"Jack Vance - The Moon Moth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

damping and augmenta-tion of overtones; vibratos and wolf-tones; concavities and convexities. He practiced with a
dogged, deadly diligence, in which his original concept of music as a source of pleasure had long become lost.
Looking over the instruments Thissell resisted an urge to fling all six into the Titanic.
He rose to his feet, went forward through the parlor sa-loon, the dining saloon, along a corridor past the galley
and came out on the foredeck. He bent over the rail, peered down into the underwater pens where Toby and Rex, the
slaves, were harnessing the dray-fish for the weekly trip to Fan, eight miles north. The youngest fish, either playful or
captious, ducked and plunged. Its streaming black muzzle broke water, and Thissell, looking into its face, felt a
pecu-liar qualm: the fish wore no mask!
Thissell laughed uneasily, fingering his own mask, the Moon Moth. No question about it, he was becoming
accli-mated to Sirene! A significant stage had been reached when the naked face of a fish caused him shock!
The fish were finally harnessed; Toby and Rex climbed aboard, red bodies glistening, black cloth masks clinging
to their faces. Ignoring Thissell they stowed the pen, hoisted anchor. The dray-fish strained, the harness tautened,
 the houseboat moved north.
Returning to the afterdeck, Thissell took up the strapanтАФ this a circular sound-box eight inches in diameter.
Forty-six wires radiated from a central hub to the circumference where they connected to either a bell or a tinkle-bar.
When plucked, the bells rang, the bars chimed; when strummed, the instru-ment gave off a twanging, jingling sound.
When played with competence, the pleasantly acid dissonances produced an ex-pressive effect; in an unskilled hand,
the results were less felicitous, and might even approach random noise. The strapan was Thissell's weakest
instrument and he practiced with concentration during the entire trip north.
In due course the houseboat approached the floating city. The dray-fish were curbed, the houseboat warped to
a moor-ing. Along the dock a line of idlers weighed and gauged every aspect of the houseboat, the slaves and
Thissell him-self, according to Sirenese habit. Thissell, not yet accustomed to such penetrating inspection, found the
scrutiny unsettling, all the more so for the immobility of the masks. Self-con-sciously adjusting his own Moon Moth,
he climbed the lad-der to the dock.
A slave rose from where he had been squatting, touched knuckles to the black cloth at his forehead, and sang
on a three-tone phrase of interrogation: "The Moon Moth before me possibly expresses the identity of Ser Edwer
Thissell?"
Thissell tapped the hymerkin, which hung at his belt and sang: "I am Ser Thissell."
"I have been honored by a trust," sang the slave. "Three days from dawn to dusk I have waited on the dock;
three nights from dusk to dawn I have crouched on a raft below this same dock listening to the feet of the Night-men.
At last I behold the mask of Ser Thissell."
Thissell evoked an impatient clatter from the hymerkin. "What is the nature of this trust?"
"I carry a message, Ser Thissell. It is intended for you."
Thissell held out his left hand, playing the hymerkin with his right. "Give me the message."
"Instantly, Ser Thissell."

The message bore a heavy superscription:

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION! RUSH!


Thissell ripped open the envelope. The message was signed by Castel Cromartin, Chief Executive of the
Interworld Poli-cies Board, and after the formal salutation read:

absolutely urgent the following orders be executed! Aboard Carina Cruzeiro, destination Fan, date of arrival
January 10 U.T., is notorious assassin, Haxo Angmark. Meet landing with adequate authority, effect detention and
incarceration of this man. These instructions must be successfully implemented. Failure is unacceptable.
Attention! Haxo Angmark is superlatively danger-ous. Kill him without hesitation at any show of resis-tance.

Thissell considered the message with dismay. In coming to Fan as Consular Representative he had expected