"Lisle,.Holly.-.Vincalis.The.Agitator1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lisle Holly)

Why? Why had he been born different? It was the question he and Solander had spent the last five years trying to answer, without success. But why did the Warrens exist in the first place? He once had a family somewhere in the Warrens. He might still have, if they hadnТt been rounded up and put into trucks and hauled away; they might at that minute be sitting in a tiny, stinking apartment, growing older and fatter, oblivious to their lives and yet chained to those appalling lives by the very food that sustained them. If they still lived, his parents and brothers and sisters lived out their days in a prison and a hell. What purpose did that hell and its inhabitants serve?
HeТd spent years avoiding that questionЧuntil he began having nightmares.
In those dreams, a great golden bird of prey caught him up in its talons and carried him off, depositing him at last back in the little basement where he and JessЧand, once, othersЧhad hidden. On waking, he remembered the bird, and with a bit of research, heТd identified it as a falcon. Gold-crested fish-falcon, to be specific, but since heТd never seen any other sort, he was happy enough to think of it simply as a falcon. He would have been happier not to think of it at all, but it wouldnТt leave him alone. When he slept, it haunted him with memories of the Warrens, and guilt and a vague uneasiness that there was something that he was supposed to be doing.
So recently, on his own, heТd tried to locate the truth about the WarrensЧto find any sort of information about the area and its people in public records, to find some sort of history of how one section of society had been locked behind high walls and drugged and then forgottenЧbut there were no true records of the Warrens available anywhere. None. Only the false reports of riots and prostitution and crime rings and murders and rapes and mob rule, complete with recorded УliveФ images.
УWhen do you think your father is going to let you use his workroom?Ф Wraith asked.
Solander said, УNever. Why?Ф
УNever?Ф
УNo. I donТt know of a Dragon anywhere who permits anyone in his workroom. Ever. When a Dragon dies, the spells he has that shield it usually weaken enough that another Dragon can force his way through, but prior to that, the workshops are impregnable.а.а.а.Ф He sat up and looked at Wraith.
УThey wouldnТt be to me, would they?Ф
УIf my father found you in his workroom, he would kill you. I meanЧquite literallyЧhe would kill you. No one is permitted into a DragonТs workroom. They keep all the governmentТs secret documents and defense-project plans and things like that in there. IТve overheard my father talking to other Dragons about what heТs working on andа.а.а.Ф He shook his head vehemently. УIf you went in, you would be committing treason against the whole Empire of the Hars Ticlarim.Ф
УI want to find out the truth about the Warrens. I want to find out about why my family wasа.а.а. the way they were. Maybe still are, if they arenТt all dead. IТve looked through the public records, IТve scoured the archives, IТve read up on history, and I havenТt found anything.Ф
Solander said, УYouТre out. YouТre free of the place, and so is Jess. Why are you suddenly going back to that?Ф
УNightmares,Ф Wraith said. УAndа.а.а. I donТt know. I think once I understand the reason why the Warrens exist, IТll be able to let it go, but Iа.а.а. I have to know. Why is this being done? Who are the Warreners? What did theyЧweЧdo that was so terrible?Ф
Solander stared down at his hands. УWhen IТm accepted into the Academy, IТll get a workroom of my own, and IТll start getting the Dragon references that my father uses, and then you wonТt have to take any chances going into his office.Ф
Wraith said, УBy the time youТve finished your first degree in the Academy, that will be five yearsЧФ
УIТm thinking IТll be able to do it in three,Ф Solander interrupted, but Wraith shook his head.
УOr maybe you can do it in three, but thatТs still three more years before I find out the truth. If I do then. You might not get the truth even when you become a first-level Dragon. Maybe whatТs going on in the Warrens is some sort of government secret, and no one but the people at the very top know the truth.Ф
Solander laughed. УThatТs ridiculous. What kind of government secret would involve slums?Ф
УIf it isnТt important, why is it that the only things we can find out about the Warrens are lies? Why are the Warrens shielded so tightly that your best viewer has never been able to so much as peek over the walls?Ф
Solander shrugged. УWhat difference does it make, Wraith? Really? You know what I think? I think that the Warrens really were as awful as the reports show. I think the images of riots and other things shown on the nightlies are from the Warrens, only before the Dragons started a program to settle things down. Theyа.а.а.Ф He shrugged. УThey put the walls up first, but the walls didnТt take care of the problem. So the Dragons created a food distribution system, and put something into the food to calm the criminals down. And now they keep the stuff in the food so that the troubles wonТt start up again.Ф
Wraith sat up and put his feet on the floor. Carefully. He felt his hands curling into fists and forced himself to relax them. УSo the people in the Warrens are natural criminalsЧif they werenТt drugged, they would be rioting and murdering and raping and robbing.Ф
УWellа.а.а. yes. I guess so.Ф
УLike me. Like my friends who never managed to escape.Ф He paused. УLike Jess.Ф
SolanderТs face flushed deep red, and he averted his eyes. УWellа.а.а. you got out of there. If youТd had to live there your whole livesЧФ
УWe are who we are. The Warreners live behind walls and gates that would kill them if they tried to cross. And those same gates would kill anyone who tried to get in without authorization. So how are the Warreners supposed to improve their lives or do something to make themselves better? Even if they werenТt drugged into a stupor, they wouldnТt have any chance for a better life.Ф
УMaybe it is a prison, and everyone in it has been sentenced to be there.Ф
УYou mean like me? And Jess? We were born there, and both of us have older brothers and sisters who were born thereЧpeople who are old enough that theyТll have their own children by nowа.а.а. if theyТre still alive. People arenТt born with criminal records, Sol.Ф
Now Solander sat up, too. УLook, youТre suggesting that the Dragons are doing something wrong. Something big, and secret, and bad.Ф
УYes.Ф
УThatТs treason.Ф
УNoЧitТs just looking at the situation and seeing how the pieces fit.Ф
Solander leaned forward. УAnd what do you want to do about this conspiracy youТre alleging? This awful thing youТre hinting that my father and other great men in the Hars are responsible for?Ф
УI want to find out the truth. ThatТs all.Ф
УWhat if there is no СtruthТ? What if there is a good, simple, reasonable explanation?Ф
Wraith said, УIf your brother died because you tried to set him free, if your parents and brothers and sisters were in a cage they could never escape, what sort of good, simple, reasonable explanation would satisfy you?Ф
УYouТre obsessed.Ф
УMore like haunted. I havenТt had a real nightТs sleep in a month.Ф
УI donТt want to have anything to do with this.Ф
УThen IТll leave and find another way to help my family.Ф
Solander rose and paced across the floor. Outside his window, a school of fish flashed into range of the lights that ringed the mansion, and for a moment their black shapes erupted into a riot of reds and yellows and silvers and blues. And then they were gone again.
УWhy now?Ф Solander asked at last. УWhy are you pushing this now?Ф
УBecause IТm not a child anymore. And I owe something to the people who gave me life and to the world I came fromЧeven if itТs nothing more than finding out why that world exists.Ф
УAll you want is answers? Once you get your answers, youТll be satisfied with them, and that will be the end of any interest in the Warrens?Ф
Wraith thought about that for a moment. УIf we find a good reason for the existence of the Warrens, IТll let it go.Ф
УWhich means if the Dragons are involved in something you donТt agree with, youТre going to insist on getting yourself into trouble?Ф
УIf youТre right, thereТs no conspiracy related to the Warrens. YouТre convinced that the DragonsТ motives in broadcasting their propaganda and keeping the Warrens beneath a tight shield are completely innocent. So put your convictions where your mouth is. Help me find the truth.Ф
Solander closed his eyes, covered his face with his arms, and groaned. УYou want to get both of us killed.Ф
УI wonТt get you killed, Sol. I swear it.Ф
Solander moved one arm just enough that he could give Wraith a one-eyed glare from underneath it. УAll right, then. IТll help you. My parents will be at the festival a lot of the time. Everyone will expect us to stay for the entire weekЧmost of the people our age will. But we wonТt. WeТll go, weТll make sure people see us there, and then weТll leave separately and meet back here. YouТll go into my fatherТs workroom, and IТll stand guard to make sure that you donТt get caught. YouТll look for anything you can find on the Warrens, and then youТll get out of there. And that will be it. Agreed? If you find something, good. If you donТt find anything, we still arenТt going back. This will be the only time we do this.Ф
Wraith nodded. УI donТt want to spy on your father. ItТs just that heТs the only one I could think of who might have access to the answers I need.Ф