"Edmond Hamilton - Captain Future 23 - The Harpers of Titan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

them. At their head Simon saw a tall,
dark-haired boy.
Harker said, "That is your son."
His skin a lighter gold, his face a
mixture of Keogh's and something of
a softer beauty, his eyes very direct
and proud, Dion was what Simon
would have expected.
He felt a sense of guilt as he greeted
the boy by name. Yet mingled with it
was a strange feeling of pride. He
thought suddenly, I wish that I had
had a son like this, in the old days
before I changed.
And then, desperately, "I must not
think these things! The lure of the
flesh is pulling me back."
Dion was breathless with haste, his
face showing the marks of
sleeplessness and worry.
"Father, we've scoured the valley
for you! Where have you been?"
Simon started the explanation that
he had concerted with Harker, but the
boy cut him short, racing from one
thing to another in an urgent flood of
words.
"You didn't come, and we were
afraid something had happened to
you. And while you were gone, they
advanced the time of the council!
They hoped you wouldn't come back
at all, but if you did, they were going
to make sure it was too late."
Dion's strong young hand gripped
Simon's arm. "They're already
gathering in the council hall! Come
on. There may still be time, but we
must hurry!"
Harker looked grimly over the
boy's head at Simon. "It's come
already."
With Keogh's impatient son, and
the men with him, they hurried on into
the city.
Houses of mud brick, generations
old, and towering above them the wall
of the Inner City, and above that still
the roofs and squat, massive towers of
the palaces and temples, washed with