Watership Down - Adams Richard George - Страница 65
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" 'I have, my lord, said El-ahrairah. 'I am glad that you allow me to stay.
" 'Perhaps we will not play bob-stones tonight, said the Black Rabbit. 'You must understand, El-ahrairah, that I have no wish to make you suffer. I am not one of the Thousand. I repeat, you may stay or leave as you please. But if you are going to remain, perhaps you would care to hear a story; and to tell one yourself, if you like.
" 'Certainly, my lord, said El-ahrairah. 'And if I can tell a story as good as yours, perhaps you will accept my life and grant the safety of my people.
" 'I will, said the Black Rabbit. 'But if not, El-ahrairah, you will have to forfeit your ears. He waited to see whether El-ahrairah would refuse the wager but he did not.
"Then the Black Rabbit told such a tale of fear and darkness as froze the hearts of Rabscuttle and El-ahrairah where they crouched on the rock, for they knew that every word was true. Their wits turned. They seemed to be plunged in icy clouds that numbed their senses; and the Black Rabbit's story crept into their hearts like a worm into a nut, leaving them shriveled and empty. When at last that terrible story was ended, El-ahrairah tried to speak. But he could not collect his thoughts and he stammered and ran about the floor, like a mouse when the hawk glides low. The Black Rabbit waited silently, with no sign of impatience. At last it was clear that there would be no story from El-ahrairah, and the Owsla took him and put him into a deep sleep: and when he woke, his ears were gone and only Rabscuttle was beside him in the stone burrow, crying like a kitten.
" 'Oh, master, said Rabscuttle, 'what good can this suffering bring? For the sake of Lord Frith and the green grass, let me take you home.
" 'Nonsense, said El-ahrairah. 'Go out and get me two good, big dock leaves. They will do very well for ears.
" 'They will wither, master, said Rabscuttle, 'and I am withered now.
" 'They will last long enough, said El-ahrairah grimly, for what I have to do. But I cannot find the way.
"When Rabscuttle was gone, El-ahrairah forced himself to think clearly. The Black Rabbit would not accept his life. Also, it was plain that he himself would never be able to win any sort of wager against him: he might as well try to run a race across a sheet of ice. But if the Black Rabbit did not hate him, why did he inflict these sufferings upon him? To destroy his courage and make him give up and go away. But why not simply send him away? And why wait, before hurting him, till he himself proposed a wager and lost it? The answer came to him suddenly. These shadows had no power either to send him away or to hurt him, except with his own consent. They would not help him, no. They would seek possession of his will and break it if they could. But supposing that he could find among them something that would save his people, could they stop him from taking it away?
"When Rabscuttle came back, he helped El-ahrairah to diguise his horrible, maimed head with two dock leaves in place of ears, and after a while they slept. But El-ahrairah kept dreaming of his starving rabbits waiting in the runs to push back King Darzin's soldiers and placing all their hopes on him: and at last he woke, cold and cramped, and wandered out into the runs of the stone warren. As he limped along, trailing the dock leaves on either side of his head-for he could not raise or move them like the ears he had lost-he came to a place from which several narrow runs led down deeper into the ground; and here he found two of the ghastly, shadowy Owsla moving about some dark business of their own. They turned and stared, to make him afraid, but El-ahrairah was past being afraid and he stared back at them, wondering what they had in mind to persuade him to lose.
" 'Turn back, El-ahrairah, said one at last. 'You have no business here, in the pit. You are alive; and have suffered much already.
" 'Not as much as my people, replied El-ahrairah.
" 'There is enough suffering here for a thousand warrens, said the shadow. 'Do not be stubborn, El-ahrairah. In these holes lie all the plagues and diseases that come to rabbits-fever and mange and the sickness of the bowels. And here, too, in this nearest hole, lies the white blindness, that sends creatures hobbling out to die in the fields, where even the elil will not touch their rotting bodies. This is our task, to see that all these are ready for the use of Inle-rah. For what is is what must be.
"Then El-ahrairah knew that he must give himself no time to think. He pretended to go back, but suddenly turned, rushed upon the shadows and plunged into the nearest hole faster than a raindrop into the ground. And there he lay, while the shadows flickered and gibbered about the entrance, for they had no power to move him, except by fear. After a time they went away and El-ahrairah was left alone, wondering whether he would be able to reach King Darzin's army in time without the use of whiskers or ears.
"At last, when he was sure that he must have stayed in the hole long enough to be infected, El-ahrairah came out and began to make his way back along the run. He did not know how soon the disease would appear or how long he would take to die, but plainly he ought to return as quickly as he could-if possible, before there was any sign of illness on him. Without going near Rabscuttle, he must tell him to hurry ahead, reach the rabbits in the warren and warn them to block all the holes and stay inside until King Darzin's army was destroyed.
"He blundered into a stone in the dark, for he was shivering and feverish and in any case he could feel little or nothing without his whiskers. At that moment a quiet voice said, 'El-ahrairah, where are you going? He had heard nothing, but he knew that the Black Rabbit was beside him.
" 'I am going home, my lord, he replied. 'You said that I might go when I wished.
" 'You have some purpose, El-ahrairah, said the Black Rabbit. 'What is it?
" 'I have been in the pit, my lord, answered El-ahrairah. 'I am infected with the white blindness and I am going to save my people by destroying the enemy.
" 'El-ahrairah, said the Black Rabbit, 'do you know how the white blindness is carried?
"A sudden misgiving seized upon El-ahrairah. He said nothing.
" 'It is carried by the fleas in rabbits' ears, said the Black Rabbit. 'They pass from the ears of a sick rabbit to those of his companions. But, El-ahrairah, you have no ears and fleas will not go to dock leaves. You can neither catch nor carry the white blindness.
"Then at last El-ahrairah felt that his strength and courage were gone. He fell to the ground. He tried to move, but his back legs dragged along the rock and he could not get up. He scuffled and then lay still in the silence.
" 'El-ahrairah, said the Black Rabbit at last, this is a cold warren: a bad place for the living and no place at all for warm hearts and brave spirits. You are a nuisance to me. Go home. I myself will save your people. Do not have the impertinence to ask me when. There is no time here. They are already saved.
"In that moment, while King Darzin and his soldiers were still jeering down the holes of the warren, confusion and terror came upon them in the falling darkness. The fields seemed full of huge rabbits with red eyes, stalking among the thistles. They turned and fled. They vanished in the night; and that is why no rabbit who tells the tales of El-ahrairah can say what kind of creatures they were or what they looked like. Not one of them has ever been seen, from that day to this.
"When at last El-ahrairah was able to rise to his feet, the Black Rabbit was gone and Rabscuttle was coming down the run, looking for him. Together they went out to the mountainside and made their way down the stone-rattling gully in the mist. They did not know where they were going, except that they were going away from the Black Rabbit's warren. But after a time it became plain that El-ahrairah was ill from shock and exhaustion. Rabscuttle dug a scrape and there they stayed for several days.
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