"Jack Vance - Alastor 2262 - Trullion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

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the island the ramshackle old home of the Huldens stood between a pair of huge mimosa trees.
Rosalia vine grew up the posts of the verandah and overhung the edge of the roof, producing a
fragrant shade for the pleasure of those taking their ease in the old string chairs. To the south
was a view of Ambal Broad and Ambal Isle, a property of three acres supporting a number of
beautiful pomanders, russet-silver against a background of solemn menas, and three enormous
fanzaneels, holding then- great shaggy pompoms high in the air. Through the foliage gleamed the
white facade of the manse where Lord Ambal long ago had maintained his mistresses. The property
was now owned by Jut Hulden, but he had no inclination to dwell in the manor, his friends would
think him absurd.

In his youth Jut Hulden had played hussade for the Saur-kash Serpents. Marucha had been sheirl*
for the Welgeen Warlocks; so they had met, and married, and brought into being three sons, Shira
and the twins Glinnes and Glay, and a daughter, Sharue, who had been stolen by the merrlings.**

* sheirl: an untranslatable term from the special vocabulary of hussade-a glorious nymph, radiant
with ecstatic vitality, who impels the players of her team to impossible feats of strength and
agility. The sheirl is a virgin who must be protected from the shame of defeat. *Merlings:
amphibious half-intelligent indigenes of Trullion, living in tunnels burrowed into the riverbanks.
Merlings and men lived on the edge of a most delicate truce; each hated and hunted the other, but
under mutually tolerable conditions. The merlings prowled the land at night for carrion, small
animals, and children. If they molested boats or entered a habitation, men retaliated by dropping
explosives into the water. Should a man fall into the water or attempt to swim, he had intruded
into the domain of the merlings and risked being dragged under. Similarly, a merling discovered on
land was shown no mercy.

Chapter 2
***
Glinnes Hulden entered the world crying and kicking; Glay followed an hour later, in watchful
silence. From the first day of their lives the two differed an appearance, in temperament, in all
the circumstances of their lives. Glinnes, like Jut and Shira, was amiable, trusting, and easy-
natured; he grew into a handsome lad with a clear complexion, dusty-blond hair, a wide, smiling
mouth. Glinnes entirely enjoyed the pleasures of the Fens: feasts, amorous adventures, star-
watching and sailing, hussade, nocturnal merling hunts, simple idleness.

Glay at first lacked sturdy good health; for his first six years he was fretful, captious and
melancholy. Then he mended, and quickly overtaking Glinnes was thenceforth the taller of the two.
His hair was black, his features taut and keen, his eyes intent. Glinnes accepted events and ideas
without skepticism; Glay stood aloof and saturnine. Glinnes was instinctively skilllful at
hussade; Glay refused to set foot on the field. Though Jut was a fair man, he found it hard
toconceal his preference for Glinnes. Marucha, herself tall, dark-haired, and inclined to romantic
meditation, fancied Glay, in whom she thought to detect poetic sensibilities. She tried to
interest Glay in music, and explained how through music he could express his emotions and make
them intelligible to others. Glay was cold to the idea and produced only a few lackadaisical
discords on her guitar.
Glay was a mystery even to himself. Introspection availed nothing; he found himself as confusing
as did the rest of his family. As a youth his austere appearance and rather haughty self-