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

"What good are champions when Oily is already gone?" muttered Abasio. "Why couldn't they have come here yesterday!"
Tom laid his hand on Abasio's shoulder and shook him. "Even today, they may save the rest of us. Remember what she told me to tell you, Abasio."
Abasio shook off his hand. "The mere presence of five champions is meaningless. I hear gangers down there, and I know from personal experience they have no idea how to fight these things."
"My people are there as well," said Arakny. "And they have no more idea than gangers do."
Abasio nodded grimly. "The same will be true of the others, I should imagine. We need something more than mere fighters. We need a strategy."


378 Sheri S. Tepper

He put his head into his hands, thinking furiously. He had been unable to save Oily. Perhaps he could save those who had been important to her. All those years in Fantis, watching battles, trying to stay out of them as much as possible, talking them over at the barber's afterward. If the Greens had done this. If the Blues had done that. Surely he knew something about fighting after all this time!
He stood tall and demanded of Tom, "Is my horse still in that cavern down below'?"
Tom shrugged. "I imagine so."
"The entrance is well beyond the walker lines, is it not?"
Tom nodded.
"Take me there," demanded Abasio.
"And I," said Arakny. "I will carry your word to my people." Though it was Tom's instinctive response to ask His Wisdom before he did anything, Abasio would not allow him the time. They went at once, down through the bowels of Gaddi House, toward the door behind the haystack. When they passed the tunnel where the bit-pan players were stored,
Abasio made an abrupt noise, as though he had been kicked."What?" demanded Tom.
"Nothing," grunted Abasio. "I stumbled over a rock."
They went through the final door into the tunnel where Big Blue stood half-asleep in his pen.
With a pang of guilt, Abasio saw that someone had given him fresh hay and water.
"Now," said Arakny, "what do you want me to tell my people?"
Abasio had been thinking about it all the way down. He told her, tersely, answering both Tom's questions and hers as best he might.
"Wish me well," he said to Tom, as he climbed onto Big Blue's back. "I should be able to get all the way around by dawn, starting with the .animals to the south."
"Remember where you left your wagon'?" asked Tom.
Abasio nodded.
"If you go up that canyon, it will lead you onto flat land south o1' the Place. You can drop Arakny off on your way."
Arakny peered out the tunnel entrance, seeing fires in the canyon bottom. "We can ride along the slope, here," she told him. "My people arc on the road."
Abasio leaned down to pull Arakny up behind him, then took Tom's hand in his own. "We will do what we can," he said.


CHAPTER

~c baSio and Arakny rode southeasterly across the slope toward the road. They
ould hear the yamreefing of the walkers a few hundred yards above them, a repeated squealing
that moved in ripples along the wall, going and returning, a peculiarly bestial and mindless sound.
"What the hell are they doing?" whispered Arakny in Abasio's ear, her voice shaking.
"Counting off," Abasio said. "Keeping track of one another; a kind of roll call."
"How do you know?" she grated, wiping her forehead
on her sleeve. Her sweat was cold, and it stank of fear. "I don't," he muttered. "I'm guessing."
"Have you come up with any more good ideas?" He shook his head. "Just what we've already talked about. We've got to base our strategy on some assumptions, though I dislike assuming anything where they're concerned. First assumption: They've been ordered to guard the wall. That means they won't leave the wall en masse, though some of them can probably be tempted


380 Sheri S. Tepper

away. They're not unintelligent. Tom was very helpful about the psychology of the damned things, if you can call it that. We're forewarned about the deadly sound they make, so we can protect against that. When it comes right down to it, however, they're stronger than we are, and there are more of them than there are of us, though the arrival of all these allies has evened the odds a little."
"$o my people are to fight a war of attrition."
"We should kill as many walkers as possible from the greatest possible distance--we've talked about that. If we all try to achieve that, eschewing any heroics, we may have some success.
She sighed. "We could refuse to fight. We could wait them out, bring in food through the tunnel--"
"We can't 'wait them out.' When Ellel gets back with the space weapons. matters will be worse. Our only chance is to dispose of them while she's gone and be ready for her when she returns! The shuttle can go from the silo, but not return to it. She'll have to land outside the walls. Mitty and Tom think we can do something about that, maybe!
"Besides, two people sneaking around on a horse is one thing. Bringing