"E. C. Tubb - Dumarest 04 - Kalin" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tubb E. C)

friendly and tried to warn them: a woman who ate bread made
of diseased grain, a boy who was chopping wood and lost an eye,
about a substance in which a woman fell. I warned them," she
said bleakly. "But they took no notice and then, when they had
hurt themselves, they blamed me."

"Naturally," he said. "They would hardly blame themselves for
ignoring your advice." He paused, and then abruptly asked:
"What were you doing on Logis?"

"I was bornтАФ"

"No," he interrupted. "You were never born on that planet.
Not with your color skin and hair. And why try to lie to me?
What's the point?"

"None," she admitted, "but sometimes a lie can save a lot of
explanation." She lifted her head, met his eyes. "I was born a
long way from here on a planet close to the Rim. Since then I've
traveled a lot. I joined up with a necromancer who took me to
Logis. We worked there: telling fortunes, reading palms,
astrology, all that stuff. I think he had a sideline in chemical
analogues. I know for sure that he dealt in abortifacts and
hallucinogens. He tried to sell me a few times but I wouldn't be
sold." Her eyes were clear, direct. "You understand?"

Dumarest nodded. "And?"

"I slipped a knife into him at Bloodtime. That made it legal.
They couldn't touch me for doing that. The rest you know."

"Tell me."

She bit her lower lip, teeth white against the bloom of
redness. "They came for me. The ones I'd tried to help. They were
like animals. If I hadn't moved fast they would have torn me to
pieces." She reached out and touched the sleeve of his tunic.
"You saved my life," she said. "I'm not going to forget that."

He felt the warmth of her nearness, caught the scent of her
hair, the biological magic of her body. Her eyes were green wells
into which a man could immerse his being. The translucent skin
reflected the light as if made of living pearl.

Deliberately he picked up the cards, shuffled and began to
deal, the pasteboards vanishing from his hands to instantly
reappear on the surface of the table. The magic of quick-time did
that. Not accelerate the cards but slow his metabolism down so
that he lived at one-fortieth the normal rate. He, the girl, the
others who traveled on High passage. The drug was a convenient