"Patrick Tilley - Amtrak 3 - Iron Master" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tilley Patrick)

EXTRACT ENDS

See related entries: CHINKS, DINKS, GOOKS, JAPS, MEATBALLS, NIPS,
SLANTS, V-C, YELLOW PERIL.

PROLOGUE

Cadillac handed his bathrobe to his servant, stepped into the deep tub
and sank down until the steaming water lapped his chin. Two more
female dead-faces, naked except for their white cotton headscarves,
stood in the water on either side of him, waiting to cleanse and
massage his bronzed body. He motioned them to begin, then closed his
eyes and reflected, once again, on his good fortune. Even though he
was able to read the future in the seeing-stones, they had not revealed
that, in a few short months after leaving the Plainfolk, everything he
had ever wished for would be within his grasp. Power, responsibility,
a task worthy of his talents, and - most important of all - standing.

His life had been utterly transformed and, for the first time, he felt
truly content. The warmth of the water pervaded his body, gently
dissolving the flesh and bone.

With his eyes still closed against the flickering yellow light of the
lanterns he had the sensation of floating, formless, like a
spirit-being poured by Mo-Town into the womb of its earth mother.

He cast his mind adrift...

Shortly after Steve Brickman had soared into the dawn sky, pursued by
several posses of Bears, Cadillac began the construction of a second
arrowhead from the parts which the clan had kept hidden from the cloud
warrior.

Armed with the skills and the knowledge he had drawn from Steve's mind,
he found it proved a relatively simple task. It was also immensely
satisfying, for his arrowhead was sleeker and stronger than Bluebird,
the ramshackle




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rig he had helped Steve to build and on which he had
been taught how to fly.

Cadillac smiled as he remembered how careful he had been not to learn
too quickly. Brickman had gone back to the dark world of the
sand-burrowers without realising he had given away the key to a