"Christopher Moore - Island of the Sequined Love Nun" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moore Christopher)

ISLAND OF THE SEQUINED LOVE NUN

by Christopher Moore

1997; Avon Books


PART ONE

The Phoenix

I

The Cannibal Tree

Tucker Case awoke to find himself hanging from a breadfruit tree by a
coconut fiber rope. He was suspended facedown about six feet above the sand in
some sort of harness, his hands and feet tied together in front of him. He
lifted his head and strained to look around. He could see a white sand beach
fringed with coconut palms, a coconut husk fire, a palm frond hut, a path of
white coral gravel that led into a jungle. Completing the panorama was the
grinning brown face of an ancient native.
The native reached up with a clawlike hand and pinched Tucker's cheek.
Tucker screamed.
"Yum," the native said.
"Who are you?" Tucker asked. "Where am I? Where's the navigator?"
The native just grinned. His eyes were yellow, his hair a wild tangle of
curl and bird feathers, and his teeth were black and had been filed to points.
He looked like a potbellied skeleton upholstered in distressed leather.
Puckered pink scars decorated his skin; a series of small scars on his chest
described the shape of a shark. His only clothing was a loincloth woven from
some sort of plant fiber. Tucked in the waist cord was a vicious-looking bush
knife. The native patted Tucker's cheek with an ashy callused palm, then
turned and walked away, leaving him hanging.
"Wait!" Tucker shouted. "Let me down. I have money. I can pay you."
The native ambled down the path without looking back. Tucker struggled
against the harness, but only managed to put himself into a slow spin. As he
turned, he caught sight of the navigator, hanging unconscious a few feet away.
"Hey, you alive?"
The navigator didn't stir, but Tucker could see that he was breathing.
"Hey, Kimi, wake up!" Still no reaction.
He strained against the rope around his wrists, but the bonds only seemed
to tighten. After a few minutes, he gave up, exhausted. He rested and looked
around for something to give this bizarre scene some meaning. Why had the
native hung them in a tree?
He caught movement in his peripheral vision and turned to see a large
brown crab struggling at the end of a stung tied to a nearby branch. There was
his answer: They were hung in the tree, like the crab, to keep them fresh
until they were ready to be eaten.
Tucker shuddered, imagining the native's black teeth closing on his shin.