"Robert Reed - Night Calls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reed Robert)

тАЬAnd what about your cousin?тАЭ Ferrum asked.

тАЬWhich cousin?тАЭ

тАЬYou know who.тАЭ

But Rabiah didnтАЩt wish to talk about the man. So she changed topics,
telling Ferrum, тАЬYou know what would happen, if the world ever changed for
the worst....тАЭ

Her voice trailed off.

тАЬWhat would happen?тАЭ

She shifted her weight. тАЬAt the first sign of serious troubleтАФI
guarantee itтАФevery last temple would overflow with clumsy but devout
worshippers.тАЭ

Ferrum watched her pretty face, skeptical about her arguments but
unable to refute the words.

тАЬAnd if our civilization collapsed,тАЭ she continued, тАЬthen even our best
scientists would pull out knives and start sacrificing livestock to the Moon
and the lost Sisters. And when those desperate gestures didnтАЩt appease
our old gods, our greatest minds would invent new ones and then happily,
happily cut each otherтАЩs throats...!тАЭ

****

Ferrum met his difficult lover at the cityтАЩs largest parkтАФan abandoned
silica mine too hilly to be farmed but perfectly suited for tough trees and
sedges, with clay-lined ponds in the low spots and tended fields where
children and adults could hike and play. He drove to the park after work but
before the evening wind died down. On a whim, he had purchased a cheap
paper-and-stick kite, and using skills that he hadnтАЩt employed for years, he
assembled the toy, tied on fresh string and then managed to pull his
creation far enough into the air that he could stop running, panting while he
admired his achievement.

It was a warm spring evening. The sun was setting, a perfect wind
blowing from the north. Ferrum happily looked over his shoulder, the boyish
part of him hoping for spectators. Three of the Sisters were still above the
horizon, each bright enough to keep the evening pure, but their combined
light too dim to feed plants or coax the tired mind into staying awake. He
watched the Sisters for a long moment, observing how close they had
drawn to each other; and then he glanced back at the ruddy skies to the
west. ThatтАЩs when he noticed a small car parked close to his, and inside the
car, what looked like a young woman. She was sitting behind the steering
wheel, hands across her face, and, even at a distance, she looked as if she
was suffering some awful, consuming grief.