"Fear" - читать интересную книгу автора (McGarry Terry)

to leave now."
Shay shook his head and jumped up and down, as he had when they first
met. He said that she was just a trading thing, that they had taken her to buy
safety, that they would kill her if her people tried to take away the land.
"No, Shay, that won't happen now, not if I go back," she said, but he
would not be convinced, and he began to walk her in the direction of the caps.
It did not occur to her to run away from him. She tried to turn
several times, but Shay would have none of it, and soon she was lost in the
black, moonless woods and had no choice but to follow him. What would the
priest-king say, she wondered miserably, when he found that she had abandoned
them? Would there be another terrible war? If there was, it would be all her
fault, and she began to cry as they walked. Shay patted her a little but would
not stop, though they were both exhausted and ill-shod. She stumbled in the mud
and bracken and began to shiver as her clothes were wet through by water shaken
from the saplings as they passed. Strange animal noises made her hang nervously
on Shay's arm, not sure he was strong enough to protect her. He couldn't walk
that way, so he disengaged her clutching fingers and made her walk behind him.
This small rejection brought a fresh flood of tears that lasted many steps, but
when she was all cried out and trudging blind and numb behind Shay's rhythmic
limp, it came to her in a flash of light that of course, she could give the
peace message anyway, in her own words. It was going to be all right, she
thought, and a spring crept into her step.
They emerged from the woods as dawn seeped redly into the eastern
clouds. The shelters looked large and smooth and clean now to Bridget, compared
with where she'd been. She took a deep breath and started toward them, but Shay
hung back, shaking his head. "It's all right," she told him. "I'll tell them
you're my friend...." But he would not listen, and she finally let go of his
hand, saying a reluctant goodbye-and-thanks as he turned.
There was a shout from the shelter behind her and the flash of an
energy weapon; Bridget screamed as Shay fell, stunned, and her father came
running out to grab her up roughly in his arms. "It's all right now, Bridget, we
got the little bastard."
Torn between the love in his first words and the cruelty in the rest,
Bridget froze for a moment, then clawed her way free to bounce on the springy
turf and into her mother's arms, at the same time pulling toward Shay, who was
already manacled by Mr. Hanlon. "Stop it!" she cried helplessly, grasping at
Shay's coarse tunic. "Mam, make them stop it!"
"We've found her, Fitzhugh," Father said as the cap leader joined
them. "And Jamie here has located their camp; we can attack in an hour, before
they have a chance at the other children."
Mr. Fitzhugh made a sign at Mr. Hanlon, and Shay was released to
tumble at Bridget's feet. She crouched down next to him and watched Mr. Fitzhugh
turn toward her father.
"Looks more to me like she found you."
"Ah, she's not light; she'd brought us a hostage, I'd say, and we'd be
stone mad to let the chance slip by."
Bridget tried to object, but her mother shushed her, though her own
hands were tense with anger on Bridget's shoulders.
"I didn't want to live up here, but now that I have I'm damned if I'll
live in fear," her father finished.