"Geoff Ryman - The Unconquered Country" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ryman Geoff)

up.
It lurched to its feet, swaying, and the wicker cages between its legs snapped and
flew apart. There were crashes of falling crockery overhead. Third knew her second
sister had been beside the charcoal stove. She heard her second sister scream. Third
ran outside to see.
All along the valley, the houses began to hoot in panic. The flood warning, the
warning for a flood, over and over. The hens scattered, in wavering lines.
Low overhead, and silently, came Sharks. Sharks, it was said, had been human once.
Sunlight reflected on their humming wings, and they were long and sleek and
freckled with big brown spots like old people get on their hands. Third saw their
round and happy faces. She saw them smile. As they passed, wind whipped into her
face, and she turned.


The Shark attack
An attack. Third knew what to do in an attack. She was to hide in the deepest part of
the house, and wrap herself in white blankets. But the porch of the house now
towered above her head. Her sister stood on it, wailing, beet-red, scalded by the
stove.
"Sister, get inside!" cried Third. The old house trumpeted with relief, and snatched
Third up with its trunk. It thought there was a flood, thought it had to keep Third
from trying to swim, from drowning, so it lifted her up high over its round and
featureless head, and began to march for the higher ground. The ground was still
moist. There was no dust. Third could see everything.
She saw the stampede of houses, as they gained speed, throwing their great feet
forward into a lumber-ing trot, their heads bobbing with effort. She saw the fields
beyond, the women running, but she could not see her mother, and she saw the
Sharks. They puffed out their cheeks and they blew, and where they blew, everything
died in a line, like a furrow.
The rice went brown, crumpling up like burning paper. A Great Fat Lady collapsed
in a rumpled heap like a big balloon losing air, her feathers curling up, melting away.
Third knew where the path of destruc-tion was proceeding. She knew who was
going to fall next, who was running to intercept the lines of death. She tried to call to
them. "Madame Goh! Madame Goh! Stop running!" she piped, and heard the frailty
of her own voice. She looked for her mother. She looked for her sister.
The old guns on the hill leapt forward and settled back, and there was a boom and
batter that made Third scream and cover her ears. Parts of the opposite hill-side
were thrown up as chunks of rock and the spinning heads of trees. The Sharks
whistled, cheering, as if at a football match, and swept low over the guns. After that,
the guns were silent. The Sharks rose up in the sky, reflecting light like dragonflies.
They were almost beautiful for a moment. Then they turned and descended on the
village. As they leveled off, Third knew she was directly in their path.
Third's eldest sister jumped down from her cousin's house as it lumbered forward.
She dodged between the houses on her long stick legs, in her red gingham dress.
"House," she called as she ran. "Old house. Kneel down! Kneel down!"
She jogged backward beside it, jumping up and down, trying to reach Third. The
house was too pan-icked to notice, and Third was clogged with terror. Third saw the
faces of the Sharks, the row of smiles, the number of teeth. They batted their
eyelashes at her, and giggled. They puffed out their cheeks like the Four Winds, and
blew.