"Charles Stross - Duat" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stross Charles)

2: In the Duat




2: In the Duat

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[ Copyright ] [ Feedback ] Oshi Adjani was dreaming.

She dreamed that she opened her eyes. I can see, she thought. And it was a miracle, an
answered prayer.

Outside the open window the lizard-birds chittered angrily at each another. A gentle
susurration drifted from the marketplace so far below. Smells of cooking food and
aromatic spices tickled her nose, redolent of a dozen half-forgotten worlds. The sheets of
imported cotton scratched against her skin as she rolled over, fetching up against the
slightly yielding warmth of --

Ivan. She smelt his skin, a comforting musk that reminded her of other days, other
sharings, a respite from fear and a gaining of sight. "Wake up," she said, yawning. Her
eyes closed, her tongue stretching for the air between her white teeth: Ivan stirred, began
to roll onto his back, just as he always had.

"What time is it?" he asked.

"Daytime." The sun was rising in the west; below them, the city was bustling into life. She
opened her and looked down at him, feeling a misplaced sense of loss.

Ivan smiled up at her lazily. White irises, white teeth, the rest of him as deep a brown as
she had ever seen. He'd taken out his contacts, the ones she liked him to wear. "And is that
any reason to get up?" he asked. "Tell me, is it? Is it?"

"No." She pouted at him: his smile widened, ringing chords of d├йja vu in her dream.

"Hey, did I rattle your cage? Was it --" His eyes widened further and they weren't smiling
any more. What ... A gut-deep fear lit her bones up with cold fire, burning from the inside
out. ( This happens every night, every time I dream.) She tried to look round, to confront


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2: In the Duat

whatever he saw over her shoulder, because she knew she could protect him from it if she
could see it in time; but it was like staring into her blind spot. A zone that shimmered into