Title: The Dying Earth
Author(s): Jack Vance
Publisher(s): Pocket Books
Pages: 81
Year: 1950
Format: PDF
Language: English
**************************************************************************************
Download
The random article:
When she woke the cottage was empty, and the maroon sunlight slanted in
from an opposite window. She stretched her arms, tucked her hands behind her
head, and lay thinking. This man of the black hood, who was he? Was he evil?
Everything else of Earth had been past thought. Still, he had done nothing to
harm her . . . She spied her garments upon the floor. She rose from the couch
and dressed herself. She went to the door and pushed it open. Before her
stretched the moor, fading far off beyond the under-slant of the horizon. To
her left jutted a break of rocky crags, black shadow and lurid red stones. To
the right extended the black margin of the forest.
Was this beautiful? T$prime;sais pondered. Her warped brain saw bleakness in the
line of the moor, cutting harshness in the crags, and in the forest—terror.
Was this beauty? At a loss, she twisted her head, squinted. She heard
footsteps, jerked about, wide-eyed, expecting anything. It was he of the black
hood, and T$prime;sais leaned back against the door-jamb.
She watched him approach, tall and strong, slow of step. Why did he wear
the hood? Was he ashamed of his face? She could understand something of this,
for she herself found the human face repellent—an object of watery eye, wet
unpleasant apertures, spongy outgrowths.
He halted before her. «Are you hungry?»
T$prime;sais considered. «Yes.»
«Then we will eat.»
He entered the cottage, stirred up the fire, and spitted meat. T$prime;sais
stood uncertainly in the background. She had always served herself. She felt
an uneasiness: cooperation was an idea she had not yet encountered.
Presently the man arose, and they sat to eat at his table.
«Tell me of yourself,» he said after a few moments. So T$prime;sais, who had
never learned to be other than artless, told him her story, thus;
«I am T$prime;sais. I came to Earth from Embelyon, where the wizard Pandelume
created me.»
«Embelyon? Where is Embelyon? And who is Pandelume?»
«Where is Embelyon?» she repeated in puzzlement. «I don$prime;t know. It is in a
place that is not Earth. It is not very large, and lights of many colors come
from the sky. Pandelume lives in Embelyon. He is the greatest wizard alive—so
he tells me.»
«Ah,» the man said. «Perhaps I see …»
«Pandelume created me,» continued T$prime;sais, «but there was a flaw in the
pattern.» And T$prime;sais stared into the fire. «I see the world as a dismal place
of horror; all sounds to me are harsh, all living creatures vile, in varying
degrees—things of sluggish movement and inward filth. During the first of my
life I thought only to trample, crush, destroy. I knew nothing but hate. Then
I met my sister T$prime;sain, who is as I without the flaw. She told me of love and
beauty and happiness—and I came to Earth seeking these.»
The grave blue eyes studied her.
«Have you found them?»
«So far,» said T$prime;sais in a faraway voice, «I have found only such evil as
I never even encountered in my nightmares.» Slowly she told him her
adventures.
«Poor creature,» he said and fell to studying her once again.
«I think I shall kill myself,» said T$prime;sais, in the same distant voice,
«for what I want is infinitely lost.» And the man, watching, saw how the red
afternoon sun coppered her skin, noted the loose, black hair, the long
thoughtful eyes. He shuddered at the thought of this creature being lost into
the dust of Earth$prime;s forgotten trillions.
- Рубрика: Фантастика
- Перейти на Главную
- Похожие книги:
- Королевская кровь — Эллен Шрайбер
- Клуб бессмертных — Эллен Шрайбер
- Танец смерти — Эллен Шрайбер
- Вампирвилль — Эллен Шрайбер
- Темный рыцарь — Эллен Шрайбер
- Поцелуй вампира. Начало — Эллен Шрайбер
- Карантин — Малицкий Сергей
- Камешек в жерновах — Малицкий Сергей
- Вакансия — Малицкий Сергей
- Цена крови — Таня Хафф
- След крови — Таня Хафф
- Проклятие крови — Таня Хафф
- Дым и тени — Таня Хафф
- Дым и пепел — Таня Хафф
- Дым и зеркала — Таня Хафф
- Долг Крови — Таня Хафф
- Договор крови — Таня Хафф
- Холодная ночь — Клаудия Грэй
- Звездная ночь — Клаудия Грэй
- Вечная ночь — Клаудия Грэй