"Cherryh, C J - Cassandra" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cherryh C J)

And in the morning, with the scent of fire still in the air, they crept up into the murky daylight.
The ruins were still and hushed. The ghost-buildings were solid now, mere shells. The wraiths were gone. It was the fires themselves that were strange, some true, some not, playing above dark, cold brick, and most were fading.
Jim swore softly, over and over again, and wept.
When she looked at him she was dry-eyed, for she had done her crying already.
And she listened as he began to talk about food, about leaving the city, the two of them. "All right," she said.
Then clamped her lips, shut her eyes against what she saw in his face. When she opened them it was still true, the sudden transparency, the wash of blood. She trembled, and he shook at her, his ghost-face distraught.
"What's wrong?" he asked. "What's wrong?"
She could not tell him, would not. She remembered the boy who had drowned, remembered the other ghosts. Of a sudden she tore from his hands and ran, dodging the maze of debris that, this morning, was solid.
"Alis!" he cried and came after her.
"No!" she cried suddenly, turning, seeing the unstable wall, the cascading brick. She started back and stopped, unable to force herself. She held out her hands to warn him back, saw them solid.
The brick rumbled, fell. Dust came up, thick for a moment, obscuring everything.
She stood still, hands at her sides, then wiped her sooty face and turned and started walking, keeping to the center of the dead streets.
Overhead, clouds gathered, heavy with rain.
She wandered at peace now, seeing the rain spot the pavement, not yet feeling it.
In tine the rain did fall, and the ruins became chill and cold. She visited the dead. lake and the burned trees, the ruin of Graben's, out of which she gathered a string of crystal to wear.
She smiled when, a day later, a looter drove her from her food supply. He had a wraith's look, and she laughed from a place he did not dare. to climb and told him so.
And recovered her cache later when it came true, and settled among the ruined shells that held no further threat, no other nightmares, with her crystal necklace and tomorrows that were the same as today.
One could live in ruins, only so the fires were gone.
And the ghosts were all in the past, invisible.