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

Lake of Horns.
Make ready, indeed, I thought, combing my hair. I had only the white,
sleeveless s'kim I wore; thigh-length, of simple web-cloth. My jewelry was the
band of restraint at my throat. I retied the garment upon my hips. Throwing my
hair back, I regarded myself in my prison's mirrored wall. My body,
copper-skinned, lithe, only shades lighter than my thick mane, postured at me,
arrogant. I had thought, for a time, that the he-beast had destroyed it, but
such had not been the case. Exercise had given its grace and firmness back to
me. My legs are very long, my waist tiny, hips slim. Pregnancy had altered me
little. My breasts were still high and firm, my belly flat and tight. Good
enough for him, surely. I widened my eyes suggestively, then
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Janet E. Morris
stuck my tongue out at her. She made a face back. I grinned and wondered why I
had done so, turning from that wall that ever showed me the boundaries of my
world.
At the window, I waited, looking out upon the eastern horn of the lake. The
fall flames of Brinar, harvest pass, fired the forest. The grass was losing
its battle, browning. Hulions and forereaders and Day-Keepers strolled between
the tusk-white buildings that circle the Lake of Horns like some wellwoman's
necklace. The green lake was calm and still, wearing the sky's clouds for
masquerade.
Angry, was he? I did not care. I cared no more for him than that he-beast he
had put upon me. I would not care.
I had cared very much, once. He had been kind to me that first night. I had no
recollection of other men before him, though surely there had been some. In my
lost past lay all that had occurred before I came to the Lake of Horns in
Cetet of '695, two years, two passes back. And I had cared for him, he who
first touched me, Khys.
He had told me he would do many things. He had done some. He had put on me a
son. He had seen to it that I was reeducated. I had been looked after, but not
by him. He had also said that someday the band of restraint I wore would be
removed from me, that I might explore my talents. That he had not done. After
the pregnancy, he had promised, when I lay near miscarriage by my own hand.
But no release had been given me after I birthed him his precious child,
I touched the warm, vibrating band at my throat. I hardly minded its
tightness. I could often forget that it was there. But its true significance I
could not forget. Khys had explained to me that I wore the band for my own
protection, lest the mindless-ness reach up again and take me. I had learned
otherwise.
WIND FROM THE ABYSS 9
Early in my pregnancy, when they still humored me, I had begged to be allowed
to stay with the forereaders in the common holding, that I might have the
company of womankind. Reluctantly, Carth had agreed.
I had sent for him to take me back, weeping, upon the third day. Among the
forereaders, I was an outcast. Those born at the Lake of Horns feel themselves
better than all others. My skin tone resembles theirs. Those who come from the
outside, or "Barbaria," as the Lake-born call it, are an even tighter group. I
fit neither. And I was the dharen's alone. They were jealous, commonheld. Or
so I thought, until I saw an angry dharener stride into the women's keep and