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

head but made no effort to sit up. Wolff moved away from it to be outside its range of leap.

"Jadawin!" the woman called. She had a lovely contralto voice which stirred his heart and his
memory. Although he had not seen her in five hundred or more years, he knew her then.

"Vala!" he said. "What are you doing here?" The question was rhetorical; he knew she must have



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also been trapped by their father. And now he recognized the man. He was Rintrah, one of his
brothers. Vala, his sister, and Rintrah, his brother, had fallen into the same snare.

Vala smiled at him, and his heart sprang again. She was of all women he had known the most
beautiful, with two exceptions. His lovely Chryseis and his other sister, Anana the Bright,
surpassed her. But he had never loved Anana as he had Vala. Just as he had never hated Anana as he
had Vala.

Vala applauded again, and said, "Well done, Jadawin! You have lost none of your skill or wits.
That thing is dangerous, even if detest-able. It cringes and whines and tries to gain your trust,
and then, bang! It's at your throat! It almost killed Rintrah when he first came here and would
have if I had not struck it unconscious with a rock. So, you see, I, too, have dealt with it."

"And why did you not kill it then?" Wolff said.

Rintrah smiled and said, "Don't you know your own little brother, Jadawin? That creature is your
beloved, your cute little Theotormon."

Wolff said, "God! Theotormon! Who did this to him?"

Neither of the two answered, nor was an answer needed. This was Urizen's world; only he could have
refashioned their brother thus.

Theotormon groaned and sat up. One flipper placed over the bloody spot on his head, he rocked back
and forth and moaned. His lichen-green eyes glared at Wolff, and he silently mouthed vitupera-tion
he did not dare voice.

Wolff said, "You're not trying to tell me you spared his life be-cause of fraternal sentiment? I
know you better than that."

Vala laughed and said, "Of course not! I thought he could be used later on. He knows this little
planet well, since he has been here such a long long time. He is a coward, brother Jadawin. He did
not have the courage to test his life in the maze of Urizen; he stayed upon this island and became
as one of the degenerate natives. Our father tired of waiting for him to summon up a nonexistent
manhood. To punish him for his lack of bravery, he caught him and took him off to his stronghold,
Appirmatzum. There he reshaped him, made him into this disgusting sea-thing. Even then, Theotormon
did not dare to go through the gates into Urizen's palace. He stayed here and lived as a hermit,
hating and despising himself, hating all other living beings, especially Lords.