The Serpent Bride. Sara Douglass

Чтение книги онлайн.

THE LEGEND OF CHAOS (KANUBAI)

      In the beginning and for an infinity of time there was nothing but the darkness of Chaos, who called himself Kanubai. After a time Kanubai grew weary of his lonely existence and so he invited Light and Water to be his companions. Kanubai and Light and Water co-existed harmoniously, but one day Light and Water merged, just for an instant of time, but in that instant they conceived a child — Life.

      Kanubai was jealous of Life, for it was the child of the union of Light and Water and he had been excluded from that union. He set out to murder Life, to consume it with darkness, but Light and Water came to the defence of their child. Aided by a great mage, Light and Water defeated Kanubai in a terrible battle, and interred his remains in a deep abyss. They stoppered this abyss with a sparkling, life-giving river, which combined the best both of Light and of Water, and they hoped that Kanubai was trapped for all time.

      Trapped, but not extinguished. Every day Life was reminded of Kanubai’s continuing malignant presence by the descent of the night, when for the space of some hours the dark memory of Kanubai blanketed the land.

      Despite this daily sadness, Life prospered, and many creatures came into existence.

      For aeons Kanubai lay trapped, able to do little more than darken each light-filled day with the reminder of his presence.

      But then, one day, something remarkable happened.

      Infinity visited.

1

       MARGALIT, THE OUTLANDS

      The eight-year-old girl crouched by the stone column in the atrium of her parents’ house. Clad only in a stained linen shift, she hugged her thin arms tightly about herself, her eyes wide and darting under her bedraggled and grimy fair hair.

      The house was cold and still, and the girl’s breath frosted as she hyperventilated.

      The foul liquid of rotting cadavers streaked her face and arms. For many days now the girl had crept about the house, seeking out the bodies of her parents (almost unrecognisable, four weeks after their death), rubbing the stinking, viscous liquid that had leaked from their flesh over her body, sucking it from her fingers.

      All she wanted was to die, too.

      It СКАЧАТЬ