"L. Warren Douglas - The Veil of Years 1 - The Sacred Pool" - читать интересную книгу автора (Douglas L Warren)

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 - Chapter 2




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Chapter 2 - The Strange Ones
The Eagle's Beak, a broken crest of red rock west of Citharista's small harbor, was almost
unclimbable on its gentlest side. It sloped like a steep roof. It was a soft, crumbly matrix
of red marl encompassing rounded pebbles. As climbers struggled, fragments broke off
and rolled beneath their unsteady feet.
Below, shallow caves pocked the three scarps, which looked, from Citharista, like bulging
domes of bare, brown rock.
From the sea, the "roof" could be seen as an overflung edge, undermined by waves
gnawing at its base four hundred feet below. A pebble dropped from the scarp would fall
well out beyond the surging waves, in water as deep as the cliff was high.
The few faint trails to the summits were clogged with thorny-leaved scrub oak that clawed
at skin and clothing, and tangles of finely branched evergreens. Where rock had crumbled
to make soil, the spreading parasols of pines shadowed and obscured the narrow ways.
Otho, Bishop of Nemausus
The Sorceress's Tale

***

Pierrette had seen the Eagle's Beak from her father's fishing boat. Riding the swell, she'd looked up not
to the sky, but to a looming roof of stone.

Now, on the slope, their way obscured by stubborn pines, it was not surprising that two little girls should
take a wrong turn, and then, in dismayed confusion, find themselves tantalizingly near the mage
Anselm's stronghold, but on the wrong side of an unscalable scarp, with the enraged townsmen between
them and safety. They huddled in a dank cave, hoping not to be seen.

They were close enough to hear shouts, and the thump of clubs on human fleshтАФbut thankfully not near
enough to hear their mother's agony, which was wordless, except for a murmur, perhaps her daughters'
names.

Whether or not Elen spoke those names, they were what Cado the fisherman heard as he knelt close to
verify Elen's dying. "The brats," he growled. "She's saying something to them. Where did they go?"

"What does it matter?" SomeoneтАФa faceless shadow under stark moonlightтАФraised a club for a last,
killing blow.


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