[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
friend, I am not a leronis; my guardian does not like the word and its
connotations of sorcery. I have been trained in a skill which anyone can learn
who is a good telepath, just as anyone who is strong and fit enough can learn
hawking or riding. Our world has accepted foolish ideas like sorcery for all
too many years. Call me, if you like, a matrix technician. My sisters and I have
learned this skill, far better than most; but there is no need to look at me with
reverence because I have learned well!
She went on looking at him with a girlish, ingenuous smile, then suddenly
shivered, flushed and dropped her eyes. When she spoke again it was to
Melitta, almost pointedly ignoring Storn.
He thought with a certain grimness, Training or not, she is still conventional
in the old ways and I owe my life to that. If she were old enough to look at it
that way a trained telepath of her caliber need only look at me to know what
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
I have done. Only the convention that girls of her age may not initiate any
contact with men other than their blood kin, has saved me so far.
The thought was strangely poignant that this young girl of his mountain
people, of his own kind and caste, and trained in all those things which had
been the major solace of his life, was so guarded against him and that he
dared not reach out to her, mind or body. He felt as if he could have wept. He
set his lips hard and followed the girls. He did not speak again.
Aldaran received them, not in a formal audience chamber but in a small,
friendly room low in the castle. He embraced Storn, calling him cousin,
kissed Melitta on the forehead with a kinsman s privilege, offered them wine
and sweets, and made them sit beside him; then he asked what had brought
them there.
It is far too long since any of your kinsmen have visited us at Aldaran; you
live as isolated at High Windward as eagles in their aerie. It has come to mind
in the last year or so that I have neglected kinship s dues and that I should
ride to Storn, there is much astir in the mountains these days, and no one of
our people should hold himself aloof too far; our world s future depends on
it. But more of that later, if you are interested. Tell me what brings you to
Aldaran, kinsman? How can I help you?
He listened to their story gravely, with a gradually darkening and distressful
face. When they had finished, he spoke with deep regret.
I am ashamed, he said, that I offered you no help before this, to prevent
such a thing. For now it has happened, I am powerless to help you. I have kept
no fighting men here for more than thirty years, Storn; I have kept peace here
and tried to prevent feuds and raids rather than repelling them. We mountain
people have been torn by feuds and little wars far too long; we have let
ourselves go back to barbarian days.
I, too, had no fighting men and wanted peace, Storn said bitterly, and all I
gained from it was Brynat s men at my outworks.
I have Terran guards here and they are armed with off-world weapons,
Aldaran said. Would-be invaders knew enough, after a time or two, to let us
alone.
With weapons? Force weapons? But what of the Compact? Melitta gasped
in genuine horror. The law which banned, on this world, any weapon beyond
the arm s reach of the wielder, was even more reverenced than the taboo
against meddling with the mind. Aldaran said quietly, That law has delivered
us to petty wars, feuds, murders and assassins. We need new laws, not stupid
reverence for old ones. I have broken the Darkovan code and as a result, the
Hasturs and the Comyn hold my family in horror; but we are at peace here
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
and we have no hooligans at our doors, waiting for an old man to weaken so
that he can be challenged and set down as if the stronger swordsman were the
better man. The law of brute force means only the rule of the brute.
And other worlds, I believe, Melitta said, have found that unrestricted
changes in weapons leads to an endless race for better and better weapons in
a chase to disaster which can destroy not only men, but worlds.
That may even be true, Aldaran said, and yet look what has happened to
Darkover, in the hands of the Terrans? What have we done? We refused their
technology, their weapons, we insisted on refusing real contact with them.
Since the Years of Chaos, when we lost all of our own technologies except for
the few in the hands of the Comyn, we ve slipped back further and further
into barbarism. In the lowlands, the Seven Domains keep their old rule as if
no ships had ever put forth into space. And here in the mountains we allow
ourselves to be harassed by bandits because we are afraid to fight them.
Someone must step beyond this deadlock, and I have tried to do so. I have
made a compact with the Terrans; they will teach us their ways and defenses
and I will teach them ours. And as a result of a generation of peace and
freedom from casual bandits and learning to think as the Terrans think that
everything which happens can and must be explained and measured I have
even rediscovered many of our old Darkovan ways; you need not think we are
totally committed to becoming part of Terra. For instance, I have learned how
to train telepaths for matrix work without the old superstitious rituals; none
of the Comyn will even try that. And as a result but enough of that. I can see
that you are not in any state to think about abstract ideas of progress, science
and culture as yet.
But what all this fine-sounding talks means, said Storn bitterly, is that my
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]