"Dave Smeds - Foam" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smeds Dave)

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Foam
by Dave Smeds
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Dark Fantasy


A DF Books NERDs Release
Copyright ©1995 by Dave Smeds

Coral swam slowly, with trepidation, into the reception hall of her father, the Sea King. The lord of the
ocean, clad in the visage of a giant turtle, rested on the sands, quiet save for the pensive shifting of a
flipper.

Gone were the dolphins who had swum and sung across the vaulted chamber. Gone were the crabs who
danced on the tables of rock, leaving behind their gifts of shells and jade. Gone were Coral's brothers
and sisters, come to congratulate her on the anniversary of her birth.

There was only the Sea King, dimming the sanctuary with cold green melancholy.

“Father?” she asked, setting her fluke timidly upon the sand beside his beak, wishing she could cure his
mood.

“Today you are fifteen years old,” he said. “Today you venture into the world for the first time.”

Her brows drew together. Hours earlier, he had celebrated this same fact.

“I feel her,” he said. “She is waiting for you.”

The current streaming off his shell carried the sting of an Arctic floe. Coral shuddered in the chill. “The
Sea Witch?” she asked.

“She has always thwarted me. I am Life. She is Death. I tell the amoeba to divide, I make fertile the eggs
of the marlin, I anchor the roots of the kelp. She brings to them age, rot, and dissipation. She and I may
never share the same place and moment, but I feel her presence. I know her desires.”

The Sea King turned his turtle eyes toward his offspring. Massive and opaque, the pupils dwarfed her,
capturing her reflection like an insect in amber. Her long red tresses flowed rich and full around her
human half, down to the dorsal fin on her long, whalelike fluke.

“She hates you most of all,” the king said. “You are beautiful, you brim with young life, and because you
are made from my essence, you will not succumb to the decay she has loosed upon the rest of my world.
To kill you, she must actively break the magic which formed you, with your consent.”

Coral lay a hand gently on her sire's beak. “Why would I give her my consent?”

The turtle closed his eyes, as if in pain, shutting out the reflected vision of her. “I cannot protect you, once
you leave these walls. You must dare Death alone, if you are to overcome her. If you are my true child,
and if you make the right choices, you will prevail. If not...”