"Jay Lake - Green" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lake Jay)

It flashed and a silver arrow sped toward me. I started to scream as it passed
above me. I turned again, almost slipping beneath the water, to see the dart fly into a
great, toothed mouth that was open just behind me.

There was a blue spark, and a shriek like a woman in pain. Then the mouth
closed and sank beneath the water, dragging a rough gray head larger than
Endurance with it. A dead black eye, ringed with flesh as pale as the maggot manтАЩs
skin, glared at me. It lacked the wisdom of EnduranceтАЩs brown eyes, but still I felt
the sea-beast take my name among its secret hatreds.

The boat turned and came back for me. I was afraid to be on board again, but
I was more afraid of the sea. At home, the water had held only snakes and turtles
with knife-sharp beaks. The sea held every kind of throat to swallow me whole.

****

FortuneтАЩs Flight, as they called the ship, had bells too. After weeks of sailing
we came near land again at Copper Downs with all of them ringing. Bells floating in
the water and more bells on the shore answered, as if a whole parade of women were
on their way to the next world.

Copper Downs was greater than a thousand of my villages. Its buildings were
taller than the burial platforms of homeтАФthose pillars are the highest things we make,
in order to carry souls closer to the freedom of the sky. Copper Downs was, as
Federo the maggot man said, a city. A city spread along the shore for an hourтАЩs walk
or more in each direction. Temple roofs glinted with the metal that gave the place its
name, and huge buildings by the docks took in men and cargo from the ships.

I had learned so much already on the voyage.

тАЬYou are too smart,тАЭ Federo had said with a little smile. This was his true
smile, not his talking-to-children smile. тАЬThe Factor will like you for it, but the
women will not. Mark me,тАЭ and he waggled his finger, тАЬplay the dullard a bit and you
will live a happier life.тАЭ

But despite his advice, he spoke to me and read to me and taught me letters
and even showed me what a map was. I became used to his muddy speech, and
learned some of his own words, which sounded sharp and harsh to my ears. By the
time we had landed, I felt almost like I belonged in Copper Downs even though that
cityтАЩs people were pale with fat red cheeks and hard blue eyes.

At the docks we were met by a carriage, a high-sided cart with windows like a
little rolling room. Federo pushed me inside and told me to stay while the sailors
loaded his gear from FortuneтАЩs Flight. I picked at useless little buttons set deep in
the leather seats and smelled the oils someone had polished the carriage
withтАФlemon, maybe, and the pressings of some vegetable I didnтАЩt knowтАФuntil he
returned.

Then we were away through the streets of Copper Downs in a ride rougher