"Baxter, Stephen - Huddle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Baxter Stephen)

gray-pelted body. A snout protruded from the water and bit her neck, drawing
blood. "Ow," she said. "Bull --"

He was offended. "Is that my father?"

"The Bull is everybody's father."

"Wait," he said. "What's my name?"

She thought for a moment. Then she pointed up, at the sky burning above the
mountains like a rocky dream. "Night-Dawn," she said.

And, in a swirl of bubbles, she slid into the water, laughing.

Night-Dawn fed almost all the time. So did everybody else, to prepare for the
winter, which was never far from anyone's thoughts.

The adults cooperated dully, bickering.

Sometimes one or other of the men fought with the Bull. The contender was
supposed to put up a fight for a while -- collect scars, maybe even inflict a
few himself -- before backing off and letting the Bull win.

The children, Night-Dawn among them, fed and played and staged mock fights in
imitation of the Bull. Night-Dawn spent most of his time in the water, feeding
on the thin beds of algae, the krill and fish. He became friendly with a girl
called Frazil. In the water she was sleek and graceful.

Night-Dawn learned to dive.

As the water thickened around him he could feel his chest collapse against his
spine, the thump of his heart slow, his muscles grow more sluggish as his body
conserved its air. He learned to enjoy the pulse of the long muscles in his legs
and back, the warm satisfaction of cramming his jaw with tasty krill. It was
dark under the ice, even at the height of summer, and the calls of the humans
echoed from the dim white roof.

He dived deep, reaching as far as the bottom of the water, a hard invisible
floor. Vegetation clung here, and there were a few fat, reluctant fishes. And
the bones of children.

Some of the children did not grow well. When they died, their parents delivered
their misshapen little bodies to the water, crying and cursing the sunlight.

His mother told him about the Collision.

Something had come barreling out of the sky, and the Moon -- one or other of
them -- had leapt out of the belly of the Earth. The water, the air itself was
ripped from the world. Giant waves reared in the very rock, throwing the people
high, crushing them or burning them or drowning them.