"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 01 - The Winds of Gath" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

Chapter Four


A SHIP LANDED as they returned to camp. From it stepped a
group of tourists, gay, laughing, an assorted batchтАФ the
entourage of the Prince of Emmened who had ruined a world by
his whims and would ruin more unless stopped by an assassin;
three cowled monks of the Universal Brotherhood, two
musicians, an artist, four poets, an entrepreneur. All had
traveled High. Some were still slow in movement, slower in
speech from the lingering effects of quick-time.

Three had traveled Low: a man, little more than a boy; a
withered crone stronger than she looked; a fool.

He came staggering from the ship bowed beneath the weight
of a fibroid box as large as himself. He was grotesquely thin and
his eyes burned like coals from the gaunt pallor of his face. Ribs
showed prominent against the flesh of his chest bare beneath the
ragged shirt. The rest of his clothing matched the shirt. He was a
shambling scarecrow of a man.

"Gath!" He cried out and fell to the seared dirt of the field,
pressing his cheek against the soil. The box which he carried by
means of a strap over his shoulders gave him the appearance of a
monstrous beetle. "Gath!"

His companions ignored him. The tourists looked and saw
nothing of interest. All travelers were mad. The handler stood at
the door of his ship and spat after his late charges.

"Gath!" yelled the man again. He tried to rise but the weight
of the box pressed him to the ground. Eel-like he wriggled from
beneath, slipping the strap from his shoulders, kneeling by the
box. He parted it, crooning inarticulate sounds. Saliva dribbled
from his mouth and wet his chin.

"Mad," said Megan positively. "Insane."

"In trouble." Dumarest was interested. Megan shrugged.

"So he's in trouble. So are we. Let's go and see if we can earn
something by making ourselves useful to the tourists."

"You go." Dumarest strode toward the kneeling man. Megan
scowled, then followed. Dumarest halted beside the crooning
man.