"Ardath Mayhar - Khi to Freedom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mayhar Ardath)

such matters out to my companions they nodded cheerfully and pointed in
the direction in which we were going.
Sure now that we were going to meet another race of intelligent people,
I redoubled my efforts and added something to my speed above-ground.
The danger the Ginli posed, not only to me but to any intelligence living on
the planet, was a constant worry. I am a man of affection, and the Varlian
had helped me, taken me in, and made me feel welcome. I didnтАЩt want any
harm to come to them, and theirs was the greatest danger. It was
standard practice among Scouts to conceal the presence of the green
people on any planet we investigated for the Ginli. Our employers
considered the Varlian to be a sort of cosmic insult. Primate yet not
humanoid, intelligent yet more like beasts than men in some ways, they
didnтАЩt fit into the Ginli calculations. They eliminated them entirely
whenever they felt they could get away with it.
Those other beings to westward would probably be in danger, too. From
all I could gather, they must be even more advanced than my green-furred
friends. And unless they were white-skinned, humanoid Primates, they
would be in trouble when the Ginli found them. It seemed impossible for
me to convey to the Varlian the peril the Ginli posed for their kind. I only
hoped that the ones to whom we were hurrying would be better able to
understand me.
At the end of the third day, Lime, who had ranged far ahead, paused to
let us catch up. Then he went into a treetop and cried a code of whoops
and quavers into the sunset. No sound answered him, but the odd hum
inside my head, which had become so familiar that I had forgotten it,
intensified. It sang along a sort of vector, making a directional signal like
those on which ships home to planets. Though I still needed Owl to find
my way through the trees, I could, if on the ground, have walked straight
toward the source of that signal.
Before nightfall we emerged from the fringes of the russet forestlands
onto the brim of an immense cupped valley. Its grasses were dimmed by
the shadows of evening, but I could see by those about my feet that they
would have shouted in triumphant oranges, if the sun had still been high.
On the western side of the valley, a series of ridges rose, and beyond them
again I could see distant serrations that might be mountains.
Except for the grasses, occasional groupings of strangely ornamental
trees and shrubs, and outcroppings of stone so aggressively natural that I
felt they must be the result of art, the valley was empty. No city stood
there. Not even a village of huts nestled into any of the groves. Yet I could
feel the presence of activity. A bustle like that of a city street was
occurring before my eyes, but I couldnтАЩt see anything at all except the
motions of wind-stirred grasses and the lengthening of shadows.
Lime paused for only a moment on the edge of the valley. He looked out
across it with a contented expression on his furry face; then he motioned
for Owl and me to follow him down. But just as we set our feet in the wide
smooth trail, the Varlian paused again and looked back toward the east. I
turned, too, trying to see what had distracted him, but there was nothing
except the towering verge of that tremendous wood to be seen.
Owl and Lime stood as if frozen, their attention seemingly turned
inward. Thinking back, it occurred to me that the Ginli could possibly