"Philip Jose Farmer - WOT 5 - The Lavalite World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

along his back and his legs. It felt almost as warm as a human body. Under the
densely packed blades and the thick tangle of roots, energy was being
dissipated. The earth was shifting slowly. In what direction, toward what
shapes, he did not know.

He could wait. One of his virtues was an almost-animal patience. Be a
leopard, a wolf. Lie still and evaluate the situation. When action was called
for, he would explode. Unfortunately, his injured leg and his weakness
handicapped him. Where he had once been dynamite, he was now only black
gunpowder.

He sat up and looked around. The dark reddish light smoldered around
him. The trees formed a waving wall on the hill tops. The others of the party
lay on their sides or their backs. McKay was snoring. Anana was muttering
something in her native language, a speech older than Earth itself. Urthona's
eyes were open, and he was looking directly at Kickaha. Was he hoping to catch
him unawares and get hold of the beamer?

No. He was sleeping, his mouth and eyes open. Kickaha, having risen and
come close to him, could hear the gentle burbling from his dry lips. The eyes
looked glazed.

Kickaha licked his own sandpaper lips and swallowed. He brought the
wristwatch, which he'd borrowed from Anana, close to his eyes. He pressed the
minute stud on its side, and four glowing figures appeared briefly on the
face. They were the numerical signs of the Lords. In Earth numerals, 15:12.
They did not mean anything here. There was no sun; the sky provided light and
some heat. In any event, this planet had no steady rotation on any one plane,
and there were no stars. The great reddish mass that had moved slowly across
the sky, becoming larger every day, was no genuine moon. It was a temporary
satellite, and it was falling.

There were no shadows except under one peculiar condition. There was no
north, south, east, and west. Anana's watch had compass capabilities, but they
were useless. This great body on which he stood had no nickel-steel core, no
electromagnetic field, no north or south pole. Properly speaking, it wasn't a
planet.

And the ground was rising now. He could not detect that by its motion,
since that was so slow. But the hills had definitely become lower.

The watch had one useful function. It did mark the forward movement of
time. It would tell him when his hour and a half of sentinel duty was over.

When it was time to rouse Anana, he walked to her. But she sat up before
he was within twelve feet. She knew that it was her turn. She had told herself
to wake at the proper time, and a well-developed sense, a sort of biological
clock within her, had set off its alarm.

Anana was beautiful, but she was beginning to look gaunt. Her cheekbones