"Jeff VanderMeer - A Heart For Lucretia" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vandermeer Jeff)

 sections from them. A chair had been provided and the silent man
gestured
to it before locking the doors behind him. Gerard sat down and Flesh
Dog
flopped to rest at his feet.
"That man smelled of the pits," Flesh Dog muttered. "Everything smells
of
the pits."
A whirring sound made Gerard sit straighter in his seat and a brace of
meerkats appeared from behind a partition. One was tall and white, the
other short and yellow. Flesh Dog growled, but they ignored the beast.
"My name is --" said Whitey, pronouncing a series of high-pitched
trills.
"And I am --" said Yellow. "Together, we are the Duelists of Trade. I
assume that is why you are here?"
Gerard nodded eagerly.
"First," said Whitey, "you must be thirsty."
He clapped his paws together and the lifeless man re-entered, holding a
glass of clear liquid. He offered it to Gerard, who took it with nodded
thanks.
"Do not drink!" Flesh Dog hissed. "Do not drink!"
"Hush," Gerard said. "Hush."
The liquid smelled of berries and the first tentative sip rewarded him
with a tangy, smooth taste. He took one more sip, for politeness' sake,
and then heeded Flesh Dog's warning and set the glass by his chair.
"And now," said Yellow, "what precisely do you wish to trade for?"
"A heart," replied Gerard. "A human heart." He reached for his ruck
sack.
Whitey looked at Yellow, made a huffing sound. They both had fangs
which
poked out from the muzzle. Red dye designs had been carved into the
whiteness, designs like scythes and slender knives in their sharpness.
The
eyes were slightly slanted and they devoured Gerard with a kind of
hunger.

"What do you have to trade?" asked Yellow.
The hairs on Gerard's neck rose. The question had been asked with quiet
authority and now, and only now, did he think that perhaps these
meerkat
were not as simple as the ones he had caught in the desert. That they
might be dangerous in their own way. But the drink had created a sharp
warmth in his stomach and it made him careless. Besides, Lucretia still
needed a heart. He reached into the sack.
"I have gems," he said, pulling out a huge orange stone he had found at
an
oasis.
Whitey took the stone from Gerard's hand. He examined it for a moment,
held it up to the light. Then he dashed it to the floor. It shattered.
Flesh Dog growled.