"Paul McAuley - The Book of Confluence 01 - Child of the River" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mcauley Paul J)

will find them, " Yama said.
"Perhaps they're still hiding here, " Derev said. Her neck
seemed to elongate as she turned her head this way and that
to peer into the darkness around the ruins. Her feathery hair
was brushed back from her shaven forehead and hung to the
small of her back. She wore a belted shift that left her long,
slim legs bare. A trident was slung over her left shoulder.
She hugged Yama and said, "Suppose we found them!
Wouldn't that be exciting?"
Yama said, "If they are stupid enough to remain near the
place they have just attacked, then they would be easy to
capture. We would need only to threaten them with our frogstickers
to force their surrender."
"My father says they make their women lie with animals




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to create monstrous warriors."
Ananda spat seeds and said, "Her father promised to pay
a good copper penny for every ten frogs we catch."
"Derev's father has a price for everything, " Yama said,
smiling.
Derev smiled too-Yama felt it against his cheek. She said,
"My father also said I should be back before the Galaxy
sets. He only allowed me to come here because I told him
that one of the Aedile's soldiers would be guarding us."
Derev's father was very tall and very thin and habitually
dressed in black, and walked with his head, hunched into his
shoulders and his white hands clasped behind him. From the
back he looked like one of the night storks that picked over
the city's rubbish pits. He was invariably accompanied by
his burly bodyservant; he was scared of footpads and the
casual violence of sailors, and of kidnapping. The latter was
a real threat, as his family was the only one of its bloodline
in Aeolis. He was disliked within the tight-knit trading corn-
munity because he bought favors rather than earned them,
and Yama knew that Derev was allowed to see him only
because Derev's father believed it brought him closer to the
Aedile.
Ananda said, "The soldier would be guarding something
more important than your life, although, like life, once taken




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