"Dan Simmons - The rise of Endymion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Simmons Dan)

quietly administering the sacrament of penance for the presumed widow and murderer in the front
pew and the radiation-scarred cypher in the last pew.
Pablo bustled up to him. The boy was grinning and out of breath. Father de Soya set his hand on
the boy's head, trying to flatten the thatch of flyaway hair while also calming and reassuring the
lad. De Soya lifted the chalice, removed his right hand from the boy's head to hold it over the
veiled cup, and said softly, "All right." Pablo's grin disappeared as the gravity of the moment
swept over him, and then the boy led the procession of two out of the sacristy door toward the
altar.
De Soya noticed at once that there were five figures in the chapel, not four. The usual
worshipers were there -- all kneeling and standing and then kneeling again in their usual places --
but there was someone else, someone tall and silent standing in the deepest shadows where the
little foyer entered the nave.
All during the Renewed Mass, the presence of the stranger pulled at Father de Soya's
consciousness, try as he might to block out all but the sacred mystery of which he was part.
"Dominus vobiscum," said Father de Soya. For more than three thousand years, he believed, the
Lord had been with them ... with all of them.
"Et cum spiritu tuo," said Father de Soya, and as Pablo echoed the words, the priest turned his
head slightly to see if the light had illuminated the tall, thin form in the dark recess at the
front of the nave. It had not.
During the Canon, Father de Soya forgot the mysterious figure and succeeded in focusing all of
his attention on the Host that he raised in his blunt fingers. "Hoc est enim corpus meum," the
Jesuit pronounced distinctly, feeling the power of those words and praying for the ten-thousandth
time that his sins of violence while a Fleet captain might be washed away by the blood and mercy
of this Savior. At the Communion rail, only the Perell twins came forward. As always. De Soya said
the words and offered the Host to the young men. He resisted the urge to glance up at the figure
in the shadows at the back of the church.
The Mass ended almost in darkness. The howl of wind drowned out the last prayers and responses.


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This little church had no electricity -- it never had -- and the ten flickering candles on the
wall did little to pierce the gloom. Father de Soya gave the final benediction and then carried
the chalice into the dark sacristy, setting it on the smaller altar there. Pablo hurried to shrug
out of his surplice and pull on his storm anorak.
"See you tomorrow, Father!"
"Yes, thank you, Pablo. Don't forget ... " Too late. The boy was out the door and running for
the spice mill where he worked with his father and uncles. Red dust filled the air around the
faulty weather-stripped door.
Normally, Father de Soya would have been pulling off his vestments now, setting them back in
the vestment chest. Later in the day, he would take them to the parish house to clean them. But
this morning he stayed in the tunicle and stole, the alb and cincture and amice. For some reason
he felt he needed them, much as he had needed the plaskev battle armor during boarding operations
in the Coal Sack campaign. The tall figure, still in shadows, stood in the sacristy doorway.
Father de Soya waited and watched, resisting the urge to cross himself or to hold the remaining
Communion wafer up as if to shield against vampires or the Devil.
Outside, the wind went from a howl to a banshee scream.
The figure took a step into the ruby light cast by the sacristy lamp. De Soya recognized
Captain Marget Wu, personal aide and liaison for Admiral Marusyn, commanding officer of Pax Fleet.