"Kim Wilkins - The Autumn Castle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilkins Kim)

bed, a drip in her arm and a monitor blithely blipping out the beats of her heart? What if these visions
were the result of horrific brain trauma, trauma that grew worse every second she was unconscious? Was
Jude there by her bedside, crying and praying for her to live? A panicked grief gripped her, and she
seized. Hilda's hand and said, "You must help me. I have to get home."

Hilda laughed. "You have to meet with the queen first." She was leading Christine down a paneled
hallway lined with closed doors.

"Then take me to her now."

"She's not expecting you for twenty minutes, girl."

"You don't understand," Christine said, stopping and taking Hilda by the shoulders. "I might die if I don't
get back."

"You look alive and well to me."

"But I'm not from this world. I belong somewhere else."

Hilda detached herself from Christine's pleading hands and propelled her firmly forward. "You will do as
the queen says. You are not sick and you will not die if you wait a mere twenty minutes."

"ButтАФ"

Hilda unlocked a door, bumped it open with her hip, and pulled Christine through. A mullioned window
was pushed open to reveal the autumnal landscape beyond, with the dying sunset beams diffused through
it. A table was laid with a wooden plate and a hunk of rough bread, and a tarnished silver cup.

"I'm really not hungry."

"I don't care. You will stay here, and you will eat, and I will return to fetch you when the queen tells me
to." Hilda slammed out of the room, and the lock clicked into place. Christine took deep breaths, trying
to calm herself. You don't even know if you believe in near-death experiences, so just get a grip.
This was merely a wild dream, wilder than usual because she had fainted. She lowered herself to the
floor, curled her arms around her knees, and screwed her eyes tight. "I want to wake up, I want to wake
up," she said, over and over, but nothing happened. Tears began to prick at her eyes and her skin
twitched. Pain or no pain, she just wanted to be back home with Jude.

For a long time she lay curled up on the floor, willing and willing herself to wake up from this
dreamтАФpreferably at home and not in a hospitalтАФwithout any success. Finally, footsteps approached
and Hilda unlocked the door. She saw that Christine hadn't touched the food and sniffed disapprovingly.

"I said I wasn't hungry," Christine said, springing to her feet.

She followed Hilda dutifully along the hall and into a steep spiral staircase; it wound unevenly up and up
in a windowed stone turret saturated with dusty twilight colors. At the top of the stairs, Hilda thrust
Christine ahead of her into a cool stone room. The round walls were hewn smooth and covered in lavish
tapestries. The floor was spread with thick rugs of dirty sheepskins that overlapped each other. Three
hard wooden chairs were arranged around a low wooden chest, topped with dripping candlesticks and a
large brass bear. The last rays of sunlight filtered in through windows made of dozens of tiny