"R. A. Lafferty - Melchisedek 03 - Argo" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lafferty R A)

returned and refreshed and awake, I will immediately set about the business
of having children. They are needed."
"Don't look at me," the man said. "I'm a holy magus. I can't get
involved in such things, certainly not with a client on whom I have a work
order."
"Oh no, I didn't mean you. It will have to be one of the real ones
if possible. But how will I go about it? I'm of an unfallen nature, and
besides I'm pretty naive. I was only a child, really, when I had them freeze
me in this ice clock. I should have a designated mate, but any of the
thirteen would do if one of them were still alive. And there may have been
other bands of us who survived somewhere. I don't know whether there is any
chance of that or not."
"Were people of other bands also frozen in ice blocks?"
"No. Not all of them anyhow. The report was that most of them said
they would tough it out. But I guess that most of them are gone after these
forty thousand years. Do you know where there are any more of my kind?"
"No, not exactly," the magus said. "But I believe I do know where
there are several half-bloods. And I know where there are a few Groll's
Trolls, and they are pretty nearly the same thing. I'm all for the revival
of the more talented of the old races. Things were getting a little bit
bland without you."
"Does your work order say what you're supposed to do with me, holy
magus?"
"It just says to release you from the ice and wake you up, and to
take you to any sea port in the world that you designate."
"Do you have very many other work orders today?"
"No. Just a few. I am to pick up a man who has been waiting thirty
years for this ship to come. We make a lot of mistakes, but he's a patient
man and I believe that he's been enjoying himself. Besides, he's one of our
group. He is a Master of the Ship himself. I will just pick him up in a sea
port a third of the way around the world, and then he will travel with me on
a tour of duty. He is an accomplished seaman, as I am."
"Which sea port is it, magus?"
"Biloxi. It's in Mississippi."
"Thoose are names that sound a little bit like our kind of talk.

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Take me there too then. I don't know much about the different ports you have
now. Some of the ports we had would be underwater now, and somc of them
would be on the mountain tops. If Biloxi is a cosmopolitan place, then there
will be seamen of every sort who will come there. I will pick me out one who
is the closest to my blood. Soon or late some such will turn up. I'll get me
a saloon or a hotel where everybody passes, and finally one of them will
come. Papa ran a waterfront place named 'The Old Stone Ship'. We invented
ships and seamen, you know. I will find some of my folks somewhere, no
matter where I start. And I will save you a trip if you let me off at a port
where you are already going."
They all went down the great ice cliff. They blasted the ship out of