"Janet Morris - Silistra 3 - Wind from the Abyss" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morris Janet E)

him, He stared at me, his head slightly cocked. I remembered my humiliation,
that he would not even deign to use me, that he cared not even enough to check
on the growth of his child in my belly.
I laid my hand upon his forearm, upon the copper, silky hairs there. His skin,
a reddish gold, was shades lighter than mine, and the glow upon it was more
pronounced.
"Khys," I whispered, "keep me with you, please. I will be whatever you want.
Just give me time." I did not look at him. Tears I had, thought long spent
came and drowned me. "I love you," I blurted, miserable, not understanding.
And he pulled me up beside him, and in those arms I poured out my pain to him,
my confusion, my doubts. I begged him to explain why I wore the band upon my
neck. I pleaded for my past, or some way he might know to make me whole
without it. And I asked him of the child, and why it had been such a curse
while residing in my womb.
WIND FROM THE ABYSS
17
He said nothing, until I had finished, dry of words and tears both.
"I will discuss it with you," he allowed, still holding me. "I am not prone to
patience, I will speak of these things once, only. You will never ask me
again."
I nodded, my head pressed against his chest, where his copper hair grew thick.
"First the band. When and if you show signs of emotional stability, we will
consider removing it. When you were progressing so well, those first passes, I
had thought we might have done so by now."
"It was the child, and the pain from its growth," I whispered.
"And it was you who chose to experience your pregnancy as you did. Another
woman would have, perhaps, enjoyed it, loved the child, and cried when it was
taken from her. Still another might have filled her time with study, or some
creative work. Females have been bearing young for thousands upon thousands of
years."
I pulled away from him. He looked at me narrow-eyed.
"I am not insulting you. I am going to explain something to you. You were, so
to speak, born anew two years ago. You still gather the experiential
perspectives most acquire when they are babies. тАв You could not get them from
lying, hungry, denied mother's milk. You could not get them, learning to walk.
You still gather the experiential perspectives; those upon which adult
behavior must be based. Wait!" he snapped, as I sought to interrupt him. I sat
back upon my heels.
"You wear the band. It is my will that you con-;tinue to wear it. If it
pleases you to feel that you are unjustly marked by it, then feel so. The
fore-readers in common holding did not ostracize you of the band. Where there
are women, there
18
Janet E. Morris
WIND FROM THE ABYSS
19
are great stores of information. I am sure they know all about you. You are
not common-held. You come from the outside, but are complexioned as a blood
princess among them. And those women from outside, perhaps rightly, hate the
superior lake-breds. When I allowed it, I was sure you would not stay. I