"Paul Di Filippo - Shipbreaker" - читать интересную книгу автора (Di Filippo Paul)

Gardens of Lustron?"
 Utter incomprehension transformed Klom's massive features into a mask of hurt confusion. "But
Sorrel, we love each other."

"So you keep telling me."

Klom shook himself as if dispelling a cloud of the gnats that arose in the springtime from the stagnant
marshes bordering the Yard. Then, forsaking words, he enwrapped Sorrel with one arm and hugged her
to him. Her olive-drab shift bunched up on one hip. Klom's smile was holed here and there by missing
teeth.

"Ow! Let me go, you big idiot!"

"Hey now, what's this? Assault on a lady? Shall I be forced to give you a good thrashing, you
monster?"

Weaving through the throng came a lean man with coppery skin and sandy hair, dressed in what
passed for finery among the breakers: clean, albeit ragged white blouse and trews. A wispy mustache
draped his upper lip. Taller than Sorrel, he still seemed small in comparison with Klom. Closing with
Klom and Sorrel, the newcomer began darting and feinting, tossing mild jabs at the giant.

Klom released Sorrel, and laughed in such a titanic manner that the nearest bystanders winced.
"Airey! Where were you? You missed the landing!"

Airey ceased his shadowboxing and shook Klom's hand. "Deva bless you, Klom, that cruft's
hideous! Don't you have any gloves?"

Klom examined his hands as if seeing them for the first time. "No gloves fit me."

"Nonsense! I'll get you a pair that fits somehow." Airey turned to Sorrel and briefly embraced her,
bestowing a kiss on her forehead. "Any damage to the fleshy goods? No? Very well, but let me know if
your reputation needs avenging." Sorrel laughed, her bell-like tones generating more pleasant notice from
those nearby than Klom's robust guffaws.

"Airey, you make everyone laugh," Klom said.

"Too bad I can't convince old Right Tight Raisin to pay me for such services. Yard comedian, that's a
role I could enjoy! Instead, I have to labor in the drainage pits like some unskilled kilobase. And if beauty
were money, Sorrel wouldn't have to slave on the sorting line. Oh well, that's life."

Sorrel playfully kicked Airey's ankle in response, eliciting an "ouch."

Klom scratched his head through a thick mat of black hair. "Maybe this new ship will bring us all
good luck."

"Ah, that's the very reason I sought you out, Klom. I did not miss the landing at all. I was standing as
close to the overseers as I could get, while the ship came down. Those lousy terabases and four-strands
are damnably suspicious of eavesdroppers, though! It was all I could do to avoid rousing their
majestatics."