"Kim Stanley Robinson - The Years Of Rice And Salt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

The locals were gathered around a sale to one side, not a full auction.

They were mostly Arabs here, and often dressed in blue cloth robes and red leather shoes. Behind the
market a mosque and minaret stood before rows of four- nd even fivestorey buildings. The clamour was
a
great, but surveying the scene, Zeyk shook his head. 'We'll wait for a private audience,' he said.
He fed the slaves barley cakes and led them to one of the big buildings next to the mosque. There some
Chinese arrived with their translator, and they all went inside to an inner courtyard of the building, shaded
and full of green broadleaved plants and a burbling fountain. A room opening onto this courtyard had
shelves on all its walls, with bowls and figures placed on them in an elaborate, beautiful display: Bold
recognized pottery from Samarqand, and painted figurines from Persia, among Chinese white porcelain
bowls painted in blue, gold leaf and copper.

'Very elegant,' Zeyk said.

Then they were to business. The Chinese officers inspected Zeyk's string of slaves. They spoke to the
translator, and Zeyk conferred in private with the man, nodding frequently. Bold found he was sweating,
though he felt cold. They were being sold to the Chinese as a single lot.

One of the Chinese strolled down the line of slaves. He looked Bold over.

'How did you get here?' he asked Bold in Chinese.

Bold gulped, waved north. 'I was a trader.' His Chinese was really rusty. 'The Golden Horde took me
and brought me to Anatolia. Then to Alexandria, then here.'

The Chinese nodded, then moved on. Soon after they were led off by Chinese sailors in trousers and
short shirts, back to the waterfront. There several other strings and groups of slaves were gathered. They
were stripped, washed down with fresh water, an astringent, more fresh water. They were given new
robes of plain cotton, led to boats, and rowed out to the huge side of one of the great ships. Bold
climbed a ladder fortyone steps up the wooden wall of the ship's side, following a skinny black slave boy.
They were taken together below the main deck, to a room near the rear of the ship. What happened in
there we don't want to tell you, but the story won't make sense unless we do, so on to the next chapter.
These things happened.
FOUR

After dismal events, a piece of the Buddha appears;
Then the treasure fleet asks Tianfei to calm their fears.

The ship was so big it did not rock on the waves. It was like being on an island. The room they were
kept in was low and broad, extending across the width of the ship. Gratings on both sides let in air and
some light, though it was dim. A hole under one grating overhung the ship's side and served as the place
of relief.

The skinny black boy looked down it as if judging whether he could escape through the hole. He spoke
Arabic better than Bold, though it was not his native tongue either; he had a guttural accent that Bold had
never heard before. 'They trot you like derg.' He came from the hills behind the sahil he said, staring
down the hole. He stuck one foot through, then another. He wasn't going to get through.

Then the doorlock rattled and he pulled his feet out and sprang away like an animal. Three men came in