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

human realm.Ф
УBut ... a child, a growing child?Ф
Sepwin shrugged. УWho can say what whim a sorнcerer might have, to give his
demon a slightly older human form each year, as if it were growing up before his
eyes. IТve heard of stranger things.Ф
УWell, if she is a demon, and with such an unusual form, then Gildrum might know
of her.Ф
But he did not, and when he asked among his fellow demons, he found none who had
ever heard of such a creature.
When the girl was in her late teens, the stuffed animal finally vanished, and
with it, at least in CrayТs eyes, went the last vestiges of her childhood. Now
she was tall and slim, with an almost regal carriage. Her eyes were large and
dark, her skin as pale as milk, her hair a shining cascade all about her
shoulders. From a pretty child, she had metamorphosed into a beautiful young
woman. Her clothing, too, had transformed with her, into the finest velvet. No
one would mistake her for a servant these days; she would have to be the
daughter of the house, perhaps of a very great house.
And now, upon her breast, dangling from a thin gold chain and rimmed by a
silvery band, was a facнeted pendant of purest white sapphire.
УIТve never seen a gem so large,Ф Cray said to Sepwin. УIt makes a handsome
piece of jewelry. And possibly ... more than that.Ф
УMore?Ф
УA hoop of precious metal set with a gem is a ring, Feldar, even if it isnТt
worn on the hand.Ф He turned an exultant smile on his friend. УA ring might
comнmand a demon, and if it does, then Gildrum can find it. And its wearer.Ф
With the skilled eye of one who had cast hundreds of rings and set nearly as
many stones upon them, he scrutinized the pendant. He estimated its weight, drew
its shape, enumerated its facets, pinpointed its color. And by the time he was
finished, Gildrum, who had been his mentor in ring-making, knew the stone and
its setting as well as he did.
УWhether it does command a demon or not, I canТt say,Ф Gildrum told him. УBut
this gem was cut and polished and set in metal, and some demon will know what
happened to it, even if it is only a piece of jewelry. Even if it lies inside a
sorcererТs home, some demon will know that it was delivered there.Ф And he
turned to flame and soared into the sky for his search.
Gildrum was gone for days. Cray could have returned home for that time, returned
to the studies that had been so much of his life. But all the restlessness, all
the impatience, all the desire for accomplishment that he had ever felt seemed
focused on that image in the mirror, and he could not tear himself away from it.
He looked at it again and again, as if afraid that now he had some way to find
her, the girl would vanish. He discovered that her image changed each afternoon,
the old one dissolving into nothingness and a new one taking shape, a fresh
instant in time. He watched her, day by day, as she moved about against those
incomнprehensible backgrounds, in that unearthly radiance. Once, she held a
large book in her hands, but squint as he might, he could not make out the
title. And once, just once, she seemed to be gazing directly out at him, as if
she could somehow see him spying on her. Every time he looked at her in that
pose, he shivered; she was staring at him and yet she was not, she was a total
stranger and yet she was not, the mirror had bound the two of them together and
yet they had never met.