"Philip Jose Farmer - WOT 2 - The Gates of Creation" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

strong likelihood of escap-ing punishment coincided would any do so.

Theotormon whined, "Jadawin. My own brother. My favorite brother, he who said he would always love
me and protect me. You are like the others. You want to hurt me, to kill me. Your own little
brother."

Vala spat at him and said, "You filthy craven beast! You are no Lord nor brother of ours. Why do
you not dive to the deeps and there drown yourself, take your fearfulness and treachery out of our
sight and the sight of all beings that breathe air? Let the fish feed upon your fat carcass,
though even they may vomit you forth."

Crouching, extending a flipper, Theotormon shuffled towards Wolff. "Jadawin. You don't know how
I've suffered. Is there no pity in you for me? I always thought you, at least, had what these
others lacked. You had a warm heart, a compassion, that these soulless monsters lacked."

"You tried to kill me," Wolff said. "And you would try again if you thought you had a good chance
of doing it."

"No, no," Theotormon said, attempting to smile. "You misun-derstood me entirely. I thought you
would hate me because I loved even a base life more than I did a death as a Lord. I wanted to take
your weapons away so you couldn't hurt me. Then I would have ex-plained what had happened to me,
how I came to be this way. You would have understood then. You would have pitied me and loved me
as you did when you were a boy in the palace of our father and I was your infant brother. That is
all I wanted to do, explain to you and be loved again, not hated. I meant you no harm. By the name
of Los, I swear it."

"I will see you later," Wolff said. "Now, for the present, be gone."

Theotormon walked away spraddle-legged. When he had reached the edge of the island, he turned and
shouted obscenities and abuse at Wolff. Wolff raised his beamer, although he meant only to scare
Theotormon. The thing squawked and leaped like a giant frog out over the water, his rubbery legs
and webbed toes trailing behind him. He went into the water and did not come up again. Wolff asked
Vala how long he could stay under the surface.

"I do not know. Perhaps half an hour. But I doubt that he is hold-ing his breath. He is probably
in one of the caverns that exist in the roots and bladders that form the base of this island."

She said that they must go to meet the others. While they walked through the frond-forest, she
explained the physical facts of this world, as far as she knew them.

"You must have noticed how close the horizon is. This planet has a diameter of about 2170 miles."
(About the size of Earth's moon, Wolff thought.) "Yet the gravity is only a little less than that
of our home-planet." (Not much stronger than Earth's, Wolff thought.)



file:///F|/rah/Philip%20Jose%20Farmer/Philip%20...iers%2002%20-%20The%20Gates%20of%20Creation.txt (8 of 82) [8/27/03 9:23:39 PM]
 file:///F|/rah/Philip%20Jose%20Farmer/Philip%20Jose%20-%20World%20of%20Tiers%2002%20-%20The%20Gates%20of%20Creation.txt

"The gravity fades off abruptly above the atmosphere," she said, "and extends weakly through this