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

all right, Faraday? And you . . . you look dreadful!"
The staff Drago had been clutching now fell from his fingers and rolled a few paces away.
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"He needs some rest," Faraday said. She tried to smile, and failed. "We both do."
Zenith looked between both of them. Her relief that Faraday was well, and had managed to ensure Drago's
safe return, was overwhelmed by her concern at how debilitated both were. Drago was a heavy weight in
her arms, his eyes closed, his breathing shallow, while the only colour in Faraday's ashen face were the
rings of exhaustion under her eyes. She had clasped her arms about herself in an effort to stop them
shaking.
What happened? Zenith longed to ask.
"The cart," she said, and half-dragged, half-lifted Drago towards it.
"Let me help," Faraday said, and took the weight of his legs.
Between them they managed to lift Drago into the tray of the cart, then Zenith helped Faraday in.
"Sleep," she said, pulling a blanket over them. "Sleep."
Drago and Faraday shared the bed of the cart, and shared the sleep of the exhausted; and they shared a
dream, although neither would remember it when they woke.
But over the next few days, as they wandered the forest, the scent of a flowering bush occasionally made
one or the other lift a head and pause, and fight for the memory the scent evoked.
Zenith watched them for a long time. She was torn between relief at their return тАФ thank the Stars Drago
was alive! тАФ and concern for both Faraday and Drago's state. What both had endured, either with the
Demons, or within the Star Gate Chamber itself, must have been close to unbearable. Even though she had
been protected by the trees of Minstrelsea, Zenith had felt a trickle of the despair that had overwhelmed
Tencendor when the Demons had broken through, and she could only imagine what Faraday had gone
through so close to the Star Gate.
But Faraday and Drago were not Zenith's only concerns. She wished she knew what had happened to
StarDrifter. He'd been at the Star Gate towards the end, trying to help her parents to ward it against the
Demons. Would she see him again?
It didn't occur to Zenith that she hardly thought about her parents. Now that she knew Faraday and Drago
were safe, she needed to know that StarDrifter was as well. To think that he was dead ... or somehow under
the Demons' thrall. ..
Zenith shivered and pulled her cloak closer about her. She could feel how deeply disturbed the forest was .
.. were the Demons secreted within its trees? Were they even now creeping closer to where Zenith stood
watch over Faraday and Drago?
Zenith's head jerked at a movement in the shadows. Something was there . . . something . . . There was
another movement, more distinct this time, and Zenith felt her chest constrict in horror. There! Something
lurking behind the ghost oak.
She stumbled toward the donkeys' heads, thinking to try and pull them forward, get herself and her sleeping
companions away from whatever it was .. . escape . . . but when she tugged at the nearest donkey's halter it
refused to budge.
"Damn you!" Zenith hissed, and leaned all her weight into the effort. Why in the world did Faraday travel
with these obstinate creatures when she could have chosen a well-trained and obliging horse?
Zenith tugged again, and wondered if she should take a stick to the damned creatures.
The donkey snorted irritably and yanked her head out of Zenith's grasp.
Just as Zenith again reached for the halter, something emerged from the gloom behind the nearest tree.
Zenith's heart lurched. She dropped her hand, stared about for a stick that she could defend Faraday and
Drago
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with . . . and then breathed a sigh of relief, wiping trembling hands down her robe.
It was just one of the fey creatures of the forest, no doubt so disturbed by the presence of the Demons that it
cared not that it wandered so close to Zenith and the donkeys.