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

"And Faraday," StarDrifter said. "Did she say where she and Zenith would тАФ"
"She said that we should wait for her here, and she would eventually rejoin us," Zared said. "She said we
were not to go near Cauldron Lake, for that was where the Demons would strike first."
StarDrifter nodded, and tried to relax. Faraday would
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keep them all well. She must. He suddenly realised how deeply worried he was about Zenith, and he
frowned slightly.
"How does she know that?" Azhure said. "Is she somehow in league with them?"
"Faraday has always put this land before her own needs and desires," StarDrifter said sharply. "And you,
Azhure, should know that better than anyone else here. Have you forgotten she died so you could live?"
Azhure's cheeks reddened, and she dropped her eyes.
"Enough," Axis said. "Caelum, you are our hope."
"Me?"
Axis looked about. "Caelum, my friends, can we sit? We all have information to share, and my legs have
lost their god-like endurance."
Leagh took his arm, and then Azhure's, and led them towards a fire set mid-distance between two trees
where it could do no harm. "Sit down, and rest those legs."
"What do you mean, / am your hope?" Caelum said, watching his parents. He had refused food, and had
waited impatiently until Axis, Azhure and StarDrifter had eaten. They had very obviously had little in the
past few days.
"Not only our hope, my son, but Tencendor's." Axis stalled for time, wiping his fingers carefully on a
napkin that Leagh handed him. He hesitated, then looked his son in the eye.
"There is much I did not tell you while you were so entwined in hostilities with Zared. But now that I see
you both sit side by side, in peace, it gives me the strength to say what I hesitated to speak previously.
"Caelum, I cannot say all the details, but for now listen to me well. All of you listen to me well. Beneath
each of the Sacred Lakes lie Repositories, all heavily warded and defended, and in each of these
Repositories lies the various life parts of the Midday Demon, Qeteb."
Axis continued on in a low voice, telling of the Maze Gate, and of its age-old message that the Crusader
was the only one
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capable of defeating the Demons. Forty years ago it had named the Crusader as StarSon.
"It waited for a year after you were born, Caelum. It watched and waited until it was sure, and then it
named you, StarSon, as Tencendor's hope."
"The hope of many worlds," StarDrifter said reflectively, "if these TimeKeepers can so effortlessly move
through the stars."
"But how?" Caelum's eyes flickered between his parents and then about the rest of the group. "How? I have
no power left! Nothing! How can I meet тАФ"
"Caelum, be still . . . and believe." Azhure rested her hand on Caelum's knee. "There is hope, and there is a
weapon you can wield."
Caelum said nothing. He dropped his eyes to where his hands fiddled with a length of leather tack.
"The Rainbow Sceptre," Azhure said. "It contains the power of this world and the power of the
Repositories ... the power that currently still traps Qeteb."
"Unfortunately, mother," Caelum said, his voice heavy with sarcasm, "Drago stole the Sceptre. Took it to
the Demons. Should we just ask for it back?"
"The Sceptre has ever had its own agenda," said yet another voice to the side of the clearing, "and to blame
Drago for its machinations is surely pointless."
Everyone stared, voiceless.
Across the clearing stood Faraday, Zenith slightly behind her left shoulder, Drago standing by her right, his
entire body tense and watchful.
Just behind them were the pale shapes of the two donkeys, their long ears pricked forward curiously.