"Terry Goodkind - Sword Of Truth 10 - Phantom" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goodkind Terry)

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obvious what a mother would fear, but the Sisters needed no such leverage. Seeing her mother in
a state of unbridled terror was only serving to frighten the child all that much more. She struggled
mightily. Despite her frantic effort, such a slender girl was no match for Kahlan.
Holding the girl tightly, Kahlan pulled her back through the doorway beside the stairs and into
the darkened room beyond. In the flashes of lightning coming through a window at the rear,
Kahlan saw that it was a kitchen and storage area for supplies.
The girl cried in wild panic that was the match of her mother's.
"It's all right," Kahlan whispered in the girl's ear as she held her tight, trying to calm her. "I'll
protect you. It's all right."
Kahlan knew that it was a lie, but her heart would not allow the truth.
The slender slip of a girl pawed at Kahlan's arms. It must have seemed to her as if she were being
held by a spirit clutching at her from the underworld. If she even saw Kahlan, Kahlan knew that
the girl would forget her before her mind could transform perception into cognition. Likewise,
Kahlan's words of comfort would evaporate from the girl's mind before they had a chance to even
begin to be comprehended. Within an instant after seeing her, no one ever remembered that
Kahlan existed.
Except Orlan. And now he was dead.
Kahlan hugged the terrified girl tight. She didn't know if it wasn't really more for her own sake
than the girl's. At that moment, keeping the girl away from the terror of what was befalling her
parents was all Kahlan could do. The girl, for her part, writhed madly in Kahlan's arms, trying to
twist away, as if she were being held by a monster intent on bloody murder. Kahlan hated adding
to her terror, but letting her go out into the other room would be worse.
Lightning flashed again, making Kahlan glance to the window. The window was large enough for
her to get through. It was dark outside, and the dense forest lay tight up to the buildings. She had
long legs. She was strong and quick. She knew that if she chose, she could, in a few heartbeats,
be through the window and into the thick of the woods.
But she had tried to escape the Sisters before. She knew that neither night nor woods would
conceal her from women with such dark talents. Kneeling there in the dark, her arms holding the
girl in a tight embrace, Kahlan began to tremble. The mere contemplation of an attempt at escape
was enough to make her brow bead in sweat for fear that such a notion would unleash within her
the embedded constraints. Her head swam dizzily with the memory of past attempts, memories of
the agony. She couldn't take such suffering again52;not when it was to no purpose. Escaping the
Sisters was impossible.
When she glanced up, Kahlan saw the dark shadow of a Sister descending the stairs.
"Ulicia," the woman called out. It was Sister Cecilia's voice. "The rooms upstairs are all empty.
There are no guests."
In the front room Sister Ulicia growled a dark curse.
The shadow of Sister Cecilia turned from the stairs to fill the doorway, like death itself turning its
withering gaze on the living. Beyond, Emmy wailed and wept. In her confusion, grief, pain, and
terror she was unable to answer Sister Ulicia's shouted questions.

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"Do you want your mother to die?" Sister Cecilia asked from the doorway in that deadly calm
voice of hers.