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

"Because the bad sprites are downstream. If you go to the shore, you can stop before you reach them."

Orb tried to paddle for shore, but the current fought her, and she could not reach it.

"Oh, I must go back!" Waterbead cried. Indeed, she looked distressed, her hair turning lank and her skin clouding up. "Get out of the bad water as soon as you can, Orb!" Then she stroked swiftly upstream, leaving Orb alone.

The tube spun about, bouncing through the rapids, and Orb had to cling on for dear life. Then the river smoothed out in a kind of lake, with a factory beside it. A huge pipe poured dark fluid into the water.

Indeed, the water was bad here; it was discolored and cloudy, so that she could no longer see to the bottom, and it stank of something rotten. Orb did as Waterbead had advised and paddled for the shore away from the factory.

But now more sprites appeared. These were of similar size to the first ones, but their bodies were twisted and their hair tangled. "What's this? A child of man!" one cried.

"Drown her!" the others chorused.

"But aren't you sprites?" Orb asked, alarmed.

"She sees us!" the twisted creatures cried as if horrified.

"Of course I see you and hear you, too," Orb said.

The hostile sprites ringed her, staring. "We can still drown her," one said, scowling. Her eyes were cloudy, as if there was disturbed weather inside her head.

"Not while she's in that tube!" another pointed out.

"Then get her out of the tube!"

They splashed at her, not playfully as the others had, but roughly, so that the water stung her face. "Hey, stop that!" she cried.

They did not. One rushed at her, making a horrible face. "Out! Out! Out!" the mean sprite screamed.

Orb got angry. "Yah!" she screamed back and struck at the sprite with her fist. She missed, but made a bad splash of her own. Then she whipped her arm back and forth, throwing up water so that it flew all over, and screamed so hard that her face heated.

The nymphs were daunted. Evidently they had never seen a temper tantrum before. It was a thing Orb was good at; sometimes she even frothed at the mouth, alarming everyone. Luna almost never got mad, but Orb made up for both of them when something set her off.

The sprites withdrew to a safe distance, "We can't touch her," one said.

"We don't have to," another answered. "There's more than one way to drown a mortal. Start a swirl."

"A swirl!" the others agreed.

They swam in a circle, stirring up the water, forming a great whirlpool. The nice sprites upriver had made fun swirls, but this was an ugly maw. Orb's tube was sucked into it. Faster she moved, as the sprites accelerated the water. The tube tilted as the center of the whirlpool dropped low. Orb was afraid she would topple over. Then she would have to let go, because her head would be under the foul water. Her anger was replaced by fright. What could she do now?

"A boat!" a sprite screamed angrily.

"It can't see us," another said.

"Yes it can!"

Abruptly the sprites left the whirlpool and dived under the murky water. The swirl eased, and Orb was able to see the boat. "Daddy!" she cried.