"Gene Wolfe - Endangered Species" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolfe Gene)

"Have ye never wondered why we're so much alike the world
over? Or thought that we don't always know just which
shape's the best for a place, so the naiads and the dryads
might as well be the ladies o' the Deeny Shee? Do ye know
what the folk o' the Barb'ry Coast call the hell that's under
their sea?"

Tim shook his head.

"Why, 'tis Domdaniel. I wonder why that is, now. Tim, ye
say ye want this girl."
"That's right."

"An' ye say there'll be trouble and plenty for us if ye don't
have her. But let me tell ye now that if ye don't get her, wi'
our blessin' to boot, ye'll drown.-Hold your tongue, can't
ye, for 'tis worse than that.-If ye don't get her wi' our bles-
sin', 'twill be seen that ye weri Irownin' now. Do ye take me
meaning?"

"I think so. Close enough.'

"Ah, that's good, that is. Now here's me offer. Do ye re-
member how things stood before we took her?"

"Of course."

"They'll stand so again, if ye but do what I tell ye. 'Tis
yerself that will remember, Tim Neal, but she'll remember
nothin'. An' the truth of it is, there'll be nothin' to remember,
for it'll all be gone, every stick of it. This policeman ye spoke
wi', for instance. Ye've me word that ye will not have done
it."

"What do I have to do?" Tim asked.

"Service. Serve us. Do whatever we ask of ye. We'd sooner
have a broth of a girl like yer Lissy than a great hulk of a
lad like yerself, but then too, we'd sooner be havin' one that's
willin', for the unwillin' girls are everywhere-I don't doubt
but ye've seen it yerself. A hundred years, that's all we ask
of ye. 'Tis short enough, like Doyle's wife. Will ye do it?"

"And everything will be the same, at the end, as it was
before you took Lissy?"

"Not everything I didn't say that. Ye'll remember, don't ye
remember me savin' so? But for her and all the country
round, why 'twill be the same."