"02 - Faery Lands Forlorn 1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duncan Dave)

"Inos!" Kade said sharply.
"At twelve I was sold to a monster. He was old. He oozed."
"I watched my father die! "
"When I was younger than you I watched my babies die!"
"I crossed the taiga in winter!"
"I was cook on a fishing boat for five men. Can you guess what that was like,
Butterfly?"
Kade was clucking like a panicky hen at Inos's side. To yell at a sorceress was
certainly rash, but Inos ignored the warnings. Yet she didn't think she was
going to win this crazy shouting match. Rasha sounded like one of the fishwives
on the docks at Krasnegar, an expert.
"I can't help what happened to you!" Inos bellowed, louder still. "But you could
help me now!"
Azak was still sobbing and squirming in agony on the floor, disregarded by
everyone.
"Help you?" The sorceress glared. "Help your stableboy lover, you mean?"
Inos dropped her eyes. It was hopeless! Oh, Rap!
"On the other hand . . ." Rasha said more softly. "Which one was Sagorn?"
"The old man. "
"One of the sequential set? But they must share memories, so they all know it? "
Inos nodded, looking up with sudden hope.
"Interesting!" Rasha had reverted to her matronly, queenly guise, which was
encouraging. "A matched set with a word of power! That could be amusing. And two
words would be worth salvaging. Come, then, dearie, and let's see."
She started back up the stairs. Hope leaping wildly within her, Inos brushed
past Kade, ignoring her attempts to signal warnings, following the sorceress. As
she rounded the curve, she saw the basalt panther watching her with eyes of
yellow onyx, gleaming bright. They seemed to follow her as she approached, but
it remained a statue, and she ignored it, staying at Rasha's side.
Before they had quite reached the top, the sorceress stopped, holding out a hand
to stay Inos, also. Then she advanced cautiously, one step at a time. When her
head was level with the floor, she paused a long time, seeming to be listening,
as she had before.
"What-" Inos said.
"Sh! All clear. . ." Apparently reassured, Rasha strode upward again. Once past
the panther she did not turn north, toward the magic casement, but headed
instead to the southeast, weaving between bijou divans and tables and grotesque
carvings, until she came to a large mirror hung on the wall. It was oval, bound
in an intricate silver frame depicting leaves and hands and numerous other
shapes, all vaguely sinister. Even the reflections seemed oddly distorted.
Inos stared in horror at the two images she saw there, shadowed and dim. She was
a fright-face livid, eyes staring, honey hair awry, looking for all the world
like flotsam washed up on a rock. Rasha, meanwhile, seemed as fair and regal as
everyone's ideal of motherhood. She was observing Inos's reaction with cool
disdain.
Then she frowned, as if in concentration. The twin reflections faded and the
glass darkened. Shapes moved within it. Inos gasped at this new sorcery, seeing
the mists coalesce into the forms of imp legionaries. Soon she recognized the
chamber at the top of Inisso's Tower, dimly lighted, with snow swirling beyond
the panes and settling on the leading. She could make out the shattered door,