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

own.
There came another zzzip as a Ginli ship began its morning search. The
Varlian looked up with a most humanly annoyed expression on its face.
For a moment it stared after the now-receding craft. Then it tapped me on
the knee, very deliberately, rose and descended the tree. As the Ginli
emitted either a physical scent or a mental aura that repelled Varlian on
every planet where I had found them, I felt certain that it would be safe to
follow.
Standing at the foot of the tree, I looked up. Even concerned as I was
with survival, I was held still for a moment, admiring the sunlight striking
through the stained-glass foliage. Nothing I had seen on the many-dozen
worlds my ship had set me onto had been comparable. When I looked
down again at my companion, I found it studying me with something like
a smile. At that moment, I realized that the murmur in my head had
grown more defined, though it was neither distracting nor uncomfortable.
It was like a purr from a satisfied cat, perhaps. Or the ripple of a small
stream. And it was concerned, now, with me.
The Varlian chattered softly in its too-rapid-for-interpretation tongue
and took me by the sleeve. As quietly as I could, I followed it through the
forest. Never having been disrupted by the doings of a culture, the wood
was clean of low-growing brush. Its roof of bright treetops let only an
occasional sunbeam through to touch the soil, which was covered by a
springy cushion of mulch that had accumulated for millennia. The going
was easy and quiet. Once we heard a noisy bunch of Ginli thumping
through the wood, and we made a wide arc around them and went on our
way. But that gave me pause. Were they looking for me or for something
elseтАФsomething that had held them in orbit, scanning closely for all these
weeks?
My companion looked back, when we were well out of their path, and
made a gesture toward their position that looked to me as if it were
mightily insulting. Then it laughed, a real rolling-on-the-ground,
tear-making laugh. I began to chuckle.
When you really thought about them, the Ginli were, among all their
other attributes, extremely funny. When, of course, you were not in their
hands.



IV.

LтАЩKтАШKтАЩT, the Varlian (Called Lime)
Matters had been strange in our forest for many weeks. Things that
were not birds had been seen in the sky, and there were moving lights in
the night that were not consistent as are the paths of the stars. Worse,
pale-skinned creatures had been walking through our trees, tearing and
breaking the bushes and vines.
The Elders had sent me to consult with the Khi, and I had made the trip
to their valley and was returning when there was a terrible noise overhead.
It was late afternoon, and the red sunlight caught something smooth and
bright as it went across the sky. Not flying. Falling. It was very obvious