"Michelle West - Winter Death" - читать интересную книгу автора (West Michelle)

part of all the losses she had faced.
And as she did, she opened her eyes to a dream. Heard the voice of the devourer,
all his voices, the cries of terror and emptiness.
Promise me, Kayla. Promise me you will stay and protect Riverend. Promise me.
I promise. I promise, Mother. I promise.
She forgot the cathedral, then. Forgot the lines of this stranger's face. She held
him, as if a storm raged just beyond her bent shoulders, her bowed back. She found
voice; she sang. She sang to him.
And the singing did what the words she had spokenтАФfor she was aware that
words had left her lips, aware that they were a failure before she had finished
speaking themтАФcould not.
Dark eyes turned to her; dark eyes saw her; the agony written and etched in
terrible lines across a gray face shifted as eyes she would have sworn couldn't grow
any wider, did.
He clung to her, his face made her breasts ache, her spine curved in until it was
almost painful just to sit, but she sat. She sat.
And the priest came.
She heard his voice at a distance. She heard his words as if they were spoken
from within her. He was praying. After a moment, she joined him, although she
didn't know the words that he spoke. Hers were as heartfelt, and they were all she
had to offer.
"Come home," she whispered, kissing the sweaty, damp strands of this stranger's
hair, stroking his face as if it were the fevered face of her eldest. "Come home."

Darius was waiting for her. Companions, it seemed, were not considered beasts
of burden in even the grandest of venues; he stood in the light of the windows as if
he were a dream. He walked forward slowly as the priest helped the man to his
feet.
:Kayla,: he said gravely. :What you did here was bravely done.:
"What did I do?" she whispered softly.
 :What you were born to do.:
The priest was staring at her. She turned to him and bowed. "IтАУI'm sorry," she
stammered. "ButтАФIтАФIтАФ"
He shook his head. "He came to this place seeking help. And you came to this
place offering aid that we could not offer. Do not apologize, child. ButтАФ"
She shook her head. "I don't know. I don't know whatтАФwhat I did."
"You saved him," the priest whispered. "I was so certainтАФ" He closed his eyes a
moment; she thought he might retreat into prayer again. But he shook himself free
of the words, and when he stood, she saw that he was over six feet tall, his
shoulders wide and broad. As her father's had once been, before the mines.
"There are others," he said after a moment. He turned and bowed to her
Companion. "She is your Chosen?"
The Companion nickered softly.
"But she wears no white, no gray. Child, can it be that you have not yet made
your journey to the Collegium?"
"IтАФno. I think we're on the way there."
"Might I askтАФif it's not too muchтАФthat you come to the infirmary?"
She looked at Darius. Darius was absolutely silent, as if he were adornment to the
statues, the windows, the altar of this place.
Her decision, then. She nodded.