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

move and breathe but for a few weeks at best. Most never return at all. We need to
interrupt that cycle of control by the Children, do away with the Compact to bring
death and childhood back among us. Then we can take back our lives and rejoin the
worlds of men.тАЭ

Ahasuerus cocked his head. тАЬHow do you plan to do this?тАЭ

тАЬThe Children hate iron, so it follows that iron must have power over them.
We donтАЩt know the best way to apply that power. I understand you have given the
matter some thought over the years.тАЭ

тАЬThis is a dangerous game,тАЭ said Ahasuerus, тАЬfor you and everyone around
you. But IтАЩve been dying for almost three hundred years and IтАЩd like to finish the job
like a human being.тАЭ He sighed his way to a rheumy cough. тАЬYou are right, there are
some old ideas, plans drawn up before we all lost heart. IтАЩll help.тАЭ

****
 Dismas and Gestas walked back uptown, stopping by silent agreement for a
drink in a little bistro that smelled of powdered sugar and steam.

Gestas sipped a mug of swamp ale. Thick stuff redolent of anise, it was
brewed from the bladders of a native water plant. тАЬWhatтАЩs wrong with him?тАЭ

Dismas stared out the window of the bistro, looking at the tattered Terran
elms that lined Morrigan Avenue. тАЬAhasuerus is old, and sick.тАЭ

тАЬHow? Like a chill?тАЭ

тАЬHe was old and sick, before the Compact. Old, itтАЩs when youтАЩve lived too
many years, like happens to horses or dogs. Your hair goes gray or white, you lose
your teeth, muscles wither and bones grow brittle, then one day you just die. And as
for sick, I donтАЩt know what he has. I was never a doctor, but maybe pneumonia.
Could even be something like cystic fibrosis. ItтАЩs in his lungs. Before, people died
from being sick if they didnтАЩt get old first. Somehow he survived the coming of the
Children.тАЭ

тАЬReally?тАЭ Gestas had never seen an old person, any more than heтАЩd ever seen
a child. And no one was ever sick.

тАЬDeath,тАЭ said Dismas, тАЬwas once a process of time.тАЭ

тАЬMerry Jack died, you said. But Ahasuerus claims they buried those iron
coins we recovered.тАЭ

Dismas shook his head. тАЬHe wasnтАЩt breathing when I finished with him.тАЭ
Dismas laughed, his voice brittle as glass. тАЬI eventually became a gentleman because
of him. Merry Jack taught hard lessons. And he was definitely dead.тАЭ

тАЬThen who helped Ahasuerus bury the coins?тАЭ