"Greg Egan - Oceanic" - читать интересную книгу автора (Egan Greg)

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I nodded tearfully. This was worse than anything that had happened on the launch, or in the
water; I felt a thousand times more helpless, a thousand times more like a child.
I said, "Beatrice was watching over me."
My mother rolled her eyes and laughed wildly, letting go of Daniel's shirt. "Beatrice?
Beatrice? Don't you know what could have happened to you? You're too young to have given him what
he wanted. He would have had to use the knife."
The chill of my wet clothes seemed to penetrate deeper. I swayed unsteadily, but fought to
stay upright. Then I whispered stubbornly, "Beatrice was there."
My father said, "Go and get changed, or you're going to freeze to death."
I lay in bed listening to them shout at Daniel. When he finally came down the ladder I was so
sick with shame that I wished I'd drowned.
He said, "Are you all right?"
There was nothing I could say. I couldn't ask him to forgive me.
"Martin?" Daniel turned on the lamp. His face was streaked with tears; he laughed softly,
wiping them away. "Fuck, you had me worried. Don't ever do anything like that again."
"I won't."
"Okay." That was it; no shouting, no recriminations. "Do you want to pray with me?"
We knelt side by side, praying for our parents to be at peace, praying for the man who'd
tried to hurt me. I started trembling; everything was catching up with me. Suddenly, words began
gushing from my mouth -- words I neither recognized nor understood, though I knew I was praying
for everything to be all right with Daniel, praying that our parents would stop blaming him for my
stupidity.
The strange words kept flowing out of me, an incomprehensible torrent somehow imbued with
everything I was feeling. I knew what was happening: Beatrice had given me the AngelsтАЩ tongue.
We'd had to surrender all knowledge of it when we became flesh, but sometimes She granted people
the ability to pray this way, because the language of the Angels could express things we could no
longer put into words. Daniel had been able to do it ever since his Drowning, but it wasn't
something you could teach, or even something you could ask for.
When I finally stopped, my mind was racing. "Maybe Beatrice planned everything that happened
tonight? Maybe She arranged it all, to lead up to this moment!"
Daniel shook his head, wincing slightly. "Don't get carried away. You have the gift; just
accept it." He nudged me with his shoulder. "Now get into bed, before we're both in more trouble."
I lay awake almost until dawn, overwhelmed with happiness. Daniel had forgiven me. Beatrice
had protected and blessed me. I felt no more shame, just humility and amazement. I knew I'd done
nothing to deserve it, but my life was wrapped in the love of God.




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3
According to the Scriptures, the oceans of Earth were storm-tossed, and filled with dangerous
creatures. But on Covenant, the oceans were calm, and the Angels created nothing in the ecopoiesis
that would harm their own mortal incarnations. The four continents and the four oceans were