"Myst - 02 - The Book Of Ti'ana" - читать интересную книгу автора (Miller Rand)

selected what he would need from various cupboards.

This was his favorite-place in the ship. Here he could forget all else and
immerse himself in the pure, unalloyed joy of discovery.

Aitrus reached up, flicking his fingernail against the firemarble in the bowl of
the lamp, then, in the burgeoning glow, opened his notebook to the page he had
been working

* * *

"Aitrus?"

Aitrus took his eye from the lens and turned, surprised he had not heard the
hiss of the door. Jerahl was standing there, holding out a plate to him. The
smell of freshly baked chorbahkh and ikhah nijuhets wafted across, making his
mouth water.

Jerahl smiled. "Something interesting?"

Aitrus took the plate and nodded. "You want to see?"

"May I?" Jerahl stepped across and, putting his eye to the lens, studied the
sample a moment. When he looked up again there was a query in his eyes.

"Tachyltye, eh? Now why would a young fellow like you be interested in basaltic
glass?"

"I'm interested in anything to do with lava flows," Aitrus answered, his eyes
aglow. "It's what I want to specialize in, ultimately. Volcanism."

Jerahl smiled as if he understood. "All that heat and pressure, eh? I didn't
realize you were so romantic, Aitrus!"

Aitrus, who had begun to eat the meat-filled roll, paused and looked at Jerahl
in surprise. He had heard his fascination called many things by his colleagues,
but never "romantic."

"Oh, yes," Jerahl went on, "once you have seerf how this is formed, nothing will
ever again impress half so much! The meeting of superheated rock and ice-chill
water-it is a powerful combination. And this-this strange translucent matter-is
the result."

Again Jerahl smiled. "Learning to control such power, that is where we D'ni
began as a species. That is where our spirit of inquiry was first awoken. So
take heart, Aitrus. In this you are a true son of D'ni."

Aitrus smiled back at the older man. "I am sorry we have not spoken before now.
Guild Master. I did not know you knew so much."