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

He snapped his fingers softly, evaluating the reflected sounds, and
continued around a great hanging stone that cascaded in graceful folds,
flowing into a mound which strained up from the floor like a rearing giant.
"What other sensation?" Owen asked.
"Like all Radiation breaking loose in your head. Something that wasn't
sound or smell or touch."
"I didn't hear anything like that."
"It wasn't hearing--I don't think."
"What made us pass out?"
"I don't know."
They went around a bend in the passage. Now that they had put some
distance behind them, Jared began using his clickstones. "Light!" he
exclaimed, relieved. "But I'd welcome even a soubat now!"
"Not without weapons you wouldn't."
And, as they crossed the Barrier and continued on alongside the wide
river, Jared wondered why his friend hadn't experienced the same uncanny
sensation he had. As far as he was concerned, that phase of the incident was
even more frightening than the monster itself.
Then his lips grew grimly taut as an alarming possibility suggested
itself: Suppose his Original World experience had been a punishment from the
Great Almighty for his blasphemous belief that Light was something less than
God?
They headed into more familiar territory and he announced, "We've got to
report this to the Prime Survivor."
"We can't!" Owen protested. "We broke the law in coming here!"
Which was a complication Jared hadn't considered. Owen, to be sure, was
in enough trouble as it was, having let the cattle get in the manna orchard
last period.


Several hundred breaths later, Jared led the way around the final major
hazard--a huge pit without bottom. He put his pebbles away. Not long afterward
he hissed for silence, then drew Owen over to a recess in the wall.
"What's wrong?" the other demanded.
"Zivvers!" he whispered.
"I don't hear anything."
"You will in a few heartbeats. They're going down the Main Passage
ahead. If they turn this way we may have to run for it."
The sounds in the other tunnel were more audible now. A sheep bleated
and Jared recognized the pitch. "That's one of _our_ animals. They raided the
_Lower_ Level."
The Zivver voices reached maximum volume as the pillagers passed the
corridor intersection, then fell off.
"Come on," Jared urged. "They can't ziv us now."
He went not more than thirty paces, however, before he drew up and
cautioned in his lowest voice, "Quiet!"
He held his breath and listened. Besides his own pounding heartbeat and
Owen's fainter one, there was yet a third-- not too far away, weak, but
pumping violently with fright.
"What is it?" Owen asked.