"Avram Davidson - The Kar-chee Reign" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davidson Avram)

Copyright ┬й, 1966 by Ace Books, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Printed in U.S.A.




I
^┬╗

The big place on the old Rowan homesite had just been freshly
thatchedтАФand what a disturbance of birds, snakes, lizards, mice and
spiders the removal of the previous thatch had causedтАФbut its thick walls
had stood there for generations: scarred and chipped and streaked with
smoke and smeared with grease, but in all, still sturdy. The first Rowan
had built well; he had not come here with his wives and children and his
flocks and herds after the sinking of California, for he had had none of
those. He had in fact landed with one small boat and one small dog and a
determined mind and a hopeful heart, marrying a daughter of the land
(that is to say, he had concluded a major treaty by the terms of which he
granted use of his infinitely precious cold chisel for half a year of every
year and in return was granted use for the whole of every year of an area of
land for building and farming and hunting and fishing, plus a girl who
had been captured almost casually from a far-off people years back and
was of an age to be manned), and had put up his house according to a
plan existing in his own head onlyтАФthen, unprecedented; since, the
standard model.
He had left behind more than a set of walls and a style in housing. His
long head and long bones and wide, smiling mouth were now part of the
common fabric of the people; his casual, personal turns of speech had
become the way one spoke. If a problem was regarded calmly as
something capable of solution instead of occasion to retreat into dreams
and resigned surrender, this, too, was part of the long legacy of Rowan the
first settler.
The present head of the homesite, old father and artificer, was one Ren
Rowan, six generations descended from the settler on one side and seven
generations removed on another; his wife's lineage was similar, though of
distant cousinship. He was all seamed and grizzled now, sheтАФthough
slightly youngerтАФonly now beginning to show gray in her long hair. Her
hands were deft at many tasks. It was her way to offer advice to her
husband quietly and in private, it was hisтАФusuallyтАФto take it.
"Well, we needn't thatch this roof again for a while," he said to her, she
coming to join him on the bench more to treat him with her company
than because she particularly needed rest from directing the work of
feeding those who had helped with the work.
"Might think of cutting some house timbers," she said, in her soft, slow
voice. Meat sizzled and spat. There was a burst of laughter. A child
stumbled and wailed, was righted and comforted with a grilled bone that
filled the small mouth.
"Might," Ren agreed. "Always mightтАж why now?"