"Elliott,.Kate.-.Crown.Of.Stars.3.-.Burning.Stone" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elliott Kate)

position among my slaves!"

"There is no honor among slaves. You are no longer my
master!"

"Do you not recognize what she is? Ashioi, the tribe of gold.
The ones who vanished from the bones of earth."

A chill from the stones seeped into Zacharias' skin and
soaked through to his bones. It all made sense now. She had
come from the spirit world. She was one of the Aoi, the Lost
Ones.

Bulkezu grunted, still struggling. Only a man who never
ceased striving could stalk and slay a griffin. "I will lay a blood-
price on her. My riders will track you, and kill her, and bring you
back to grovel at my feet."

Zacharias laughed, and at once his fear sloughed off, a trifle
compared to the prospect of victory over the man who had
humiliated him. "You bargain and then threaten, Bulkezu,
mightiest son of the Pechanek clan. But what you took from
me is nothing to what I am about to take from you, because
the flesh is given by the god to all men but your prowess and
reputation can never be returned once they are taken from
you. And by a|





dog, a piece-of-dung who was used as you use slave
women!" He reached for a feather.

"I curse you! You will never be more than a slave, and always
a worm! And I will kill you! I swear this on Tarkan's bones!"

Like an echo of the threat, the iron-hard feathers sliced
Zacharias' skin with each least touch until his palms and
fingers were a mass of seeping cuts. Blood smeared his
hands and made them slick while Bulkezu struggled and
cursed but could not free himself from his bindings as
Zacharias denuded his wings.

He took everything, all but one, and when he was finished, his
hands bled and his heart rejoiced. "Kill him now!" he cried.

"His blood will slow me down." She said it without emotion,
and by that he understood there was no possible argument.
"Nor will you touch him," she added. "If you will serve me, then