"Colin Wilson - Spiderworld 05 - The Magician" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilson Colin)

"The Lord Dravig is here."
"Ask him to come in." He smiled at her, wishing that his servants were not so
afraid of him. But they had all been trained to fear and respect those who were above
them. Their fear of the spiders was like that of a slave for some ruthless tyrant. So they
found it awe-inspiring that Niall should speak on equal terms with the tyrants. The point
was reinforced when Dravig entered the room, and Nephtys prostrated herself in front of
the spider at the same time that Dravig made a ritual gesture of obeisance before Niall.
Dravig was probably the oldest spider in the land, with the exception of the
ancient female spider who presided over the ruling council of the city. He stood more
than seven feet tall, but was thin and gaunt, and the hairs on his body were turning gray.
Insofar as it was possible for a spider to understand a human being, and for a human
being to understand a spider, these two understood one another.
Niall moved away from the table and sat on a cushion on the dais. It would have
been impolite to continue his breakfast. For some reason, the spiders were profoundly
disturbed by the sight of human beings eating or drinking -- perhaps in the same way that
a human being would be disturbed at the sight of a spider eating a fly or a rat.
He wasted no time on preliminaries. "Do you know that Skorbo is dead?"
"Yes."
"Have you any idea who did it?"
"No."
During this dialogue, Niall spoke aloud while Dravig communicated
telepathically. Niall was also communicating telepathically -- spiders were unable to
understand human language -- but he found it easier to speak his words aloud; it seemed
to give his thought an added precision.
"Is the Spider Lord very angry?" Although the ruler was a female, she was known
to human beings as the Spider Lord.
"Of course. But she will abide by the agreement." Dravig understood the question
that Niall had in mind -- this was the advantage of speaking telepathically. While human
beings had been slaves, the death of a single spider had been punished with appalling
ferocity -- sometimes with the torture and execution of a hundred humans. When the
slaves became free, the Spider Lord had agreed that there should be no more killing.
Niall said: "Nevertheless, if the murderers can be found, they must be punished."
"That is your decision. We shall abide by the agreement."
There was a silence between them, but it was the silence of understanding.
Intelligence had bridged the gap between their two species, so that it was as if both were
human or both were spiders.
Dravig said: "But I cannot understand how human beings could kill a spider."
Niall stood up. "Come with me and I will show you."
On the spot where the injured spider had collapsed, a platoon of slaves was
shoveling the snow into handcarts and washing away the blood with buckets of warm
water. It would have been regarded as a kind of sacrilege to leave the spider's blood
staining the ground. As Niall and Dravig went past, the overseer cracked his whip and
made the slaves stand to attention. Niall averted his gaze; the blank eyes and drooling
mouths of the slaves always made him feel uncomfortable.
The door stood half open, exactly as Niall had left it. As they entered the rubble-
strewn hallway, the spider paused and his chelicerae unfolded; Niall was aware that
something had galvanized him into sudden alertness. But the spider said nothing. After a
moment, he followed Niall down the passageway and out into the garden.
Niall pointed at the truncated palm tree. "That was what killed Skorbo."
Dravig failed to understand. Spiders were completely lacking in mechanical