"Baxter, Stephen - Manifold 03 - Origin" - читать интересную книгу автора (Baxter Stephen)Shadow's memories were blurred and unstructured, a corridor of green and red in which a few fragments shone, like bits of a shattered sculpture: her mother's face, the lightness of her own body as a child, the sharp, mysterious pain of her first bleeding. But nowhere in that dim green hall was there a flare of blue light like that. It was strange, and therefore it was frightening. But memories were pallid. There was only the now, clear and bright: what came before and what would come after did not matter. As the light gathered, the world began to emerge out of the dark green. Noise was growing with the light, the humming of insects and the whirring flight of bats. Here, in this clump of trees high on an escarpment, she was at the summit of her world. The ground fell away to the sliding black mass of the river. The trees were scattered here, the ground bare and grey, but patches of green-black gathered on the lower slopes, gradually becoming darker and thicker, merging as they tumbled down the gullies and ravines that led to the river valley itself. She knew every scrap of this terrain. She had no idea what lay beyond - no real conception that anything lay beyond the ground she knew. The others were stirring now. Her infant sister. Tumble, sat up on the belly of their mother, Termite. Termite stretched, and one shapely foot raised, Shadow slid out of her nest. The pliant branches rustled back to their natural positions. This was a fig tree, with vines festooned everywhere. Shadow found a dense cluster of ripe fruit, and began to feed. Soon there was a soft rain all around her, as discarded skins and seeds fell from the lips of the folk, towards the ground. Above her there was a sharp, sudden crack. She flinched, looking up. It was Big Boss. His teeth bared, without so much as a stretch, he leapt out of his nest and went leaping wildly through the trees, swaying the branches and swinging on the vines. Everywhere people abandoned their nests, scrambling to get out of the way of Big Boss. The last peace of the night was broken by grunts and screams. But one man wasn't fast enough. It was Claw, Shadow's brother, hindered by his need to favour his useless hand, left withered by a childhood bout of polio. Big Boss crashed directly into the nest of the younger male, smashing it immediately. Claw, screeching, fell crashing through the branches and down to the ground. Big Boss scrambled after him, down to the ground. He strutted back and forth, |
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