"Sean McMullen - Rule of the People" - читать интересную книгу автора (McMullen Sean)

"He's in for a shock, girl," he said as he scratched Tag behind the ears. "He's been too long at Oxford,
with all those Classics professors."
***
 Among the ancient entities who now made their home in Melbourne, several had befriended Julia. The
newly arrived Thetis was a fellow shapeshifter, and as such was drawn to her in particular.
"You simply must come down to the Confederate ship," she insisted as they sat in the parlour of Julia's
inn. "We're sure to get aboard."
"The Shenandoah is a warship," replied Julia, shaking her head. "They will not let us aboard."
"Ah, but they say an army marches on its stomach, and Mrs. Lidel, Miss Parkinson and Miss Wilsham
all have picnic hampers filled with fruit and home made pastries, just the things that sailors simply could
not resist after so many months of sea and fighting. I have cakes from my shop, I was baking them all
yesterday evening."
"Well and good, but why do you need me?"
"Well, because you're American. The sound of a familiar accent will tug at their hearts, Miss Julia.
Please come with us."
Reluctantly, and against her better judgement, Julia agreed to go with Thetis. As they rode in her pony
trap through the streets of Melbourne the Nereid linked arms with Julia.
"I've often wondered, ah, well you know, about what you can do?" Thetis asked circuitously.
Julia glanced at her face, but there seemed to be no guile there.
"My limited shapeshifting?" asked Julia, as direct as ever.
"Well, one might say yes."
"The Shapemaster taught me the skill. I bound him at his obligation time and made my demand. That
demand was to learn shapeshifting."
"But you are of base elements, and a mortal. No part of you is made fluid by human belief."
"I may be a mortal, Thetis, but I am a raptor too. My flesh is made malleable by vitality from the
undead."
"I was at the beach yesterday," Thetis confessed. "I saw you feeding that seal. Was it another of us,
Proteus perhaps?"
Julia laughed out aloud. "Oh no. The seal is a cabin boy named Jamie who murdered his captain
almost a quarter century ago. I had befriended him a little before that and... educated him. He forced the
Shapemaster to help him escape."
"A mortal take advantage of the Shapemaster?" Thetis giggled. "I thought he would have just turned
him into another of his dog pack."
"Jamie is a clever lad. As a seal he vanished into the sea and escaped the constables."
"But surely he is not still Jamie," Thetis pointed out. "Seal flesh would smother what is human in him
within a month."
"Not so. Ever since then I have fed him scraps of human flesh so that his humanity flickers on."
"Goodness! So you have done that since, ah, 1843?" exclaimed Thetis.
"That I have."
"You must be in love."
Julia blushed. "Ridiculous. He was fifteen when he changed! He's been a seal ever since, and well,
look at me."
Julia was ageing. She was very pretty and had a figure that even Thetis admired, but she was still in
middle age.
"The undead know I am here, Thetis. They don't come to Melbourne any more, yet I cannot leave
Jamie to go hunting overseas. He has tried attacking fishermen and sealers for the taste of human flesh,
but that is dangerous. He has been shot twice, and I fear for his safety."
"Ah, such a sweet romance," sighed Thetis, who had fancied herself as a romantic since arriving in
Melbourne. "No, say what you will, Julia, yours is a romance such as the world has not seen since Troy
fell to the allure of one woman's face."