"Doranna Durgin - Seer's Blood" - читать интересную книгу автора (Durgin Doranna)

when you're TookтАФan' then let you go again. All they got to do is touch you flesh to flesh, and they got
you."

Lenie wound a loose strand of hair around her finger, pretty, bright hair even in the failing light. "How can
they tell of which 'em has Taken who? Spirits, how can they even keep their own selves straight about
who'd got who?"

Blaine flipped her mousy brown braid back over her shoulder, out of sight. Away from where it could be
compared to Lenie's hair. But in truth it suited her just fine to have Lenie asking questionsтАФto have any
of them asking questionsтАФexcept Rand, who always put his mind to eating his fill. Maybe her daddy
would forget thatshe had been the one to start this conversation, when he hadn't wanted it.

Dacey hesitated. "It ain't that simple. They always know. . . . The Takers ain't single beings, like I'm me
and you're Lenie. They all know what the others're thinking . . . they all thinktogether . When one is in a
body, it acts like a . . . well, like a stream channel, for others. Say I'm Took and they want more of 'em
here. So I grab aholt of youтАФit's got to be skin on skinтАФ-and channel for another Taker, and that one
Takes you.Annektehr , they call the ones inside people, and they're powerful strong. You ain't got a
chance oncet they grab on to you."

Silence followed his remark, and suddenly the house seemed too dim, the warmth from the stove not
nearly enough. Blaine simply stared at Dacey, never expecting to find so many answers in one
personтАФnever expecting to find anyone who knew so much about a menace from the distant past.

Then Cadell cleared his throat. "You've heard some," he allowed. "More'n us in these parts. But these
days, the sky tells us no more'n the weather, and that's plenty."

Dacey shrugged. "My kin's fond of a good story."

"Stories is right," Lenie scoffed. "We got so many, old men's tales. Magic in these hillsтАФI'd like to see
that."

He gave her a little half grin, one that won him an instant smile in response, while Blaine wondered if she
couldn't see the wryness of his expression, that he wasn't agreeing with her at all when he said, "So would
I."
"It's a dumb story," Willum declared. "Not a prop'r story."

"I'lltell you a proper one," Sarie said. She slid off the bench seat and ran over to tug Willum off his
folded quilt riser next to Lottie. "Come to the porch, Willum, I got one about bug ghoulies."

Bugs and ghoulies together. Blaine hid a smile. As far as Willum was concerned, a body couldn't ask for
anything more. She watched out the door to see that the two stopped on the porch, and gave Lottie a
nod when they hunkered down to whisper together. "I'll watch," she said, and Lottie nodded, nudging the
taters closer to Dacey.

As the conversation between Dacey and Cadell turned to hounds and the best breeding lines, Blaine
thought of the strangers she'd seen, and thought again that Dacey might know of them. Not that it
mattered. She couldn't ask while her family was there to hear she'd been in the hills, and soon enough the
strangers would announce themselves and their trading goods and their needs. Blaine sighed, and swung
her gawky leg over the bench. She lit a coal-oil lamp and set it in the center of the table, and headed
outside to sit on the swing and attend the lisping syllables of the little ones and their whispered secrets