"Sheri S. Tepper - After Long Silence" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tepper Sherri)

other similar areas by mighty cliffs of ranked Presences, there was no effective mechanical transportation
on the planet except along coastal areas and over the seas.
 "Dassalom awoh," Clarin sang as they moved around the curve to the left. "Bondars delumin sindarlo."
Few women could manage the vocals for the Passwords needed around Deepsoil Five, though Tasmin
had heard there were a lot of female Tripsingers in the Northwest. He gave her a smile of encouragement
and gestured her to continue, even though they were in safe territory. If there had been a caravan with
them, the Tripsingers and trip wagon would have pulled aside at this point and gone on with the Petition
and Justification variations until every vehicle had passed. Tasmin felt she might as well get the practice.

Clarin began the first variation. If anything at all had been learned about the Presences, it was that they
became bored rather easily. The same phrases repeated more than a few times were likely to bring a
violent reaction.

At the end of the second variation, Tasmin signaled for the concluding statement, the Expression of
Gratitude. Clarin sang it. Then there was silence. They pulled away from the Watchers, no one speaking.

A thunderous crack split the silence behind them, a shattering crash echoed from the far cliffs in
retreating volleys of echoes. Tasmin swung around in his saddle, horrified, thinking perhaps the wagon
had not come clear, but it was a good ten meters beyond the place where the smoking fragments of
crystal lay scattered. Behind them, one of the Watchlings had violently shed its top in their general
direction.

"Joke," muttered Jamieson. "Ha, ha."

Clarin was white-faced and shivering. "Why?" she begged, eyes frightened. "Why? I didn't miss a note!"

"Shhh." Tasmin, overwhelmed with wonder, could not speak for a moment. He took her arm to feel her
shaking under his hand, every muscle rigid. He drew her against him, pulled the others close with his eyes
and beckoning hands, whispered to her, and in doing so spoke to them all. "Clarin, I've never heard the
Watcher score sung better. It wasn't you. What you have to remember is that the PresencesтАФthey, well,
they're unpredictable. They do strange things." He stroked the back of the girl's head, like a baby's with
the short hair.

"Joke," murmured Jamieson again. "It was laughing at us."

"Jamieson, we can do without that anthropomorphic motif!" Tasmin grated, keeping his voice level and
quiet with difficulty. He didn't want to talk, didn't want to have to talk, wanted only to feel the adrenaline
pulsing through him at the shuddering marvel of the Presences. With an effort, he focused on the
frightened first trippers. "These are crystals, very complicated crystals. Certain sound combinations cause
them to damp their own signals and stop their own electrical activity. It's complex, it's badly understood,
but it isn't supernatural."

"I wasn't thinking supernatural," Jamieson objected, the everlasting rebel. "Laughter isn't supernatural!"

"It is if a crystal mountain does it," Tasmin said with finality, aware of the dichotomy between what he
said and what he felt. What he said was doctrine, yes, but was it truth? He didn't know and he doubted if
any of those promulgating the position knew for sure. Still, one didn't keep a well-paid position in the
academic hierarchy by allowing unacceptable notions to be bandied about in front of first-timers, or by
speculating openly about them oneself, particularly when the BDL manual laid out the official position in
plain language. It was in BDL's interest that the Presences be considered merely тАж mineral. What was in