"Dragon - 02 - Dragon's Heir" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dafoe Sierra)

joy at being here, at being alive, at being exactly who and what she was.

* * *

From a perch on a cliff that was not, strictly speaking, really there, a cold,
determined consciousness watched the young princess in flight. Her hide gleamed like


warm honey in the sunlight, and she darted through the air as easily as a swallow, so

playful, so carefree.

So very young.

Iron-hard talons scraped furrows in the stone -- stone which existed in a plane
separated from Djarera by a tissue-thin membrane, as tenuous and permeable as a
cloud. He could see the sunlight pouring down, streaking the hills and little lakes with
its life-giving warmth.

But it could not touch him.

Here, everything was cold, so cold that the very touch of the ground seared like
fire, and the stones upon which he crouched held not one scrap of life -- not a twist of
grass, not even moss. There was not so much as a trickle of water or whisper of wind to
mar the dead, leaden stillness. There was nothing.

How he hated this prison, this half-life! This shadow world to which the bitch-
queen had consigned him, locking him away in this timeless void! Rage beat along his
icy veins, tensing his corded muscles, his huge, virile strength.

For he was strong, strong as the bones of these barren, twisted mountains. Strong
enough to tear a passage back to Djarera -- he was certain of that. He could do it.

Only to be shut away again, as he had been before.

In twenty years, his fury at that defeat had diminished no more than his strength.

He was tired of this world. Tired of these shadows. He was cold, cold to the icy
marrow of his being. But he would not risk escape prematurely. Not when Melgara
could still lock him away as sheТd done the first time. Not till he was sure.

His gaze returned to that graceful, golden form.

So this was Elara, the long-hidden princess. He smiled -- a motion of his lips that
failed to lighten his inflexible, heartless gaze. Enormous fangs, designed to rend and
devour, gleamed hungrily in his massive jaw.

She was his key, he knew it. Knew it in the frigid marrow of his bones. That
shining, carefree creature flitting on the windЕ