"Jack Williamson - Brother to Demons, Brother to Gods" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williamson Jack)

with covert satisfaction. "You'll find no Creators among them."
"Yet they look more unfortunate than harmful. I see no cause for their destruction."
"But they aren't to be destroyed," the halfgod protested. "They are simply to be resettled. On a
virgin world in the Ninth Universe."
"Why?" Her violet eyes probed him. "Is Belthar afraid of heretics?"
"If my Lord Belthar dreads anything, I'm not aware of it. The problem is simply living space.
The premen never accepted civilization. Out of place in our sacred culture, they're dwindling
away. Only a generation ago the survivors from the other continents were gathered here. Now
they're too few to make efficient use of the land they occupy."
"This wasteland? Who needs it?"
"The Lord Belthar has graciously approved an engineering project of my own." He beamed
with self-approval. "A dam across the lower canyon. Desalting plants and tunnels to fill a wide
new lake with Pacific water. The entire reservation will be flooded."
"Your own project?" She looked away at the tall red buttes and the vast bare flats, then keenly
back at him.
"The actual plans were drawn by truman engineers, but I'll have a palace on the lake. AndтАФ"
"I see." Her cool voice cut him off. "What about this Multiman?"
"Pure myth." He chuckled. "Preman logic is the joke of the planet. Though the Lord Belthar
has been their ruler for a thousand years, they still cling to irrational beliefs in their old imaginary
gods. Buddha, Brahma, AllahтАФthe list is endless. The Multiman heresy may well be a distorted
folk recollection of the Fourth Creation." He chuckled again. "The Lord Belthar took care of
that."
"Not if you ask Davey Dunahoo." With a thoughtful glance at the straggle of huts, she
levitated into her chair. "Perhaps Belthar is wise to get the premen out of his universe."

Zhondra Zhey went on to visit the Museum of Terran Evolution. She paid a formal call at
Belthar's Asian Temple, but felt no regret when the god of Earth was not in residence. Her
starship loaded with a precious cargo of gum from the seedpods of a mutant poppy that flourished
on the Terran highlands, she took it on to dominions of the Thearchy in another universe, guiding
it through contact planes that no mortal pilot could sense or penetrate.
She had left instructions, however, with the Redrock agent, San Six. He spoke to El Yaqui,
who sent a preman magistrate to look for Davey Dunahoo and Buglet. They were found in the
brush beyond the town dump, solemnly building a mud-mortared rock pyramid above the ashes
of their dog. Silent and afraid, they were escorted to the agency.
"I don't bite." The genial agent came to meet them at the door of a huge room hung with bits
of ancient preman art. "In fact, I've got good news for you." He made them sit in hard chairs too
big for them. "First, however, I must ask you something." He leaned intently toward them across
the bare, enormous desk. "Who has spoken to you about the Multiman?"
Though he was smiling cheerily, his brown eyes seemed very keen.
"Everybody." Davey squirmed on the hard chair and looked at Buglet. "But most people don't
believe."
"Who does believe?"
"My mother did." Davey stared up at a tall case full of rusty preman weapons. The agent sat
and watched him, till at last he went on: "She was born on the old Asian reservation. She was
beautiful. A halfgod saw her and took her away to be a bride of Belthar. She was never chosen,
but the halfgod took her for himself. When he didn't want her anymore, he sent her here. She
worked for La China, and she used to say I had many fathers. She hated all the gods and the
whole Thearchy. I guess that's why she wanted to believe in the Multiman."
"What exactly did she say about him?"
Davey looked at Buglet till she nodded.