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.He put his left foot on her right foot; gently, delicately hemoved her leg aside.He put his right foot on her left foot; gently,delicately he moved this leg aside.He knelt between her legs and put hishands on her thighs.She shivered as she felt fire slide into her flesh.Helooked at her, smiled.She cried out with pleasure, as if that smile werehands-touching her.He bent over her, his hands moving along her body; they leftstreams of red dust on her skin.His hands moved over her, stroking, rubbing, even pinch-ing where the smallsharp pains intensified her pleasure.When he finally pushed into her, thepain was briefly terri-ble, he burned her, wrenched her open, then she was onfire with a pleasure almost too intense to endure.It went on and on until shewas exhausted, too weary to feel anything more.He rose from her.She cried out, desolate.He stood beside her, his broadtender smile warmed her once more.As Geidranay had reached into the air fordiamonds, the Old Man Reborn Young reached up and plucked a square of finelinen from the shadowy air.He came back to her and pressed the cloth betweenher legs, catching the blood that came from the breaking of her hymen.He saton his heels and.folded the cloth into a small packet, the bloodstains hidden inside.He leanedover her, touched her left hand, laid the packet on her palm.Again he saidnothing, but she knew it was very very important that she keep the cloth safeand hidden, that she should never speak of it, not to Shahntien Shereor toMaksim, not even to her brother.He set his right hand flat on the ground beside her thigh.The dreampatternblanket was under her again.He stepped over her leg and squatted beside her,drew the fingers of his left hand from.her ankles to her waist, drew thefingers of his right hand from her waist to her shoulders and she was dressedagain.He snapped the fingers of his left hand, spread his hands; the laprobe hungbetween them.He laid it over her and smiled a last time, touched her cheek inPage 45ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmla tender valediction.And was gone.She slept.When she woke it was midmorning.The first day and the first nightwas done.4At fast she thought the events of the night were a dream, but when she movedher legs, she found she was still sore.The linen packet fell away when shesat up; she looked at the bloodstains for a long moment, then foldedit up again and put it in her rucksack.Feeling more than a littlelight-headed, she took the tin cup to the stream and filled it.She drank.Theliquid was merely cold water with the acrid green taste common to mostmountain streams.She remem-bered water flavored and scented withdiamonds, but that might have been something she did dream.She sipped at thewater and thought about sleeping.She wasn t supposed to sleep, she wassupposed to keep vigil.She didn t feel like worrying about her lapse.Afterfilling the cup once more, she carried it up the gentle slope to her blanketand set it on the grass by her foot.She looked around.The meadow space, was filled with stippled sun rays, the mistylight slanting through the dark needle-bunches on the upslope pines andcedars; there was no wind, the quiet was so thick she could feel it like thelaprobe pulled heavy and close against her skin.Her mind was weary; it washard to tie one word to another and make a phrase of them.She walked about alittle, her legs shaky.Her inner thighs felt sticky, the cloth of hertrousers clung briefly, broke away, clung again.She grimaced, disgust amustiness in her mouth.She stripped, dropped her clothing on the blanket andtook a twist of grass to the stream.She waded in.The water was knee-high,the cold was shocking.She shivered a moment, then gathered the will and wentto her knees.She gasped, then examined her thighs.She d bled copiously whichsur-prised her, but she didn t waste time worrying about that either.Shesplashed water over the stains, began scrubbing at them with the grass.Eachmove bounced her a little on the gravel lining the streambed, she felt thebumps against her knees and shins, the rubbing, but the cold was so numb-ingshe felt no pain until she climbed out of the water, put her clothes back onand warmed up a little.She grunted as she tried to fold her legs; the bruises and abrasions she dacquired in the stream made themsclves apparent, so she crossed her ankles andstraightened her back and began feeling her way into further meditation.Flies came from everywhere and swarmed around her; they settled on her andwalked on her hands and on her arms and on her legs, everywhere but her face;they were a mobile armor of jet and mica flakes, buzzing through a slowsurging dance up and around and down, black twig feet stomping over every inchof her.She sat and let this hap-pen.When the sun was directly overhead, thearmor un-wove itself and flew away.She sat.Something was happening inside her.She didn t understand anything,but she had fears she didn t want to think about.A one-legged woman stood under the trees across the stream.Vines grew out ofher shoulders and fell around her.There was emptiness on her left side; thevines swayed parted, unveiling nothing; the vines on her right side grew roundand round her single leg.She hopped.Stood still.Hopped again.The vinesbounced.Arms outspread, she began jumping up and down on the same spot,turning faster and faster as she hopped.Korimenei heard a whining sound likeall the flies singing in unison.The woman went misty and the mist wentspinning away into the dim green twilight under the trees.Korimenei considered this.She slid her hand up under her pullover and touchedthe place where the amethyst had seeped into her.Her skin was cool anddry; there was nothing to show it had really happened.She pulled herhand out, let it rest on the slight bulge of her belly; it seemed to her shecould feel a thing growing in her, growing with a speed that vaguely terrifiedher.She took her hand away, closed her eyes and began humming to herself.Page 46ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlAfter a while she plucked a song from Harra s Hoard, anOw song, and focused all of herself on it.Mound midafternoon another woman came slithering from the trees acrossthe stream.She was writhing on her stom-ach like a great white worm; herlegs were all soft from hip to toe; she had no toes, her legs ended in rattleslike those on a snake s tail.She reared up the forward half of her body anddanced with her arms and shoulders, shook her rattlefeet to make music for herdance.She had the polished ivory horns of a black buffalo, horns thatspread wider than the reach of her arms.Her face was broad, her nose andmouth stuck out like the muzzle of a flat-faced dog.Her ears were pointed andshifted independently, a part of her body-dance.The hair on her head was likeblack broomstraw and hung stiffly on either side of her face.The hair underher arms was rough and shaggy like seafern; it hung down her sides, lower thanthe flat breasts that slapped against her ribs.There was a terribleness abouther that rolled like smoke away from her, invisible emanations that filled theround meadow and squeezedKorimenei smaller and smaller.Before Korimenei shriveled quite away, the horned woman sank into the earthand was gone.The sun went down.Korimenei watched for Geidranay, but he didn t come thisdusk; she felt sad, lonely [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]