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

'It is done,' Katsuk said. 'You have repeated the ritual correctly. From this moment, your
name is Hoquat.'
'Does it mean something?' David asked. He started to turn, but a hand on his shoulder
restrained him.
'It is the name my people gave to something that floats far out on the water, something
strange that cannot be identified. It is the name we gave to your people because you came
that way to us from the water.'
David did not like the hand on his shoulder, but feared saying anything about it. He felt
that his being, his private flesh, had been offended. Opposing forces struggled in him. He
had been prepared for an event which he could almost see, and this ritual failed to satisfy
him.
He asked: 'Is that all there is to it?'
'No. It is time for you to learn my name.'
'You said we could go.'
'We will go soon.'
'Well ... what's your name?'
'Katsuk.'
 David fought down a shudder. 'What's that mean?'
'Many, many things. It is the center of the universe.'
'Is it an Indian word?'
'Indian! I am sick with being Indian, with living out a five-hundred-year-old mistake!'
The hand on David's shoulder gripped him hard, shook him with each word. David went
very still. Suddenly, he knew for the first time he was in danger. Katsuk. It had an ugly
sound. He could not understand why, but the name suggested deadly peril. He whispered:
'Can we go now?'
Katsuk said: 'Mamook memaloost! Kechgi tsuk achat kamooks ... '
In the old tongue, he promised it all: I will sacrifice this Innocent. I will give him to the
spirits who protect me. I will send him into the underplaces and his eyes will be the two eyes
of the worm. His heart will not beat. His mouth ...
'What're you saying?' David demanded.
But Katsuk ignored him, went on to the end of it.
'Katsuk makes this promise in the name of Soul Catcher.'
David said: 'I don't understand you. What was all that?'
'You are the Innocent,' Katsuk said. 'But I am Katsuk. I am the middle of every thing. I
live everywhere. I see you hoquat all around. You live like dogs. You are great liars. You see
the moon and call it a moon. You think that makes it a moon. But I have seen it all with my
good eye and recognize without words when a thing exists.'
'I want to go back now.'
Katsuk shook his head. 'We all want to go back, Innocent Hoquat. We want the place
where we can deal with our revelation and weep and punish our senses uselessly. You talk
and your world sours me. You have only words that tell me of the world you would have if I
permitted you to have it. But I have brought you here. I will give you back your own
knowledge of what the universe knows. I will make you know and feel. You really will
understand. You will be surprised. What you learn will be what you thought you already
knew.'
'Please, can't we go now?'
'You wish to run away. You think there is no place within you to receive what I will give
you. But it will be driven into your heart by the thing itself. What folly you have learned! You
think you can ignore such things as I will teach. You think your senses cannot accept the
universe without compromise. Hoquat, I promise you this: you will see directly through to