"Andrew J. Offutt - Spaceways 10 - The Yoke of Shen" - читать интересную книгу автора (Offutt Andrew J)

Hinun was more, and more too than the creatures he had created to populate his world.
He was Hinun, and he was the Devourer of Souls.
The sharp sound of buskined feet on polished marble drew the god's attention. To wipe away the cottony vestiges
of lingering sleep, Hinun dragged a spidery hand over his face; a shriveled face, lined with wrinkles like fissures.
Aqua-irised eyes casually shifted rightward to greet the ten Hinuri who double-filed into the throne chamber of their
god.
In silent approval, Hinun watched their entrance; his private guard. Their faces all bore the same determined clench
of jaw, the narrow slant to the eyes. In fact the ten faces were identical. What need for variety, when ma-chined men
were what a god required to protect his personage?
How smart they were in their plumed helmets and gleam-ing bronze breastplates! Double-edged short swords
dan-gled from studded belts about their waists. Round shields, emblazoned with two air dragons entwined, were held
smartly before their chests to gleam like mirrors beneath the glo-lamps that hovered near the ceiling of the throne
room.
Energy weapons or even projectile pistols would have been more practical, efficient, and suitable for the Hinuri.
They were after all bodyguards to a god. Yet it was because he was a god that Hinun's personal soldiery bore only
ancient armaments. It was by far a simpler task to quell a rebellious element whose most potent weaponry
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was bow and arrows, whether that element be outside the Hinuri or within their ranks.
(Several inquiring individuals on Shen had discovered gunpowder during the Great God's thousand-year reign.
Those individuals had been put to the sword and their explosive discovery obliterated and forgotten. Gunpowder was
not an element Hinun had woven into the design of his planet, or wished to have altering the pattern.
(Nor did Hinun deign to provide the half-million inhabi-tants of Shen with the simple conveniences of the internal
combustion engine, or electricity. Power exceeding the strength of domesticated beasts was reserved for the Eater of
Minds. So it had been for a millennium. So it would remain for another millennium, and another.)
The Tyrant God, his worshippers whispered; the Bloody God. These, too, were Hinun, the Devourer of Souls. He
placed little value in appellations. More important was Shen's design . . . and Hinun's personal fulfillment.
"Great One."
The foremost of the Hinuri stepped forward as he spoke, toward the jewel-flashing throne of the purple-robed god.
While his fellow guardsmen positioned themselves about the chamber's marble pillars, he doffed his helmet and knelt
at Hinun's feet. He spoke reverently, head bowed.
"The woman you summoned awaits outside."
He-Who-Has-Lived-And-Died-A-Thousand-Times toyed casually with a spectmond that hung, the size of a child's
fist, from a chain about his spindly neck. Only his lips moved.
"Bring her to me," he intoned. "She is to become one with Hinun."
He ignored the tremor of revulsion that he sensed course through the guardsmen when he stood. He allowed his
gaze to rise to the massive doors of steel on the opposite side of the chamber. They slid open. Two Hinuri, perfect
replicas of the ten already within, entered. They half-dragged,
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half-carried their captive. At once the young woman com-menced to struggle.
She was entirely naked. Behind her, mockingly, a third guard bore the shredded remnants of her clothing, a gray
uniform with touches of maroon.
A fine sheen of sweat glistened on her ebon nudity as she twisted and lurched against her captors. Her gyrations
 were to no avail. The Hinuri's massive hands bound her like bands of steel. For this rather delicate beauty who had
fallen from the stars, there would be no escape from union with the Great God of Shen.
Her head jerked up and her eyes flashed at the satin-robed god. "You grat-buggering brother-loving bastard!"
Lunging with all the might contained within her lithe and very female body, she threw herself toward the
leathery-skinned monster who sat in judgment over her right to continue living.
With what appeared to be no more than the slightest tug, the two Hinuri jerked their prisoner back. Her body went
rigid for an instant. Then a long quiver trembled through her. Liquidly her knees gave way and she sagged toward the
floor of pink marble. Her guards provided the only support for that limp form amove now only with quakes.