[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

"Can't it wait until the morning?"
Page 76
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Well, it could. But there's some things here I think you ought to know. Hold
on a moment Here they are. I found them in a really crusty old book called
Forbidden Religions of the Nile. There's a whole chapter on the Ubasti,
although someone's torn the illustrations out. The librarian reckons they were
saucy or some:-thing."
Gene coughed. "Does it say anything new? Anything we don't know already?"
"Well, there's a bit here that really worried me," said Maggie. "It goes on
about Tell Besta, and the worship of the lion-god Bast, and some of the
rituals, Which were positively sickening, but there!? this bit that says
something about their marriages."
"Can you read it?"
"Sure. It says: 'According to the strict command of 177
the Lion-God Bast, the women of the cult were charged with protecting the
species of Ubasti for ever and ever. They were to do this by mating
alternately by generations with lions and with humans. In other words, if a
Ubasti woman mated with a lion, her daughter would be obliged to mate with a
man, and so forth, alternately, thus keeping the strength of this curious
mixed race strong, both lion and human."
Gene listened. "That doesn't make sense," he said.
"Why not?"
"Well, Lorie's mother married Jean Semple, who was a human being, and Lorie's
married me, and I'm a human being, too."
"You haven't slept with her yet, though, have you? She's not your mate."
"Well, no, but as soon as she's recovered from tho plastic surgery  "
"Wait, Gene. Just listen to what it says here. After all this business about
carrying on the line by alternately mating with lions and humans, it says
this: 'The Ubasti ritual of mating is complex and always carried out strictly
according to the divine instructions laid down by the Great Lion-God Bast. If
a woman is to mate with a man, then she must offer the man money and jewels,
and sacrifice a lion in his name. But if a woman is to mate with a lion, then
she must offer to the lion, as his sacrifice, a man."
"Maggie  " interrupted Gene.
"Wait, there's more. Listen to this. 'After a woman has mated with a man, she
must preserve the secrecy of her descent and of what has happened by silencing
him forever. This is usually done by the lion-woman biting off his tongue.'"
Gene was silent. He could hear Maggie breathing on the other end of the phone.
He scratched his forehead
178
carefully; but inside his mind his thoughts were plummeting down a thousand
miles of empty uncertainty.
"Are you sure about this?" he asked hoarsely.
"It's in the book. And the book is cross-quoted in, several other books that
are very respectable and distinguished."
He let out a long breath. "Do you think it's true?" he asked her. "Or do you
think that it's just a legend?"
"I don't know, Gene. I'm sorry. I wish I did. I simply thought you ought to
know."
"Maggie," he said quietly, "we went to the circus today."
"I thought you hated circuses."
"I do, but Lorie insisted. After it was aH over, she took me around to see the
lions."
"And?"
He couldn't say it. He couldn't teH even Maggie-What was on his mind. But if,
as the legend said, it was Lorie's turn to mate with a lion, then the lion was
there, waiting for her. And if the words of the book were really true, then
she hadn't married Gene for love, or for anything to do with affection or
trust or respect. She had deliberately enticed him, wooed him, and married
him, so that she could offer him as bait to her real intended mate. Perhaps
that was what Mathieu had really meant by "Smith's gazelle." Gene Keiller was
Lorie Semple's wedding gift to the beast that was going to father her
Page 77
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
children.
He laid the phone down numbly in his lap. So much of it fitted together, so
logically, that he felt as if the world had been kicked away from under his
feet. Maybe Lorie had genuinely loved him at the beginning, and that was why
she had tried to discourage him so much. She had known what would happen if
they fell in love and married. She had known, even more surely
179
then she knew that she loved him, that she would have to surrender him up as a
sacrifice.
In his own blind persistence, he had actually fought his way into the trap. As
soon as Mrs. Semple had seen him, neither he nor Lorie had stood a chance of
not getting married. She had cajoled and encouraged Gene to go out with Lorie,
and as Lorie's mother and elder in the religion of the Lion-God Bast, she had
presumably found it easy to command Lorie to go along with the inevitable
ritual.
Between them, Lorie and her mother had done everything they could to keep him
at the Semple mansion, and to prepare him for the role he was finally going to
have to play. Maybe Lorie's hunt for blood on the night after their wedding
had been a mistake, but he could see now how smoothly Mrs. Semple had lulled
hini into believing that it was all an unfortunate lapse, and that Lorie would
soon "get better."
She would never "get better." She was a daughter of the Ubasti, and like all
the daughters of the Ubasti, she was committed to the sacred and ancient
mission of preserving the race of the Lion-God Bast. It would be easier to try
to "rehabilitate" a dedicated Moslem, or a devout Catholic.
"Gene?" said Maggie. "Gene, are you there?"
"Yes, Maggie. I'm here."
"Gene, are you thinkmg what I've been thinking? I mean, I didn't like to say
it, but  "
He coughed. "I don't know, Maggie. It just seems to fit, that's all. It just
seems to answer all the questions."
"If it's true, Gene, you ought to get out of there. I mean, quick."
"And what if it isn't?"
"Gene, if they're going to offer you up to some lion, then I don't think you
really have the time to quibble."
180
"But what if it tsrft frue? What if it's some hoary old legend? If I walk out
of here now, I'm going to lose Lorie for good. Things are strained enough as
it is."
Maggie was silent for a moment. "Why don't you go find Mathieu, and ask him?"
"Mathieu?"
"You remember what he told you about the sons of Bast. Well, doesn't it seem
logical that-that's what the sons of Bast are? They're lions, Gene. Actual
lions."
"But why should  "
He stopped himself. He frowned. "Maggie," he said, "read that bit again. That
bit about preserving the secrecy of the lion-people."
Maggie shuffled papers, and then read: "'After a woman has mated with a man,
she must preserve the secrecy of her descent and of what has happened by
silencing him for ever. This is usually done by the ion-woman biting off his
tongue.'"
Gene listened, and then nodded. "It makes sense, doesn't it?" he said quietly.
"What did you say?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

  • zanotowane.pl
  • doc.pisz.pl
  • pdf.pisz.pl
  • thierry.pev.pl

    •