"Robert F. Young - L'Arc de Jeanne" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Robert F)

robes that made them look like bears and when O'Riordan said "Dance!" the bears danced; but
according to the rules agreed upon at the Deimos Convention, Jeanne Marie could not be tried as a war
criminal, and while O'Riordan would definitely try her for something, her sentence should be slight. And
when Ciel Bleu was conqueredтАФas it would be within a monthтАФshe would be turned over to an
appropriate department of the new government, which would re-educate her, rehabilitate her, and find a
suitable place for her in the new society.
That afternoon, he radioed the Ambassadress, gave the coordinates of the cave, and arranged to be
picked up two hours before the next dawn belt passed over Le Bois Feerique. He and Jeanne Marie
spent the day rambling through the woods, alternately riding St. Hermann O'Shaughnessy or walking
along side by side, with St. Hermann bringing up the rear. She had packed a picnic lunch, and they ate in
a woodland glen several kilometers from the cave. Curious from the beginning as to how and where she
obtained her food supply, D'Arcy finally got around to asking her point-blank. He expected her to smile
and say it was a secret, and that was precisely what she did.
If it hadn't been for two considerations, he would have sworn that she was capable of
psycho-telluricism. But, like O'Riordan, he believed psycho-telluricism to be nothing more than a my th
that the Psycho-Phenomenalist hierarchy had invented in order to frighten the enemies of the Church; and
even if he had believed it to be something more than a myth, he still wouldn't have deemed Jeanne Marie
capable of it, because its first prerequisite was a genius-level IQ and its second, the availability of a
"parasynthetic mind" of similar IQ level with which "ideal rapprochement" could be both attained and
maintained.
Darkness was beginning to gather when they got back to the cave. After putting St. Hermann
O'Shaughnessy to bed, they sat down on the hillside and watched the stars come out. The "moon" rose
above the horizon right on schedule. On its next pass, a moonbeam would come sliding down the dark
and awesome slope of space and take D'Arcy and Jeanne Marie away.
D'Arcy tried not to think about it, only to discover that he had no volition in the matter. That night,
before going to bed, he set his mental alarm-clock for two hours after midnight. Arising, he dressed in
darkness; then he crept into the bedroom where Jeanne Marie lay lost in sleep in the pale radiance of the
nightlight that hung above her bed. Deftly, he lifted the bow and the quiver of arrows from the bedpost.
As he did so, she stirred and turned on her side, facing in his direction. He stood there tensely, not daring
to move, expecting her to open her eyes at any moment. But her eyes remained closed, and presently she
sighed softly, as though still deep in sleep. Relieved, he tiptoed from the room, through the living room,
and out into the night.
He buried the bow and arrows in the hollow where the two skeletons lay, reasonably certain that no
one ever came there. By the time he got back to the cave, the Ambassadress was rising above the
horizon again. He sat down in front of the vine-curtain to await the arrival of the moonbeam.
He saw it presently. It was like a falling star. Down, down, it fell, drifting toward Le Bois Feerique
now; now homing in on the co-ordinates he had supplied. At length the little craft settled down on the
flower-pied terrace that bordered the brook.
The transparent nacelle opened and the pilot climbed out. Spotting D'Arcy, he came over and asked
him if he needed any help. "No," D'Arcy said, and got up and went into St. Hermann O'Shaughnessy's
stable and untied him. "Good bye, old buddy," he said, patting the animal on the croup. "Jeanne Marie
and I are going away, and I'm afraid we won't be back."
Leaving the stable, he entered the cave-house. As he stepped into the bedroom, he thought he heard
a muffled sob, but he must have been mistaken because Jeanne Marie appeared to be fast asleep. He
shook her gently by the shoulder, marveling at the cool smoothness of her skin. "Get up and get dressed,
Jeanne Marie," he said when she opened her eyes.
"Is something wrong, Raymond?" she asked. And then, "Where is my bow? Where are my arrows?"
"You mustn't ask questions, Jeanne Marie. You must trust me and do as I say. You do trust me,
don't you?"
Her face was inscrutable in the dim radiance of the night-light. "Yes, Raymond, I trust you