"Brust,.Steven.-.To.Reign.In.Hell" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brust Steven)

The Regent shook his head. "Perhaps," he said, "that is my own
form of decadence."

The smaller one laughed and wagged his tail.

It had hard green scales, fiery red eyes, and a long forked tongue,
and was several times what would become known as man-high
someday. You may as well call it a dragon and have done with it. It
was the Regent of the North.

ItЧhe? He, then. He lived far in the north of Heaven, beneath
mountains known for vulcanism. He had carved places out of the
rock at the heart of the mountain, where he could feel warm and
safe.

His former shape had been lost near the end of the Third Wave,
and he had taken this one. It was very resistant to the effects of the
flux. His breath could break any material down to its basic
components, or turn a wave of cacoastrum into living illiaster.

None of the new angels entered the Northern Regency, and no
one at all lived there, save the Regent. All feared him, for it was
said that he was mad, that he had been wounded deeply, and it
was unsafe to be near him.

Alone, unchanging, nursing his rage and his fear, the Regent of the
North turned in his sleep. The Third Wave was over now, but when
the next came, he would wake.

League upon league upon league of sea rose in temperature by
exactly one and a half degrees, and she basked in it. The tip of her
tail broke the water and waved snake-like (had there been snakes)
for a bit and then a bit. The water was a blue that an artist would
despair of capturing. Above, the air smelled of the sea.

Her sea! Here she was the master. As the last effects of the raw
cacoastrum vanished, she found she could command this water by
an effort of will, for it was hers.

The Second Wave had driven her to create and enter the sea,
forsaking her form in order to live. She could have used the free
illiaster from the Third Wave to recreate her old form, but she
would not leave the protection the waters gave her. And she had
come to love the flowing, breathing sensuality of the currents,
caressing and soothing her.

The green coiled length of her body straightened, and she closed
her eyes as she accepted the warmth into herself. She sent forth a
laugh that reverberated through the waters, which picked it up and