"Rawn, Melanie - Dragon Star 03 - Skybowl" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

PART ONE
CHAPTER ONE
^>he appeared without warning, balanced exquisitely on a carpet of sunlight, crowned in stars. When she smiled at him, all the sweetness and serenity that ever were shone from her face. Beautiful, of courseЧthough he could not have defined the color of her eyes, or her hair, or her skin. She was all he had ever dreamed, many things he had never dared imagine, and she was here, with him, smiling. He reached out a reverent hand, hoping he would be allowed to touch her.
"No," she murmured, her voice softly throaty, "not yet, my dear. All things in time."
Her starry crown brightened, pulsing in rhythm with his quick heartbeats, dazzling his eyes. He drew back slightly, frightened of power for the first time in his life. But he could not look away, for from that arc of brilliant light shot clear, fiery sparks, each expanding to a crystalline sphere. She juggled them easily, almost whimsically, all twelve in turn caught and then tossed high by elegant fingers.
Within each was a castle. Stronghold, Radzyn, Tiglath, Skybowl, Remagev, Swalekeep, Castle Crag, Balarat, Tuath, Goddess KeepЧhe knew those well, but two were strange to his eyes. He tried to follow their movements, tried to discern the patterns of wall and tower and court.
"Too fast?" she asked. Suddenly the spheres were suspended in midair, the two unfamiliar castles resting delicately on her fingertips. She held one iridescent globe out to him.
"The Feruche that was, before it was taken by Fire."
4
Melanie Rawn
Yes, he recognized it now, from drawings. Not half so beautiful as the Feruche Sorin had created, and very much older.
She extended her right hand, and he saw a strong, soaring tower, surrounded by a trim village of wooden houses glowing with stained-glass windows, unprotected by walls.
"This was mine, before the building of the place you now 'hold."
And when he saw the crystal dome that was oratory and calendar and mathematical triumph, he knew that he looked upon the ancient Sunrunner keep on Dorval.
More. He looked upon the Goddess.
She was toying with the castle-spheres again. They rose and fell at the flick of her fingers. All at once she gestured, and they hovered in a straight line before her.
Stronghold fell and shattered.
And Tuath.
Feruche.
Remagev.
The castle on Dorval that no one living had ever seen.
"Wait!" he cried. "Not Radzyn! Please!"
"No. You have already paid for your home. But one other will fall."
Which one? SwalekeepЧwhere Ostvel was, making Alasen a widow? TiglathЧto further break Sionell's heart? Castle Crag? Skybowl? Balarat?
Goddess Keep?
"I can't choose!"
"Have 1 asked you to?" Her laughter was sunlight on diamonds. She began to juggle the remaining castles once more, swifter than his eyes could follow.
"Then whyЧ?"
"Because they are still in danger."
"You said I paid for Radzyn. How?" He thought of Brenlis.
The lovely features drew into an expression of shock. "Not with pain. I am not so cruel as all that. You paid with belief. "
Of course. What other coin would Deity accept?
"Is it possible to do the same forЧ-"
"Which one?"
As unable as he had been to choose a castle to destroy, neither could he choose one to save.
SKYBOWL 5
She was smiling again. Her eyes were green and then blue, black and then hazel and then gray. Her hair was spun sunlightЧno, fiery redЧno, soft brownЧblackЧ-pure silver. She was his mother and Sioned and Andrade and Hollis and Brenlis and even Alasen.
"You see how difficult power can be. One more will fall. But which?"
She flung all the spheres up into the air. He watched helplessly holding his breath, heart stopped in his chest. Higher, Higher, seven glowing globes, shrinking to pinpoints of light that circled into a crown of stars....
ХХAndry? My Lord, wake up." The voice was urgent, familiar. "Andry!"
He opened his eyes. Evarin; only him. "Where is she?" he muttered thickly.
The Master Physician sagged with relief. "About time you came out of it. Don't worry about Princess Alasen. She's on her way to Feruche. She should get there tomorrow sometime. I had a look earlier, while you were sleeping. Then this fever came over you like a summer squall, and it was all I could do to get a cure down your throat. How do you feel now?"
"Cold." Drenched in sweat, Andry huddled into a sopping blanket.
Evarin produced a dry one that reeked of horse. Andry found the smell comforting. He stripped off wet clothes and wrapped himself in the wool. Then he drank whatever Evarin gave him and lay back weakly.
A little Fire glimmered nearby, warming the darkness of a small stone shelter. "Where are we?"
"One of Lord Garic's way stations. Before you ask, we got here on horseback. Undignified, but there weren't any artists around to note the pose for a commemorative portrait, soЧ"
"Stop babbling and tell me what happened." Then, looking more closely at Evarin's face, he said gently, "You've got a fever, yourself. How's the leg?"
The young man shrugged. "It'll do."
"Where'd the horse come from?"
"Your horse, actually. He wandered back. You don't remember?"