"Benjamin Rosenbaum - Embracing The New" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rosenbaum Benjamin)

The green stone was a miracle. On a calm blue day a
month later, with whorls of fog skating across the ground and
drifting into the sky, Vru stood in the sculpting pit of
Khancriterquee's compound, before the monolith brought
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 Embracing-The-New
by Benjamin Rosenbaum


from the mines. Carving it was like a dream of power; it sang
under his claws and under the hammer and file in his holding-
hands.
For the last weeks he had returned to the dormitory only
for the evening meal and to sleep. This work was altogether
different from the work of making copies of the gods.
Khancriterquee had been right; until now, Vru had never been
a godcarver, only a copyist. Now, a new god was taking
shape beneath his claws.
When Vru looked at the new god, he felt like he had a
thousand Ghennungs, with memories as old as the
Ghennungs of the Oracle. He would never, himself, poor
castle-builder's ninth son, dare to sculpt anything so shocking
and so true. It was a god working through him, he knew, but
not Delighting-In-Beauty; a new god, a god only he knew,
was using his claws to birth itself into the green stone.
The god, he had decided, was called Embracing-the-New.
It was a terrible and wonderful statue. In it, a person naked
of Ghennungs, like one of the Bereft or a banished criminal,
stooped to touch a Ghennung upon the ground with his claw:
gently, a caress. Vru knew that in the next moment, the
person would take up the Ghennung in his holding-hands and
bring it to his chest; the Ghennung would sink its fangs into
him, finding blood and nerves; and the sweet rush of
memories would burn into the person's consciousness: the
first thoughts, the new identity.
Vru looked down at his holding-hands; they were shaking.
He did not feel tired; he felt like singing. But it had been


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 Embracing-The-New
by Benjamin Rosenbaum


twenty-nine hours since he had rested. He could not risk a
mistake.
He pulled a cloth over the god, and walked up the trail
towards the dormitory. As he left the sculpting pit, the