"Kim Stanley Robinson - A Short, Sharp Shock" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

slope, until it reached an escarpment hanging over the sea; from there a white staircase zigzagged down a
gully to a tiny harbor below, three white buildings and a dock, gleaming like a pendant hanging from Oia.



9. The Sorcerers of Oia



A crowd greeted them as they entered the village, men and women convening almost as though by
coincidence, as though if Tinou and his retinue had not appeared they would have gathered anyway; but
when they saw Tinou they smiled, for the most part, and congratulated him on his return. "Not many
escape the spine kings," one woman said, and laughing the others crushed in on them to touch Tinou and
his companions, while Tinou sang the trail's mosaic song, ending with an exuberant leap in the air.

"I thought I would never return here again," he cried, "and I never would have if not for Thel here, who
slipped into the spine kings' village the night we were to be torn apart on the crossing trees. He set us
free, he saved our lives!" Jubilantly he embraced Thel, then added, "He made it possible for all of us to
return to OiaтАФ" and he took the mirror out of his shoulder bag.

Silence fell, and the crowd seemed both to step back and to press in at once. Thel thought he could hear
the sound of the sea, murmuring far below. A woman dressed in a saffron dress said, "Well, Tinou, your
return was one thing, but thisтАФ"

General laughter, and then they were being led into the narrow streets of the village. These either
contoured across town, making simple arcs, or ascended it in steep marble staircases, each step bowed
in the middle from centuries of wear. Every lane and alley was lined by blocky whitewashed buildings,
often painted with the graceful cursive lettering. By the time they came to a tiny plaza on the far side of
the village, the sun was low on the horizon; it broke under clouds and suddenly every west wall was as
gold as Tinou's mirror, and many of the west-facing windows were blinding white.

Restaurants ringed the plaza, each sporting a cluster of outdoor tables, and as dusk seeped into things
lanterns were hung in small gnarled trees or put on windowsills, and the people ate and drank long into
the night. Thel and the swimmer and the three facewomen ate voraciously, and became drunk on the fiery
spirits poured for them, and the villagers danced, their long pantaloons and dresses swirling like the
colors in a kaleidoscope, yards of cloth spinning under strong wiry naked torsos, both men and women
dancing like gods, so that the watchers were shocked when a bottle shattered and the color of blood
spurted into their field of vision, off to the side; a fight, quickly broken up, overridden by the gaiety of the
sorcerers of Oia. The mirror was back.

In the days that followed, the celebration continued. Eventually it became clear that this was the
permanent state of things in Oia, that this was the way the sorcerers lived. They poured seawater into
stone vats, and later drew their spirits from taps at the vats' bottoms. Sea lions brought them their daily
fish in exchange for drinks of this liquor; the creatures swam right up to the dock at the cliff bottom,
barking hoarsely as they deposited long three-eyed fish on the dock. Later the sorcerers turned some of
the fish meat into tough dark red steak, which tasted nothing like the flaking fish. Their gardens and goats
were tended by their childrenтАФand in short, they lived lives of leisure, playing complex games,
undergoing abstruse studies, and performing rituals and ceremonies. Tinou took his fellow travelers with
him wherever he went, and introduced them as his saviours, and they were feted to exhaustion.