"Andre Norton - Darkness and Dawn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

houses which rated very high on the Star Men's list of desirable finds. He wandered
through the high-ceilinged rooms, his boots making splotchy tracks in the fine dust
crisscrossed with the spoor of small animals. He brushed the dust from the tops of cases
and tried to spell out the blotched and faded signs. Grotesque stone heads leered or stared
blindly through the murk. Warped and split canvas hung dismally from worm-eaten
frames in what had once been picture galleries.
But the dark drove him out to shelter in the forecourt. Tomorrow would be time to
estimate the worth of what lay within. TomorrowтАФwhy, he had limitless time before him
to discover and assess all that this city held! He had not even begun to explore.
It was warm and he allowed his cooking fire to burn down to a handful of coals. The
forest was coming to life. He identified the bark of a questing fox, the mournful call of
night birds. He could almost imagine the gathering of wistful, hungry ghosts in the city
streets seeking what was gone forever. But here, where man had never lived, it was very
peaceful and like the glens of his own mountain land. His hand fell on the pouch of the
Star Men. Had Langdon actually walked here before him, had it been on a return trip
from this place that his father had been killed? Fors hoped that was trueтАФthat Langdon
had known the joy of proving his theory rightтАФthat his map had led him here before his
death.
Lura appeared out of the shadows, padding lightly up the mossy steps from the
water's edge. And the mare moved in without urging, her hoofs ringing on the broken
marble as she came to join them. It was almostтАФFors straightened, regarded the
gathering night more intentlyтАФalmost as if they feared an alien world enough to seek
company against it. And yet he did not feel the unease he had known in those other
ruinsтАФthis slice of woodland held no terrors.
Nevertheless he roused and went to gather as much wood as he could find. He worked
with mounting haste until it was too dark to see at all, ending with a pile of broken
branches and storm drift which might have been gathered to withstand a siege. Lura
watched himтАФand beyond himтАФsitting sentry-wise at the head of the stairs. Nor did the
mare move again into the open.
At last, his hands shaking a little with fatigue, the odd drive still urging him to some
sort of effort, Fors strung his bow and set it close to hand, loosened his sword in its
sheath. The wind had gone down. It was almost sultry. Above the water the birds had
ceased to wheel.
There was a sudden thunder clap and a flash of violet lightning crossed the southern
sky. Heat lightning, but there might be another storm on the way. That was probably what
made the air seem electric. But Fors did not deceive himself. Something besides a storm
was brooding out in that night.
Back in the EyrieтАФwhen they watched the wintertime singplaysтАФjust before they
drew up the big screen and the play began, he had had a strange feeling like this. A sort
of excited waitingтАФthat was it. And something else was waiting nowтАФholding its breath
a little. He squirmed. His imaginationтАФhe was cursed with too much of that!
A little was good. Langdon had always said that imagination was a tool to be used
and no Star Man was any good without it. But when a man had too muchтАФthen it fed the
dark fears way down inside and became an extra foe to fight in any battle.
But now, thinking of Langdon had not banished his strange feeling. Something was
outside, dark and formless, brooding, watchingтАФwatching a tiny Fors beside a spark of
puny fireтАФwatching for some actionтАФ
He poked at the fire viciously. Getting as silly as a moon-mad woodsrunner! There
must be a madness which lay in wait in these dead cities to trap a man's thoughts and
poison him. A more subtle poison it was than any the Old Ones had distilled to fight their