"Sheri S. Tepper - Raising the Stones" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tepper Sherri)

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RAISING THE STONES
Sheri S. Tepper
Sinks whoever raises the great stones;
I've raised these stones as long as I was able
I've loved these stones as long as I was able
these stones, my fate.
Wounded by my own soil
tortured by my own shirt
condemned by my own gods,
these stones.

тАФGeorge Seferis, "Mycenae"
Collected Poems, Princeton University Press

Hobbs Land
ONE
The God's name was Bondru Dharm, which, according to the linguists who had worked with the Owlbrit
before the last of them died, meant something to do with noonday. Noonday Uncovered was the most
frequent guess, though Noonday Found and Noonday Announced were also in the running. Only a
handful of the Owlbrit had been still alive on Hobbs Land when it was settled by Hobbs Transystem
Foods. All but one of them had died soon thereafter, so there hadn't been a lot of opportunity to clarify
the meanings of the sounds they made.

The settlers on Hobbs Land, who rather enjoyed using what little had been preserved of Owlbrit
language, called the God by his name, Bondru Dharm, or sometimes, though only among the smart asses,
Old Bondy. It was housed in the temple the Owlbrit had built for the purpose, a small round building kept
in reasonable repair by the people of Settlement One under the regulations of the Ancient Monuments
Panel of the Native Matters Advisory of Authority.

No one remembered exactly when the settlers had begun offering sacrifices. Some people claimed the
rite had been continued from the time the last Owlbrit died, though no mention of the ritual appeared in
Settlement One logs of years one or two. The first mention of it was in the logs of year three. What was
certain was that sacrifice had been recommended by the Owlbrit themselves.

Every word the Owlbrit had spoken from the moment the first settlers met them had been preserved in
digifax on the information stages, and among the few intelligible exchanges with the last Owlbrit was the