"Octavia E. Butler - Bloodchild" - читать интересную книгу автора (Butler Octavia E)

Who else would he mean?"He said T'Khotgif.'"

Qui shuddered."If she had done that to me, she'd be the last person I'd call for."

"You'd call for her. Her sting would ease your pain without killing the grubs in you.

"You think I'd care if they died?"

No. Of course he wouldn't. Would I?

"Shit!"He drew a deep breath."I've seen what they do. You think this thing with Lomas was bad? It was nothing."

I didn't argue. He didn't know what he was talking about.

"I saw them eat a man,"he said.

I turned to face him."You're lying!"

"I saw them eat a man."He paused."It was when I was little. I had been to the Hartmund house and I was on my way home. Halfway here, I saw a man and a Tlic and the man was N'Tlic. The ground was hilly. I was able to hide from them and watch. The Tlic wouldn't open the man because she had nothing to feed the grubs. The man couldn't go any further and there were no houses around. He was in so much pain, he told her to kill him. He begged her to kill him. Finally, she did. She cut his throat. One swipe of one claw. I saw the grubs eat their way out, then burrow in again, still eating."

His words made me see Lomas's flesh again, parasitized, crawling."Why didn't you tell me that?"I whispered.

He looked startled as though he'd forgotten I was listening."I don't know."

"You started to run away not long after that, didn't you?"

"Yeah. Stupid. Running inside the Preserve. Running in a cage."

I shook my head, said what I should have said to him long ago."She wouldn't take you, Qui. You don't have to worry."

"She would . . . if anything happened to you."

"No. She'd take Xuan Hoa. Hoa . . . wants it."She wouldn't if she had stayed to watch Lomas.

"They don't take women,"he said with contempt.

"They do sometimes."I glanced at him. Actually, they prefer women. You should be around them when they talk among themselves. They say women have more body fat to protect the grubs. But they usually take men to leave the women free to bear their own young."

"To provide the next generation of host animals,"he said, switching from contempt to bitterness.

"It's more than that!"I countered. Was it?

"If it were going to happen to me, I'd want to believe it was more, too.

"It is more!"I felt like a kid. Stupid argument.

"Did you think so while T'Gatoi was picking worms out of that guy's guts?"

"It's not supposed to happen that way."