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

"Were he and Welibus acquainted?"
Rolver laughed shortly. "Naturally. But don't suspect poor Welibus of anything more venal than juggling his
accounts; I assure you he's no consort of assassins."
"Speaking of assassins," said Thissell, "do you have a weapon I might borrow?"
Rolver inspected him in wonder. "You came out here to take Angmark bare-handed?"
"I had no choice," said Thissell. "When Cromartin gives orders he expects results. In any event you were here
with your slaves."
"Don't count on me for help," Rolver said testily. "I wear the Tarn Bird and make no pretensions of valor. But I
can lend you a power pistol. I haven't used it recently; I won't guarantee its charge."
Rolver went into the office and a moment later returned with the gun. "What will you do now?"
Thissell shook his head wearily. "I'll try to find Angmark in Fan. Or might he head for Zundar?"
Rolver considered. "Angmark might be able to survive in Zundar. But he'd want to brush up on his
musicianship. I imagine he'll stay in Fan a few days."
"But how can I find him? Where should I look?"
"That I can't say," replied Rolver. "You might be safer not finding him. Angmark is a dangerous man."
Thissell returned to Fan the way he had come.
Where the path swung down from the hills into the espla-nade a thick-walled pise de terre building had been
con-structed. The door was carved from a solid black plank; the windows were guarded by enfoliated bands of iron.
This was the office of Cornely Welibus, Commercial Factor, Importer and Exporter. Thissell found Welibus sitting at
his ease on the tiled veranda, wearing a modest adaptation of the Walde-mar mask. He seemed lost in thought, and
might or might not have recognized Thissell's Moon Moth; in any event he gave no signal of greeting.
Thissell approached the porch. "Good morning, Ser Weli-bus."
Welibus nodded abstractedly and said in a flat voice, plucking at his krodatch, "Good morning."
Thissell was rather taken aback. This was hardly the in-strument to use toward a friend and fellow out-worlder,
even if he did wear the Moon Moth.
Thissell said coldly, "May I ask how long you have been sitting here?"
Welibus considered half a minute, and now when he spoke he accompanied himself on the more cordial
crebarin. But the recollection of the krodatch chord still rankled in Thissel's mind.
"I've been here fifteen or twenty minutes. Why do you ask?"
"I wonder if you noticed a Forest Goblin pass?"
Welibus nodded. "He went on down the esplanadeтАФ turned into the first mask shop, I believe."
Thissell hissed between his teeth. This would naturally be Angmark's first move. "Ill never find him once he
changes masks," he muttered.
"Who is this Forest Goblin?" asked Welibus, with no more than casual interest.
Thissell could see no reason to conceal the name. "A notorious criminal: Haxo Angmark."
"Haxo Angmark!" croaked Welibus, leaning back in his chair. "You're sure he's here?"
"Reasonably sure.'
Welibus rubbed his shaking hands together. "This is bad newsтАФbad news indeed! He's an unscrupulous
scoundrel."
"You knew him well?"
"As well as anyone." Welibus was now accompanying himself with the kiv. "He held the post I now occupy. I
came out as an inspector and found that he was embezzling four thousand UMFs a month. I'm sure he feels no great
gratitude toward me." Welibus glanced nervously up the esplanade. "I hope you catch him."
"I'm doing my best. He went into the mask shop, you say?"
"I'm sure of it."
Thissell turned away. As he went down the path he heard the black plank door thud shut behind him.
He walked down the esplanade to the mask-maker's shop, paused outside as if admiring the display: a hundred
mini-ature masks, carved from rare woods and minerals, dressed with emerald flakes, spider-web silk, wasp wings,
petrified fish scales and the like. The shop was empty except for the mask-maker, a gnarled knotty man in a yellow
robe, wear-ing a deceptively simple Universal Expert mask, fabricated from over two thousand bits of articulated wood.