"Jay Lake - To Live Forever" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lake Jay)

тАЬWe understood this to be a lost hoard,тАЭ Gestas said.

тАЬLost in the sense that Merry Jack and I buried it there.тАЭ

тАЬMerry Jack...тАЭ Dismas seemed to be reaching for difficult words. тАЬHe ...
died, during the Evacuation.тАЭ

тАЬNo, gentlemen. He did not.тАЭ Ahasuerus smiled, displaying gapped yellow
teeth behind cracked lips. тАЬAnd it seems I do know you, sir.тАЭ He stabbed a finger at
Dismas. тАЬYouтАЩre the man who tried to kill Merry Jack at January Landing, on the
Last Day. He warned me about you. A failed effort on your part, although Merry
Jack found another path to a bed beneath the earth this hundred years or more past.
Childshot, he was.тАЭ

Dismas shook, knuckles whitening on his cane. тАЬHe died. I struck him down.тАЭ

тАЬNo, not then, although I would imagine he felt little call to inform you of his
survival. Not that he didnтАЩt deserve what you did to him. But after that, missing the
ships, you smashing him up, I donтАЩt know which, but Merry Jack came to a change
of attitude.тАЭ

Dismas seemed caught between anger and grief. Gestas spoke up. тАЬI may be
Lost, but IтАЩve come back, and thereтАЩs nothing wrong with my head. Why did you
bury the hoard in the first place?тАЭ

The smithтАЩs eyes focused on an invisible distance. тАЬOh lad, the days were
terrible then, after the Evacuation. The Children, they sent ... Powers, roaming the
land to terrorize and kill. Lot of cold iron then, humans always have iron, and it was
being thrown into the sea as fast as people could move it.

тАЬYou donтАЩt realize how the whole world of human technology was built on
ironтАФelectric generators, machine tools. Everything had to go, very quickly. A
disposal team didnтАЩt move fast enough to suit the terms of the Compact, theyтАЩd
wake to find a man Childshot, turned to a Deadwalker right there. Or just gone, in a
bloody trail and no screams heard by the night sentry. Lots of people wanted to take
their own lives, hard as that had become, but few wanted to be killed out of hand.тАЭ

тАЬBut surelyтАФтАЭ

тАЬEnough!тАЭ Dismas again laid a hand on GestasтАЩ shoulder. тАЬWe live now, not
then, and the Powers are long since gone. Only a fool gets himself Childshot these
days. We have iron. Will you help us?тАЭ

тАЬOnly a fool digs up four hundred weight of cold iron,тАЭ the smith said quietly.
тАЬWhat did you plan to do with this stuff?тАЭ

Gestas answered. тАЬOur babies are born and surrendered within a day, or they
rot and die. Somewhere, under earthen mounds or perhaps beneath the water, the
children of men grow in silence, hosts to the Children of Gol Goth. Some like me
come back to the world, Lost but returned. Others come back, Deadwalkers, who