"Andre Norton - Daybreak - 2250 A. D." - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

clan. Mutant! Mutant!

For more than two hundred yearsтАФever since the black days of chaos following the Great Blow-up,
the atomic warтАФthat cry had been enough to condemn without trial. Fear caused it, the strong,
instinctive fear of the whole race for anyone cursed with a different physique or unusual powers.

Ugly tales were told of what had happened to the mutants, those unfortunates born in the first
year after the Blow-up. Some tribes had taken drastic steps in those days to see that the strain
of humanтАФor almost human-lineage be kept pure.

Here in the Eyrie, far apart from the infection of the bombed sectors, mutation had been almost
unknown. But he, Fors, had Plains' bloodтАФtained, uncleanтАФand, since he could remember at all, he
had never been allowed to put that fact from him.

While his father had lived it had not been so bad. The other children had yelled at him and there
had been fights. But somehow, his father's confidence in him had made even that seem natural. And


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in the evenings, when they had shut out the rest of the Eyrie, there had been long hours of
learning to read and write, to map and observe, the lore of the high trails and the low. Even
among the Star Men his father had been a master instructor. And never had it appeared doubtful to
Langdon that his only son Fors would follow him 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 ab-~ sently 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