"Andre Norton - Dark Piper" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

any room with an open door. When they had gone into the corridor behind him, he looked at me, at
Annet, and back to me, and his face was darkly sober.
тАЭThe refugee shipтАЭтАФhis question was a command for an answerтАФтАЬwhat have they decided to do
concerning that?тАЭ
тАЬWe donтАЩt know. They have a meeting at the port today.тАЭ He limped on into the sun. тАЬLend me your
hopper.тАЭ Again it was more order than asking. тАЬThey canтАЩt be so stupid as to let them landтАФтАЭ I stood
aside without a question, so compelling was the force of his preoccupation. It was clear he harbored
some thought to the extinction of all else.
He was in the cabin, raised from the ground, when Annet cried out, тАЬVere! HeтАЩs going off with all our
foodтАФleaving us here! When will he be back? Stop him!тАЭ Since this was now a complete impossibility, I
caught her arm and pulled her out of the miniature dust storm raised in his takeoff, urging her to the Butte.
She turned on me then with demands to know why I had let him go. And to tell the truth, I had no real
answer for her. But I did manage to make her understand that LugardтАЩs supplies could certainly be used
by us under the circumstances, and it might be well to see what the Rovers were doing inside.
 III
тАЬIT ISNтАЩT REAL MAGIC!тАЭ We heard GythaтАЩs voice raised from one of the rooms. тАЬDonтАЩt you ever
read tapes, Pritha? The vibrations, the soundsтАФthey attract the animals and birds. I donтАЩt know what
Drufin meansтАФitтАЩs probably off-world. But itтАЩs the soundтАФand maybe a special kind of pipe to make
it.тАЭ As usual she was quick to distinguish the real from the unreal.
One of the thoughts I sometimes have crossed my mind thenтАФwhat is real and unreal? Unreal to one
people or species can be real to another. Beltane libraries are sadly lacking in information about other
worldsтАФunless it deals with scientific matters. But I had heard stories from spacemen, and perhaps not
all of those were tall tales told to astonish the planet bound. Drufin magic meant nothing to me either, but
doubtless GythaтАЩs explanation was right. But there were other things beside piping to start the thought of
magic growingтАФ
тАЬWith a pipe such as that,тАЭ Thad broke in, тАЬyou could go hunting and never come home with an empty
bag. Just pipe тАЩem up and stun тАЩem.тАЭ тАЬNo!тАЭ Gytha was as quick to counter such speculation as she had
been to deny the supernatural. тАЬThat is a trap andтАФтАЭ I moved on into the room. Gytha, her cheeks
flushed, faced Thad, indignation expressed in every line of her thin body. Behind her the younger children
had drawn together as if to form a support. And Thad had only Ifors Juhlan on his side. It was a clash
that had occurred before, and I expected it at intervals. Perhaps someday such a difference of opinions
would break Thad loose from the Rovers. He wanted action and more excitement than we could promise
him. тАЭSecond Law, Thad,тАЭ I said now, though that sealed me away into the adult world.
But the admonition was strong enough to keep his rebellion bottled. Second LawтАФтАЭAs we value life
and well-being, so does lesser life. We shall not take life without thought or only to satisfy the ancient
curse of our species, which is unheeding violence.тАЭ
There was no need to hunt on BeltaneтАФsave for specimens for the labs. And then sure care must be
taken of them so that they eventually might be returned unharmed to the Reserves. These were scattered
widely, each with its population to be studied. The prizes were the mutants of the over-mountain
Reserves. Their intelligence had been raised, and a certain number of such animals had even gone to war,
in тАЬbeast teams,тАЭ aligned with human controllers. I hoped to qualify for work on such a Reserve. Since
the breakdown of the educational chain, I thought I could persuade the powers in control that practical
knowledge of the field type was as useful now as the stated requirements of off-world learning, which
might never be in existence again.
I had gone a-hunting with a stunner, and I had shown visa-tapes of this to the Rovers. Perhaps that
had been a mistake. ThadтАФwell, we were a non-violent world, with action mainly confined to
cerebration and experimentation within four walls. There had been a case or two during the past few
years of killing and pillage without cause. The perpetrators had been sent to the psyche lab at the port
and the stories hushed up. ButтАФperhaps not only machines broke under the circumstances that had
gripped Beltane for the last decade. I had been thinking of the stalemate in education. If one did not go