"Jeffrey Lord - Blade 19 - Looters of Tharn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lord Jeffery)

been expecting to crawl out of the machine, Blade was certainly not it!

Blade stepped down off the platform and strode through the grass toward the bald man. As he moved
he spread his arms wide and kept his empty hands in clear sight, in an unmistakable gesture of peace.
There was no danger for him in that. Blade suspected that he could break this man in two with his bare
hands, if it became necessary. He hoped it wouldn't.

The bald man froze as Blade started toward him. When Blade was twenty feet away the other
swallowed convulsively several times, then spoke.

"You-you are of the Looters?"
Blade stopped in mid-stride so suddenly that he nearly fell on his nose in the grass. The man's speech
had come out in a series of clicks, whistles, and trills. Yet Blade's brain had registered them as plain
English words.

That was a miracle, but it was a miracle that Blade was used to by now. The computer altered his brain
each time he entered a new dimension, so that he could both understand and speak the language there.
How this happened was something still poorly understood even by Lord Leighton and the high-powered
doctors and linguists on the Project Dimension X staff. But this was not the miracle that stopped Blade
dead in his tracks.

That series of clicks, whistles, and trills was unmistakably the language of Tharn.

He was back in Tharn.

He had returned to a dimension he had once visited.

Chapter 9

For a long moment Blade stood as motionless as the neuter. The realization of what had happened was
too overpowering for him to do anything else. It flooded into his mind and completely absorbed his
attention. He could not have moved or spoken to save his life.

At last he cleared his mind of the shock and bewilderment. His eyes focused again on the neuter. He
replied in the same clicks, whistles, and trills the neuter had used.

"I am no Looter, whatever they may be. I have come to Tharn from another land, for other purposes
than those of the Looters."

The neuter quivered all over as though he had just been stabbed. Then he clasped his hands together
until their calloused and grimy knuckles stood out white and the fingers knotted together stopped shaking.
It was his turn to speak.

"How is it that you know the true name of this land?"

Blade smiled. He had to fight to keep the smile from turning into a foolish grin. "I have been in Tharn
before. I saw the great battle with the Pethcines, and saw them perish by the thousands. I saw the end of
the power and the destruction of Urcit. Then I went away. I have traveled far since then, but now I have
returned to Tharn. Now I have returned." Blade was having trouble keeping complete control of his
voice. The first overpowering surprise was passing now. In its place was a swelling exaltation, bubbling