"Sheri S. Tepper - The True Game 1 - King's Blood Four" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tepper Sherri)

"Exactly. Now, students, visualize if you please. We have King, most durable of the adamants, whose
blood, that is, essence, is red light. Demon, most powerful of the ephemera, whose essence is shadow.
Tragamors making barriers at the sides of the Demesne. The player is a student, without power, so he
plays Talisman, an absorptive piece of the lesser ephemera. Talisman is lost in play, 'sacrificed' as we say.
The player gains nothing by this, but neither does he lose much, for with this play the Demesne is
changed, and the game moves elsewhere in the purlieu. "
"But, Master, " Karl's voice oozed from the corner. "A strong player could have played Totem. A
powerful player. "
I flushed. Of course. Everyone in the room knew that, but students were not strong, not powerful, even
though Karl liked to pretend he was. It was just one more of his little pricks and nibbles, like living with a
hedgehog. Gamesmaster tilted his head, signifying he had heard, but he didn't reply. Instead, he peered at
the chronometer on the wall, then out the window to check where the mountain shadow fell upon the
harbor, finally back to our heavily bundled little group. "So. Enoughfor today. Go to the fires and your
supper. Some of you are half frozen. "
We were all half frozen. The models could only be controlled if they were kept ice cold, so we spent half
our lives shivering in frigid aeries. I was as cold as any of them, but I wanted to let Karl get out of the
way, so I went to the high window and leaned out to peer away south. There was a line of warty little
islands there separating the placid harbor with its wheeling gulls from the wide, stormy lake and the
interesting lands of the True Game beyond. I mumbled something. Gervaise demanded I repeat it.
"It's boring here in Schooltown, " I repeated, shamefaced.
He didn't answer at once but looked through me in that very discomforting way the Masters sometimes
have. Finally he asked me if I had not had Gamesmaster Charnot for Cartography. I said I had.
"Then you know something of the lands of the True Game. You know of the Dragon's Fire purlieu to the
North? Yes. Well, there are a King and Queen there who decided to rear their children Outside. They
wanted to be near their babies, not send them off to a distant Schooltown to be bored by old
Gamesmasters. They thought to let the children learn the rules of play by observation. Of the eight sons
born to that Queen, seven have been lost in play. The eighth child sleeps this night in Havad's House
nursery, sent to Schooltown at last.
"It is true that it is somewhat boring in Schooltown, and for no one more so than the Masters! But, it is
also safe here, Peter. There is time to grow, and learn.. If you desire no more than to be a carter or laborer
or some other pawn, you may go Outside now and be one. However, after fifteen years in Mertyn's
House, you know too much to be contented as a pawn, but you won't know enough for another ten years
to be safe as anything else. "
I remarked in my most adult voice that safety wasn't everything.
"That being the case, " he said, "you'll be glad to help me dismantle the model. "
I bit my tongue. It would have been unthinkable to refuse, though taking the models apart is far more
dangerous than putting them together. Most of us have burn scars from doing one or the other. I sighed,
concentrated, picked a minor piece out of the game box at random and named it, "Talisman!" as I moved
it into the Demense.. It vanished in a flash of white fire. Gervaise moved a piece I couldn't see, then the
King, which released the Demon. I got one Tragamor out, then got stuck. I could not remember the


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 KING'S BLOOD FOUR - Sheri S. Tepper

sequence of moves necessary to get the other Tragamor loose.
One thing about Gervaise. He doesn't rub it in. He just looked at me again, his expression saying that
heknew what I knew. If I couldn't get a stupid Tragamor out of the model, I wouldn't survive very long in
the True Game.
Patiently, he showed me the order of moves and then swatted me, not too gently.