"Charles R Tanner - Tumithak Of The Towers Of Fire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tanner Charles R)

Otaro hastened forward with him and Mutassa presented him to the white man.
"This is my brother Otaro, Lord," he said. "This is he of whom I told you-- he
who was lord of the Place before the shelks took him from us."
"And who is this great one, Mutassa?" he asked.
Mutassa was about to answer, but the white man motioned him to silence. He spoke
himself.
"I am Tumithak," he said. "Tumithak of the far-off pits of Loor. Tumithak, the
Lord of the Lower Corridors and Protector of the Tains!"
Standing there before them, his voice rose in volume and dropped in tone, and as
he grew in excitement, the words fairly burst from his lips.
"Ten years ago, oh Kraylings, while I was still a child of fourteen, I lived,
skulking like any other pitman, deep in the corridors of Loor. But one day I
found a book that told of how once men were free, lords of all the Surface. It
told of the coming of the shelks from another world, and of how men fought a
losing battle with those savage beasts, and of how those men who still valued
their freedom were forced at last to build the intricate pits and corridors
which became their home.
"And when I learned from that book that men had once fought with shelks, I vowed
that it should be so again. So, when I grew to be a man, I set forth from Loor,
on the long journey up the corridors; for I was determined to seek the Surface
and slay a shelk, to prove to my people that it might still be done.
"Many were my adventures by the way, but at last I reached the Surface and slew
my shelk, bringing its head back to my people as I had vowed.
"Then my people made me their ruler, and greatly daring, I led them through the
Dark Corridors and the Halls where lived those fat cattle of the shelks, the
Esthetts, until at last we burst onto the Surface and overwhelmed the shelk-town
of Shawm. With the help of the Tains pitmen from another pit, I taught my people
the way to operate the complicated weapons of the shelks, and so we were able to
live in Shawm and defend that city."
"And with the help of the High One to whom the pitmen pray, I shall conquer more
shelks, and more shelks, and more shelks--until the time comes when the last
shelk, surrounded by his servile group of foul mogs, shall fall, stinking and
burning, to his deserved death!"

Tumithak, Chapter Two CHAPTER TWO of TUMITHAK OF THE TOWERS OF FIRE
Three Against the World



HIS voice, which had risen to almost a shout, ceased suddenly. His gesturing
hands dropped to his side. His head was thrust back, his eyes to the ceiling.
And even had they desired it, it would have been impossible to restrain the
cheer that went up from those black ones who so short a time before had been
hopeless slaves.
But even as they cheered there was one who detached himself from the still
wailing group across the room and came forward hesitantly. He whispered
something to one of the cheering black men that caused that one to cease his
cheering and to look toward Tumithak uncertainly.
"One wonders, O mizta, what that foul mog does who follows you. Would a savior
of men consort with a mog?"