"Jack Vance - The Demon Princes - complete" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

He examined the foliage, limbs, and bark and found nothing to
suggest such an origin.

He looked across the valley, to the great dark-leaved giants:

surely the two varieties were similar? The giants were majestic,
serene, with trunks rising two or three hundred feet to the first
branching. The trees grown from the black pods were frail; their
foliage was a more tender green, the limbs were more flexible, and
branched close to the groundтАФbut the species were clearly related.
Leaf shape and structure were almost identical, as was the general
appearance of the bark: supple, yet rough-texture d, though the bark
of the giants was darker and coarser. Teehalt's head swarmed with
speculations.

Later the same day he climbed the mountain across the valley
and, crossing the ridge, came down upon a glen with precipitous
rocky walls. A stream rushed and splashed through mossy boulders
and low fernlikc plants, falling from pool to pool. Approaching the
brink, Teehalt found himself on a level with the foliage ot the giant

THE STAR KING
15

trees, which here grew close beside the cliff. He noted dull green
sacs, like fruit, growing among the leaves. Straining, risking a fall,
Teehalt was able to pluck one of these sacs. He carried it down the
mountainside and across the meadow^ toward the boat.

He passed a group of dryads who, fixing their purple-green eye
bruises on the sac, became rigid. Teehalt observed them with puz-
zlement. Now they approached, their gorgeous fans quivering and
shimmering in agitation. Teehalt felt embarrassed and guilty; evi-
dently by plucking the sac he had offended the dryads. Why or how
he could not fathom, but he hastily sought the concealment of his
ship, where he cut the sac. The husk was pithy and dry; down the
center ran a stalk from which depended white pea-sized seeds, of
great complexity. Teehalt inspected the seeds closely under a mag-
nifier. They bore a remarkable resemblance to small underdevel-
oped beetles, or wasps. With tweezers and knife he opened one out
on a sheet of paper, noting wings, thorax, mandibles: clearly an
insect.

For a long while he sat contemplating the -insects which grew
on a tree: a curious analogue, so Teehalt reflected, to the sapling
which sprouted from a pod taken from the body of a worm.

Sunset colored the sky; the distant parts of the valley grew in-
distinct. Dusk came and evening, with the stars blurring large as
lamps.