"The Soul Empty Ones" - читать интересную книгу автора (Miller Walter M)

Falon felt his face as they rode away. It dripped steadily from the numerous gashes, and his left cheek felt like soggy lace.
"We'll stop at the creek just ahead," said the girl. "I'll clean you up."
The dog-sounds had faded behind them. They dismounted, andtied their horses in the brush. Falon stretched out on a flat rock while Ea removed her homespun blouse and soaked it in the creek. She cleaned his wounds carefully and tenderly, while he tried to recover his breath and fight off the nausea of shock.
"Rest awhile," she murmured, "and sleep if you can. You've lost much blood. It's nearly dawn, and the dogs will soon go to their thickets."
Falon allowed himself the vanity of only one protest before he agreed to relax for a time. He felt something less than half alive. Ea stretched her blouse across a bush to dry, then came to sit be-side him, with her back to the moon so that her face was in blackness.
"Keep your hands away from your wounds," she warned. "They'll bleed again."
He grinned weakly. "I'll have some nice scars," he said. "The valley women think a man is handsome if he has enough war scars. I think my popularity will increase. Do you like warriors with mauled faces, Ea?"
"The white scars are becoming, but not the red, not the fresh ones," she replied calmly.
"Mine will be red and ugly," he sighed, "but the valley women like them."
The girl said nothing, but shifted uneasily. He gazed at the moon's gleam on her soft shoulders.
"Will you still give yourself to the wild dogs if we return from the valley?"
She shivered and shook her head. "The Natani have scattered. A scattered people perhaps begins to lose its gods. And you've shown me a bad example, Soul-Falon. I have no longing for the dogs. But if the Natani found me aliveЧafter Daner's deathЧthey would kill me."
"Did you love him greatly?"
"I was beginning to love himЧyes. He stole me without my consent, but he was kindЧand a good warrior."
"Since you're breaking your custom, will you marry again?"
She was thoughtful for a moment. "Soul-Falon, if your cow died, would you cease to drink milkЧbecause of bereavement?"
He chuckled. "I don't know. I don't have a cow. Do you compare Daher to a cow?"
"The Natani love animals," she said in a defensive tone.
"I am no longer a valley man and you are no longer a Natani. Do you still insist we go down against the invadersЧalone?" "Yes! Blood must buy blood, and Daner is dead."
"I was only thinkingЧperhaps it would be better to pause and plan. The most we can hope to do alone is ambush a guard or two before they kill us. It is foolish to talk of life when we approach death so blindly. I don't mind dying, if we can kill some invaders. But perhaps we can live, if we stop to think."
"We have today to think," she murmured, glancing toward the eastern sky. "We'll have to wait for nightfall againЧbefore we go out into the open places of the valley."
"I am wondering," Falon said sleepily, "about the man-thing we took from the dogs. He said he escaped. Did he escape from the sons of men? If so, they might send guards to search for him."
She glanced nervously toward the trail.
"No, EaЧthey wouldn't come at night. Not those puny bodies. They have god-weapons, but darkness spoils their value. But when the sun rises, we must proceed with caution."
She nodded, then yawned. "Do you think it's safe to sleep a little now? The sky. is getting lighter, and the dogs are silent."
He breathed wearily. "Sleep, Ea. We may not sleep again."
She stretched out on her side, with her back toward him. "Soul-Falon?"
"Hm-m-m?"
"What did the man-thing meanЧ`android'?"
"Who knows? Go to sleepЧSoul-Ea."
"It is a foolish titleЧ'Soul,' " she said drowsily.

A feverish sun burned Falon to dazed wakefulness. His face was stiff as stretched rawhide, and the pain clogged his senses. He sat up weakly, and glanced at Ea. She was still asleep, her dark head cushioned on her arms; and her shapely back was glistening with moisture. Falon had hinted that he was interested in herЧbut only out of politenessЧfor it was valley etiquette to treat a new widow as if she were a maiden newly come of age, and to court her with cautious flirtation. And a valley man always hoped that if he died, his wife would remarry quicklyЧlest others say, "Who but the dead one would want her?"
But as Falon glanced at the dozing Ea in the morning sunlight, her bronzed and healthy loveliness struck him. The dark hail spread breeze-tossed across the rock, and it gleamed in the sun.
She would make me a good wife indeed, thought Falon. But then he thought of the Natani ways that were bred into her soulЧthe little ways that she would regard as proper, despite her larger rebellionЧand he felt helpless. He knew almost nothing about Natani ritual for stealing brides. But it was certainly not simply a mat-ter of tossing a girl over one's shoulder and riding away. And if he courted her by valley-custom, she might respond with disgust or mockery. He shrugged and decided that it was hopeless. They had small chance of surviving their fool's errand.
He thought of captureЧand shuddered. Ea, being herded into the invaders' food pensЧit was not a pleasant thought. There must be no capture.
A gust of wind brought a faint purring sound to his ears. He listened for a moment, stiffening anxiously. Then he stood up. It was one of the invaders' small skycarts. He had seen them hovering about the valleyЧwith great rotary blades spinning above them. They could hang motionless in the air, or speed ahead like a frightened bird.
The brush obscured his view, and he could not see the skycart, but it seemed to be coming closer. He hurried to untether the horses; then he led them under a scrubby tree and tied them to the trunk. Ea was rubbing her eyes and sitting up when he returned to the rock.
"Is my blouse dry, Soul-Falon?"
He fetched it for her, then caught her arm and led her under the tree with the horses. She heard the purr of the skycart, and her eyes swept the morning sky.
"Put your blouse on," he grumbled.
"Am I ugly, Soul-Falon?" she asked in a hurt tone, but obeyed him.
. He faced her angrily. "Woman! You cause me to think of breaking my word. You cause me to think of forgetting the invader, and of stealing you away to the mountains. I wish that you were ugly indeed. But you trouble me with your carelessness."
"I am sorry," she said coldly, "but your dogskin jacket was no good for bathing wounds."
He noticed the dark stains on the blouse, and turned away in shame. He knew too little of Natani women, and he realized he was being foolish.
The skycart was still out of sight, but the horses were becoming restless at the sound. As Falon patted his stallion's flanks, he
glanced at the body of the man-thingЧstill tied across the steed's back. His mouth tightened grimly. The creature had evidently been desperate to have braved the forest alone, unarmed, and afoot. Desperate or ignorant. Had he escaped from the invader, and was the skycart perhaps searching for him? It was moving very slowly indeedЧas he had seen them move when searching the hills for the villages of the Empties.
An idea struck him suddenly. He turned to the girl. "You know these paths. Is there a clearing near hereЧlarge enough for the skycar to sit upon?"
Ea nodded. "A hundred paces from here, the creekbed widens, and floods have washed the bedrock clean. Duck beneath the brush and you can see it."