"Bennett, Marcia J - Ni-Lach 03 - Beyond the Draak's Teeth UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bennett Marcia J)

He opened his eyes and saw the emptiness of blue-green water where there should have been an arm. His scream was drowned as water swirled into his mouth and down his throat, choking him. His instincts for survival sent him kicking toward the surface.
He erupted out of the water in a cloud of bubbles. A moment later he felt a sharp tug on his leg. Before he could recover his breath, he was being drawn through the water, facedown, by a rope attached to his ankle. He had to fight to turn himself over.
As soon as his face cleared the surface, he flicked his hair out of his eyes and looked in the direction of the shore. The man stood there, legs braced, hauling hand over hand on the rope.
Bhaldavin fought against the rope, but was pulled into the shallows as easily as if he were a fish in a net. He groped the bottom frantically, searching in vain for a rock he could use as a weapon. The man waded into the water and grabbed hold of him, but he kicked and flailed so violently that the man lost his balance and fell back into the water.
Strong arms closed around Bhaldavin as he went under, forestalling any attempt to break free.
The man floundered a moment, then got his legs under him. As he stood up, he accidentally kneed Bhaldavin in the stomach.
Caught upside down in the water, Bhaldavin took in water instead of air. He choked and spat up water, and was still choking as the man carried him out of the shallows and laid him down on the ground.
The man knelt over Bhaldavin and began pushing on his back. "Breathe, Little Fish. Come on, breathe. You'll be all right. You just swallowed some water."
Bhaldavin coughed a few more times, then breathed easier. The man stopped pushing on his back.
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"Little Fish?"
Bhaldavin knew the lake was just a few paces away. He thought about making another break for freedom, then remembered the rope at his ankle and the strength in the hands that had hauled him ashore. He remained motionless, unable to understand why the man had not already killed him.
The man turned Bhaldavin over onto his back; his hand came to rest on Bhaldavin's chest, "Little Fish, you all right?"
Bhaldavin felt his heart beating strongly against the man's fingertips.
The man slapped Bhaldavin's cheek lightly. "No playing, Little Fish. Open your eyes. You're safe now."
When Bhaldavin failed to respond, there followed a second, harder slap,
Bhaldavin gave up playing dead and cautiously opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the man's smile.
"Hah!" the man laughed. "You were trying to fool Garv."
Startled by the man's good humor, Bhaldavin allowed himself to be drawn to a sitting position.
The man reached out and wiped at the blood that dribbled from Bhaldavin's nose. "You made Garv angry, Little Fish, so he had to hit you. Garv has told you time and time again not to touch his knife. You couid hurt yourself."
Bhaldavin studied the man as he spoke. Garv had brown eyes and shoulder-length dark brown hair. His beard was short and unkempt. He was big through the shoulders and heavy in the stomach; his wet clothes, patched many times, clung to him.
Confused, Bhaldavin sat quietly while Garv coiled the draakhide rope attached to his ankle.
Garv finished looping the rope and stood up, pulling Bhaldavin to his feet. "Come, Little Fish, I still have^ome
MARCIA J. BENNETT 9
fish to catch, and you must behave yourself until I'm through."
Bhaldavin heard Garv, but his attention was elsewhere, for suddenly he became aware of his own body. Not only was he lacking an arm, but the length of his legs and the proportions of his body were not as he remembered. Gone were the youthful contours of a twelve-year-old; what he looked upon was the body of an adult Ni!
Disbelief and fear chased through his mind as he turned on the man. What has happened? What have you done to me? The words roared through his mind, but he couldn't give them sound. He swallowed convulsively, fighting for control.
The man saw his distress and stepped close. "What's wrong, Little Fish? You going to be sick?"
Tremors shook Bhaldavin; his legs were not going to hold him up. Waves of darkness reached for him.
The man caught him before he fell. "No more fishing today," he mumbled. "Garv will take you home now, Little Fish. Close your eyes and rest. You are safe with Garv."
Bhaldavin lay quietly on a bed inside Garv's small cabin; his green hair lay wet and tangled on his shoulders. He was hot, sweaty, and restlessЧand he was feeling lost and alone.
He used his fingers to trace the lines of bone and muscle in a body he didn't recognize and tried to make sense out of the impossible. He reached over and touched the stump of his left arm, trying to remember the years that separated him from the youth he knew himself to be. But it was difficult to think, his head hurt so.
The day was warm and still but for the chirring of insects and the trilling of distant birds. He looked out through the open doorway and thought about freedom, but the man who called himself Garv sat on another bunk
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BEYOND THE DRAAK'S TEETH
near the door, whittling a spear, and he didn't feel up to testing the man's reflexes by attempting an escape.
He glanced around the room. There was a small table with two chairs in the center of the room, a large kist at the foot of his bed, and a washbasin sitting on a wide shelf across the room. Clothes, rope, fishing poles, nets, baskets, and drying racks all hung from wall pegs around the room. The one small window in the room was over the washbasin. A narrow side door near the hearth was barred with a stout branch.
Bhaldavin couldn't remember ever having been in a man dwelling before. Did they all live like this? he wondered. Ni homes were more open and often built high in the strong branches of aban trees where there was safety from draak and gensvolf, and his people took great delight in carving decorations for their homes. Seldom did a chair or table go without some kind of ornamental scroll-work, and the walls were often as not covered with lacy grass weavings that could be decorated with seasonal flowers and spices.
Bhaldavin sensed that he was far from his home, not only in time but distance. He glanced at the man, then closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to remember something of the past few years, but it all was lost in the darkness. His only clear memories were of his parents, his small brother and sister, the time before the war, and then the running and hidingЧthe war itself.
Bhaldavin drifted off to sleep, his last thoughts centered on the sadness in his mother's eyes as they left their tree home that last day, the same day the Sarissa entered the Deep.
Bhaldavin was afraid as he crouched beside his father and peered out through the bushes. He saw the Sarissa moving in their direction; he heard them call to one another.
He turned to his mother. Her crystal eyes weretound
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with fear as she looked at him. Baby Telia started to cry. His mother pressed her tight to her bosom, trying to keep her quiet; but silence didn't matter any longer because the enemy knew they were there.
There were other Ni hiding in the bushes around them. Bhaldavin knew some of them. Like his own family, they had come from the small Ni villages just north of the Sarissa capital of Annaroth.
Bhaldavin turned to his father, who held young Dhal-vad. Kion claimed that greed drove men to hunt and kill the Ni-lach, but Bhaldavin's mother said it was much more than that. She said that men's souls were not like those of the People, that they were stunted by envy and a failure to believe in the continuity of life. She said that the Ni-lach were feared because men could not hear the songs of life or sing them and believed in nothing but their own might.
But if they kill us, Bhaldavin thought angrily, our songs will be lost to them and they will have to fight the draak alone. He shook his head. The war didn't make any sense. Surely the Sarissa could not be so shortsighted. Perhaps after living so long under the protection of the Ni-lach, they had forgotten what it was like to plant, harvest, and hunt without the help of the Draak Watch.
Bhaldavin felt his father's eyes upon him. Kion's light green hair had come loose from its braiding, his winged eyebrows were drawn down into a scowl, and his narrow lips were tightly pressed in frustrationЧfor in trying to lead his family to safety, he had managed only to lead them into a trap.