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

into the Star Hall.
So even after his father had failed to return from a trip to the lowlands, Fors had been
confident of the future. He had made his weapons, the long bow now lying beside him,
the short stabbing sword, the hunting knifeтАФall with his own hands according to the
Law. He had learned the trails and had found Lura, his great hunting catтАФthus fulfilling
all the conditions for the Choosing. For five years he had come to the Fire each season,
with diminishing hope to be sure, and each time to be ignored as if he did not exist. And
now he was too old to try again.
TomorrowтАФno, todayтАФhe would have to lay aside his weapons and obey the dictates
of the Council. Their verdict would be that he live on sufferanceтАФwhich was probably
all a mutant could expectтАФas a worker in one of the cave-sheltered Hydro farms.
No more schooling, no fifteen or twenty years of roving the lowlands, with further
honored years to look forward to as an instructor and guardian of knowledgeтАФa Star
Man, explorer of the wilderness existing in the land where the Great Blow-up had made a
world hostile to man. He would have no part in tracing the old cities where forgotten
knowledge might be discovered and brought back to the Eyrie, in mapping roads and
trails, helping to bring light out of darkness. He couldn't surrender that dream to the will
of the Council!
A low questioning sound came out of the dark and absently he answered with an
assenting thought. A shadow detached itself from a jumble of rocks and crept on velvet
feet, soft belly fur dragging on the moss, to him. Then a furred shoulder almost as wide as
his own nudged against him and he dropped a hand to scratch behind pricked ears. Lura
was impatient. All the wild scents of the woods were rich in her widened nostrils and she
wanted to be on the trail. His hand on her head was a restraint she half resented.
Lura loved freedom. What service she gave was of her own choosing, after the
manner of her kind. He had been so proud two years ago when the most beautifully
marked kitten of Kanda's last litter had shown such a preference for his company. One
day Jarl himselfтАФthe Star CaptainтАФhad commented on it. How that had raised Fors'
hopesтАФbut nothing had come of the incident, only Lura herself. He rubbed his hot cheek
against the furry head raised to his. She made again the little questioning sound deep in
her throat. She knew his unhappiness.
There was no sign of sunrise. Instead black clouds were gathering above the bald top
of the Big Knob. It would be a stormy day and those below would keep within shelter.
The moisture of the mist had become a drizzle and Lura was manifestly angry at his
stubbornness in not going indoors. But if he went into any building of the Eyrie now it
would be in surrenderтАФa surrender to the loss of the life he had been born to lead, a
surrender to all the whispers, the badge of shameful failure, to the stigma of being
mutantтАФnot as other men. And he could not do thatтАФhe couldn't!
If Langdon had stood before the Council last nightтАФ
Langdon! He could remember his father so vividly, the tall strong body, the high-held
head with its bright, restless, seeking eyes above a tight mouth and sharp jaw. OnlyтАФ
Langdon's hair had been safely dark. It was from his unknown Plainswoman mother that
Fors had that too-fair hair which branded him as one apart.
Langdon's shoulder bag with its star badge hung now in the treasure room of the Star
Hall. It had been found with his battered body on the site of his last battle. A fight with
the Beast Things seldom ended in victory for the mountaineers.
He had been on the track of a lost city when he had been killed. Not a "blue city," still
forbidden to men if they wished to live, but a safe place without radiation which could be
looted for the advantage of the Eyrie. For the hundredth time Fors wondered if his
father's theory concerning the tattered bit of map was trueтАФif a safe city did lie