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

тАЬNot inside copper cladding. A mesh glove of copper, grounded through the
body. Like GestasтАЩ charm bag in which he brought me the sample. The iron in our
blood troubles them, too. ThatтАЩs why they never just took us all over.тАЭ

Dismas smiled back. тАЬAh. And this is why you are the smith and I am a
gentleman idler.тАЭ

тАЬAn idler who troubled to find the iron hoard, after all these years.тАЭ
 тАЬI donтАЩt understand why you made coins.тАЭ Gestas stared at the hoard, left
where it had spilled out from its concealing coffin. In the flickering shadows of the
library they could be legendary gold, treasure of some space captain trapped on Gol
Goth after the Evacuation. тАЬWhy not ingots, or sprues, or even blank discs? Why
bother to actually mint iron coins?тАЭ

тАЬMint, lad,тАЭ said Ahasuerus. His voice was almost dreamy. тАЬMintтАЩs the key.
That was Merry JackтАЩs greatest idea. Use the mint they once had here in Port
Edward to work the iron. There were dies there, hammers, small tools, sufficient iron
to confuse the issue. It had survived the disposal. The Children didnтАЩt care about
metal at the mint, not by then. And coins, they have a patina, almost a soul of their
own, that hides myriad truths. We buried treasure, not gold, that night in the
boneyard. We hid real iron behind the idea of gold.тАЭ

тАЬThe Children would hardly be fooled by that.тАЭ

The smithтАЩs voice hardened. тАЬWe hid it from ourselves. Until the Children
grew lazy, and some among us grew strong enough. Like you and Dismas.тАЭ

****

There was an old forge behind the manor houseтАЩs stables, but Dismas and
Ahasuerus agreed the smith should work in the kitchen, hidden within the ancient
steel-braced walls.

Cook had resigned when the tongs and braziers arrived on the baking table, so
Gestas was forced to make stew for them each day. Dismas had dismissed the rest
of the house servants in CookтАЩs wake. Longines, DismasтАЩ man, remained available
for needful errands, but most of his time was spent practicing a cultivated paranoia
that kept them safe within the house.

The smith had brought up a good number of tools from his workshop.
Copper, brass, bronze, clay, wood, ancient plastics, materials of every description
filled the kitchen, all shapes and sizes. Gestas was amazed at how quickly the
cluttered spirit of the workshop off Exchange Street had possessed their kitchen.

****

Dismas watched Ahasuerus heat a coin over a brazier, work it with tiny tools,
then place the shaped metal in a copper urn. Six such urns sat before him on the
chopping block, next to some copper mesh worked into the shape of a glove,
slipped over a carved wooden hand. He would pause, then select another coin from