"Daniel F. Galouye - Dark Universe" - читать интересную книгу автора (Galouye Daniel F)

an unavoidable situation with natural foe or Zivver, there wasn't a more
determined fighter around.
Zivvers and soubats and bottomless pits, Jared reflected-- those were
the challenges of existence. If it weren't for them, the Lower Level World and
its passages would be as safe as Paradise itself was before man turned his
back on Light Almighty and, as the legend had it, came to the various worlds
that men and Zivvers now inhabited.
At the moment, though, only the soubats held his concern. One in
particular--a vicious, marauding creature that had winged furiously into the
Lower Level and snatched away a sheep.
He spat in disgust, recalling the venomous expletives his archery
instructor had muttered long ago: "Stinking, Light damned things from the
bowels of Radiation!"
"What _are_ soubats?" one of the young archers had asked.
"They started off like the inoffensive little bats whose manure we
collect for the plants. But they had truck with the Devils somewhere along the
way. Either Cobalt or Strontium took one of them down to Radiation and made it
over into a supercreature. From that one came all the soubats we have to
contend with now."
Jared filled the passage with anxious, probing echoes. Owen, stubbornly
maintaining the lead, was advancing more cautiously now, sending his feet out
in sliding motions rather than pronounced steps.
The other's closed-eyes preference brought a smile to Jared's lips. It
was a habit that would never be broken. It accommodated the belief that the
eyes themselves should be protected and preserved for feeling the Great Light
Almighty's presence on His Return.
But there wasn't anything objectionable about Owen, Jared assured
himself, except that he was too susceptible to literal acceptance of the
legends. Like the one which held that Light had resented man's invention of
the manna plant and had cast him out of Paradise and into eternal Darkness,
whatever that was.
One _click_ and Owen was there--several paces ahead. Another and he was
gone. In the interim there had been a distressed shout and the sound of flesh
impacting on rock. Then:
"For Light's sake! Get me out of here!"
More echoes disclosed the presence of the shallow pit which had, until
then, lurked in the echo void ahead of Owen.
Standing on the lip of the cavity, Jared lowered his lance. The other
grabbed hold and started to pull himself out. But Jared tensed, wrenched the
spear free and cast himself on the ground. He barely escaped clawing talons as
the soubat swooped down.
"We're going to get a soubat!" he shouted exultantly.
By its shrieks, he tracked the animal as it made a ranging turn, gaining
altitude, then dived down in a second, screaming attack. Jared lunged up,
anchored the spear in a crevice and braced himself along the shaft, aiming it
at the onrushing fury.
All Radiation broke loose as three hundred pounds of wrath hit Jared in
a single, violent blast and bowled him over. He rose and felt the warmth of
blood on his arm where talon had laid open flesh.
"Jared! You all right!"