"Madeline L' Engle - Time Quartet 04 - Many Waters" - читать интересную книгу автора (L'Engle Madeleine)

dream, he reached up to touch Dennys's mattress above
him. Nothing- He opened his eyes more widely

He was in a Cent, a sizable tent made of goatskins, judg-
ing by the smell. Light came in from the roof hole, a rosy,
sunset light. A funny little animal crossed the tent to him
and sprayed his body with water, and he realized that he
was hot with sunburn. The animal was bringing water
from a large clay pot and cooling him with it.

"Sand?" the young man asked again. "Are you awake?"

"jay?" He struggled to sit up, and his burned skin was
scratched by the skins on which he was lying.

"Sand, are you all right?" Japheth's voice trembled with
anxiety.

"I'm okay. Just sunburned."

The old man put his hand against Sandy's forehead.
"You have much fever. The sun-sickness is hard on those
unaccustomed to the desert. Are you from beyond the
mountains?"

Sandy looked at the ancient man, who was even smaller
than Japheth but had the same brightly blue eyes, startling
against the sun-darkened skin. Sandy touched his forehead
as Japheth had done. "I'm Sandy."

"Sand. Yes. Japheth has told me." The old man touched
his forehead, tipped with softly curling white hair. "La-
inech. Grandfather Lamech. Japheth carried you to my
tent."

Sandy looked around in alarm. "But DennysтАФwhere's
Dennys?" He was now fully awake, aware that he was not
in the bunk bed at home but in this strange desert place

31 "s-^ Pelican in the wilderness

which might be on any planet in any solar system in any
galaxy anywhere in the universe. He shuddered. "Dennys?"

"He went out with the unicorn."

"What!"

"Sand," Japheth explained patiently, "Dennys must
have fainted. I told you about unicorns. Sometimes they