"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - The Room of Lost Souls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

Sometimes you can see them, floating around the station or pounding
at the windows, crying for help.

Their companions always mount rescue attempts, always lose one or
two more people before giving up, and hopingтАФprayingтАФthat what theyтАЩre
seeing isnтАЩt real.

Then they make repairs or do whatever it is they had to do when they
arrived, and fly off, filled with guilt, filled with remorse, filled with sadness,
happy to be the ones who survived.

IтАЩve heard that story, told in whispers, since I got to Longbow Station
decades ago, and IтАЩve never commented. IтАЩve never even rolled my eyes
or shaken my head.

I understand the need for superstition.

Sometimes its rituals and talismans give us a necessary illusion of
safety.

And sometimes it protects us from places that are truly dangerous.

****

тАЬWhy in the known universe would I go there to help you?тАЭ I ask, with
a little too much edge in my voice.

She studies me. I think I have surprised her. She expected me to tell
her that the Room of Lost Souls is a myth, that someone had lied to her,
that she is staking her quest on something that has never existed.

тАЬYou know it, then.тАЭ She doesnтАЩt sound surprised. Somehow she
knows that IтАЩve been there. Somehow she knows that I am one of the only
people to come out of the Room alive.

I donтАЩt answer her question. Instead, I drain my ale and stand. IтАЩm sad
to leave the old spacersтАЩ bar this early in the day, but IтАЩm going to.

IтАЩm going to leave and walk around the station until I find another bar
as grimy as this one.

Then IтАЩm going to go inside and I am, mostly likely, going to get
drunk.

тАЬYou should help me,тАЭ she says softly, тАЬbecause I know what the
Room is.тАЭ

I start to get up, but she grabs my arm.