"Jack Vance - The Last Castle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

road, with the moon sinking into the west. The eastern
horizon glowed green and lemon-yellow, and presently, as the
pallid moon disappeared over the distant line of the moun-
tains the sun came up.
At this moment, Xanten spied a drift of smoke off to the
right.
He halted the wagon. Standing up on the seat he craned his
neck to spy a Nomad encampment about a quarter-mile
distant. He could distinguish three or four dozen tents of
various sizes, a dozen dilapidated power-wagons. On the
hetman's tall tent he thought to see a black ideogram which
he thought he recognized. If so, this would be the tribe which
not long before had trespassed on the Hagedorn domain, and
which 0. Z. Garr had repulsed.
Xanten settled himself upon the seat, composed his gar-
ments, set the power-wagon in motion and guided it toward
the camp
A hundred black-cloaked men, tall and lean as ferrets,
watched his approach. A dozen sprang forward and whipping
arrows to bows aimed them at his heart. .Xanten tarned them
a glance of supercilious inquiry, drove the wagon up to the
hetman's tent, halted. He rose to his feet. "Hetman," he called.
"Are you awake?"
The hetman parted the canvas which closed off his tent,
peered out and after a moment came forth. Like the others
he wore a garment of limp black cloth, swathing head and
body alike. His face thrust through a square opening: narrow
blue eyes, a grotesquely long nose, a chin long, skewed and
sharp.
Xanten gave him a curt nod. "Observe this." He jerked his
thumb toward the Mek in the back of the wagon. The hetman
flicked aside his eyes, studied the Mek a tenth-second, re-
turned to a scrutiny of Xanten. "His kind have revolted
against the gentlemen," said Xanten. "In fact they massacre
all the men of Earth. Hence we of Castle Hagedom make this
offer to the Nomads. Come to Castle Hagedom! We will feed,
clothe and arm you. We will train you to discipline and the
arts of formal warfare. We will provide the most expert
leadership within our power. We will then annihilate the
Meks, expunge them from Earth. After the campaign, we will
train you to technical skills, and you may pursue profitable
and interesting careers in the service of the castles."
The hetman made no reply for a moment. Then his
weathered face split into a ferocious grin and he spoke in a
voice which Xanten found surprisingly well-modulated. "So
your beasts have finally risen up to rend you! A pity they
forebore so long! Well, it is all one to us. You are both alien
folk and sooner or later your bones must bleach together."
Xanten pretended incomprehension. "If I understand you
aright, you assert that in the face of alien assault, all men