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

"Marry me, Liath."

All day the sun shone as Liath rode northwest along the great
northern loop of the Ringswaldweg. She passed only a few
travelers during the day: two carters hauling coarse sailcloth
weighted down by a dozen bars of pig iron; a quiet pack of
day laborers seeking a harvest; a peddler pushing a handcart;
and a trio of polite fraters walking south with bare feet,
callused hands, and sun-chapped faces. The ancient forest
known as the Bretwald loomed to her left, so thick that it was
no wonder travelers did not bother to try to hack through it but
rather suffered the long journey round its northern fringe. Land
broken up by trees, pasture, and the occasional village
surrounded by strips of fields marched along on her right. She
was used to traveling. She liked the solitude, the changing
landscape, the sense of being at one with the cosmos, a
small moving particle in the great dance of light.

But now, as the late summer twilight overtook her, the wind
began to blow, and for some reason she couldn't shake the
feeling that something was following her. She glanced back
along the road, but it lay empty.

Never trust the appearance of emptiness.

Clouds brought an early dusk, and she unrolled her cloak and
threw it over her shoulders as rain spattered down. Because
the summer had been dry, the road did not churn instantly to
mud, but even so, the way bogged down and she soon
despaired of reaching any kind of shelter for the night.

God knew she did not want to sleep outside on a night o
storm and rain, far from any human habitation.

The rain slackened. From ahead, she heard a faint jingling ofj
harness, and for an instant she breathed easier. She had no
fear! of lawful riders on the king's road.

For an instant.

Out of the darkening sky behind her, she heard a low
reverberation, a tolling like that of a church bell. But she had
passed no church since midday.

Was that sound the echo of a daimone's passing? Did such a
creature pursue her again? She glanced back but saw no
hollow-eyed daimone formed into the fair semblance of an
angel gliding above the earth, saw no glass-feathered wings.
Yet as the rising wind buffeted her, she felt a whisper:
"Liathano."