"Tepper, Sheri S - A Plague Of Angels - plangel4" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tepper Sherri)

it appropriate lbr me, as temporary seem to be available, we Consider
things in general until Ellel and Artder get back.',
Family head, to take OVer the control of
"What things Would those be?" asked Berkli, with dangerous calm.
"Why, the shops. The~the ceremonies. You know. ',
"Since there are no more Walkers and old Seoca has departed,
possible reason can there be for continuing the Ceremonies?,, what
"Also, we have turned the orbital telescope Said Mitty.
see that the shuttle seems Onto the
"Misfired?,, to have mistired.,, Space station, and we
"Mistired. Or been misdirected. Or SOmething. At any rate, it never reached the station. It seems to be on its Way to Betelgeuse,
reach in a few hundred or thousand years, which it will
shops, they can be managed give or take. Now, as for the
them, and that doesn't, so far Only by pc.opic who know , me ·
the Family members who Want to enroll in the tec~hn'~i~cUa~rS at all. Any of
Welcome there, of COUrse.,, as I know, include an-, a~~, so thing about
Berkli hid a grin behind his school will be
hand.
"I don't like Your tone!" Said Forsmooth "I'm
be able to turn the shuttle around. After all, they have the guidance system!
· SUre Ellel and Artder will
When they return, we will take the matter up with them.',
At the mention of the guidance system, Berkli's face had hardened. ,, You
do that," he said. "While you're waiting, however~and it will be a lengthy
wait~y°u might get your Family together to decide how they're going to
make a living in the future, for I'm afraid the
of the shops is hereby broken.,, Domer monopoly on the Output
,,Forsmooth stalked away with many flutters of his silken sleeves·
at Was '~ui'- ' .,~ ~v~tty
· ~ ,c a pronouncement. About the shops ,,
"So Was Yours," said Berkli. "But it's high time, even though it means
the Berklis Will also have to go to Work. We ve lived off the Power of the
Place far too long.', ,

The second morning after the battle, Oracle announced a premonition:
All the residents of the Place of Power must leave immediately and go
west, up toward the forests. Gaddirs Went from door to door, advising the


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Sheri S. Tepper

populace, most of whom took heed, though some Ellels thought it a trick, and some Anders refused to leave their pavilion. Within the hour, people straggled out of the western gates, some of them laden with food and drink and blankets, though Oracle had said they would not need to stay away long.
The last of them had barely come away from the wall before the earth shook and the Place of Power was obscured behind a wallowing yellow cloud that rose straight up, a citywide pillar, like the trunk of a monstrous tree. The people turned and gaped at the dust cloud as a shifting wind from the west frayed the column into long, drooping branches extending eastward, branches that sagged like spruce boughs as the heavier dust fell out of the wind. Below the earth the tremors continued, to the sound of cataclysmic grindings and quakings.
Some farsighted few who had climbed trees to get a view cried out that a chasm had opened down the center of the eastern canyon, where it swallowed boulders and trees down its cavernous maw before it closed again like a pair of huge jaws.
When at last the tremors diminished and stopped, people ran back through the gates, wanting to see what had happened to their homes. Within the walls, the Place remained much as before, except that Gaddi House was gone. Where it had been was only a great heap of yellow-gold rubble that, even as they watched it, flattened and sifted itself into a mere stretch of ochreous dust. Not long afterward, when people went to their homes seeking light and heat, they found that the Power for which the Place had been named was gone also. There were no lights, no machinery moving, no warm rooms. That night the people slept in darkness, except for candles and lanterns and the baleful glow of makeshift braziers.
Nimwes went off to console her family, and be consoled, as did other of the Gaddir folk.
"All the shops," grieved Tom to Mitty. "All the machines. I had equipment in there you wouldn't believe! The things I could make! The things 1 could do!"
"All the power," grieved Mitty to Tom. "All the things I could make! The things I could do!"