"Brust,.Steven.-.To.Reign.In.Hell" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brust Steven)

itself.

Some of the new ones are destroyed even as they come into
existence. The first one, alone of the Seven, notices this and is
saddened by it.

The sixth one is suddenly overborne. She cries in pain as her
shape begins to slip away, but the fourth one comes to her aid.
She remains alive, but her form is changed now, into something
long and powerful. She creates water around herself, and it
soothes her. She feels she should rejoin the battle, but as her
head clears the water, she sees peace around her, and four walls,
and more than three hundred angels who hadn't been there before.
She realizes that, for now, it is over again. She dives to the bottom
so that none can hear her cries of anguish.

The first one hears anyway, and sends to her aid the fifth one, who
heals her wounds and soothes her, though her shape cannot be
restored to her.

But she has the capacity to be happy with what is. She learns to
enjoy the water, and life goes on.

Thrumb thrumb thrumb.

The Regent of the West heard it, distantly, through leagues of
water, and recognized it at once.

Thrumb thrumb thrumb.

She rolled over, dived, and headed for it, her tail flipping and her
enormous eyes alight.

Thrumb thrumb thrumb.

She broke the water and he was there—very dark, small, stooped,
seated on a rock along the southeastern shore of her Regency.
His head was covered with a small hat, narrow brimmed and of
dark grey. His eyes were covered by a brown bandage, almost
matching his skin. In his lap was a device made of mahogany from
the forests of Lucifer. It was strung with silk wrapped over fine
steel.

He heard her approach, and he began humming along with his
playing. His fingers moved as fast as the Emerald of Satan, as his
lips emitted a string of nonsense sounds that took her back to the
brief moments before the Second Wave, when she had been
whole and healthy, yet not aware of it.

She waited, perfectly still, and let voice and instrument transport