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

shrieking, while the others had looked on and blinked their burning eyes
and licked their cracking lips and otherwise done nothing; one had simply
rolled off, a scatter of rags and flailing limbs, uttering no sound; and the
third, with a pleased smile and a look of anticipation, had just walked off
at a brisk pace, knee-deep before he'd plunged out of sight.
Now and then a shark circled, leisurely, and those who still had the
energy to do so crawled as high as they could, as though fearing that the
great cartilaginous fish might suddenly sprout legs and climb up after
them. And now and then a huge sea-turtle flippered by, paying them no
attention at all; some eyed it hungrily, but helplessly: the small boat in
which they might have pursued it had gone in a storm uncounted time
ago, and even had it remained it was doubtful if any of them now would
have had the strength to man it.
Some few fishing-lines still dangled, some presently without even hooks,
and none with other bait than a bit of cloth of similar counterfeit. It had
been days since any of these had succeeded in catching anythingтАФa bony,
ugly thing, but the man whose line it adhered to had eaten it at once,
fearful and famished and secretive and swift. Then he had vomited it all
up. Then he had eaten it a second time, shameful and slow and sick.
It had been months. It seemed like months. Perhaps it was only weeks.
Perhaps, by now, years. Liam would know, if anyone knew, Cerry thought.
Vaguely, she considered asking Liam if he still kept up his records. But the
notion soon ceased to interest her. She had too little voice left, her mouth
and throat were too dry, for her to call over to him where he sat,
crouching, motionless. He might be dead. But she didn't want to face this
possibility. If Liam were dead then the rest of them were as good as dead.
So she made her mind consider other things.
Suppose the raft were to encounter flying fish. A whole entire school of
them. Then the sail and the awning could be used as nets. Everyone would
have something to eat. And thenтАФsince flying fish lived in the tropics and
in the tropics it was very rainyтАФthen it would rain, and the rain water
would be caught in those same sails and awnings. All at once everyone
would be better, healthy, alert, in good spirits and humor. Their luck thus
once turned, obviously land would be the next thing to appear. Land!
It would be a good land, with friendly people, not savage, neither
terrible nor terrified. The land and people didn't know of hunger, and
there were no dragons in that land and neither were there Kar-chee. AndтАж
and thenтАж
Cerry wondered what was next, smiling and giving little nods. The
bubble did not so much burst as simply vanish; and, the vision forgotten
as though it had never begun, she wondered and fretted mildly how long
they had all been on the raft. At least a month. She had had her courses
just before they'd embarkedтАФa minor discomfort and a common and
regular one: odd that she should remember it against the background of
that hideous time and troubleтАФand then, surely, she had had them again
at least once since then, aboard the raft. She could not remember it
having happened another time. Which meant that it had not been two
months yet. Or, possibly, that her body no longer functioned as it once
had. Small wonder, if this were so. But what if Liam were dead?
The fear was worse than the pain of finding out. So, slowly and so