Child of Earth

Начало книги

Somewhere a woman screamed in torment her voice rising in a shriek of savage hatred at the forces of the universe that had devastated her life; a cry of helpless frustration, anger and seething despair. To soar in a long, nerve-scraping ululation then to break, to drop into a moaning susurration as she cradled the ravaged body of her child, to stare bleakly at the ruin of her home, the slumped corpses of her slaughtered dead, the end of a familiar life.

Sounds Dumarest had heard before on a scatter of worlds that had fallen victim to the arrogance and ambition of petty rulers. The burning, bloodshed and butchery dispensed by mercenary forces interested in nothing but victory, reward and self-preservation.

He moved and the screaming vanished. There had been no woman only the impact of wind transmitted through the hull against which his head had rested. The sounds inducing memories and latent images conjured from the recesses of his mind. Near-dreams of other places, other times. Reminders of things best forgotten. Of events impossible to forget.

Читать дальше →