"Edmond Hamilton - The Godmen" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

That, Harlow thought, was what had made it difficult for him all along. He didn't think it would be any
easier now, when his persistent questions about Dundonald and the Vorn had roused superstitions.

The sun went out like a lamp and the moonless dark clapped down. Torches flared as he walked across
the plain, and he headed toward them. And there in the torchlight amid other tall, impassive,
golden-skinned men stood N'Kann. His powerful face was hostile, and his voice rolled harshly in the
slurred language that Harlow had learned.

"There is nothing for you here. Take your ship and go!"

Harlow walked up to him, his hands hanging loosely at his sides. He kept his voice carefully calm and
casual.
"We will go. But it is as I have said before. We seek the Earthman, Dundonald, who was here. We must
know where he went from here."

"I have told you that we do not know,тАЭ retorted the Chief Councilor.

Harlow nodded. тАЬBut there is someone here who does know. A man of your people named Brai,
Dundonald talked to him."

He remembered very well the garrulous old man of the Ktashas who had told himтАФcackling the
meanwhile at Harlow's mispronunciationsтАФthat the last Earthman here had talked of the Vorn with young
Brai. He had not found Brai. He had not even found the old man again.

Harlow said, тАЬWhere is Brai?"

"Who knows that name?тАЭ retorted N'Kann. The faces of all the Councilors were blank. тАЬNo one."

"Yet Dundonald spoke with him,тАЭ persisted Harlow. тАЬHe spoke with him of the Vorn."

The ruddy torches flared steady and unshaken but it was as though a cold wind swept through the group
of golden men when they heard that name.

And N'Kann threw up an arm free of his barbaric bright robe, and gestured with it toward the black sky,
spangled by stars across which the dark blot of the mighty Horsehead Cloud sprawled like a brooding
cosmic octopus.

"My people do not talk of the WanderersтАФno!"

So the Vorn were also called the Wanderers here? Harlow filed that fact mentally, and pressed another
question.

"Why? Are you afraid of them?"

The flash in N'Kann's eyes was dangerous. тАЬWe do not fear any men. Certainly not Earthmen."

"Then the Vorn are not men?"

"I will not talk of them.тАЭ N'Kann's voice rose, heavy with rage. тАЬThey come and they go from star to star
as they wish, and it is their right, and it is not for us to speak of them. Nor for you, EarthmanтАФnor for