"David Lindsey - A Voyage to Arcturus" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lindsay David)

that I have to hunt for lovers? Is not Crimtyphon waiting for me at this very moment?"
"Very well. I am sorry to have hurt your feelings. Now carry the temptation no farther - for it is a
temptation, where a lovely woman is concerned. I am not my own master."
"I'm not proposing anything so very hateful, am I? Why do you humiliate me so?"
Maskull put his hands behind his back. "I repeat, I am not my own master."
"Then who is your master?"
"Yesterday I saw Surtur, and from today I am serving him."
"Did you speak with him?" she asked curiously.
"I did."
"Tell me what he said."
'No, I can't - I won't. But whatever he said, his beauty was more tormenting than yours, Oceaxe, and
that's why I can look at you in cold blood."
"Did Surtur forbid you to be a man?"
Maskull frowned. "Is love such a manly sport, then? I should have thought it effeminate."
"It doesn't matter. You won't always be so boyish. But don't try my patience too far."
"Let us talk about something else - and, above all, let' us get on our road."
She suddenly broke into a laugh, so rich, sweet, and enchanting, that he grew half inflamed, and half
wished to catch her body in his arms. "Oh, Maskull, Maskull - what a fool you are!"
"In what way am I a fool?" he demanded, scowling not at her words, but at his own weakness.
"Isn't the whole world the handiwork of innumerable pairs of lovers? And yet you think yourself
above all that. You try to fly away from nature, but where will you find a hole to hide yourself in?"
"Besides beauty, I now credit you with a second quality: persistence."
"Read me well, and then it is natural law that you'll think twice and three times before throwing me
away.. .. And now, before we go, we had better eat."
 "Eat?" said Maskull thoughtfully.
"Don't you eat? Is food in the same category as love?"
"What food is it?"
"Fish from the river."
Maskull recollected his promise to Joiwind. At the same time, he felt hungry.
"Is there nothing milder?"
She pulled her mouth scornfully. "You came through Poolingdred, didn't you? All the people there
are the same. They think life is to be looked at, and not lived. Now that you are visiting Ifdawn, you will
have to change your notions."
"Go catch your fish," he returned, pulling down his brows.
The broad, clear waters flowed past them with swelling undulations, from the direction of the
mountains. Oceaxe knelt down on the bank, and peered into the depths. Presently her look became
tense and concentrated; she dipped her hand in and pulled out some sort of little monster. It was more
like a reptile than a fish, with its scaly plates and teeth. She threw it on the ground, and it started crawling
about. Suddenly she darted all her will into her sorb. The creature leaped into the air, and fell down dead.
She picked up a sharp - edged slate, and with it removed the scales and entrails. During this
operation, her hands and garment became stained with the light scarlet blood.
"Find the drude, Maskull," she said, with a lazy smile. "You had it last night."
He searched for it. It was hard to locate, for its rays had grown dull and feeble in the sunlight, but at
last he found it. Oceaxe placed it in the interior of the monster, and left the body lying on the ground.
"While it's cooking, I'll wash some of this blood away, which frightens you so much. Have you never
seen blood before?"
Maskull gazed at her in perplexity. The old paradox came back - the contrasting sexual
characteristics in her person. Her bold, masterful, masculine egotism of manner seemed quite incongruous
with the fascinating and disturbing femininity of her voice. A startling idea flashed into his mind.
"In your country I'm told there is an act of will called 'absorbing.' What is that?"