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

"Them," Barzula said.
"тАФ their voyager craft," Sheol continued through the interruption, "to be safe for us. No matter. We will
dare the forests ... and survive. After Cauldron Lake the way will be easier. Not only will we be stronger,
we will be in the open."
All of the Demons relaxed at the thought of open territory.
"Soon my babe will live and breath and cry my name," StarLaughter whispered, her eyes unfocused and her
hands digging into the babe's cool, damp flesh.
"Oh, assuredly," Sheol said, and shared a secret wink with her companion Demons. She laughed.
"Assuredly!"
The other Demons howled in shared merriment, and StarLaughter smiled, thinking she understood.
Then as one the Demons quietened, their faces falling still. Rox turned slowly to the west. "Hark," he said.
"What is that?"
"Conveyance," said Mot.
If the TimeKeeper Demons did not like to use the waterways, then WolfStar had no such compunction.
When he'd slipped away from the Chamber of the Star Gate, he'd not gone to the surface, as had everyone
else. Instead, WolfStar had faded back into the waterways. They would protect him as nothing else could;
the pack of resurrected children would not be able to find him down here. And WolfStar did not want to be
found, not for a long time.
He had something very important to do.
Under one arm he carried a sack with as much tenderness and care as StarLaughter carried her undead
infant. The sack's linen was slightly stained, as if with effluent, and it left an unpleasant odour in WolfStar's
wake.
Niah, or what was left of her.
Niah ... WolfStar's face softened very slightly. She had been so desirable, so strong, when she'd been the
First Priestess on the Isle of Mist and Memory. She'd carried through her task тАФ to bear Azhure in the
hateful household of Hagen, the Plough Keeper of Smyrton тАФ with courage and sweetness, and had passed
that courage and sweetness to their enchanted daughter.
For that courage WolfStar had promised Niah rebirth and his love, and he'd meant to give her both.
Except things hadn't turned out quite so well as planned. Niah's manner of death (and even WolfStar
shuddered whenever he thought of it) had warped her soul so brutally that she'd been reborn a vindictive,
hard woman. So determined to re-seize life that she cared not what her determination might do to the other
lives she touched.
Not the woman WolfStar had thought to love. True, the re-born Niah been pleasing enough, and eager
enough, and
10-
WolfStar had adored her quickness in conceiving of an heir, but...
... but the fact was she'd failed. Failed WolfStar and failed Tencendor at the critical moment. WolfStar had
thought of little else in the long hours he'd wandered the dank and dark halls of the waterways. Niah had
distracted him when his full concentration should have been elsewhere (could he have stopped Drago if he
hadn't been so determined to bed Niah?), and her inability to keep her hold on the body she'd gained meant
that WolfStar had again been distracted тАФ with grief] damn it! тАФ just when his full power and attention
was needed to help ward the Star Gate.
Niah had failed because Zenith had proved too strong. Who would have thought it? True, Zenith had the
aid of Faraday, and an earthworm could accomplish miracles if it had Faraday to help it, but even so ...
Zenith had been the stronger, and WolfStar had always been the one to be impressed by strength.
Ah! He had far more vital matters to think of than pondering Zenith's sudden determination. Besides, with
what he planned, he could get back the woman he'd always meant to have. Alive. Vibrant. And very, very
powerful.
His fingers unconsciously tightened about the sack.
This time Niah would not fail.