"Eric Flint - Mother of Demons" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flint Eric)

Mother of Demons
by Eric Flint


This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this
book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely
coincidental.

Copyright (c) 1997 by Eric Flint

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions
thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original

Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471

ISBN: 0-671-87800-X

Cover art by Larry Elmore

First printing, September 1997



Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020


Typeset by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH
Printed in the United States of America


To my daughter Elizabeth


PART I:
The Threads


Chapter 1
As a young warrior, Nukurren had heard the demons come. She still remembered
the enormous sound that ripped through the sky above Shakutulubac, capital of
the Ansha Prevalate. She herself had seen nothing. The sound had awakened her
from an exhausted sleep, and by the time she raced out of the barracks there
was nothing to be seen but a huge red splotch on the eastern horizon. The
strange mark on the sky was terrifying. The Mother-of-Pearl was always a