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

palm flexed, the Child trap clicked open, driving an iron spike through the skin
toward her heart.

The DeadwalkerтАЩs shriek rose to meet the sky. Her head slammed back into
GestasтАЩ face even as her body erupted, skin rippling to shreds as thousands of black
threads shot outward, upward, in all directions.

Gestas screwed his eyes and mouth shut, swallowing a shriek of his own as
the body in his arms disintegrated, falling through his grip like so much offal. His
own gut finally betrayed him, sending a flood of bile and vomit rushing to his head
so fast his mouth threatened to explode. Gestas leaned forward, slapping his hands
to his thighs, and violently spewed everything in his stomach atop the bloody,
bone-filled mess at his feet.

He noticed flowers stitched into the collar of the gray dress as Ahasuerus and
Longines pulled him away, fleeing distant shouts of alarm. His nose and sinuses
stung with sharp, bitter bile, and he kept wiping blood from his eyes. It was some
time before Gestas realized that he had stabbed himself deep in the right thigh with
the Child trap.

****

тАЬMy hat,тАЭ said Gestas. тАЬWhere is my hat?тАЭ

Ahasuerus snorted. тАЬFilled with blood and vomit. I did not think you would
want it back.тАЭ

They rode in a vegetable cart, driven by Longines after a brief and forceful
negotiation with the previous owner. A patched canvas cover stretched over them,
sealing in the fetid heat of their bodies, the odor of the turnips on which they sat, and
a stench of blood and bile Gestas could swear he would always carry inside his
skull.

Ahasuerus patted GestasтАЩ hand. тАЬWell, the trap was a success, of a sort.тАЭ

тАЬSuccess?тАЭ Gestas was shocked. тАЬWhat would failure have meant?тАЭ
 тАЬBeing Childshot, perhaps. Had you never seen a Deadwalker before?тАЭ

Gestas shuddered. тАЬNot so close, no.тАЭ

Ahasuerus was unsympathetic. тАЬThe Lost are little different, at first, save for
the eyes.тАЭ

тАЬHer dress was torn open. Did the ChildrenтАФ?тАЭ

тАЬNo. They cannot use us that way. Perhaps one of the keepers at the pen. Or
there are those who bribe their way in to take a dark pleasure. Where there are no
youths, there are no young upon which to satisfy ageing lust.тАЭ

Gestas stared at Ahasuerus, but the old man looked sad, fallen into bitter