"L. E. Modesitt - Timedivers -Timegods - 03 - Timegods' World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Modesitt L E)

I swallowed the last mouthful, wiped my face, and nodded.

"Meet you at the steamer."
 IX
"WHAT HAPPENED . . . ?"

"Get the lights!" That was Jeen Kryrel. He'd been trapped in his uncle's silo as a
youngster, still didn't like darkness, even dim corners.

The buzz of the overhead lamps had disappeared with the lights themselves.

"Silence!" Dr. Yellertond's voice cut right through the gloom of the laboratory.

Since I hadn't been looking forward to the lab anyway, the power loss was almost
welcome. The heavy slatetopped tables and the aged wood cabinets reeked of sulphur
and flame . . . and of age. My father had gone to the Academy, and his father.

"You may remain at your stations while I check with the magister. You may talk quietly.
Anyone whose voice I can hear will draw holiday duties."

The groan at that was clear. Dr. Yellertond loved to assign holiday duties.

"First power failure I've been in . . ."

"Do you suppose it was the satellite relay?"

"Probably just an interrupter here."

I didn't say anything. There had already been too many coincidences, and the power loss
had something to do with the Mithrada situation. For some reason, I thought about my
mother. She had not been planning to go to Inequital the night before. Yet she had been
up and dressed, and very preoccupied.

She had friends in the capital--that was why she spent so much time there, she said, but
that would not have explained her worried expression. She never looked worried. And the
ice storm--that was unusual.

"What do you think, Sammis?"

"Yes, what's the runt think?"

What I thought about was giving Reylin a broken leg. My mother had instructed me in
Delkaiba, just enough to make me cautious about trying to use it. But Reylin was always
asking for a lesson of sorts.

"I think that the lights are going to stay out--for a long time." The words popped out before
I could draw them back.

"Now the runt's a prophet . . ."
Already the lab was getting chilly, or it seemed that way to me, and the sulphur smell was