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

memory. He could not imagine suckling, touching, mounting anyone, any creature
with those horrible, threaded eyes and that blank face.

тАЬMay the Pilots preserve me,тАЭ whispered Gestas.

тАЬNo stomach for it now? This is what you sought when you went digging in
the mud of the BosunтАЩs Grave.тАЭ

Gestas remembered the shriek, the shredded face splattering into his as he
closed his eyes. тАЬNot this. I will live that moment again in sleep every day of my
life.тАЭ

тАЬIt is tragedy indeed to live forever, young man.тАЭ

****

They burned GestasтАЩ bloody clothes in the kitchen hearth, even the boots,
which were his best pair. Gestas nearly boiled himself in the copper laundry tub that
Longines had dragged, limping, into the library.

тАЬHotter, hotter,тАЭ he kept insisting, even as blisters rose on his skin. He
scrubbed himself raw and bloody with copper wire brushes, trying to remove the
taint of the Deadwalker, until Ahasuerus took the brushes away. His lips inflamed
from repeated dunkings to gargle clear his sinuses, Gestas sat in the steaming tub of
bloody water and wept.

Outside, the turnip cart burned in the afternoon sun, its smoke pushing into
the library with the odors of roasted vegetables and wood smoke. Longines had
freed the mule team, shooing them out to the road where they would presumably find
their own way back to their owner.
 Dismas tapped the copper tub with the brass tip of his cane. тАЬGestas, you
need more fortitude.тАЭ

тАЬIt was worse than you think,тАЭ said Ahasuerus quietly.

The cane continued to tap, a metallic ringing muffled by the water that
enclosed Gestas. Dismas looked down at him. тАЬBut something of a success, I
presume?тАЭ

Ahasuerus grabbed the cane to stop the tapping. тАЬThat depends on your
goals. It was a violent and wholly fatal exorcism.тАЭ

Dismas smiled. тАЬWe drove the Children out of a human being.тАЭ

тАЬThey took her life as they left,тАЭ muttered Gestas from his bloody bath.

Ahasuerus nodded. тАЬShe was already dead. I had hoped to draw them out,
poison them with iron, but that was a catastrophe.тАЭ

Gestas looked at the smith, studying his face. тАЬThose threads I saw, they are