"Ann Durand - Flight of the Gryphon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Durand Ann)

Adrella smiled at her mother, but as she lifted her legs onto the bed, another pain tore through her like a
tidal wave, peaking and crashing in her middle. She struggled not to cry out, but then another one came
upon the heels of the last, and she heard herself scream. Mama was talking rapidly now, hoping to calm
her, but Adrella couldn't understand the words through her pain…it sounded like gibberish. As the pain
subsided, Adrella placed her hand on her belly, felt it heave as her baby lurched inside. Then, new waves
of pain streaked through her center.

What was going on? Rorken's birth did not cause her so much pain, even at the end of her labor. Why
did this feel so different? A sense of dread, as if a predatory takatak were watching her, seeped into her
gut.

Then, as quickly as it came, the pain ceased. Papa brought a bowl of water and a cloth to Mama, who
wet it, wrung it out, and used it to wipe Adrella's face and forehead. It felt cool on her hot cheeks.
Before Adrella had a chance to thank her, another pain hit, this one harder than the others. She writhed
on the bed, too surprised to cry out. Mama chanted softly, trying to soothe, but her voice was trembling.

The pains came one on top of another for hours. Adrella's cries sliced into the night air with unrelenting
intensity. Mama peeled Adrella's clothes off and massaged her body and aching muscles throughout the
ordeal. Finally, as the first rays of light filtered through the window, Adrella birthed a pale blue baby girl.
The infant did not move or cry out.

Moreesha swept up the tiny body and retreated, but before she could exit the room, Adrella called for
her infant. Biting her lip, Moreesha turned around. She walked back to the bed and handed Adrella the
lifeless body. As Adrella cradled it in her arms, a drop of colostrum fell from an expectant breast onto the
unmoving lips of the infant.

A low, roiling sound welled up inside Adrella's throat. Deep and involuntary, it carried grief amplified by
newly unleashed suppression. She raised her head as a roar grew within her and let it spill out,
unrestrained. Outside the open window, in the meadow, heads turned and voices hushed. She wailed,
uninterrupted, while Mama sat wringing her hands.

When she had spent herself, Adrella lowered her head and wept softly over her baby's head and the thin
coating of fine, dark hair. She wept, clutching the dead child and kissing the small, cold fingers and lips.
Finally, she fell back on the bed, exhausted and unable to weep any longer.

She fell asleep then, her head rolling off to one side, her arms clasping the baby to her bosom. After a
time, Mama reached over, untangled the baby from Adrella's arms, and handed it to Papa. She instructed
him to bury it in the Tikesh Fields next to the grave of her own mother, Lonalla.

"So she can watch over the baby," she explained.

Papa nodded, wrapped the baby in a swaddling cloth and stepped outside to saddle up his hoshdel. He
left for the northern fields, solemn and quiet as he clutched the tiny bundle in one arm. Mama pulled the
blanket over Adrella, smoothing it around her body. For a few moments, she checked her daughter's
breathing-soft and even for the first time that night. Then, she laid a hand upon Adrella's cheek, bowed
her head, and let her own tears fall silently into her lap.

Chapter Six
For the first time in a decade, Katera did not want to stop dreaming. She'd been dreaming all night,
waking intermittently and falling back into delicious sleep. No Voice lurked in the spidery recesses of her