"Sheri S. Tepper - Awakeners 2 - Southshore" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tepper Sherri)

Pamra stared at her, awareness coming to her suddenly, her face paling. "Neff,"
she cried. "Neff!"
"Shhh," said Elina. "Shhh. There is no need to cry out."
"Neff! Where is he?"
Trale came from the refectory, joining them, taking Pamra's other arm. Wearily,
pointedly, with a resigned look at Elina, he said, "Your visions wait for you
outside. They cannot come into a Jarb House."
Pamra drew herself up, regally tall, becoming someone else. "Truth cannot exist
in this place, can it, Mendicant? Light cannot come here? Only darkness and
smoke?''
He shook his head. "All yourтАФall your friends are waiting for you. Come now.
There is food waiting, also."
She shook her head at them, pityingly, but allowed them to take her to the place
where Peasimy stood impatiently with the others, all standing beside their chairs,
waiting for her to be seated; then all waiting until she began eating. She nodded at
the others, saying, "Eat quickly, my friends. We must leave this place."
"Dark comes?" asked Peasimy, glaring at the Mendicants. "Pamra?"
She shook her head. "They are not evil, Peasimy. They are only misled." She had
been hungry, but now she began to toy with the food before her, obviously
impatient to be gone. Elina laid a hand upon her shoulder, tears in the comers of
her eyes. "Pamra! Courtesy! 'Neff is not impatient." Pamra took a bite, chewed it
slowly, watching them with that same pitying gaze. Now she knew what had been
missing since she had entered the house. Neff, and Delia, and her mother. Them
and their voices. Gone. As though they had never been except in her memory. Did
these poor smoke-blinded fools think she would let them go? Though she could
not see them in this smoky haze, the center of her being clung to what she knew

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 SOUTHSHORE-Awakeners 2


to be true. TheyтАФ they were true. Neff was true. She took another bite, smiled at
Peasimy and encouraged him to eat.
From the side of the room, Trale watched, eyes narrowed in concentration. Elina
came toward him. "She did not make the connection with her own condition at
all."
"Oh, yes. She knows what we tried to do. But she has rejected it."
"Why, Trale?"
"Because her madness is all she has. Whatever else there might have been once
has been taken away. Whatever else there might be in the future seems shoddy in
comparison. Who would wed a man when one might wed an angel? Who would
live as a woman when one might rule as a goddess?"
"We could keep her here by force."
"Setting aside that we would break all our vows, yes. We could."
"In time, she would forget."
"Ah."
"She would grow accustomed."
"Elina."
"Yes, Trale."
"Clip the flame-bird's wings if you must, Elina. Set it among your barnyard fowl.