The Hungry Abyss 2 read. Hungry abyss. Children of the Winged Serpent
Jess hung her gray jacket over the back of her chair. She rolled up the sleeves of her blouse, snow-white, silk and clearly not cheap - she had inherited her love for expensive things from her mother, although this love was quite controllable. In any case, Jess never complained about the lack of money.
What are you going to do?
Clean up,” she picked up a rag from the floor. - Maini, you are, of course, too engrossed in your work to pay attention to such trifles. But you can’t live in such a pigsty! Where's the trash can?
I understand everything, but we can’t talk in such a situation! - She plopped the rag on the tabletop, covered with a pattern of assorted stains. - I can't. Therefore, please be patient and at least...
... no, after all, Mainford somewhat exaggerated his love for his sister. Or not love, but how is it... the main thing is that it’s his own fault. That it was worth just making an appointment somewhere in the city.
Breakfast was delivered half an hour later. By this time, the kitchen, if not shining, at least looked decent. Jess wanted to do the rooms too, but Mainford stopped her impulse.
There was still not enough...
And he will change the locks today.
So, is the girl interested in you? - This is how she did it? She was fiddling with dishes, rags and a broom, but she looked as if she had just left her office. The shirt is still white. And only the sleeves are slightly wrinkled, although it will not be noticeable under the jacket.
Yes,” Mainford answered shortly.
So interested that you’re trying to be polite,” she picked up a glass of coffee and sniffed it. - I asked you to order from a decent place... and don’t puff, I’m not afraid of you. Sit down. Eat here.
Mainford sat down obediently. Since he let his sister into his hole, now there is nothing left to do but endure.
And the girl... yes, the girl is not easy. Did you try to get rid of it? Certainly. And it didn’t work out.
Jess poured the coffee from a paper cup into a coffee cup, which had miraculously found its way among ordinary mugs. White porcelain. Gold rim. Saucer with vignettes. And as a tribute to tradition - a piece of sugar, which Jess basically did not eat, but kept putting on a saucer.
This time, however, not with tongs, but with fingers.
Thin, white, well-groomed fingers.
She always got what she wanted. You know, all sorts of children come to us. Mostly, of course, orphans. Or from poor families who cannot afford a personal tutor or a closed school - Jess's nails are square and covered with clear varnish.
On the nameless one there is a white spot with a mark.
Thelma stood out among them. She was taken from Jan Hill. Have you heard of this? No? Sometimes, Manie, you need to be interested in something other than your favorite job. Jan Hill is such a hole that I don’t even want to talk about, where adults go crazy and children die like flies. And this very hole would have been covered long ago, but there is only one in the district. They take... they take everyone there. Tramps who managed to be caught. Refuseniks. Garbage kids... ever seen kids growing up in landfills? No? They are not people in the full sense of the word. So, anthropoids... they could use proper rehabilitation. Educators. Healers, so that both the body and the soul can be restored...
Mainford sighed mentally: his sister could talk for hours on her favorite topic.
But this requires money, and the budget, you understand, does not provide for such expenses.
She fell silent, and her sleek fingers slid along the gold rim of the cup.
Of course, now you think that I could very well go to Jan Hill ... I have my own sources of funding, but the trouble, Maini, is that Jan Hill is the rule rather than the exception. Most shelters are copies of it, some are better, some are worse... radical changes are needed.
This is for Garrett. He will become Chancellor...
“If it does,” Jess said harshly. - Don't feed me fairy tales. We both know that our brother is only interested in people before elections, and not for themselves, but as a potential source of votes.
Jess always had a knack for finding interesting definitions.
And yes, he promises to work on shelters, but everyone understands that this business is completely hopeless. No benefit either in the near future or in the distant...
I managed to get my school financed from the budget. But if you knew what it cost me... - the nail tapped on the porcelain. It made the most disgusting sound. “Besides, my school is somewhat profitable.” Tell me, could you hire a reader on your salary?
Naturally not.
Like the healer and technicians... your turnover is wild, right? They work out the allotted time and leave. But they are working on it. And you get far from the worst. So do the Councilors... and the firefighters... and many others. Yes, the practice existed before, but I...
Thelma,” Mainford snapped. He was, of course, glad that Jess had found something she liked, but not so much that he wasted time.
Yeah... who and when were interested in my affairs,” Jess smiled wryly. - So... about five years ago there was an epidemic in Jan Hill. Black fever. She is also the plague of Krut. Incurable. Contagious. The mortality rate is over eighty percent.
Now she reported dryly.
I'm offended.
It will be necessary to hint to Garrett that it would be nice to give his sister a medal. Or an order. Or some certificate for services to the nation. They have enough of these certificates there.
Although... it’s unlikely to work out now.
An inconvenient moment.
Or still... Garrett knew how to see his own benefit, and Jessemyn’s good looks were very beneficial for the election campaign.
A healer was sent there, but rather to prevent the plague from spreading... - Jess still couldn’t sulk for long. And she took a sip of the coffee and winced: what a fussy one. - The peculiarity of black fever is that immunity to it depends on the strength of the gift... the brighter it is, the greater the chance of survival. Thelma survived. And at the same time, the gift awakened.
Jess fell silent, allowing him to think for himself.
The gift of a reader awakened in a plague barracks?
This is not a curse, this is much worse... Willie almost goes crazy in the morgue, but he is a grown man. This same girl... what did she see?
What others haven't seen.
And I heard.
And I couldn’t cover my ears. She didn't even have a sea to drown out the voices of the dead.
Of course, the survivors were tested... four were sent to Hemforth Military School. Thelma and two healers come to me... and that’s what’s strange. People who have survived something like this try to stick together. But not in this case. No, the boys grew together like twins, but Thelma... Thelma stood out even then. I remember her perfectly. Tall for her age. Skinny. Pale. They all arrive pale... but this pallor was not from malnutrition. Congenital achromia... that's what the healer said.
Congenital? And what the hell is this? Mainford repeated the word again. Then he will ask Johnny when he will sober up enough to answer questions.
Quite a rare occurrence. Harmless in general, it’s just a specific appearance. And she shouldn’t be in the sun either.
The sun rarely appeared in Newark. Well, the girl chose a good place to live.
She was withdrawn. This is normal in principle... orphanage children quickly learn not to trust anyone. And it takes months, or even years, to reach them. It didn't work out until Thelma. No, she got the hang of it pretty quickly. We have clear rules. Quite tough, but necessary. Many of the newcomers recognize only strength. And the process of education at first differs little from training... there is a reward for correct behavior. A piece of pie. Apple. Candy... some of them have never tasted candy or apples. We punish violations. - Jess fell silent and asked: - Pour some water... you should come. At least some of you should come and take a look at them... no, everyone needs specialists, preferably licensed ones. And what do you have to do to turn a wolf cub, who by the age of thirteen cannot read or write, but knows how to hit correctly in order to knock an adult off his feet, into a specialist... no one cares... commissions come and admire... they say, children are good well-mannered, polite... and half of them have seen a fork and spoon at the shelter.
And Thelma?
It was easy to imagine her as wild.
Or rather wild? Wary. Distrustful. She remained that way. And yes, it won’t be possible to get through. Not right away, anyway. And you need to decide whether it’s worth breaking into a locked door? And if they really open it, what to do next?
No... that's what made her stand out. She didn't try to rip off her clothes. I didn't throw away my shoes. Didn't bite. Didn't howl at night...
No, not werewolves. There was one boy... a potential first-level mentalist. He instinctively subdued a pack of wolves, they warmed him and fed him. Our guys almost got into a fight over this boy, they hoped that I would re-educate him, make him someone... polite and in a suit. But in the end it turned out that his mind was... not mature enough. The guy not only influenced the wolves, but also adopted their way of thinking. And it didn’t work out to change that. He is now in a hospital.
It's a sad story, but Mainford couldn't feel sorry for the abstract guy.
Thelma behaved normally. More than normal. She used not only a spoon or fork, but also a knife and a napkin. She knew how to speak. That is, her speech was very correct, which means that they were working with the girl. Moreover, her level of education... I'm not saying that it was higher than most of her peers. These levels are like heaven and earth. No. She knew as much as she should at her age. And if we consider that Thelma spent the last years of her life in orphanages where there were no libraries or normal schools, then it is obvious that all this knowledge was acquired earlier.
Hungry abyss. Children of the Winged Serpent Karina Demina
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Title: Hungry Abyss. Children of the Winged Serpent
About the book “The Hungry Abyss. Children of the Winged Serpent" Karina Demina
Thelma knew she had to be the best at what she did if she wanted to achieve justice and prove that her mother, the beautiful Eliza, was murdered. Mainford knew that sooner or later he would end up in a madhouse, because the curse of the family could not be reversed. And what would it matter if madness struck not only him, but the whole city? Kohan, the exiled Macehualle, knew that the old gods had not left, no matter how much the new masters of the world wanted them to. And the door to the Abyss, where they are locked, is about to open. One drop of blood is enough. Who will spill it? Doesn't matter. The main thing is that everyone will do what they must, and then what is destined to happen will happen.
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Rated the book
Have you ever had that unpleasant feeling when you barely understand what is happening around you? The feeling is almost surreal, as if you are in a bad, delusional dream and can’t wake up. I remember once in the middle of the school year we moved and I had to change schools. At my previous school there was no English lesson at all; they couldn’t find a teacher. And the new class was already in the middle of the textbook. Demina reminded me of those hectic days when I was catching up on the program. I again had to sit and figure out where everything came from and what it was all about.
What I didn’t expect from women’s fantasy was such an intriguing multi-movement. So intriguing that I had to practically re-read the second book of the duology right away, because after the first reading, the facts and knowledge lay in my head like a heap of rubbish and in order to somehow sort it out, I had to roll back and start again. On the one hand, this may seem tedious. But on the other hand, it's very cool. It’s cool when a book makes you rack your brain, when it pulls you out of the audience into the active game of an accomplice.
Don't let the girly covers fool you. This is a full-fledged black fantasy. The story has grown and become more than an ordinary mystical detective story. Now this is not just the story of the murder of a talented actress, whose daughter has grown up and wants to understand the strange circumstances of her mother’s death. Now the novel has expanded to the scale of myths, legends about the wars of the gods and the like. Demina is strict with the reader in the second volume. The facts are presented in fragments. I admit, sometimes irritation takes over, that it was Karina who screwed up here. But then you realize that it’s your laziness speaking in you. The little darling is used to having everything laid out in front of her on a silver platter and everything being chewed up. Now go ahead, stretch your brains, collect all the plot fragments and try to put them together to form a pattern. And to collect them you will have to work hard, they are scattered between worlds, between life and death, between reality and sleep, between reason and delirium.
I don't see any point in talking about the plot. I can only sympathize with those who accidentally bought this book as a separate work. The publishers decided to once again divide the whole into two parts. On the other hand, in this case it is even symbolic. Even stylish, I would say.
Rated the book
“...once upon a time there lived, in such ancient times that people are not even supposed to remember, two brothers. Alva. And they both fell in love with a beautiful maiden..."
But everything happened again exactly centuries later...
Love alone is to blame
Only love is to blame for everything,
Only love is always to blame
This is it, this is it.
Ten years ago, Thelma's mother was killed. Ten years... A lot of things happened then, served as the beginning, but Maini didn’t notice. I missed it. He was sick, almost insane... It’s not always easy to admit your essence, so... It’s a bad excuse for someone who is now called the Guardian.
Guardian - Protector of the earth. Not God and not man.
In this we will get acquainted with the world and with the heroes and with the reasons. Even in the first one, our heroes got in where they didn’t need to, but on the other hand, how could they not get in when they were being pushed very unanimously. So they wake up with the same unresolved problems, with the game of survival. Hence the darker atmosphere and the abundance of corpses. The first “hello” will be the found body of that nosy journalist. He really liked to poke his nose into the wrong places... I feel sorry for Sandra. The fool who wanted to love, that’s why she believed, did not care about the facts. They warned me. I didn't listen.
Demina will be cruel to the reader, tougher than usual. More than one person will be opened, not only the bad ones... they will try.
The earth... the gods... need to be nourished.
Who decided? Whose sick fantasy?
We will not get answers to everything, to the two questions above we certainly won’t. The “condemned” will have the keys... Through hallucinations, pain... Through acceptance of the inner beast... The beast and darkness.
The abyss does not sleep, it feeds... it will be, what and who. Some people will try.
There will be more enemies. Enemies will appear. They will become common. Perhaps Mainford's grandfather was right when he said:
“Remember, grandson, if you happen to have a mortal enemy, don’t play around, kill him right away, and then burn him and scatter the ashes over the sea. This way it will be more reliable.”
For some, new family ties will open, while for others, old ones... will be severed.
Life flows, everything changes.
And the chance for a favorable outcome... is possible. When they deserve it.
The logical conclusion of the duology. Looking for some light reading? Pass by.
I recommend reading one after another, without interruption. otherwise, you may forget what happened and why, that the enemies were not defeated.
Rated the book
"Death is not the limit.
Death is only a gateway to the Abyss, and there the gods will again create the world from dust and ashes, from legends and fairy tales, from dead bodies. And they will populate it with those they deem worthy."
Impressions: This part is different. Darker, more depressing and bloody. There is less detective work, the past of the main characters and the madness that has taken over the city completely and irrevocably came to the fore. Only if the Guardian does not stop him, and at what cost is unknown... Revived ancient legends and gods, demanding liberation and new bloody sacrifices. War between the elves of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. Greed and thirst for gold of small people who do not realize what a deadly game they are stuck in. And between all this there are only three small figures: Mainford, who has only now realized and accepted his essence, Thelma, who has learned to live not only by revenge, and Kohan, rejected by both his own and others, growing back his broken wings. Will the Abyss crush them, swallow them up, cover them with illusions and drown them in them, or will it still spit them out of its mouth?
"Fear is sweet. And fearlessness is bitter. But bitterness is for true gourmets."
Mythology absorbed almost the entire plot of “Children of the Winged Serpent”; I can’t say that this pleased me, because the detective stories in the first volume were very unusual and I liked them. And also because this mythology is alien to me. I finally understood why in the first book I just “didn’t understand anything.” The flying serpent Quetzalcoatl with rainbow wings, gods without faces and names, altars with victims stretched out on them, hearts torn out, blood released, smoking intestines in sacrificial fires - all these are ancient rituals of the lost Mayan people. Apparently the author took their history and traditions as a basis. Although I was interested in the Maya, for me they are an alien and incomprehensible people. Their legends attracted me, but that’s all. I still haven’t had the incentive to dive into their depths and study them.
“Our gods weakened when people stopped believing in them. And after the gods, the earth became sick.”
That is why the second part of “The Hungry Abyss” filled me with fog and was not read as quickly as the morally easier first. I won’t say that the second volume is less interesting or that I liked it less, it’s still one solid work. And I will even re-read it depending on my mood, because there are still many mysteries left in it. And I would like to first become a little better acquainted with the primary sources, so to speak. The author pushed me down this path and someday I, too, will climb to the top of the pyramid, along the edges of which a snake’s body flows. But now...some kind of depressing impression from the work remains. Still, there is too much suffering, pain and blood in him. And the story itself almost always keeps you in suspense, makes you worry, exhausts you because the belief that the heroes will be fine and that they will survive weakens with every page you turn...
“I can’t do anything about what has already happened. I would like to, but I can’t. But I can change what will happen.”
SPOILERS FOLLOW
I was very sorry for Johnny: (I was so upset that this hero was not saved. I wanted him to find and save his sister ( damn, I feel sorry for her too, there’s no way the girl got hurt), made peace with his family and issued his patent. It is not fair that good people leave while bad people continue to live as if nothing had happened. And Sandra? Why was Sandra killed so brutally? I was hoping that maybe something would work out for her with Kohan; it seemed to me at their first meeting that they could suit each other, balance each other. She could burn out the darkness that was hidden within him with her light. And here it is... Of course, it’s her own fault, Thelma warned, and she wasn’t the only one. And the firefly paid for its own mistake. But it’s still a pity: (And Eliza, about whom so much has been said and who hovered invisibly over her daughter... And even Velma, who became a cruel bitch only because she was looking for love. And Merekka the Fox, who even shared death with that , which rejected and tormented him. Each hero in this book had his own story, each came to life on the pages of the book and told it to me, some did not. I still haven’t figured it out. , lost in their history. Maybe someday I’ll reveal them.
Total: I'm afraid I haven't read anything like this duology yet, except maybe Lachlan ( he has a slightly similar trilogy about the Scandinavian gods and the wolf man Fenrir). It is very original, sometimes frightening and disgusting, but always interesting and enticing into its dark world. The Hungry Abyss is definitely worth reading and, moreover, re-reading. For me it became a kind of mystery book and an immersive story. Even on the second re-reading, I discovered something that I had not noticed or understood before. Rarely does a book boast such depth. So this story is definitely Demina’s favorite!
P.S. While I was reading “The Hungry Abyss”, I was so imbued with its atmosphere that I even began to have corresponding dreams. It’s rare to be so immersed in a book, even on a subconscious level :)
Hungry Abyss - 2
Mainford looked at the back.
A narrow back with a protruding spine, sharply defined triangles of the shoulder blades and a birthmark on the left. The skin on this back seemed not just white - it was translucent, thin, like the paper in which gifts are wrapped. Touch it and you'll break it.
Or you'll leave a mark.
And I wanted to touch it.
Count the vertebrae. Or put pressure on those cracked shoulder blades that seemed too sharp. And most importantly, no remorse for you. No, of course, Mainford had personal scores to settle with this lady, but still...
...he remembered how he arrived.
And how he climbed the stairs. There was a knock on the door. And he opened this door - not a big trick. And he looked into the apartment, but then went back out onto the stairs, because it was more fun to wait there, and there was still room for maneuver.
Let's say if Thelma hadn't returned alone.
- Have you been awake for a long time? — Thelma rolled over onto her back. It's a pity. Mainford didn’t have time to see all of her, and it was somehow easier to communicate with her back.
- Does your head hurt?
- That’s good, otherwise I have nothing in my head.
Aspirin won't help with his head.
- Really? — there was no point in starting this conversation at all, especially here and now. She, sleepy, smelled of coal and the city, and this smell seemed extremely familiar.
And she herself.
Ugly. Still ugly.
The shoulders are broad, like a swimmer's. Almost no breasts. The stomach is sunken and again with a mole, this time dark and tiny, the kind you can cover with your little finger.
- What are you talking about?
It is easy to follow your breathing through this belly.
It's broken.
And Thelma herself tensed, twisted again, hiding her vulnerable stomach, and rolled to the very edge. He looks from under his brows. Evil. That's who pulled Mainford's tongue... he needs to answer something stupid to calm down the impossible woman, but he doesn't want to pretend.
Not in front of her.
- You have pills...
- Did Kohan report? - not so much a question as a statement. - And what are they?
Angry? Annoyed. Cautious, but not angry. And okay, the evil women of Mainford are scary.
- Showed... this medicine.
- Partly. At the same time, the gift is blocked.
He frowns. Why is she always frowning? If I smiled more often, I would look attractive.
- And makes the patient suggestible... Garrett gave?
She just shook her head. Agreement? Negation? What difference does it make to the Abyss...
“My brother needs me to sign some papers,” Mainford himself didn’t know why he was telling this. Maybe because she's listening?
“Basically, I guess, a will.” Power of attorney. And you never know what else you can sign... thank you.
- For what?
- Because she didn’t feed her.
“You’re welcome,” she stood up and pulled off the blanket, curled up in it, hiding from view. “He had a strange effect on me.” Not mentally, but... I really wanted to do him a favor.
- Women love him.
“I doubt that this can be called love,” Thelma nervously shrugged her shoulder and asked: “What are you going to do?”
- Nothing.
- That is?
“That is, nothing at all,” Mainford also sat down, regretting that she still woke up.
