"Barb & J. C. Hendee - Noble Dead 03 - Sister of the Dead" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hendee JC & Barb)

Chap spun about with a low rumble in his throat.

The clearing was loosely walled with scattered spruce and beech trees grown tall from roots sunk deep
into the earth. Branches reached out to one another, like interlacing a circle of sentinels holding hands. He
peered between them into the dark woods beyond, searching, but there was nothing out of place. Yet the
wall of trees thickened in places where he had looked away too long and back again. Movement within
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their branches made the limbs sway ever so slightly.

Fool... miscreant... betrayer!

Whispers lashed into his thoughts from all around, and Chap snarled, kicking up needles and leaves from
the forest floor as he spun about.

Eyes glittered at him from dark shadows beneath the branches, like stars pulled from the sky and held
captive amid the foliage. A flutter of wings passed overhead, and Chap ducked instinctively. Claws
skittered on bark as some small creature raced up the trunk of the largest of the trees now ringing him in.

Chap turned toward the ancient sentinel with its gnarled bark and full spread of crooked limbs, not yet
cowering under the shame rising inside him. The movement of unseen living creatures made the dark
spaces between its branches open and close like mouths taking in breath to denounce him with every
exhalation.

Fallen is our kin in his flesh. So distracted from purpose.

Chap shrank back with his eyes upon his accuser. He felt its sentiment echoed by unseen others all
around him.

His kin gathered here.

All around in the forms of the forest they came. Within leaf and needle, branch and trunk, and small
bright eyes peering out at him from the dark spaces. Even within the air and earth was the growing
presence of themтАФof the FayтАФuntil he felt them in the tingle of his skin beneath his thick fur.

The ring of woods about him thickened with their presence, and all attention was upon Chap alone.

He answered back.Ihave not failed yet.

The crackle of wood filled up the clearing.But you permit the child of the dead to wander the path
you were sent to turn her from? Turn her aside!

Chap flinched, standing rigid before the old tree, and he dropped his head.How... What more could I
do?

A flight of birds darker than the night broke from the tree limbs to dive at him. Chap leaped aside, and
their screeching echoed well after they dispersed back into the woods.