"Sara Douglass - Redemption 2 - Pilgrim" - читать интересную книгу автора (Douglass Sara)

And Zenith smiled, and dreamed on.
A hand touched her shoulder, and Zenith awoke with a start.
It was Faraday, looking well and rested.
"Faraday?" Zenith said. "How are you? Is Drago still in the cart? What happened at тАФ"
"Shush," Faraday said, and sat down beside Zenith. "I have slept the night through, and Drago still sleeps.
Now," she took a deep breath, and her body tensed, "let me tell you what happened in the Chamber of the
Star Gate."
Zenith sat quietly, listening to the horror of the emergence of the children тАФ but children no longer, more
like birds тАФ and of StarLaughter and the undead child she carried, and then of the appalling evil of the
Demons.
"Oh, Zenith," Faraday said in a voice barely above a whisper. "They were more than dreadful. Anyone
caught outside of shelter during the times when they hunt will suffer an appalling death тАФ and a worse life
if they are spared death."
She stopped, and took Zenith's hand, unable to look her in the face.
"Zenith, the Demons destroyed the Star Gate."
Zenith stared at Faraday, for a moment unable to comprehend the enormity of what she'd just heard.
"Destroyed the Star Gate?" she repeated, frowning. "But they can't. I mean ... that would mean ..."
Zenith trailed off. If the Star Gate was destroyed that would mean the sound of the Star Dance would never
filter through Tencendor, even if the TimeKeeper Demons could be stopped.
"No," Zenith said. "I cannot believe that. The Star Gate can't be destroyed. It can't. It can'tl"
Faraday was weeping now. "I'm sorry, Zenith. I..."
Zenith grabbed at her, hugging her tight, and now both wept. Although Zenith had known that the approach
of the Demons meant that the Star Dance would be blocked, she had not even imagined that the Demons
would actually destroy the Star Gate on their way through.
There was not even a hope for the Dance to ever resume.
"Our entire lives without the Dance?" Zenith whispered. "Even if we can best these Demons, we will never
again have the Star Dance?"
Faraday wiped her eyes and sat up straight. "I don't know, Zenith. I just don't."
"Faraday ... did you see StarDrifter at the Star Gate?"
"No. I am sorry, Zenith. I don't know where he is ... but I am sure he is safe."
"Oh." Zenith's face went expressionless for a moment. "And the Sceptre?" she finally said.
"That, at least, is safe." Faraday looked back to the cart. "But transformed, as is everything that comes
through the Star Gate. Come. It is time to wake Drago up. There are some clothes for him in the box under
the seat of the cart, and we all need to eat."
"And then?"
"Then we go find Zared, make sure he is well."
"And then?"
Faraday smiled, and stood, holding out her hand for Zenith. "And then we begin to search for a hope.
Come."
22

Despair and then, as night settled upon the land, terror swept over Tencendor, but it left him unscathed. He
was lost in his dreams, and the Demons could not touch him. He shuffled from leg to leg, trying to ease his
arthritic weight, but none of it helped. He wished death would come back and take him once more.
His head drooped. He'd thought to have escaped both the sadnesses of life and the crippling pains of the
body. If he hoped hard enough, would death come back?
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