"Richard A. Lupoff - Sail the Tide of Mourning" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lupoff Richard A)

resting lightly against his shoulders. He looked down at her, saw how thin
her body was, the contours of womanhood but barely emergent from the
skinny, sticklike figure of the boisterous child his dead Miralaidj had loved
as a little sister.

Jiritzu felt tears in his eyes.

"I could not go back to Yurakosi," he said. "I am a young man, my skin
still fine and black, protecting me from the poison of the stars. I could not
become a squirmer, alone in a world of children and ancients.

"I would have thrown myself with all my strength from the top of
Djanggawul's highest mast. I would have escaped the ship, fallen forever
through space like the corpse of El-Kumarbis.

"Nurundere said no." Jiritzu stopped, looked down at Bidjiwara, at her
glossy, midnight hair spilling from beneath her knitted cap, her black,
rounded forehead. For a moment he bent and pressed his cheek against
the top of her head, then raised his eyes again to the Rainbow Serpent and
spoke.

"Nurundere gave me his own ship, his captain's lighter. Take the
lighter, Jiritzu,' he said, 'I can unload at Port Bralku with the others, by
shuttle. I need no glorious captain's barge. Sail on forever,' Nurundere
said, 'a better fate than the one awaiting me.'

"You understand, Bidjiwara? I mean to sail the Rainbow Serpent, the
tide that flows between the galaxies. I will sail as long as the rations
aboard last. I will die on this little ship, my soul will return to the
Dreamtime, my body will continue onward, borne by the Rainbow
Serpent.

"I will never become a ground crawler. I will never return to Yurakosi.
No world will know my treadтАФever."

Bidjiwara turned her face, raising her eyes from Jiritzu's ribbed
sweater to look directly into his eyes.

"Very well, Jiritzu. I will sail the Rainbow Serpent with you. Where else
was there for me to go?"

Jiritzu laughed bitterly. "You are a child. You should have remained
aboard Djanggawul. You had many years before you as a sky hero. Look
at your skin," he said, raising her hand to hold it before them both. No
power lights were burning on the little ship, but the colors of Yirrkalla
glowed white, green-yellow, blood red.

"Black, Bidjiwara, black with the precious shield that only our people
claim."