The Sinners of Erspia
- Автор: Бейли Баррингтон Дж.
- Год: 2011
- Язык: португальский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «The Sinners of Erspia». Краткое содержание книги:
Both tilted their faces to the sky, searching for the tell-tale glints that would precede a gnome attack. So far, though, there was nothing to see. The gnome-world overhead glared at them balefully, but passively.
Perhaps the gnomes were trying something new.
“Go into the forest with the other women, Gauzewing,” Flit ordered. “Wait until it's safe."
“Oh, let me come and see what happens,” she implored. “I'll fly away quickly if there's fighting, I promise."
Flit knew he could not change her mind once she had come to a decision. “Stay to the rear, then,” he said.
Then he was off, launching himself into the air and flying swiftly towards the armoury, past numerous tree-villages one would scarcely see unless one already knew they were there. He dipped under the forest cover until he came to the local military training camp.
The camp was unusual, for fairy habitations, in being on the ground. Gauzewing alighted on an overhead tree branch on the edge of the clearing, so slender it almost bent under her weight. Flit meanwhile fluttered to the entrance of the large storage hut.
In the glade there was an air of excitement. Other fairy men were descending on the clearing, consternation on their faces. A sergeant thrust a bow and quiver of arrows at Flit.
“Here, put these on. Did you see the strange object? It's landed somewhere by the Arn stream."
“Yes, I saw it. Are you sure it's from up above?"
“Where else would it be from? We don't make anything like that. Probably packed with a hundred gnomes. Let's make short work of them."
He ushered Flit out of the camp, together with everyone else who had been issued arms, to make way for the others who were arriving.
Flit found himself with the first troop to set out. They flew low over the tree cover. Glancing back, Flit spotted Gauzewing following at a distance, gliding from hiding place to hiding place in the treetops.
The clearing through which the Arn stream flowed came into view. And there was the huge, frightening gnome thing, bigger than any tree house, bigger even than the great lodges which spread over three trees or more for holding festive gatherings. Despite all the brave talk, the fairies did not launch themselves into an immediate attack. They flew round the edge of the clearing while the marshals discussed what to do.
Down below were two figures, who had presumably emerged from the giant round thing. One was jumping up and down, the other was simply gazing around as if in wonderment. The fairies had expected gangs of ferocious gnomes to come rushing out, killing everyone in sight, and the turn of events puzzled them.
Eventually the air marshal selected Flit and another trooper, Flutter, to take a closer look. Flit saw Gauzewing put her hands to her face in fright as she realized what was afoot, but he steeled himself to risk his life. He and Flutter swooped down, straight for the strangers.
The figure which had been jumping about stopped on noticing the fairies and stood staring at the surrounding troop with no apparent sign of alarm. Neither figure carried anything which looked like a weapon, which Flit also thought unusual. He and his comrade swooped so low towards the two that they could clearly see the expressions on their faces. Then their shimmering wings carried them up again to make their report.
“Well,” barked the air marshal, standing on a winding bough, “are they gnomes?"
“Yes,” said Flit.
“No,” said Flutter at the same time.
The air marshal looked from one to the other.
“They must be gnomes,” Flit insisted. “They don't have wings."
“They don't have wings,” Flutter agreed, “but they are not gnomes. They look more like us.” He glanced sidelong at Flit. “You can see they're not gnomes."
“What else can they be if they don't have wings?” Flit argued in puzzlement.
Once more the air marshal peered down into the clearing.
Suddenly Gauzewing was by their side. “I think one of them's a girl!” she proclaimed.
Before they could stop her she had spread her wings and was lunging fearlessly in a steep glide into the clearing. Pulling herself up sharp, she dropped her feet on the grass before the two visiting strangers.
Above her towered the metal wall of the strange flying building. She glanced at it only briefly, before looking directly into the faces first of the woman, then the man.
“Hello,” she said.
Laedo was astounded.
They weren't birds, or bats, or flying reptiles.
They were people.
On first seeing them circling the clearing, Laedo had assumed them to be wearing nullgrav packs. He hadn't quite believed his eyes on sighting the shimmer of dragonfly-type wings. Only when two of their number descended into the clearing for a closer look, hurriedly returning to their perches, had he realized the truth.
A fair-sized number of the winged humans were looking down on them, and they all carried primitive weapons—spears, bows and arrows—causing Laedo's hand to go instinctively to the gun at his waist.
“Let's get back inside the station, Histrina,” he said. He didn't want to be alarmist, but a well-aimed arrow could kill as surely as a bullet or e-beam.
But the slim figure who came gliding down was empty handed, and her unthreatening demeanour checked his caution. With the lightness of a butterfly she set herself deftly on the grass, and smiled at them.
“Hello,” she said, in a cool, friendly voice.
“Hello,” Laedo answered.
“Why, she's a fairy!” Histrina exclaimed. “Only bigger."
“Yes, I'm a fairy,” answered the flying girl innocently. “But what are you?"
They stared at her. She was small and slim, hardly bigger than a child of ten or eleven. A loose, silky garment partly concealed her body, caught at the waist by a braided cord. Her golden hair fell loosely to her shoulders. Her features were delicate.
Her gauzy iridescent wings were attached somewhere near her shoulder blades. There were only two of them—Laedo would have expected four, like a dragonfly's—and they were oval in shape. When not in use they came together behind her like the wings of a butterfly, though they did not touch.
“I am Gauzewing,” the self-confessed fairy said.
Laedo smiled at the name. “I am Laedo. And this is Histrina."
Gauzewing pointed to the sky. “You are not from... ?"
Laedo glanced at the overhead landscape. “No, we are not from there. We are from a different world altogether."
She frowned, having difficulty with the concept. Then she indicated the fairy militia in the treetops.
“My friends think you are our enemies the gnomes."
She hesitated, then spoke again. “What happened to your wings?"
Now more of the strange inhabitants of this land were quitting the treetops and alighting beside Gauzewing, making Laedo uneasy. He noted that Histrina showed no fear. She was gleefully eyeing the winged men, though her glance went periodically back to Gauzewing.
“You see, they aren't gnomes,” Gauzewing announced.
The first of the newcomers to land had placed a proprietorial hand on Gauzewing's arm. He made a perfect match for her, with his poetic features and a bow slung over his shoulder.
“Perhaps the gnomes have cut off their wings,” he suggested.
“They do that, sometimes."
Watching the troop flutter down from the trees, one mystery was solved for Laedo. The fairies were the reason why Erspia-3's gravity was so low. It was to enable them to fly. Their moderately sized membrane wings would have been useless for carrying normal human body weight. Even then, the fairies were all small and light-boned. The tallest among them did not exceed five feet in height.
Klystar—if there was a Klystar—had designed the planetoid with the human fairies in mind. At the same time, he must have had the ability to redesign the human stock at his disposal genetically. Laedo did not see how the fairies’ wings could have evolved naturally.
Glancing up, he saw yet more armed fairies arriving. Evidently the appearance of the station in this idyllic setting was cause for great alarm.