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

hall and made me burn it under a full moon before she fed me a stew of the ashes.

Still I held my fists. Free as they were with their punishments, these maggot
people lived and died by words. I could do no less. Every night in my hard, narrow
bed, I told myself stories in my own words, mouthing silently the language of my
birth for which I had no name, always remembering Endurance and the sound of
bells.

****

One morning when my bones were aching from sleep itselfтАФbecause I was
growing, the silver-furred woman had told meтАФMistress Tirelle swept into my
room, her rounded face the color of a pomegranate and sheened with sweat.

тАЬUp, you lazy girl,тАЭ she shouted, slapping the covers away from me. тАЬThe
Factor will be here within minutes. You must present yourself to him!тАЭ

I kept calm against her fear. тАЬThen I will wear the green silk shift,тАЭ I said. It
was the color of FederoтАЩs eyes, which would lend me comfort, and set off my dark
brown skin to great advantage.

тАЬIтАЩll not have you play the slut with him,тАЭ Mistress Tirelle breathed, her fat
face close to mine, though she now had to look up to meet my eye.
 тАЬThis will not be so different from FederoтАЩs visits.тАЭ My voice held more
confidence than my heart.

She pinched my cheek between her callused fingers. тАЬYou listen, Girl. The
Factor is very different from that fop. We would none of us have food to eat or
shelter to sleep if not for him. His word is your life. Federo!тАЭ She snorted, as close
as IтАЩd ever heard her come to laughing. тАЬA peacock who flies the world bargaining
for future beauty.тАЭ

Then we were in a flurry of dressing, oiling of my hair, the lightest touch of
paint pots on my face, smelling of herbs and dyes. Though I had not yet grown into
my womanhood, that time would be soon according to my teachers. The green silk
shift was tailored with a hint of bodice to signal the coming change. My face would
lead me where my body had still to go.

Working to ready me, I realized that through the hard words and the
unkindnesses and the beatings, Mistress Tirelle and I were as family to each other. I
tried to imagine her wrapped in bells, atop EnduranceтАЩs back for the slow, hot trip to
the temple platforms and the union of her soul with the wide world.

The image would not come, though a smile slipped unbidden to my lips.

тАЬDo not smirk at the Factor,тАЭ she hissed, then pushed me out into the court
before hiding in the shadows of the porch to spy.

I stood beside the pomegranate, distressed to find I could not remember what
I had worn on my arrival here. I had come nearly the full circle round. Perhaps the