"Joel Rosenberg - Hidden Ways 3" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rosenberg Joel C)

 Hidden Ways 3.htm



She added the truffle to her basket and considered for a moment whether or not to follow the ring. The next truffle should be
over... there.

Let it lie, she decided. If she sliced them paper thin, as she preferred, there were more than enough to line the skin of the goose
that was, even now, hanging from the meat-hook in the cottage she shared with the Thunderer, and even a few to pop into the drip
cup of fat, to sizzle and smoke for a few moments, before she would pop them in her mouth.

Again, thunder rang out. Arnie's explanation was that he had seen three Vandestish patrols out this way in recent weeksтАФand,
quite certainly, he had: her sharper eyes had spotted sevenтАФand that it was only reasonable to show a little force, to make the sky
rumble a trifle and the land shake ever so slightly, if only to remind them who was who, and what was what.

That was the truth, and nothing but the truth, but it was not the whole truth.

She grinned.

It was the way of women in general and a fertility goddess in particular to understand that men, be they ephemerals or gods, really
never stopped being boys. She had seen this sort of thing for the first time when the world was young, and more times than she
cared to count since, but it still amused her.

A boy with a new toy was always the same, whether it was a toddler with a pair of round stones that he had just discovered made a
delightful crack! when slammed together, or a pubescent young boy with his first real orgasm, or a man in his sixties who found
that he was one who could wield Mjolnir, Murderer of Miscreants.

Boys: they had to play with their toys.

The wind picked up. Winter was coming.

She picked up her basket and hurried up the road to the cottage.

Winter was coming. Perhaps even the Fimbulwinter? Not yet, she thought. Not yet. Freya shivered, but not from the cold. Please.
Not yet.




Part One


HARDWOOD, NORTH DAKOTA
AND
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 Hidden Ways 3.htm