毒树之根 Roots of a Poisoned Tree

作者：Graham McNeill

悬浮的灰尘组成朦胧的帷幕，舒莱依稀辨认出坑道领班休利特的机械化四肢的轮廓，跟着他的身影走向矿井深处。她正通过一副用旧的气管过滤器进行呼吸，尽力不去联想在过去的几年里曾有多少个祖安矿工用它喘气。木架顶梁上悬垂的炼金灯火忽明忽暗，不时有明亮的火点向下滴落，打在他们坑坑洼洼的铁盔上。

Dust hung in veils as Shoorai followed the mechanical-limbed form of Tunnel-Chief Hewlett deeper into the mine shaft. She breathed via a used esophilter, and tried not to imagine how many Zaunite miners had sucked air through it over the years. Sputtering chem-flares strung from timber roof beams dribbled glowing droplets onto their pitted iron helmets as they passed underneath.

“喝着你嗞个擦金大拐子，”休利特回过头吼道，“介嗞差大咧。”

“Heed you waz assay on’a square,” grunted Hewlett, looking over his shoulder. “Waz big teem ’staken.”

听说你是个优秀的测金员舒莱在心里翻译道，但我们弄错了。

We heard you were a good assayer, Shoorai translated. But we were sorely mistaken.

她来到祖安已经有七年了，但这个矿工的奇怪方言还是需要她反应一阵。

Seven years since she’d come to Zaun, but the miner’s strange argot still took her a moment to parse.

“堪矿家嗦就不要皮佬擦金地，”休利特继续说，“她怎个晓得啊们祖安石头块。一开丝就他们嘎啊们沉下来哩！”

“Say ta Ore-seer we no need Piltie assay,” continued Hewlett. “She not savvy wit Zaunrock liken we is. They as done sunk us inna first teem!”

“我可以向你保证，休利特领班，从恕瑞玛到祖安，每个矿我都下过，”舒莱说，“我和你们一样懂石头。”

“I assure you, Chief Hewlett, I have delved mines everywhere from Shurima to Zaun,” said Shoorai. “I know this rock as well as you.”

“嗦地容易。”休利特吼道。他们走进了矿井尽头的开拓区，“这地石头块且不像你嗦地。”

“So you sayin’,” grunted Hewlett, as they entered the gallery chamber at the end of the shaft, “but rock here not be liken you say.”

灰头土脸的矿工们席地而坐，身边靠着炼金钻机、气动尖镐、还有一箱箱海克斯炸药。他们全都应该忙着开石破土，寻找她许诺给格莱姆男爵的海克斯原石矿脉。所以矿工们闲散的样子着实是在挑战她的工作道德。

Dust-smeared miners sat next to chem-drills, pneuma-picks, and crates of hexplosives. Every one of them ought to be attacking the rock in search of the hexite seam she’d promised Baron Grime was here. To see them idle railed against her work ethic.

休利特举起一盏炼金提灯，照亮了开拓区尽头的岩石。起初，舒莱并不确定自己看到的是什么。祖安的地下岩层通常都是被挤压的沉积石灰岩，中间会夹杂少量在极端条件下发生变性的石头，因为这段地层就在不久前还处于高温高压状态。

Hewlett lifted a chem-lamp to illuminate the rock at the end of the chamber. At first, Shoorai wasn’t sure what she was seeing. Zaunite strata was most often crushed sedimentary limestone, interspersed with pockets of metamorphic rock wrought by intense, and not-so-long-ago, heat and pressure.

但她面前这完全是另外一种东西……

This was something else entirely…

舒莱夺过提灯，走到坑道尽头。她摘下手套，手指贴着岩壁摸索。指尖传来粗糙但却温暖的触感，色调里有种奇异的茶褐色——更像是在她故乡恕瑞玛地下会发现的东西。

Shoorai snatched the lamp and walked the length of the gallery. She pulled off her glove and ran her fingertips over the wall. Pitted and warm to the touch, with a curious umber hue—like something she’d expect to find in her native Shurima.

“没道理啊，”她说，“昨天还没有它呢。”

“This makes no sense,” she said. “This wasn’t here yesterday.”

“啊就嘎你讲呢，”休利特说，“啊们昨个钻地，就像你嗦地，上工铃响一回来就看介个。”

“I try telling ya,” replied Hewlett. “We drill on the yester, jus’ liken you say. Come back on’a first bell and seen this.”

“无论这是什么，男爵花钱可不是让你们坐着歇脚的。炸穿它。”

“Whatever this is, the Baron isn’t paying you to sit around doing nothing. Blast through it.”

休利特咧嘴一笑，“啊们就安上炸药，哈？”

Hewlett grinned. “So we fix’n to lay out ’splosives, yah?”

“对，”舒莱同意道。

“Yes,” agreed Shoorai.

“换做是我，可不会那么做。”

“I WOULDN’T DO THAT IF I WERE YOU.”

那个声音在他们周围轰鸣——几乎在空气中形成了冲击波，每一个字都像是大陆板块摩擦发出的声音。

The voice boomed from all around them—a shockwave in the air, each word sounding as though it had been formed by grinding tectonic plates.

矿工们全都站了起来，而舒莱则紧紧靠在坑道的墙边，拉住头盔护住头。那个声音听上去像是来自某种庞然大物。裂缝开始在坑道的棚顶蔓延。

The miners took to their heels, but Shoorai flattened herself against the side wall of the chamber and pulled her helmet tightly down on her head. The voice sounded like it belonged to something titanic. Cracks spread across the ceiling of the gallery.

她抬头望去，刚好看到了嶙峋的石墙……在动。

She looked up in time to see the pitted rock wall… move.

那堵石墙游移着、摩擦着、自己改变了形状。舒莱在惊愕之中看到两个深坑浮现，就像一双闭上的眼睛，一块隆起的石簇可能是鼻子。灰尘从一道弯成弧形、参差不齐的沟壑中喷出，像极了一张巨口在咳嗽。

It shifted, grinding as it reshaped itself. Shoorai watched in amazement as it formed two deep craters that looked like closed eyes, and a projecting crag that could be a nose. Dust poured from a curved and jagged chasm that looked horribly like a vast mouth.

那张脸占满了她面前那堵石墙，足足有三十尺宽，六十尺高。

The face filled the wall before her, fully thirty feet across and twice that high.

阿兹尔的老骨头啊！如果这只是它的头，那它全身得有多大？

Azir’s bones! If this is its head, how big is the rest of its body?

它那双眼窝睁开了，那种巨石研磨的声音让她想起那个流浪织女在通往肯内瑟的路上展现的奇观。舒莱与石巨人四目相对，它的双眼如同流动着的黄色宝石。

The craters of its eyes opened with a grinding sound that reminded her of the time she’d seen that wandering weaver girl perform wonders on the road to Kenethet. Shoorai met the gaze of the colossal face, its eyes a liquid yellow gem-like material.

石英，她心想，并不是这个地区自然存在的。

Quartz, she thought. Not natural to this region.

“这块石头被侵染了，”那个声音说道，舒莱双手捂住耳朵，感觉就快要被震聋。“它里面有生物在骚动。虽然有一种独特的美，但充满混乱。你们不应该打破这块石头，否则会招致恶果。”

“THIS ROCK IS INFESTED,” said the voice, and Shoorai pressed her hands against her ears at its deafening volume. “CREATURES MOVE WITHIN IT. BEAUTIFUL IN THEIR OWN WAY, BUT CHAOTIC. YOU SHOULD NOT BREAK THIS ROCK, IT WILL END BADLY FOR YOU.”

那双眼睛眨了一下，小石块从眼皮上掉落。

The eyes blinked, and pebbles fell from their rocky lids.

“呃，你……你是山脉之灵还是什么？”她问。

“Um, are… are you the mountain spirit or something?” she asked.

随着一声低沉的轰隆，那张脸上的眉毛皱了起来。

The brow of the face creased with a groaning rumble.

“不。至少，我自己认为不是。我认为我曾经是一个整体的一部分。这世界上有太多混乱，让我很难全部记得。”

“NO. AT LEAST, I DON’T THINK SO. I THINK I WAS PART OF ONE, ONCE. SO MUCH CHAOS IN THIS WORLD, MAKES IT HARD TO REMEMBER EVERYTHING.”

“那你到底是什么呢？”她问。

“So what are you?” she asked.

“啊，到底是什么呢？”它说，整个矿井都随着它的悲叹而弯曲。“一个伟大完整体的小碎片。一个找寻目标的秩序之仆从。请叫我……墨菲特。”

“AH, WHAT INDEED?” it said, and the mine shaft flexed as the face sighed mournfully. “A SHARD OF A GREATER WHOLE. A SERVANT OF ORDER SEEKING PURPOSE. CALL ME… MALPHITE.”

松动的页岩从坑道墙上的裂缝处落下，木质立柱发出呻吟，它们在承受超出设计极限的压力。舒莱越来越担心她头顶的那些裂纹。似乎每道裂纹都蠢蠢欲动，想要继续向前蔓延。

Loose shale cascaded from cracks in the walls of the tunnel, and the timber supports groaned as they were subjected to stresses they were never built to endure. Shoorai didn’t like the look of the split lines on the seam above her head. They were ambitious, eager to race onwards.

“你可以先停一下吗？我觉得整座矿洞都要被你弄塌了。”

“Could you stop moving? I think you’re going to collapse the cave.”

“噢。抱歉。”

“OH. SORRY.”

“你刚才说这块岩石被……侵染了？”舒莱问，“染上了什么？”

“You said the rock was… infested?” asked Shoorai. “With what?”

“某种不该存在的东西。某种只为了吞噬而生的生物。”

“THINGS THAT SHOULD NOT BE. CREATURES THAT LIVE ONLY TO CONSUME.”

舒莱感到心跳加快。在失落的艾卡西亚的阴影下长大的她，听说过符合这种描述的生物。

Shoorai felt her heart race. Growing up in the shadow of lost Icathia, she knew of creatures that matched such a description.

“我知道它们，”她说，“但它们只栖息在南方大陆的沙漠之下。”

“I know them,” she said. “But they only dwell in the deserts of the southern continent.”

“或许曾经是的，但现在它们在地壳中穿行，就像一棵毒树的根须。”

“ONCE, PERHAPS, BUT NOW THEY THREAD THE CRUST OF THE WORLD LIKE THE ROOTS OF A POISONED TREE.”

舒莱不安地看着地面。

Shoorai looked uneasily at the ground.

岩石的面孔轻轻笑了一声，天棚上又有更多碎石落下来。

The rock face chuckled, and more shards of stone fell from the roof.

“别担心，我已经把它们困在了身体里。我将碾碎这些家伙，但还会出现更多。所以当心不要挖得太深……”

“NOT TO WORRY, I HAVE THEM TRAPPED WITHIN MY BODY. I WILL CRUSH THESE ONES, BUT MORE WILL COME. SO BE WARY OF DELVING TOO DEEP…”

那个石巨人的双眼暗淡下来，闭上了厚重的眼皮，坑道开始摇晃。

The glow of the creature’s eyes faded as its heavy lids closed and the tunnel began to shake.

“你们该走了。”岩石的面孔说。

“YOU SHOULD GO NOW,” said the rock face.

休利特出现在舒莱身后，用他炼金动力的胳膊抓住她。

Hewlett appeared behind Shoorai and took hold of her with his chem-powered arm.

“啊们嘎紧撤呼，擦金地，”他说，“再磨蹭，洞就塌嗒咧。”

“We gotsta skedaddle, assay,” he said. “We linger, cave be crushin’ us.”

舒莱点点头，退出了开拓区。“我就告诉格莱姆男爵这个矿脉早已被采干净了。”

Shoorai nodded, backing away from the gallery. “I’ll tell Baron Grime this seam was played out.”

休利特咧嘴笑着说。“保不齐你还真个擦金大拐子。”

Hewlett grinned. “Maybe you assay on’a square after all.”