"Linda Nagata - Old Mother" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nagata Linda)

upon them.

Clay yanked their bound hands up with the offering and the lion's maw flew open
like double doors slammed wide. Its red tongue lolled. It pounced upon the foil,
its jaws slamming shut bare millimeters from their fingertips. The offering
slipped out of their hands. The lion batted its brilliant green eyes and moved
on.

Asha sagged against Clay, a grin on her face and a sense of elation in her
heart. Across the pavilion Electra wore an expression that made her death adders
seem almost kind.

You have to do it," Stuart said seriously. "I've heard of that witch. She has a
lot of celebrity clients. They say she gives good advice." Like Asha, Stuart was
Cured. But he'd been on Maui only six months.

"Do it," Kemmy agreed. Another Cured, on her last month before eviction back to
the Celestial Cities. "Make the marriage official. You know you want to."

"But it won't work," Asha said softly. She glanced at Clay from under lowered
eyes . . . an unCured farmer rooted to his land. He'd said nothing since they'd
made their offering to the lion. He sat on the picnic bench, staring at their
bound hands clasped together on the table. Of the mixed emotions on his face,
worry was the one she recognized most clearly.

The euphoria of the dance had faded for her too, leaving behind only a great
hollow fear of the morning's reality. She bit her lip. "How can we do it?
Tomorrow -- no, it's already today -- today will be our last day together --"

Clay flinched. But Atlanta laughed. "What's tomorrow? Tomorrow may never come."

"For you," Asha whispered, knowing no one would hear over the surf. Atlanta was
unCured. Time was more uncertain for her. She'd lived near the beach at Makena
since she was seven and she'd go on living there until she'd used up all her
tomorrows and died of old age.

The Cured had made a different deal. They'd bought youth. Didn't cost much. Just
their land, their homes. Whatever bound them to Mother Earth. Cost calculated on
a sliding scale according to net worth. We turn no one down.

Youth, and a luxury apartment in the Celestial Cities. Fair enough, Asha
thought. Old Mother had no room for ageless geezers determined to live forever.
Asha reckoned they were lucky to get one year in ten in the cradle. But her year
was up. New Year's Day. Vacation over. Time to move on -without Clay. She'd
chosen Dragon, and if she ever came home again, it would not be in Clay's
lifetime.

She sighed deeply. To love a man who refused to take the Cure, who was as
tightly rooted to the Earth as the trees he tended on his grandmother's farm: it
was absurd, and yet it was. Until it all ended tomorrow.