"Phyllis Eisenstein - Elementals 02 - The Crystal Palace" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eisenstein Phyllis)

тАЬI said I could not readhim.тАЭ She stroked his forearm with her delicate pale fingers. тАЬYou must be
careful, Feldar. There will be danger.тАЭ

He shot Cray a quick glance. тАЬWeтАЩve been through danger together before. IтАЩm not worried.тАЭ

тАЬWhat will this danger be, lady?тАЭ asked Cray. тАЬWhere will it come from?тАЭ

The Seer shook her head sadly. тАЬDo 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.тАЭ

тАЬAnd yet you say there will be a quest.тАЭ

тАЬI see one.тАЭ

Cray folded his arms across his chest. тАЬAnd what if I say there will be no quest, that I have no interest in
finding a person I donтАЩt know and have no reason to know?тАЭ

She touched his arm in a soothing gesture. тАЬYoumake your future, Cray. No matter what I say, you can
wrench your life away from it. You can turn my truth to a lie.тАЭ

тАЬVery well,тАЭ he said. тАЬIтАЩll remember that.тАЭ

Sepwin looked at him long and hard but said noth-ing. 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, com-manding 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