"Tepper, Sheri S - A Plague Of Angels - plangel4" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tepper Sherri)

"Did your Hero survive?" His Wisdom asked Oracle and Drowned Woman, who were huddled together over their teacups.
"We don't know," said Oracle. "Someone said they're tending their own wounded, but no one has come to say who lived and who died."
"Ah," said His Wisdom. "And what of Bear and Coyote and our other talkative friends, Tom?"
Tom shrugged and replied wearily, "I don't know, sir. Give me a minute, and I'll go find out."
In a bleak voice Arakny said, "When the battle ended, I went down to speak with Wide Mountain Mother, and she told me Black Owl is dead. Oily and Abasio knew him." She did not speak of the other wounded or dead, many of whom she herself knew well.
At her mention of Oily and Abasio, a tiny ripple of movement ran through the group: pained shifts and glances, compressed lips, a wiping of sudden tears. Oily was gone, and Abasio had been killed at the foot of the wall.
"I was amazed to see giants fighting on our side," murmured Oracle to no one in particular. "I had not foreseen such a thing."


404 Sheri S. Tepper

"I don't think they were fighting on our side out of any sense of conviction or alliance," said Tom, half-angrily. "I think they were just doing what Griffin told them to do."
"Orphan told me a little story about a griffin, a long time ago," mused Burned Man. "Remember, Oracle?"
She shook her head, unable or unwilling to remember, stubbornly going on with her train of thought. '~I had not thought there were so many monsters abroad upon the earth."
"There were caverns full of them in the deep," said Tom. "Werra's creatures from the time of legend. His Wisdom tells me such things are not allowed to die or become extinct. The pattern for them remains. Werra had freed some of them before he died, to build their numbers upon earth, but
before Olly left, she must have decided to turn them all loose.""You say they were Werra's creatures?"
"Werra's," confirmed old Seoca. "All the legendary creatures, part beast, part demon, part divine. Designed to illustrate the unity of life and destiny. And man started with them well enough. He had man stories and women stories and animal stories, man gods and woman gods and beast gods. But~ over time, only the rutting rooster gods survived."
"Cock-a-doodle," whispered Oracle sadly. "Crouch, you hens." "Speaking of creatures," said Drowned Woman in a surprised voice, think one of them is coming here." She pointed out across the parapet, over the canyons, where a great winged thing, so distant it looked no larger than an eagle, was approaching them from the east.
"Griffin," said Tom needlessly, for there was no mistaking that lionlegged, heavily maned form.
They watched silently as it flew toward them, as it rose above them and folded its wings to drop down upon the parapet, holding its wings high, the long ribs vertically together behind its head so all they could see of it was its head, mane, and frontquarters, like some great heraldic escutcheon. It regarded them severally, then individually, peering at them one by one as though taking roll. Only His Wisdom seemed totally at ease before this scrutiny.
"Not eating you," said the Griffin at last, as it had said to Oily in the long ago, when she was only a child.
"I know," said the old man. ~'You have fought a good fight today, great one."
"A forced alliance, but necessary," said the Griffin, leaning sidewise to whet its beak against the parapet, one edge, then the other, with a sound like steel on a grindstone. "There will be other battles in future times, me and my kin, both close and distant. Now is our time come again."
"Yes," intoned the old man, as though it were ritual. "Now are scttt


A PLAGUE OF ANGELS 405

monsters and heroes abroad upon the earth; now are sent the inhabitants of faery and the beings qffable; now a new age of legends is ushered in."
"Now have the thrones brought balance once more," said Griffin, as in response. "Now they may rest."
The old man gave the Griffin a thoughtful look. "I wonder if perhaps you have brought us a gift?"
"A gift, yes," said the Griffin. "In part payment for one little gift returned to me long ago." Slowly, it lowered its wings to disclose the man who sat dazedly within the glistening mane. Drowned Woman cried out, and Farmwife Suttle. Burned Man and old Cermit added to the babble, along with Qualary and Tom. Only the old man and Oracle were quiet as Abasio slid from the Griffin's shoulders onto the parapet.
"I saw you slain!" cried Tom to Abasio. "Struck down!"
"They said you were dead, boy!" cried Cermit.
"I got pulled out," muttered Abasio, looking around him with searching eyes. "At the last possible moment." He stared into old Seoca's face, fixing him with his gaze. "Where's Oily?"
The old man shook his head, said softly, "You know where she is, Abasio Cermit."
"No!" He denied it. "No, that was just a bit-part player. Dressed in Olly's clothes. Saying Olly's words in her voice. Oily didn't~idn't--you wouldn't have let her go!"
Silence. All of them still, waiting for the reply.
The old man sighed. "Abasio. If the price of a gem is a golden crow, can you buy it for a black-penny? Is all life upon this world so shoddy a thing that it may be bought for a worthless automaton?"
"She didn't!" Abasio cried. "She wouldn't have left me! She couldn't have!" And then, seeing the old man's face, "But she's coming back!"
No answer. Abasio backed up until he was pressed tight against the parapet, feeling his knees buckle. He huddled against the parapet wall, his head moving from side to side in constant negation, saying over and over again, "No. No. No."

Arakny went to Abasio, put her arms around him, and held him. Drowned Woman looked at him sorrowfully, thinking how familiar he looked. Was he indeed her son, as some said?
"Where did they go?" demanded Originee Suttle, tears of anger and pity in the corners of her eyes. "Really?"
Oracle answered, "I prophesied for them. I always tell the truth. Those who hear must interpret, of course." She looked down, her mouth twisting. "People always believe what they want to believe."


406 Sheri S. Tepper

Arakny held out her hand, invoking silence. "But what of that prophecy? Olly's seven questions. Did she answer them?"