"Vance, Jack - Gaean Reach - Demon Princes 01 - The Star Kings" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

The dryads bathe in the river or stand in the dark forest. . . ." Tee-
halt's voice dwindled; he appeared to be half asleep.

Gersen prompted him. "Dryads?"

Teehalt stirred, raised in his chair. "It's as good a name as any.
They're at least half plant. I made no real examination; I dared not.
Why? I don't know. I was there-oh, I suppose two or three weeks.
This is what I saw.. . ."

Teehalt landed the battered old 9B on a meadow beside a river. He
waited while the analyzer made environmental tests, though a land-
scape so fair could not fail to be hospitable-or so thought Teehalt,
who was scholar, poet, wastrel in equal parts. He was not wrong:

the atmosphere proved salubrious; allergen-sensitive cultures tested
negative; microorganisms of air and soil quickly died upon contact
with the standard antibiotic with which Teehalt now dosed himself.
There seemed no reason why he should not immediately go forth
upon this world, and he did so.

On the turf in front of the ship Teehalt stood entranced. The
air was clear and clean and fresh, like the air of a spring dawn, and
utterly silent, as if just after a bird call.

Teehalt wandered up the valley. Stopping to admire a grove of
trees, he saw the dryads, who stood gathered in the shade. They
were bipeds, with a peculiarly human torso and head structure,
though it was clear that they resembled man in only the most su-

THE STAR KING 13

perfcial style. Their skin was silver, brown, green, in sheens and
splotches; the head showed no features other than purplish-green
bruises, which seemed to be eye spots. From the shoulders rose
members like arms, which branched into twigs and then leaves of
dark and pale green, burnished red, bronze-orange, golden ocher.
The dryads saw Teehalt and moved forward with almost human
interest, then paused about fifty feet distant, swaying on supple
limbs, the crests of colored leaves shimmering in the sunlight. They
examined Teehalt and he examined them, in a mutual absence of
fear, and Teehalt thought them the most entrancing creatures of
his experience.

He remembered the days which followed as idyllic, utterly calm.
There was a majesty, a clarity, a transcendental quality to the
planet, which affected him with an almost religious awe, and pres-
ently he came to understand that he must leave shortly or succumb
psychically, give himself completely to the world. The knowledge
afflicted him with an almost unbearable sadness, for he knew that