"Orson Scott Card - Ender's Saga 03 - Xenocide" - читать интересную книгу автора (Card Orson Scott)

"I obey the gods." He thought, bitterly, that he had no choice; that even to
delay obedience was torture.
"But you don't know them. You don't love their works."
"The Path is to love the people. The gods we only obey." How can I love gods who
humiliate me and torment me at every opportunity?
"We love the people because they are creatures of the gods."
"Don't preach to me."
She sighed.
Her sadness stung him like a spider. "I wish you would preach to me forever,"
said Han Fei-tzu.
"You married me because you knew I loved the gods, and that love for them was
completely missing from yourself. That was how I completed you."
How could he argue with her, when he knew that even now he hated the gods for
everything they had ever done to him, everything they had ever made him do,
everything they had stolen from him in his life.
"Promise me," said Jiang-qing.
He knew what these words meant. She felt death upon her; she was laying the
burden of her life upon him. A burden he would gladly bear. It was losing her
company on the Path that he had dreaded for so long.
"Promise that you will teach Qing-jao to love the gods and walk always on the
Path. Promise that you will make her as much my daughter as yours."
"Even if she never hears the voice of the gods?"
"The Path is for everyone, not just the godspoken."
Perhaps, thought Han Fei-tzu, but it was much easier for the godspoken to follow
the Path, because to them the price for straying from it was so terrible. The
common people were free; they could leave the Path and not feel the pain of it
for years. The godspoken couldn't leave the Path for an hour.
"Promise me."
I will. I promise.
But he couldn't say the words out loud. He did not know why, but his reluctance
was deep.
In the silence, as she waited for his vow, they heard the sound of running feet
on the gravel outside the front door of the house. It could only be Qing-jao,
home from the garden of Sun Cao-pi. Only Qing-jao was allowed to run and make
noise during this time of hush, They waited, knowing that she would come
straight to her mother's room.
The door slid open almost noiselessly. Even Qing-jao had caught enough of the
hush to walk softly when she was actually in the presence of her mother. Though
she walked on tiptoe, she could hardly keep from dancing, almost galloping
across the floor. But she did not fling her arms around her mother's neck; she
remembered that lesson even though the terrible bruise had faded from
Jiang-qing's face, where Qing-jao's eager embrace had broken her jaw three
months ago.
"I counted twenty-three white carp in the garden stream," said Qing-jao.
"So many," said Jiang-qing.
"I think they were showing themselves to me," said Qing-jao. "So I could count
them. None of them wanted to be left out."
"Love you," whispered Jiang-qing.
Han Fei-tzu heard a new sound in her breathy voice-- a popping sound, like
bubbles bursting with her words.