"Jay Lake - To Live Forever" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lake Jay)

тАЬWe are behind the holding house where they take the Deadwalkers,тАЭ
whispered Longines. тАЬI will bring one out to you. The test is up to you and the
smith.тАЭ

Gestas glanced at Ahasuerus, who smiled and made a clasping motion with
his right hand. Gestas tossed open his cloak and let the copper glove hang free at his
side. Longines pried open a low door and vanished into one of the wooden
buildings. A muffled thump echoed from the doorway, followed by a grunt.

The female Deadwalker who came out the door a moment later was one of the
youngest people Gestas had ever seen. She had long blonde hair, stringy and
knotted. Her ragged gray dress was rent open from her neck to her knees, hanging
from her shoulders like rotten peels of fruit. The breasts that peeked out were so
small as to be barely rounded. Gestas looked up at her eyes, then stepped back
against the opposite wall of the midden.

The DeadwalkerтАЩs eyes were filmed over with dark, narrow threads that
writhed, extending from inside the sockets. A few hung from her nostrils. Her face
was as slack as a sheepтАЩs hide hung to cure, muscles so loose Gestas could believe
they might simply drop away. A dribble of spittle flowed from her lips to dangle in
long loops toward her breasts.

No one knew what made the difference between the Lost, children like Gestas
restored to humankind in their young adulthood, and the Deadwalkers, addled
corpses too stubborn to die. Here but for the grace of the Pilots was he, Gestas
realized. His throat closed as his stomach wrenched, bile flooding inside him as his
knees threatened to collapse.

тАЬNow,тАЭ Ahasuerus whispered fiercely. тАЬThe Children are strong within any
Deadwalker. We must test the trap and leave.тАЭ

Gestas swept his gloved hand out wide. He stepped well within the
DeadwalkerтАЩs reach, an act that took more courage than any duel he had ever fought.
He caught her at the waist with his free hand, touching bare skin just inside the torn
dress.

She was warm. This surprised him.

He stepped around to the DeadwalkerтАЩs left as she stood unresisting, dragging
his left arm across her bare belly to wrap her in a loose hug, finishing with his body
behind hers. Gestas stood like a lover intending to kiss her neck. The little hairs of
her belly thrilled his hand and warmed his groin even as his gut threatened to
disgorge.

Gestas threw his right hand, copper-clad with the Child trap, around her to
touch his left. This closed the circuit of copper-wrapped iron that ran in a thin wire
from the copper glove, up his sleeve, across his shoulder and down to the wrist of
his left hand.

He brought the copper-clad hand directly on to her tiny left breast. As his