"Keith Laumer - Bolos 6 - Cold Steel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Laumer Keith)

of-function that showed when a given part was functional or should be replaced, even showing
one of those to the sky could give them away.
He could hear quiet chants of victory all through the jungle, and he knew that chanting just
like this spread through the jungle for several days' walk, to wherever the men of his widely
dispersed clan made camp. They had cut deep into the enemy's vitals today, raided one of his
nests, killed all his warriors, all his hatchlings.
Whitestar's fur bristled with satisfaction and pride. The Ones Above would be pleased, and
would favor their blessings on his clan above all others. It had been promised that, when the time
came, they would be shown where even more powerful weapons were hidden, shown how to use
the ones they had in even more deadly ways.
He stopped, taking a deep breath. He smelled her before he heard her voice. She carried the
brooding smell, the smell of one caring for eggs. It made his blood burn, but did not excite him.
Instead it brought out instinctive, protective urges. It made him want to kill the human devils
even more, to sweep the world clean of them to protect his eggs. "Are you there, Whitestar?"
 "This way," he said. Her senses would be tuned for the eggs now, for the hatchlings. She
could hear their cries of help across a raging river, or smell an illness before they would even feel
it, but it made it more difficult to travel in the jungle at night.
She stepped closer, the smell of her stronger, the outline of her smaller form just visible in the
starlight. "What are you doing here, Sweetwater? The eggsтАФ"
"The second-wife warms them, my lord. As first-wife, it is my right to take a rest
occasionally. I came looking for you."
"I was returning to the nest."
"Then I will follow you. I hear your victory was great today."
Whitestar clicked his bill in affirmation, and returned to walking, slower this time so she
could keep up.
"Then Twostone is dead?"
"He took the Fist of the Ones Above to a place where it would disable their defenses. Take
away their machines. They are soft and weak. Not like us. By nightfall, we had returned them all
to their foul maker. Twostone died well. He did not die for nothing."
"Did he have to die at all, Whitestar?"
"Not this again, woman. The devils we have been raised to fight are finally here. This is the
time of destiny. We are lucky to be alive to see it."
"Your eldest hatchling is lucky to be alive to see it. I watched you from afar when you fought
Twostone. You showed him mercy. Could you not do as much to your own hatchling, your
eldest?"
"Blackspike would not yield, woman. He would have killed me. Only my skill saved me from
killing him. I saved him from spilling his own blood in battle, like Twostone. I saved him to take
my mantle as lord when I am gone."
"He is hot-blooded, Whitestar. All the young ones are, as the old women say your generation
is hotter blooded than your fathers. It is like a creeping madness."
"It is our strength. It is what helps us kill the devil humans." This was a very sore subject
between them. The old women remembered too much, talked too much, caused too much trouble.
Some days he thought he should just have his warriors kill them. But there was truth to it,
especially among the highborn who were blessed with the teachings of the Ones Above. It was
the duty of the lowborn fodder to spill their blood against the devils. It was the duty of the
highborn not to die without using their teachings, and without passing those teachings on.
They had to deny the heat of their own blood. He stopped outside the nest and turned to her.
"Have you placed the eggs in the blessing chamber yet?" The blessing chambers were among
their most sacred artifacts. Each new clutch of eggs was to spend two days in its warm, shuttered
interior. It was there that the blessing of the Ones Above was delivered onto the clan.