"Jack Vance - Tschai 3 - The DirDir" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

sprawling heap.

Reith, Traz and Anacho were now scrambling into the skycar; Anacho settled to the controls. The
Dirdir screamed a wild admonition, and ran forward. The Phung made a prodigious hop, to alight on
the Dirdir with a great flapping of the cloak. With the Dirdir at last a tangle of bones and skin,
the Phung hopped to the center of the pond where it stood like a stork, ruefully considering its
single leg.


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CHAPTER THREE

BELOW LAY THE chasms, separated by knife-edged ridges of stone. Black gash paralleled black
gash; looking down Reith wondered whether he and his party could possibly have survived to reach
the Draschade. Almost certainly not. He speculated: Did the chasms tolerate life of any sort? The
old man at Siadz had mentioned pysantillas and fere; who knows what other creatures inhabited the
gulches far below? He now noticed, wedged in a crevice high between two peaks, a crumble of
angular shapes like an efflorescence from the mother rock: a village, apparently of men, though
none could be seen. Where did they find water? In the depths of the chasm? How did they provide
themselves with food? Why did they choose so remote an aerie for their home? There were no answers
to his questions; the aerie was left behind in the murk.

A voice broke into Reith's musings: a sighing, rasping, sibilant voice, which Reith could not
understand.

Anacho touched a button; the voice cut off. Anacho showed no concern; Reith forbore to ask
questions.

The afternoon waned; the chasms spread to become flatbottomed gorges full of darkness, while
the intervening ridges showed fringes of dark gold. A region as grim and hopeless as the grave,
thought Reith. He recalled the village, now far behind, and became melancholy.

The peaks and ridges ended abruptly to form the front of a gigantic scarp; the floors of the
gorges extended and joined. Ahead lay the Draschade. Carina 4269, sinking, laid a topaz trail
across the leaden water.

A promontory jutted into the sea, sheltering a dozen fishing craft, high at bow and stern. A
village struggled along the foreshore, lights already glimmering into the dusk.

Anacho circled slowly above the village. He pointed. "Notice the stone building with the two
cupolas and the blue lamps? A tavern, or perhaps an inn. I suggest that we put down to refresh
ourselves. We have had a most tiring day."

"True, but can the Dirdir trace us?"