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

magnificent for his own taste. She had made him many gifts over the years. And though he had given in
return gold and wood given form by his own hands, still he felt it had never been enough.

He had meant the tree as another gift. From a window of the tower chamber, he could see it, candlelight
glimmering faintly on its gold-flecked trunk. He leaned in the window for a time, looking down,
frown-ing. At last, the candles guttered.

Patience,he told himself.Patience.

When he returned to the garden, it was empty and silent; Delivev and Gildrum had retired for the night.
By starlight alone, Cray made his way to the tree. He could barely see it, but that did not matter. He
knew every twig, every leaf; he had touched it a thousand times, guiding its growth with the warmth of his
flesh and the words of his spells. He reached out for the branch he had chosen, the flower he had
caressed. The blossom was gone; he knew it must lie shriveled somewhere near his feet. In its place was
a new bud, as small and hard as a pearl. He whispered to it. тАЬMy beauty,тАЭ he called it, and it warmed
beneath his touch. He could feel the force of life within it, stronger than in any other flower of the garden.
He smiled in the darkness.

Patience,he thought.

* * *

Some days later, he was in his workshop weighing odds and ends of gold when a small spider scuttled
across the windowsill and leaped to his arm. It was a brown mite speckled with white, one of the web
cham-ber spiders, and it never came to Cray unless some communication was waiting for him there. With
all of his family at home, that communication could only be from one person. Leaving the gold on the
scales, Cray hurried off to receive it.

The web chamber was bright with morning sunshine, the thick spiderweb draperies that festooned its
walls shining translucently like the finest human-woven silk. Cray seated himself on the velvet-covered
bed at the center of the room, then waved one hand toward the nearest web. It began to turn opaque, a
soft gray sheen spreading over its surface, and upon that sheen a human face took shape: a manтАЩs face,
as young and unlined as CrayтАЩs own and, because of their friendship, as certain to stay so for many
ordinary lifetimes.

Smiling, Feldar Sepwin said, тАЬGood morrow. I hope the day is as bright and beautiful at Spinweb as it is
here.тАЭ Behind him, as if to belie his words, there was no day at all, just the torchlit limestone interior of
the cave he shared with the Seer Helaine.

Cray studied his friendтАЩs smile a moment. There was some news behind itтАФhe knew that by the dimples
in those beardless cheeks and by the animation in those eyes of two different colors. With a smile of his
own, he said, тАЬHow are you, Feldar?тАЭ

тАЬExcellent. Never better. But I need some spiders.тАЭ

Cray leaned back on his elbows. тАЬI thought I left you a dozen the last time I was there. Did you forget to
feed them?тАЭ

Sepwin shook his head. тАЬI donтАЩt mean the kind that spin these webs. Special ones, to spin a special web
of my design.тАЭ