"Paul McAuley - The Book of Confluence 01 - Child of the River" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mcauley Paul J)

Behind Yama, the peel-house reared above the rhododendrons
, lifting its freight of turrets against the Galaxy's bluewhite
wheel. A warm yellow light glowed near the top of
the tall watchtower, where the Aedile, who had rarely slept
since the news of Telmon's death last surnmer, would be
working on his endless measurements and calculations.
Presently, Yama heard what he had been waiting for, the
steady padding tread and faint sibilant breath of a watchdog.
He called softly, and the strong, ugly creature trotted out of
the bushes and laid its heavy head in his lap. Yama crooned
to it, stroking its cropped ears and scratching the ridged line
where flesh met the metal of its skullplate, lulling the machine
part of the watchdog and, through its link, the rest of
the pack. When he was satisfied that it understood it was not
to raise the alarm either now or when he returned, Yama
stood and wiped the dog's drool from his hands, plucked up
his trident, and bounded away down the steep slope of the
breastwork toward the barren ruins and the flooded fields
beyond.
Ananda and Derev were waiting at the edge of the ruins.
Tall, graceful Derev jumped down from her perch halfway
up a broken wall cloaked in morning glory, and half-floated,
half-ran across overgrown flagstones to embrace Yama. Ananda
kept his seat on a fallen stele, eating ghostberries he
had picked along the way and pretending to ignore the embracing
lovers. He was a plump boy with dark skin and a
bare, tubercled scalp, wearing the orange robe of his office.




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"I brought the lantern, " Ananda said at last, and held it




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up. It was a little brass signal lantern, with a slide and a lens
to focus the light of its wick. The plan was to use it to
mesmerize their prey.
Derev and Yama broke from their embrace and Ananda
added, "I saw your soldiers march out along the old road
this noon, brother Yama. Everyone in the town says they're
after the heretics who tried to set fire to the floating harbor."
"if there are heretics within a day's march, Sergeant Rhodean