"Nicola Griffith - Yaguara" - читать интересную книгу автора (Griffith Nicola)

The humidity was thick enough to stand on and the sky low
and gray. Cleis threw her knapsack onto the Jeep and climbed
behind the wheel. тАЬIтАЩll stay overnight in Benque Viejo,тАЭ she said.
тАЬIтАЩve a few things to do.тАЭ
Jane glanced at the sky. тАЬThink itтАЩll rain?тАЭ
Cleis shook her head. тАЬIt canтАЩt. I canтАЩt afford it to.тАЭ
JaneтАЩs clothes were already stuck to her. тАЬDonтАЩt forget the
beer.тАЭ
тАЬI wonтАЩt.тАЭ
Later, alone on the trail to Kuchil Balum, Jane felt as though
she were walking through another world: there was no breeze, and
every sound, every smell, was singular and intense.
The air under the trees grew hotter and more damp.
Jane stumbled over a hidden tree limb. She fell to one knee,
her nose seven inches from a log over which Azteca ants marched
in an endless, silent line. And it was as if she had been looking at
the world through a camera and had only just found the right
focus. Everywhere she looked life leapt out at her: huge black
carpenter bees buzzing around red melastoma flowers the size of
roses; a leaf-frog, gaudy and red-eyed, peering from the depths of a
sapodilla; the flicker of a geckos tail. And there were millipedes and
rove beetles, silverfish and wood lice, and spiders spinning their
silent webs to catch them. The air was luxuriant with rot, like the
breath of a carnivore.
She stood up feeling hot and hunted and hemmed in. A snake
slithered in the undergrowth. Her heart began to thump like a
kettledrum. She licked salt from her lips, wondered how many
different eyes were watching her from behind tree trunks or under
leaves. A twig snapped under a heavy paw. Something big was
coming toward herтАж Yaguara, a South American word meaning
тАЬpredator that kills its prey in one bound.тАЭ She ran.


Night seeped through the trees like tea and gathered under
her bunk. She sat on the rough blanket fully clothed, facing the
door. A shelf bracket pressed into her shoulder blade but she
stayed where she was. The jungle was full of eyes.
She dozed and dreamed she was walking to the ruins in thin
moonlight. Sliding earth and metal sounds came from the direction
of the purdah house. Cleis was digging feverishly, lips skinned back
with effort, teeth glinting like old bone. тАЬItтАЩs here somewhere,тАЭ she
was muttering to herself, тАЬI just have to keep digging.тАЭ Jane wanted
her to stop, just for a moment, but she could not seem to get close
enough to touch Cleis. She would walk toward her and stretch out
her hand only to find that she had gone the wrong way and Cleis
was behind her. Then suddenly Cleis was laughing. тАЬYes!тАЭ she
shouted, and threw away the shovel, and she was digging with her
hands, throwing the dirt back between her legs like a cat. тАЬIтАЩve
found it!тАЭ She looked up at Jane, and her eyes were golden, and