"Gardner Dozois - Morning Child" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dozois Gardner)

As they watched, startled, it climbed higher and higher, towering miles into the air, until it was a slender
column of brilliant flame that divided the sullen, black sky in two from ground to stratosphere.The pillar of
fire blazed steadily on the horizon for a minute or two, and then it began to corus-cate, burning green and
blue and silver and orange, the colors flaring and flickering fitfully as they merged into one another.
Slowly, with a kind of stately and awful symmetry, the pillar broadened out to become a flattened
diamond shape of blue-white fire. The diamond began to rotate slowly on its axis, and as it rotated it
grew eye-searinglybright. Gargantuan, unseen shapes floated around the blazing diamond, like moths
beating around a candle flame, throwing huge, tangled shad-ows across the world.

Something with a huge, melancholy voice hooted, and hooted again, a forlorn and terrible sound that
beat back and forth between the hills until it rumbled slowly away into silence.

The blazing diamond winked out. Hot white stars danced where it had been. The stars faded to sullenly
glowing orange dots that flickered away down the spectrum and were gone.

It was dark again.

The night had been shocked silent. For a while that silence was complete, and then slowly, tentatively,
one by one, the crickets and tree frogs began to make their night sounds again.

тАЬThe war-тАЬ Johnwhispered. His voice was reedy and thin and weary now, and there was pain in it. тАЬIt
still goes on?тАЭ

тАЬThe war gotтАж strange,тАЭ Williams said quietly. тАЬThe longer it lasted, the stranger it got. New allies, new
weapons-тАЬ Hestared off into the darkness in the direction where the fire had danced; there was still an
uneasy shimmer to the night air on the horizon, not quite a glow. тАЬYou were hurt by such a weapon, I
guess. Somethinglike that, maybe.тАЭ He nodded toward the horizon, and his face hardened. тАЬI donтАЩt
know. I donтАЩt even know what that was. I donтАЩt understand much that happens in the world anymoreтАж
Maybe it wasnтАЩt even a weapon that hurt you. Maybe they were experimenting on you biologically
before you got away. Who knows why? Maybe it was done deliberately-as a punishment or a reward.
Who knows how they think? Maybe it was a side effect of some device designed to do something else
entirely. Maybe it was an accident; maybe you just got too close to something like that when it was doing
whatever it is it does.тАЭ Williams was silent for a moment, and then he sighed. тАЬWhatever happened, you
got to me afterward somehow, and I took care of you. WeтАЩve been hiding out ever since, moving from
place to place.тАЭ

They had both been nearly blind while their eyes readjusted to the night, but now, squinting in the dim
glow of the low-burning cooking fire, Williams could see John again. John was now totally bald, his
cheeks had caved in, and his dulled and yellowing eyes were sunken deeply into his rav-aged face. He
struggled to get to his feet,then sank back down onto the stump again. тАЬI canтАЩt-тАЬ hewhispered. Weak
tears began to run down his cheeks. He started to shiver.

Sighing, Williams got up and threw a double handful of pine needles into boiling water to make
white-pine-needle tea. He helped John limp over to his pallet, supporting most of his weight, almost
carrying him-it was easy; John had become shrunken and frail and amazingly light, as if he were now
made out of cloth and cotton and dry sticks instead of flesh and bone. He got John to lie down, tucked a
blanket around him in spite of the heat of the evening, and concen-trated on getting some of the tea into
him.