"C. L. Moore - Julhi" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moore C. L)

ancient ruins, for the smell of stone and chill and desolation was clear to
him, and the breeze moaned a little through unseen openings. He felt his way
along the broken wall, stumbling over fallen blocks and straining his senses
against the blanketing gloom around him. He was trying vainly to recall how he
had come here, and succeeding in recapturing only vague memories of much red
segir whisky in a nameless dive, and confusion and muffled voices thereafter,
and wide spaces of utter blank-and then awakening here in the dark. The whisky
must have been drugged, he told himself defensively, and a slow anger began to
smolder within him at the temerity of whoever it was who had dared lay hands
upon Northwest Smith.
Then he froze into stony quiet, rigid in mid-step, at the all but soundless
stirring of something in the dark near by. Blurred visions of the unseen thing
that had seized him ran through his head-some monster whose gait was a
pattering glide and whose hands were armed with the stunning shock of an
unknown force. He stood frozen, wondering if it could see him in the dark.
Feet whispered over the stone very near him, and something breathed pantingly,
and a hand brushed his face. There was a quick suck of indrawn breath, and
then Smith's arms leaped out to grapple the invisible thing to him. The
surprise of mat instant took his breath, and then he laughed deep in his
throat and swung the girl round to face him in the dark.
He could not see her, but he knew from the firm curves of her under his hands
that she was young and feminine, and from the sound of her breath that she was
near to fainting with fright.
"Sh-h-h," he whispered urgently, his lips at her ear and her hah- brushing his
cheek fragrantly. "Don't be afraid.
Where are we?"
It might have been reaction from her terror that relaxed the tense body he
held, so that she went limp in his arms and the sound of her breathing almost
ceased. He lifted her clear of the ground-she was light and fragrant and he
felt the brush of velvet garments against his bare arms as unseen robes swept
him-and carried her across to the wall. He felt better with something solid at
his back. He laid her down there in the angle of the stones and crouched
beside her, listening, while she slowly regained control of herself.
When her breathing was normal again, save for the faint hurrying of excitement
and alarm, he heard the sound of her sitting up against the wall, and bent
closer to catch her . whisper.
"Who are you?" she demanded.
' 'Northwest Smith,'' he said under his breath, and grinned at her softly
murmured "Oh-h!" of recognition. Whoever she was, she had heard that name
before. Then,
"There has been a mistake," she breathed, half to herself. ' 'They never take
any but the-space-rats and the scum of the ports for Julhi to-I mean, to bring
here. They must not have known you, and they will pay for that mistake. No man
is brought here who might be searched for-afterward."
Smith was silent for a moment. He had thought her lost like himself, and her
fright had been too genuine for pretense. Yet she seemed to know the secrets
of this curious, unlit place. He must go warily.
"Who are you?" he murmured. "Why were you so frightened? Where are we?"
In the dark her breath caught in a little gasp, and went on unevenly.
"We are in the ruins of Vonng," she whispered. "I am Apri, and I am condemned