"Sara Douglass - Redemption 2 - Pilgrim" - читать интересную книгу автора (Douglass Sara)

A residual wisp of grey miasma still clung to a corner of her lip.
"Sheol?" Raspu murmured and reached out a hand. "Sheol?" At the soft touch of his hand, Sheol's sapphire
eyes jerked open and she bared her teeth in a snarl.
Raspu did not flinch. "Sheol? Did you feast well?"
The entire group of TimeKeeper Demons regarded her curiously, as did StarLaughter sitting slightly to one
side with a breast bared, its useless nipple hanging from her undead child's mouth.
Sheol blinked, and then her snarl widened into a smile, and the reddened tip of her tongue probed slowly at
the corners of her lips.
She gobbled down the remaining trace of mist.
.7.
"I fed well]" she cried, and leapt to her feet, spinning about in a circle. "Well!"
Her companions stared at her, noting the new flush of strength and power in her cheeks and eyes, and they
howled with anticipation. Sheol began an ecstatic caper, and the Demons joined her in dance, holding
hands and circling in tight formation through the rubble of earth and rocks that had once been the Barrow.
They screamed and shrieked, intoxicated with success.
The Minstrelsea forest, encircling the ruined spaces of the Ancient Barrows, was silent. Listening.
Watching.
StarLaughter pulled the material of her gown over her breast and smiled for her friends. It had been eons
since they had fed, and she could well understand their excitement. They had sat still and silent as Sheol's
demonic influence had issued from her nostrils and mouth in a steady effluence of misty grey contagion.
The haze had coalesced about her head for a moment, blurring her features, and had then rippled forth with
the speed of thought over the entire land of Tencendor.
Every soul it touched тАФ Icarii, human, bird or animal тАФ had been infected, and Sheol had fed generously
on each one of them.
Now how well Sheol looked! The veins of her neck throbbed with life, and her teeth were whiter and her
mouth redder than StarLaughter had ever seen. Stars, but the others must be beside themselves in the wait
for their turn!
StarLaughter rose slowly to her feet, her child clasped protectively in her hands. "When?" she said.
The Demons stopped and stared at her.
"We need to wait a few days," Raspu finally replied.
"What?" StarLaughter cried. "My son тАФ"
"Not before then," Sheol said, and took a step towards StarLaughter. "We all need to feed, and once we
have grown the stronger for the feeding we can dare the forest paths."
She cast her eyes over the distant trees and her lip curled. "We will move during our time, and on our
terms."
┬╗8┬╗
"You don't like the forest?" StarLaughter said.
"It is not dead," Barzula responded. "And it is far, far too gloomy."
"But тАФ" StarLaughter began.
"Hush," Rox said, and he turned flat eyes her way. "You ask too many questions."
StarLaughter closed her mouth, but she hugged her baby tightly to her, and stared angrily at the Demons.
Sheol smiled, and patted StarLaughter on the shoulder. "We are tense, Queen of Heaven. Pardon our ill
manners."
StarLaughter nodded, but Sheol's apology had done little to appease her anger.
"Why travel the forest if you do not like it," she said. "Surely the waterways would be the safest and fastest
way to reach Cauldron Lake."
"No," Sheol said. "Not the waterways. We do not like the waterways."
"Why not?" StarLaughter asked, shooting Rox a defiant look.
"Because the waterways are the Enemy's construct, and they will have set traps for us," Sheol said. "Even if
they are long dead, their traps are not. The waterways are too closely allied with тАФ"