[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

warriors."
Corfu smiled at some secret thought. "We will conquer without the need of an army. We do not need to
fight. Indeed, we will conquer without recourse to these light weapons."
"How do you stand the heat here?" Ethan asked him. "I wouldn't think any Tran would find this land a
comforting place to live."
"You think this is too warm? I find it pleasing myself."
"So you are diseased in body as well as in mind," Elfa commented.
Corfu's smile faded slightly. "Think you so? Soon you will see."
Milliken Williams stepped forward. "Listen, on behalf of my colleagues I demand to know& "
The much bigger Tran caught him across the face with a powerful backhand, sending the schoolteacher
staggering backward. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. Cheela Hwang was at his side
instantly. Several of theSlanderscree's sailors tensed but Hunnar gestured for them to stay where they
were. Corfu ignored the threatening body language and glared down at Williams. There was no doubt the
merchant was enjoying himself.
"You demand nothing here, little human. You are not my superior. We use your technology, but we are
not afraid of you. You are not gods; only people like us who have lived longer. So you have a little more
knowledge and much more metal. We make use of your knowledge, we make use of your metal and
your machines, but that does not mean we need always make use ofyou ." He turned and stalked off
toward the quarterdeck, indifferent to the hostile stares that followed him, unconcerned as to whether
anyone might chose to put a spear through his spine.
Ethan leaned over the rail and stared at the crowd that had gathered to inspect the icerigger. They were
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
no more impressive up close than they'd been from a distance; a poverty-stricken, tired group of
migrants. They didn't look like conquerors. They looked beaten.
Hunnar joined him. "I know this is a strange place, but something here speaks to me besides the
unavoidable decrepitude. Everything here is different." He nodded toward the crowd. "So many different
costumes. If you listen to them speak you hear not one odd accent but many."
Having concluded his inspection of the quarterdeck, Corfu rejoined them. "You observe accurately,
noble. What you must realize is that until recently Yingyapin was far poorer than this.
"It could have been otherwise had we founded a city elsewhere. There are better harbors waiting to be
developed, richer land to cultivate. Here there is little of that. But this city is founded on something else:
hope. The kind of hope that sustained me in my time of troubles. It was hope that brought me to this
place and hope that has kept me here." He made a sweeping gesture.
"All you see before you fled troubles in their homelands. Some are outcasts, some criminals, others
simply poor. That is why you hear so many dialects, why you see so many different modes of dress.
Yingyapin is a refuge for the dispossessed and displaced, for those who have left poverty and
disappointment behind."
"Looks to me like they've just exchanged their old disappointments and poverty for new."
"Do not forget hope, human."
"What hope?" Hunnar gestured toward the ramshackle buildings. "I see naught but destitution and
aimlessness."
Corfu waxed unexpectedly eloquent. "Sometimes hope is not like a fine hide or a good sword. It is not
always what you can hold in the palm of your hand or feel beneath your feet. For all that, in our case it is
intangible yet still has weight. Our hope is as real and solid " and he chuckled at some private
joke "as the ice of Tran-ky-ky. When it is held up before you to marvel at, you will understand. Then
you will not be so quick to disparage the judgment of the poor wretches you now see before you. A wise
Tran measures his decisions on all the facts."
"The fact is that we have been kidnapped by pirates," Hunnar snapped.
"If you choose to join us all of your goods and property will be returned to you," Corfu replied
unexpectedly. "Even unto this grand vessel. Nor will you be harmed in any way. We seek allies, not
enemies." He raised a paw to forestall Hunnar's instinctive protest.
"I know what you are about to say. It has been said before by those equally as proud and foolish. Wait
and see what is offered before you refuse your cooperation." His tone darkened as he turned to face
Ethan.
"As for you and your kind, you cannot join us because we have already joined you."
Ethan wasn't given a chance to delve into the meaning of this enigmatic comment. A loading ramp slid
from the dock onto the deck of the icerigger. The ramp crew had been forced to improvise, never having
had to deal with a ship the size of theSlanderscree . Ethan noted that the cannon-armed skimmer
continued to float off to one side. Its crew hadn't relaxed their vigilance one iota.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Escaping from this place wasn't going to be easy. And what was all this talk of joining? What was there
here to join that could possibly appeal to the likes of Hunnar Red-beard and Elfa Kurdagh-Vlata? Corfu
told them they'd find out.
The merchant chivaned down the iced ramp, returned soon with a ragtag, poorly disciplined guard to
escort a dozen representatives from the ship into the city.
Yingyapin did not benefit from close inspection. If anything, Hunnar's and the other Trans' opinion of it
fell a notch. It remained a puzzling, unimpressive collection of falling-down structures cobbled hastily
together out of broken, undressed rock. The least building in Wannome would have seemed a
masterpiece of the mason's art compared to any edifice in Yingyapin. Only the squat, ugly pile at the
southern end of town looked like it could survive a strong wind. Corfu called it the palace. ,
Only half a dozen Tran guarded the visitors, but each was armed with a hand beamer. They were slightly
better clad than their urban compatriots and they handled the advanced weapons as though they knew
exactly how to use them. September was certain they hadn't merely acquired a few minutes casual
instruction in their use. They'd been drilled. Any attempt to overpower them and take their weapons
would have been suicidal. Far too soon to give thought to such extremes.
Even the renegade former Resident Commissioner, Jobius Trell, whose plans had depended so much on
his Arsudinian allies, hadn't trusted his native friends with advanced weapons. Clearly someone
hereabouts felt differently.
A pair of tall Tran hefting traditional weapons flanked the nondescript entrance to the palace. The lack of
a heavy guard was itself instructive. They were marched through the dingy, badly lit structure until they
emerged into a larger chamber only slightly better illuminated than the hallway they'd employed to reach
it. The decor was unimpressive and reflective of the general poverty of the community with one notable
exception.
Suspended from the ceiling two thirds of the way down the room was a meter-wide, self-powered
lighting fixture. It might have been transposed straight from a modest auditorium on a far-distant Earth. Its
presence in that crumbling i
bastion of barbarian penury was as unexpected as a conservationist's triody in a hunter's igloo.
Seated on a throne hammered together out of scrap sheet metal was a twisted little Iran whom Ethan
first took for a juvenile but who on closer inspection was revealed to be only an extremely short adult.
"All bow," Corfu grandly declared, "in the presence of Massul fel-Stuovic, first emperor of all
Tran-ky-ky!"
IX
Ethan didn't know whether their guards would have shot Hunnar, Elfa, or any of the other Tran in the
visiting party for laughing, but all of them somehow managed to restrain their instinctive reaction to this
astonishing pronouncement. Even the acerbic and combative Seesfar restricted herself to a single sharp
bark of amusement. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]