"Adkins, Patrick H - Titans 01 - Lord of the Crooked Path" - читать интересную книгу автора (Adkins Patrick H)

Kalliope and Thalia nodded their immediate agreement.

"What?" Metis asked. "What did you say?"

"This is a man," Melpomene explained. "That's what the creature is
called. Usually we know the right word immediately, without having to
think about it. This time it took a bit longer."

Lachesis repeated the word slowly as she stared at the peculiar man,
which was still dangling upside down from Kalliope's fingers. "It's very
puny. Puny and helpless," she said.

"Let me hold it," Metis pleaded.

Kalliope gently lowered the man into her outstretched hands. Now
Lachesis stood beside the child, searching the tiny form with her eyes.
Melpomene pushed her way between the trees, and the others followed out
to the bank of the stream. They stopped beside one of the mounds. A
section of mud had fallen away near the top. Through the jagged opening
they could see a diminutive, godlike mouth. It gurgled and sucked air.

"This man," Metis said, "is it a god? I mean, is it a little god or ...
or ... only an animal in the shape of a god?"

Melpomene looked down at the tiny form in the child's hands. "It's hard
to imagine that they could truly be gods," she said. "They make me feel
sad, somehow."

"Sad? Why so?" Kalliope asked.

"They're such pitiful creatures. Look at them. Wretched little things .
. . shaped like us, but born of slime. ..."

"They're our brothers," Kalliope said. "We, too, are children of the
earth."

Melpomene smiled wanly. "A poor joke, sister, and a cruel one. By that
logic the grass and the trees and the insects are our brothers and
sisters also."

"They are," Kalliope said. "Less fortune than we, but still kin, even if
they have been born of mud and slime rather than immortal flesh. Poorly
born, these may yet prove worthy."

Melpomene looked doubtful.

"Look at this one," Kalliope continued. "He has a good face, handsome
under the grime. Look at his chin and forehead--the nose too. All well
shaped, not without a touch of nobility about them. Perhaps they are