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

The might of Tencendor's once proud army now stood in groups of five or six under the trees of the
northern Silent Woman Woods, eyes shifting nervously. Some members of the Icarii Strike Force preferred
to huddle in the lower branches of the trees, as if that way they could be slightly closer to the stars they had
lost contact with. Thirty thousand men and Icarii adrift in a world they no longer understood.
Their leader, StarSon Caelum, walked slowly about, the fingers of one hand rubbing at his chin and cheek,
his eyes sliding away from the fear in his men's faces, thinking that now he knew how Drago must have felt
when his Icarii powers had been quashed.
There was nothing left. No Star Dance. No enchantment. Nothing. Just an emptiness. And a sense of
uselessness so profound that Caelum thought he would go mad if he had to live beyond a day with it.
"Faraday said she would join us here," Zared said, watching Caelum pace to and fro. He sat on a log, his
hands dangling down between his knees, his face impassive.
"And you think she can help us against this .. . this ...?" Caelum drifted to a halt, not sure quite what to call
this calamity that had enveloped them.
"Can your
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Caelum spun about on his heel and walked a few paces away.
"We can do little, Caelum, until we hear from Faraday."
"Or my parents."
"Or your parents," Zared agreed. He paused, watching Caelum pace about. He did not care for the loss that
Caelum тАФ and every other Enchanter тАФ had suffered. They relied so deeply on their powers and their
beloved Star Dance, that Zared did not know if they could continue to function effectively without it.
Caelum was StarSon, the man who must pull them through this crisis тАФ but could he do it if he was
essentially not the same man he had been a few weeks ago? How could anyone who had previously relied
on the Star Dance remain effective?
Maybe Axis. Axis had been BattleAxe, and a good BattleAxe, for years before he'd known anything about
the Star Dance.
And yet hadn't Axis said that even when he'd thought himself human, mortal, he'd still subconsciously
drawn on the Star Dance? Still used its power and aid?
Well, time would tell if Icarii blood was worth anything without the music of the Star Dance.
At the moment, Zared had his doubts. He would gladly trade Tencendor's entire stock of useless Enchanters
and SunSoars for the hope Faraday offered.
Suddenly sick of watching Caelum pacing uselessly to and fro, Zared stood and walked over to where
Herme, Theod, Dare Wing FullHeart and Leagh were engaged in a lacklustre game of ghemt.
Leagh looked up and smiled for him as he approached, and Zared squatted down by her, a hand on her
shoulder.
"How goes it, Leagh?"
"She wins," Herme replied, "for how can we," his hand indicated his two companions, "allow such a
beautiful woman to lose?"
Leagh grinned. "My 'beauty' has nothing to do with the
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fact, my good Earl Herme, that I am far more skilled than you."
All the men laughed, and threw their gaming sticks into the centre of the circle scratched into the dirt
before them.
Zared touched Leagh's cheek softly, then looked to Dare Wing. "My friend, I wonder if I might ask
something of you?"
The Strike Leader inclined his head. "Speak." "Faraday told us that there were certain times of the day
when it would be dangerous to go outside, times when the Demons would spread their evil. Dare Wing, I
need to know when exactly these times are."
"Dawn, dusk, mid-morning and mid-afternoon, and night," Theod said. "This we know."