"Shirley Meier & S. M. Stirling - Fifth Millenium 05 - Shadow's Son" - читать интересную книгу автора (Meier Shirley)

in the middle of winterтАФтАЭ
тАЬWell, Zoweitzum on that!тАЭ ShkaiтАЩra broke in.
тАЬSheтАЩs my daughter-of-choice and I donтАЩt want to see her get her brains spattered on an Arkan
warhammer by mischance or mistake.тАЭ
A sigh. Sova could almost see the shrug. тАЬRight. Right. ItтАЩs your part of parenting. So she stays here,
safe in school.тАЭ
тАЬItтАЩs because I love her, akribhan. Books and stability are what I think she needsтАФespecially after
what happened.тАЭ
тАЬNow, donтАЩt start that againтАФтАЭ
тАЬAll right, love. But dragging her all over the Midworld is a hurt I donтАЩt want to add to the others.
The tea water must be boiling now.тАЭ
Their footsteps faded into the kitchen. Fishhook mewed and launched off SovaтАЩs shoulder, gliding
down the hall in front of her, to thump, a bit of orange fluff, in front of her chamber door. The girl
followed slowly.

There was a stuffed bear, Sova thought. His brown fur was worn mostly off on his rump, one of
his bead eyes was missing. Franc said I chewed it off when I was a baby, but I think he was lying
just to annoy me ... well, I guess I might have. Babies do that sort of thing. Yesterday little Ness
had eaten a sow-bug, before anyone could stop her. Yesterday, just after Zhymata Megan and
Khyd-hird ShkaiтАЩra had left to seek Lixand.
Sova felt her blade whip through the air with easy ripping speed, saw her wrists, thickened with long
daily practice, and a little veined, like khyd-hirdтАЩs or a manтАЩs. To do as smooth a cut in sparring as I
can going through the First Nine Cuts; thatтАЩs the hard part. When she looked in the mirror now, she
saw cheekbones and a sharp chin where before there had once been round baby-fat. IтАЩm becoming a
woman. Those lumps on her chest, they were no longer pretenses, but breasts, proper breasts, shaped
like a womanтАЩs. One day she had noticed her hips and legs were no longer the slightly-fleshed
stick-bones of childhood, but flared and curved, as sheтАЩd imagined when trying to see herself grown-up
in her old motherтАЩs big mirror.
But her arms and shoulders had bulges that had never been part of the mirror-picture; the arms and
shoulders of a teenage boy, it seemed to her, somehow glued onto the trunk of a maiden.
The bearтАЩs name was Dof. Mooti wanted to throw him away. тАЬMy daughter shouldnтАЩt have
such ragged old things! WeтАЩll get you a new bear.тАЭ And they did, but he wasnтАЩt Dof. I hid him, and
brought him out to cuddle when she wasnтАЩt looking.
тАЬKeep your mind on what youтАЩre doing, girl!тАЭ Shyll called, watching her with the eyes he had in the
back of his head, while he went through his own drill. While khyd-hird was gone, heтАЩd taken over her
war-training. тАЬAre you going to daydream while youтАЩre in a fight? Then you mustnтАЩt now.тАЭ
She allowed herself one last stray thought, before narrowing her concentration to the one steely path.
I wonder what happened to him, when the mob went through the house? Just an old stuffed bear,
not worth anything, no one would want himтАФburned.
Once I was naked, in front of a crowd of Zak ... No, donтАЩt think about that, she told herself.
Nothing undoes the past. But somehow, if she woke in the dead of night before dawnтАФwhy do I wake
then? I never used toтАФshe couldnтАЩt make her thoughts go where she wanted them to, or not go where
she didnтАЩt. Sometimes it came because she was half-dreaming, making things happen that werenтАЩt only
horrible but strange; sometimes when she was fully awake, she couldnтАЩt control her thoughts, as if the
dark of night leeched away her power over her own mind.

I wonтАЩt remember. The day, blindingly sunny, the cold wind full of the smells of harbor, and sea
beyond. The crowd that had gathered, having heard the news on the street or in inns; they all hate us.
That was usual, but today it was unusually naked on the small Zak faces. Fater, Mooti, Francosz, her, the
servants, all wore their festival best on the draped dais. Fatted cattle; in hindsight it looked that way.