"Brooks - Heritage 2 -The Druid of Shannara" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brooks Terry)

lifted and summoned his magic, and the feelings of age and
. time that were the reminders of mortal existence disappeared.

The little tree came to him first, uprooted, transported, and
set down before him, the framework of bones on which he would
build. Slowly it bent to take the shape he desired, leaves folding
close against the branches, wrapping and sealing away. The earth
came next, handfuls lifted by invisible scoops to place against
the tree, padding and defining. Then came the ores for muscle,
the waters for fluids, and me petals of the tiny flowers for skin.
He gathered silk from the unicorn's mane for hair and black
pearls for eyes. The magic twisted and wove, and slowly his

creation took form.

When he was finished, the girl who stood before him was

perfect in every way but one. She was not yet alive.

He cast about momentarily, then selected the dove. He took
it out of the air and placed it still living inside the girl's breast
where it became her heart. Quickly he moved forward to em-
brace her and breathed his own life into her. Then he stepped

back to wait.

The girl's breast rose and fell, and her limbs twitched. Her

eyes fluttered open, coal black as they peered out from her del-
icate white features. She was small boned and finely wrought
like a piece of paper art smoothed and shaped so that the edges
and comers were replaced by curves. Her hair was so white it
seemed silver; there was a glitter to it that suggested the pres-
ence of that precious metal.

' 'Who am I? " she asked in a soft, lilting voice that whispered

of tiny streams and small night sounds.

"You are my daughter," the King of the Silver River an-
swered, discovering within himself the stirring of feelings he

had thought long since lost.

He did not bother telling her that she was an elemental, an

earth child created of his magic. She could sense what she was
from the instincts with which he had endowed her. No other

explanation was needed.