"Lois Tilton - Avatar" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tilton Lois)

peoples, I am War in my own right. But in this place, in Rhylios, War was two, the
brother-sister consorts Enyo and Enyalios, wargod and goddess. There must be two
once again.
 "The Enyalios you saw die was only an incarnation," I explained. "War itselfтАФall
the godsтАФare immortal. War can be incarnate here againтАж in you."
"I?" he choked.
"You are the King, the god-descended, aren't you? Whom offers up the sacrifices
for your city? Who else could your people accept?"
He still held back, and I frowned impatiently, but then caught sight of my
reflection in his polished bronze corselet.
My face was War's. Eyes like lightning flashed from behind my helmet, its fierce
black crest tossing. And AlektryonтАФfrom his face it was as if he had just been told
he was to couple with a gorgon.
I pulled the helm off, shook out my hair, dimmed the flashing of my eyes. Then I
recalled the king's chariot being led away from the battle, the way the captains made
their plans without consulting their lord. I reached out a hand to touch the softness
of his young beard and asked, "You are a man, are you not, King of Rhylios?"
His young pride was touched then, and he lifted up his eyes directly to meet mine.
"Man enough to be father of a son."
"Here, then," I said, "help me with this," as I started to unbuckle the rest of my
armor. I felt strange without the weight of it, my godlight extinguished. And as I held
out my leg so he could unfasten the buckle of my greaves, I was not totally
unmindful that the gesture exposed the long white length of my thigh.
Aphrodite, too, was the consort of War, of Ares, the mother of his dread sons.
That, too, had I been, as War was worshipped in the city of Menelaos. Other
incarnations, other names, were all growing dim. I was not eternal War now, standing
before Alektryon, wearing nothing but a linen chiton.
Only this place, this time existed, as I reached for the buckles of his own armor. I
was flesh, as I must be, to couple with a mortal.
He hesitated still, as I pulled him down to me. "HowтАж what will happen?" His
voice was shaking. He feared to lose his whole self to the god.
"When the time comes, the power of War will overcome you. The godlight will be
in your eyes, and your people will recognize it. The things you do then, you may not
remember clearly. It will seem like a dream, afterwards, when you return to yourself."
Then I added, summoning all of the Aphrodite that was in me, "Can it be so
unpleasant, to couple with a goddess?"
And it must have been sufficient.
It was not as it had been with Enyalios, with rapacious War. I could remember,
but only dimly, the violence of those couplings.
"Lady," Alektryon murmured; and, as his flesh responded to mine, we could feel
the power of War move within us, and we were one, again.
"You know," he said when the godlight had dimmed, "I never loved war before.
My captains claimed I was too young to command, too inexperienced. And today
they held me back from the fighting. My first battle. I don't knowтАж"
"When the time comes," I assured him, "you will know that you are War."
"I don't feel like a god," he said, smiling at me shyly.
I laughed with him. "I feel now as if I had never been a goddess before. Truly.
Each incarnation is a renewal. I am War, yes, but this time a part of me is yours."
And I knew then that I was no longer the city-sacker in this incarnation.
We dressed, and I armed myself. "You will have other armor," I told Alektryon.