"Julian May - The Golden Torc" - читать интересную книгу автора (May Julian)

in demanding that they press onтАФand so five of them did,
with the dauntless Felice carrying Martha until she was well
enough to resume hiking. Slowly, the expedition made its way up the great escarpment
on the eastern Rhine shore, into the eerie zone they named the
Fungus Forest, which crowned the highland where the modern
Schwarzwald lies. It was not until September eighteenth that
they reached the Feldberg, home of the Howler lord, Sugoll.
This individual, wearing a handsome illusory body to screen
hideous deformities, toyed with the humans while his horde of
goblinesque subjects projected hatred and fear of the interlo-pers,
demanding their death.
Claude brought about a reprieve when he explained the cause
of the Howler mutation to Sugoll: The population had split
away from their western brethren hundreds of years earlier,
and had inadvertently settled in a region rich in radioactive
minerals. These, combined with the exotic sensitivity to ra-diation,
had caused the terrible birth defects. There was hope
for the Howlers, Claude said, if they would move out of this
area and, using their powers of shape-shifting to assume a more
attractive aspect, resume mating with normal Firvulag. The
Howlers might further be helped by the skills of a genetic
engineer from the Galactic Milieu; but unfortunately, such a
skilled scientist would surely have been enslaved by the Tanu
for their own purposes.
To express his gratitude, Sugoll assisted the expedition. The
subterranean source of the Danube rose only a short distance
away. A single day's travel on this would bring boaters to the
open river, which flowed so swiftly and smoothly that they
might hope to reach the Ries Crater in only a few days more.
Once again the five people set off. Richard's navigating
skill told them when they had reached the approximate lon-gitude
of the Ship's Grave. On September twenty-second, they
arrived at the crater, around the rim of which stood forty-three
exotic flying machines, layered in dust and lichen. A cursory
inspection convinced Richard and Martha that the exotic craft
were indeed gravo-magnetically powered, quite similar to the.machines of the Galactic Milieu.
Cleaned up, refueled with
distilled water, with the exotic controls deciphered, one of those
thousand-year-old birds might still fly.
Felice found LugonnтАФbut the golden torc was not around
the ancient hero's neck. Years ago, a ramapithecine had in-vaded
the parked flyer where Lugonn rested and had stolen the
glittering bauble. Frustrated again in her quest, Felice reacted
with great violence.
Richard and Martha, who had become lovers during the
long trek, set about to repair a single flyer and the photon-projecting
Spear, which was found next to the skeleton in
armor. Time was growing perilously short; but if even one day
remained before the Truce on October first, the Firvulag would
join with the Lowlives in an attack upon the Rhineside city of