"Laura Resnick - Curren's Song" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Laura)

"Don't you _want_ the voices to stop?"
His face clouded. But he sounded more weary than angry when he said,
"Go away, Aithne."
"No!"
"Go home."
"No! I want to stay with you."
"No, you want to make me like the others. Why don't you just settle for
one of them?"
"No, I want you to be only like yourself. But I'm afraid for you,
Curren! I have been ever since _they_ started calling you to them." She waved
toward the water. "You think I don't know how they're tempting you? You wear
the look on your face that my father wears before he mates with my mother. You
wear the look of a man who wants to marry! But _what_ will you marry, Curren?"
"Be quiet!"
"An ancient monster from a dead race of creatures that belonged to a
world that disappeared long before the Old Ones built the stone circles?"
"Go away!"
"Curren! This is madness!"
He hit her. She had never thought he would do such a thing. No matter
how his eyes glittered when he looked at his brothers or the king, they had
always been soft when he looked at her. His hands, his voice, his smile had
always been so gentle. But now he struck her with a fury that knocked her to
the ground. She put a hand to her bloodied lips and turned away from him,
curling herself into a little ball. She had never loved before, would never
love again. How could he not see the gifts she offered him? What did he hear
that drew him away from her?
She lay there for a long time, unwilling to leave him, unable to look
at him. Finally, when the sun had passed over her shoulder and cheek and began
to die softly against her back, she heard him gasp, a sound of mingled fear
and joy. As she rolled to face him, he scrambled to his feet and stood staring
out over the water.
"Curren?"
His whole body was rigid with tension, his gaze fixed in the distance,
his expression alight with wonder. "They've come for me."
"What?" Terror made her bones liquid as she clumsily struggled to her
knees and squinted into the distance to see what held his gaze. "_No!"_
The creature was as big as Curren's description. Its neck alone was as
long as two full grown men, and the body which stretched out behind it, though
mostly hidden by water, was much larger than any boat or building Aithne had
ever seen.
"No! Curren, come away!" she urged, horrified into motion. He resisted
her insistent tugging and stood transfixed as the monster peered at them
across the water.
Though the creature's head appeared small and flat from this distance,
Aithne guessed that it was easily twice her size. The eyes were like slits,
and Aithne could see no warmth or welcome in them, despite the excitement
which vibrated throughout Curren's body as she tried to drag him away.
"They want me, they want me," he murmured ecstatically. "They _know_."
"No, you mustn't, you mustn't!" she babbled, chilled anew as she
realized his intent. "Curren, please!"