"David Eddings - The Elenium 3 - The Saphire Rose" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

fragile, he sensed that the Sapphire Rose was all but
indestructible. From deep within its azure heart there
came a kind of pulsating glow, deep blue at the tips of
the petals and darkening down at the gem's centre to a
lambent midnight. Its power made his hand ache, and
something deep in his mind shrieked warnings at him as
he gazed into its depths. He shuddered and tore his eyes
from its seductive glow.
The hard-bitten Pandion Knight looked around, irrationally
trying to cling to the fading bits of light lingering
in the stones of the Troll-Dwarf's cave as if the ChildGoddess
Aphrael could somehow protect him from the
jewel he had laboured so long to gain and which he now
strangely feared. There was more to it than that, though.
At some level below thought Sparhawk wanted to hold that
faint light forever, to keep the spirit if not the person of the
tiny, whimsical divinity in his heart.
Sephrenia sighed and slowly rose to her feet. Her face
was weary and at the same time exalted. She had struggled
hard to reach this damp cave in the mountains of Thalesia,
but she had been rewarded with that joyful moment of
epiphany when she had looked full into the face of her
Goddess. "We must leave this place now, dear ones,' she
said sadly.
"Can't we stay a few minutes longer?' Kurik asked her
with an uncharacteristic longing in his voice. Of all the
men in the world, Kurik was the most prosaic - most of
the time.
'it's better that we don't. If we stay too long, we'll
start finding excuses to stay longer. In time, we may
not want to leave at all.' The small, white-robed Styric
looked at Bhelliom with revulsion. "Please get it out of
sight, Sparhawk, and command it to be still. Its presence
contaminates us all.' She shifted the sword the ghost of Sir
Gared had delivered to her aboard Captain Sorgi's ship.
She muttered in Styric for a moment and then released
the spell that ignited the tip of the sword with a brilliant
glow to light their way back to the surface.
Sparhawk tucked the flower gem inside his tunic and
bent to pick up the spear of King Aldreas. His chain-mail
shirt smelled very foul to him just now, and his skin
cringed away from its touch. He wished that he could
rid himself of it.
Kurik stooped and lifted the iron-bound stone club the
hideously malformed Troll-Dwarf had wielded against
them before his fatal plunge into the chasm. He hefted
the brutal weapon a couple of times and then indifferently
tossed it into the abyss after its owner.
Sephrenia lifted the glowing sword over her head,
and the three of them crossed the gem-littered floor