"Ann Maxwell - The Jaws of Menx" - читать интересную книгу автора (Maxwell Ann)

to study melting sickness?тАЭ
тАЬYes.тАЭ
RhaneтАЩs answer was as harsh as his thoughts of Cezine alone on an alien planet, melting into hideous
death. The woman did not notice RhaneтАЩs grimace; her focus was turned inward and her words were as
unflinching as the lines around her mouth.
тАЬThe medical team found that melting sickness was unrelated to the Access locations. Melting
sickness doesnтАЩt come from a lethal blend of Menx and Concord viral life.тАЭ
Rhane listened, trying desperately not to remember what he knew about melting sickness ... Cezine.
тАЬMelting sickness is endemic to Menx,тАЭ continued Meriel, тАЬbut not to the lowland cities. It spreads
down out of the highlands, out of the Jaws.тАЭ
тАЬHow?тАЭ said Rhane. Then, тАЬThe caravans.тАЭ
тАЬProbably. We canтАЩt be sure. Volunteers from the medical team set out for the Jaws. Three of those
volunteers were Carifil.тАЭ
Rhane was drawn out of his own memories by the sharp keening of crystal beneath the womanтАЩs
fingers.
тАЬWhat did the Carifil discover?тАЭ
тАЬDeath.тАЭ MerielтАЩs voice thinned, then resumed its normal low tone. тАЬNot right away, of course. Their
skull transceivers worked long enough for us to trace their progress through the Mountains of Light, from
First Pass to the Ghost Pass, and on into the very center of the Jaws. There, one by one, the transceivers
failed. Skull transceivers are powered by the individualтАЩs bioelectric field. If the person dies, so does the
transceiver.тАЭ
тАЬMelting sickness?тАЭ asked Rhane after a long silence.
тАЬProbably. One of the team was showing symptoms before First Pass. But more important even than
their deaths is the fact that all psi communication with them stopped after the Ghost Pass. The three
Carifil were still alive, but we could not touch their minds.тАЭ
MerielтАЩs unwavering stare made Rhane want to look away.
тАЬYou donтАЩt understand, do you?тАЭ she asked.
MerielтАЩs pale fingertips touched RhaneтАЩs shoulder. Desolation moved within him, an emptiness that
began to fill with fear. Her fear. In that instant he knew there was no explanation for the absence of
contact with the three Carifil. Even if they were in a deep coma or had folded in upon themselves in total
mental retreat, some vestige of energy would have remained to tell their psi monitor that they were alive.
Yet there had been nothing. There was neither precedent nor rationale for such a failure of mental
contact.
тАЬMelting sickness?тАЭ asked Rhane again.
тАЬPossibly,тАЭ said Meriel, but her fingertips told him that she did not believe in such a simple
explanation.
тАЬThen what?тАЭ
тАЬWe donтАЩt know. We believe,тАЭ she said and paused, letting the silent communication of her touch
stress that belief was not fact, тАЬthat the answer is in the Jaws of Menx. Many answers are there,
including, perhaps, the answer to MenxтАЩs rejection of Concord.тАЭ
MerielтАЩs touch seemed to burn through RhaneтАЩs thin desert shirt with a heat that owed nothing to
sensuality. Images poured through his mind too quickly to count or comprehend. The flood ended
abruptly, leaving a residue of certainty in RhaneтАЩs mind: melting sickness spread down from the highlands
rather than up from the Accesses; mental contact ended somewhere in the highlands; and Cezine had
died in the very center of the Jaws of Menx.
тАЬImpossible,тАЭ whispered Rhane. тАЬHow did he get through the Ghost Pass? Even my father gave up
trying to reach the Jaws.тАЭ
тАЬCezine died at the Fountains of Madness,тАЭ said Meriel.
Rhane looked through her, absorbing her words. The Jaws of Menx. Melting sickness. Shaylmir.
Cezine. The Fountains of Madness. Death. It could not have been worse. Now he understood why the