"Anthony, Piers- Incarnations of Immortality 5- Being a Green Mother" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Piers)

Anthony, Piers - Incarnations of Immortality.

1 On a pale Horse.
2 Bearing An HourGlass.
3 With a Tangled Skien.
4 Wielding a Red Sword.
--> 5 Being a Green Mother.
6 For Love Of Evil.
7 And Eternity.

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Chapter 1 - SONG OF THE MORNING.

She was just a child, but in the dream she was a woman, beautiful, in a bridal gown, walking down a long aisle on the arm of a man she couldn't quite see.

But the dream was split-screen, and the other part showed the great globe of the world. That was her, too, in the strange way the dream had of making it seem real. But the world was mostly dead; no human beings remained on it.

Somehow she knew that these were two aspects of her future, and that one of them would come to pass. Marriage, or destruction. But which one? Why? It wasn't frightening, just mysterious.

Then music swelled. It was a lovely, mysterious melody. She woke, a&aid it would fade away along with the rest of the dream, but it remained, coming from outside.

She scrambled out of bed, leaving her sister Luna sleeping. Well, Luna wasn't exactly her sister, but it was complicated to fathom, so that was good enough. Let her sleep for the moment; this shouldn't take long.

She shoved her toes into her slippers and scurried across the floor in her nightie. Lured by the melody, she scrambled down the stairs, along the hall, and reached the door. She put both hands up on the solid knob and turned it, and after a brief struggle got the door open.

The summer dawn was cool but not cold. Orb hurried out, intent on the melody, not caring what time or temperature it was. The landscape seemed preternaturally bright, better than real life; this was fun!

She paused before the house, reorienting on the sound. The farm backed onto a forest, and the sound was from the forest. She ran across the field, scattering chickens, and reached the edge of the wood, panting. She was four years old, and this was a good-sized trek for her to accomplish alone. She wasn't supposed to come here without an adult, and that gave her a bad twinge of unease, but the music was fading, and she knew she had to catch it right away.

The forest loomed thick and dark, and it was girt with monstrous spider webs and mean brambles and other awful things, so she scouted along the edge, hoping for a way through. The music was becoming quite faint, making her desperate.

She found a path! She ran down it, into the depths of the wood. But the music was now fading out entirely, to her horror. She stopped to listen for it, but it was gone.

Except-there was another sound, not the same, but possessed of its own melody. Maybe that would do. It was ahead and, as she continued along the path, it grew louder.

The path debouched at the river. Orb had encountered the river before, but not at this spot. Here it was crippling merrily over rocks, making its music. She strained to hear the tune of it behind the rushing noise of water, and it came clearer, but imperfect.

She made her way along its irregular bank, guided more by her ears than her eyes. Now she heard another sound, neither the first melody nor the second, but a kind of tittering laughter. It was coming from a swirling pool a little downstream.

Then she spied the source of the mirth. Girls were playing in the pool! Lovely, lithe, bare girls with long tresses. They were swimming and splashing and diving and having a terrific amount of fun, and their trilling laughter made the last melody she had heard.

One of the nymphs spied Orb and called out to her. "Hello, child of man! Come join us!" The others laughed anew at this.

Orb pondered briefly, then decided to do it. She drew off her nightie and stepped out of her slippers. Naked, she went down to the pool.

"She heard me!" the nymph exclaimed, astonished.

Orb paused. "Did I do something wrong?"