"Frank Herbert - Soul Catcher" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

powerful being goes ... '
David sensed the man's tensions, the air of secrecy. But no place could be safer than this
wilderness camp with that cog railroad the only way to get here.
He asked: 'Aren't you cold?'
'I am used to this. You must hurry after me now. We haven't much time.'
Katsuk stepped down off the porch. The boy followed.
'Where are we going?'
'To the top of the ridge.'
David hurried to keep in step. 'Why?'
'I have prepared a place there for you to be initiated into a very old ceremony of my
people.'
 'Because of the photographs?'
'Yes.'
'I didn't think Indians believed in that stuff anymore.'
'Even you will believe.'
David tucked his shirt more firmly into his belt, felt the knife. The knife gave him a feeling
of confidence. He stumbled in his hurry to keep up.
Without looking back, Katsuk felt the boy's tensions relax. There had been a moment
back on the porch when rebellion had radiated from the Innocent. The boy's eyes had been
uncertain, wet and smooth in their darkness. The bitter acid of fear had been in the air. But
now the boy would follow. He was enthralled. The center of the universe carried the power
of a magnet for that Innocent.
David felt his heart beating rapidly from exertion. He smelled rancid oil from the Chief.
The man's skin glistened when moonlight touched it, as though he had greased his body.
'How far is it?' David asked.
'Three thousand and eighty-one paces.'
'How far is that?'
'A bit over a mile.'
'Did you have to dress like that?'
'Yes.'
'What if it rains?'
'I will not notice.'
'Why're we going so fast?'
'We need the moonlight for the ceremony. Be silent now and stay close.'
Katsuk felt brass laughter in his chest, picked up the pace. The smell of newly cut cedar
drifted on the air. The rich odor of cedar oils carried an omen message from the days when
that tree had sheltered his people.
David stumbled over a root, regained his balance.
The trail pushed through mottled darkness -- black broken by sharp slashes of moonlight.
The bobbing patch of loincloth ahead of him carried a strange dream quality to David. When
moonlight reached it, the man's skin glistened, but his black hair drank the light, was one
with the shadows.
'Will the other guys be initiated?' David asked.
'I told you that you are the only one.'
'Why?'
'You will understand soon. Do not talk.'
Katsuk hoped the silence brought by that rebuke would endure. Like all hoquat, the boy
talked too much. There would be no reprieve for such a one.
'I keep stumbling,' David muttered.
'Walk as I walk.'