"China Mieville - The Scar" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mieville China)

Back in her cabin, Bellis took endless stock of what she possessed.

She had left the city in a sudden hurry. She had very few clothes, in the austere style she favored: severe
and black and charcoal. She had seven books: two volumes of linguistic theory; a primer in Salkrikaltor
Cray; an anthology of short fiction in various languages; a thick, empty notebook; and copies of her own
two monographs,High Kettai Grammatology andCodexes of the Wormseye Scrub . She had a few pieces
of jewelry in jet and garnet and platinum; a small bag of cosmetics; ink and pens.



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 The Scar

She spent hours adding details to her letter. She described the ugliness of the open seas, the harsh rocks
that poked up like traps. She wrote long, parodic descriptions of the officers and passengers, reveling in
caricature. Sister Meriope; Bartol Gimgewry the merchant; the cadaverous surgeon Dr. Mollificatt;
Widow and Miss Cardomium, a quiet mother and daughter transformed by BellisтАЩ pen into a scheming
pair of husband hunters. Johannes Tearfly became the professorial buffoon pilloried in music halls. She
invented motivations for them all, speculating on what might send them halfway across the world.


Standing at the back of the ship on the second day, by the morass of gulls and ospreys still bickering
over the shipтАЩs effluent, Bellis looked for islets but saw only waves.

She felt jilted. Then, as she searched the horizon, she heard a noise.

A little way from her the naturalist, Dr. Tearfly, stood watching the birds. BellisтАЩ face set hard. She
prepared to leave as soon as he spoke to her.

When he looked down and saw her watching him coldly, he gave her an absent smile and pulled out a
notebook. His attention was off her immediately. She watched as he began to sketch the gulls, paying
her no mind at all.

He was in his late fifties, she guessed. His thinning hair was combed tightly back, and he wore little
rectangular spectacles and a tweed waistcoat. But despite the academic uniform he did not look weak or
absurdly bookish. He was tall, and he held himself well.

With quick, precise strokes, he marked out folded avian claws and the brute pugnacity of the seagullsтАЩ
eyes. Bellis warmed to him very slightly.

After a while she spoke.

It made journeying easier; she admitted that to herself. Johannes Tearfly was charming. Bellis suspected
he would be equally friendly to everyone on board.

They took lunch together, and she found it easy to steer him away from the other passengers, who
watched them intently. Tearfly was endearingly free of intrigue. If it occurred to him that keeping the
company of the rude and distant Bellis Coldwine might lead to rumors, he did not care.

Tearfly was happy to discuss his work. He enthused about the unstudied fauna of Nova Esperium. He