"Eisenstein,.Phyllis.-.Elementals.2.-.1988.-.Crystal.Palace" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eisenstein Phyllis)

УI? Not Cray?Ф
УI said I could not read him.Ф She stroked his forearm with her delicate pale
fingers. УYou must be careful, Feldar. There will be danger.Ф
He shot Cray a quick glance. УWeТve been through danger together before. IТm not
worried.Ф
УWhat will this danger be, lady?Ф asked Cray. УWhere will it come from?Ф
The Seer shook her head sadly. УDo not ask too much of me, Cray Ormoru. I see
and feel a few things, but most of the future is murky to me. It depends too
much on decisions not yet made, on paths not yet followed. The past is so much
clearer.Ф
УAnd yet you say there will be a quest.Ф
УI see one.Ф
Cray folded his arms across his chest. УAnd what if I say there will be no
quest, that I have no interest in finding a person I donТt know and have no
reason to know?Ф
She touched his arm in a soothing gesture. УYou make your future, Cray. No
matter what I say, you can wrench your life away from it. You can turn my truth
to a lie.Ф
УVery well,Ф he said. УIТll remember that.Ф
Sepwin looked at him long and hard but said nothнing. They finished dinner in
silence.
* * *
Cray spent the next few years expanding his powers over living, growing things.
He learned to combine not just gold but silver, copper, and other metals with
the substance of plants, and to make those plants mature into whatever forms he
wished, with or without metal. Eventually he was able to grow himself a castle.
It was a huge place, much larger than Spinweb. Instead of stone, its walls were
thick tree trunks crowded so close together that no gaps were visible between
them. Their branches began high above the ground, rising stout and square like
crenelations, with leaves clustered only at their tops, shading the battlements
from the summer sun. At the angles of the walls, the trees rose taller, forming
turrets, and on their inner sides great staircases grew, with deep window slits
at frequent intervals. The buildings of the courtyard were also made of trees,
and inside them chairs, tables, and even beds grew from their wooden floors.
Wherever cushions were needed, dense-leafed branches offered themselves, and
where a hard, smooth surface free of bark was required, the trees obliged.
Though the castle was comfortable enough, Cray did not choose to live there. He
visited often and kept an army of ensorcelled shrubs there as servants,
comнmanding them to uproot themselves and walk whenever he wished something
cooked or cleaned. But usually he was only there to make changes, to cause an
extra chair to grow, a wall hanging of twisting woods to take form, a partition
to expand or wither away. The place was just a toy to him; it was too large and
lonely to live in.
He often talked about it to Sepwin, talked about his most recent changes, and
the ideas he had for more. The castle had replaced the tree as the center of his
life, and if Sepwin sighed when he said that, if Sepwin glanced sidelong at the
velvet curtain every time they passed it, Cray pretended not to notice. They
didnТt speak of the mirror these days, nor of the enigmatic image of the child.
Yet Cray thought of them sometimes, especially when he woke in the darkest part
of the night and lay in his bed, listening to the stillness. At those times, he