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

stone circle and hoisted two baskets woven of reeds and
slung them from the ends of Bulkezu's spear, then balanced
and bound the spear as a pole over the saddle. To the saddle
she tied three pale skin pouches, odd looking things that each
had five distended fingers probing out from the bottom as if
they had been fashioned from a cow's misshapen udder or a
bloated, boneless hand. She tossed dirt over the fire. She
whistled tunelessly and wind rose, blowing the fog outside the
sanctuary of the stone circle into tufts of a wicked, cutting
gale. The distant riders retreated farther away.

Bulkezu strained against the spear with its many rootling arms
that clasped him to the earth, but he still could not shift at all,
The remaining griffin feather hissed and fluttered in the rising
wind. While she tested the harness, ignoring him, he tested
his shoulders to see how far he could slide his wings out, or if
he could wedge himself down far enough to cut at the
magicked staff with the iron edge of that last feather. "I will
have my revenge!"

She took no notice of his threat. Instead, when everything was
to her liking, she returned to the eastern portal to watch. Fog
shrouded the land, and in this fog sheЧand Zacharias with
herЧcould easily make their escape, concealed from the
eyes and ears of the waiting riders. But how long would they
have until the Quman riders tracked them down?

She turned to smile at him as if, like the spotted thrush, she

had divined his thoughts. Carefully, she wiped drying blood
from her abdomen, then clapped red-streaked hands together
and spoke words. A flash of heat blasted Zacharias' face, and
suddenly, as winked back into existence in the center of the
stone circle, he knew that the Aoi woman would not leave this
sanctuary by any earthly road.

The woman regarded him unblinking, as if testing his courage.
Bulkezu said nothing. Zacharias dropped the horse's reins
and untied the bedroll behind the saddle, shook it out to reveal
the fine knee-length leather jacket that Quman men wore when
they did not wear armor. He offered this to her so that she
could cover herself, because not even necklaces covered her
upper body now, only the smears and drying tracks of her own
blood.

The stone burned without sound. Wind swirled round them,
whistling through the stones.

Bulkezu threw back his head and howled, the eerie ululation
that according to the shamans was the cry of the he-griffin.