The big difference was their personalities; I could see that right away. IdriТs eyes were mean and hard, not laughing like VariaТs. As if she held grudges; I recall thinking that. She didnТt seem to be marriedЧdidnТt wear a ring, anywayЧbut I smelled and saw cigar butts in an ashtray. Maybe a brother, I thought. Not knowing Idri at the time.
After Varia introduced me as her new husband, Idri looked me up and down and scowled. The first thing she said was, УYouТll have to take him through! HeТs needed there right now!Ф Not УItТs nice to know you,Ф or УWelcome to the family,Ф or УI suppose youТd like to meet your stepchildren.Ф Just giving orders: УYouТll have to take him through.Ф Whatever that meant.
VariaТs eyebrows shot up. УI have no intention of taking him through,Ф she said. УWeТre moving to Illinois. I just came here to let you know, and draw five hundred dollars from the contingency account.Ф
Idri raised more than her eyebrows; she raised her voice. I donТt know what she said, because they started talking in some foreign language. But she sounded as mad as anyone IТd ever heard, ripping Varia up one side and down the other. Varia looked shocked at first, but after a minute she snapped something sharp and hard at Idri that stopped her in mid-snarl. Called her something, I suppose. Then she took my sleeve and dragged me out the door, and right on out to the truck. When weТd got in the cab, she started shaking, and I asked her what was wrong.
УThereТs a lot I didnТt tell you,Ф she said. УIt didnТt seem important. Now it is.Ф
I didnТt say anything, just nodded and sat listening, my eyes on that beautiful face.
УIdri and I are notЧAmericans. And not from some place in Europe. WeТre from another world entirely, a world called Yuulith.Ф She looked at me as if begging me to believe. УItТs as if itТs right beside this one, and now and then, in a few special places, openings develop between them for a few minutes. We call them gates. We can go through them from one world to the other. The nearest is across the river in Kentucky; thatТs the one we use.Ф
IТd heard or read some strange things in my life, but this was the strangest. Yet somehow I believed. For one thing, the name Yuulith gave me chills. No, she was telling the truth, and she knew I knew. УI canТt tell you everything about it all at once,Ф she said, Уwhy weТre here, why IТm making babies hereЧexcept that it seemed very important. In our world, thereТs a land with very bad peopleЧsoldiers, and lords of magicЧevil, and very powerful. But recentlyЧrecently they sent an army into our country and killed most of us.Ф
Her voice was quiet while she told me all this, but her face was drawn up tight. УIdri and I belong to a Sisterhood that over the past three hundred years has worked to develop our power. But when the gate opened, the time before last, Idri learned what the enemy had done. The ylver, theyТre called. TheyТd captured our CloisterЧour townЧand destroyed it, taking most of our Sisters captive.Ф
VariaТd cried the edge off her grief a couple months earlier, though none of us knew it then, but the tears were running again. УThen they killed the children,Ф she said, Уand their soldiers raped the Sisters over and over, making the people watch. Finally they set their war dogs on them, on the Sisters that is, to tear them apart.Ф
I sat staring at her. УAnd Idri wants us to go there?Ф
She nodded, and her voice took new strength УBut IТm not. ItТs over with there, itТs all turned evil, and this is my world now. You and I are going to Illinois and make babies, beautiful babies, one or two at a time, and bring them up ourselves, and love each of them. And each other.Ф
What could I say? I kissed her right there in the cab in broad daylight, then put the truck in gear and headed out of Evansville, bound for Illinois.

3: The Blackland
Within a week weТd moved onto 120 acres of blackland in Macon County, Illinois, north of Decatur. And it was ours as long as we kept making the mortgage payments. Varia made the down payment, $600, from money left her by Will, and what Pa had paid down on WillТs place. And had enough left over to buy a team and harness for $80, and equipment we hadnТt brought with us, plus seed and some house furnishings. Everything secondhand, of course, but lots of people were selling stuff, good stuff, to keep food on the table. We werenТt bad off, compared to them. We still had money for potatoes and beans, bacon and oatmeal, and salt and sugar and flour. Buying livestock would have to wait though. Except for pasture and hay, I figured to plant most of the ground to cornЧcorn and a big truck gardenЧand enough oats for the team next winter, and for the cow I figured to buy when IТd made a crop. In the barn there was already hay and oats enough for the team a few months, while the woodshed had wood and cobs for the stoves awhile. Even a couple sacks of coal for the kitchen.
The buildings were pretty decent, and the house was more than big enough for the two of us. They all needed paint, but thatТd have to wait. The five hundred dollars Varia hadnТt been able to get from Idri would have made a big differenceЧexcept it wouldnТt have, the way things turned out. But anyway, it seemed to me weТd get by in good shape.
You never know entirely what to expect, working a new team, but when I brought them home, Varia talked to them awhile, and they worked out real well. She was always good with horses, riding or handling them. I started plowing that same day.
I even got a job milking eight Brown Swiss cows for a neighbor, morning and evening. Given the hard times, it paid pretty decentЧfifty cents a dayЧand each morning I took home a big jar of milk and some fresh butter, worth another twenty cents or so.
It also meant I got up at four every morning, to eat before going to MorathТs to milk, and finished up there at seven or so in the evening. Between milkings I walked a furrow behind the team all day, keeping the plow where it belonged. So I made a point of being in bed before nine, and IТm talking about in bed for the purpose of sleeping.
Nonetheless, we had time to sit around a little before bedtime, and the very first night, Varia told me she wanted to lay a spell on me. Naturally I kind of backed off from that. УWhat for?Ф I asked her.
УSo youТll understand me better.Ф
УHon,Ф I said, УI understand you pretty well already.Ф
She didnТt say anything for a minute, just sort of chewed on her lower lip as if she was thinking. Finally she said, УWhy do you suppose the Macurdy family was chosen to father my children?Ф
I stared at her without knowing a thing to say.
УWhere do you think the Macurdies came from?Ф she asked.
УWhat dТyou mean? From Kentucky, way back when James Madison was president.Ф
УAnd before Kentucky?Ф
It seemed to me right then that I was going to learn something I didnТt want to know. I shook my head. УGrampa said weТre Scotch-Irish. In school they told us that means from Scotland by way of Ireland.Ф