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

He blinked. "My name has not changed."

"All names change, as all things change. But I have seen
among the human kin that you are blind to this truth."

To the east, the rim of sun pierced the horizon, and he had to
shade his eyes. "What are you?" he whispered.

Wind had risen with the dawning of day.

But it was not wind. It sang in the air like the whirring of wings,
and the sound of it tore the breath out of his chest. He tried to
make a noise, to warn her, but the cry lodged in his throat. She
watched him, unblinking. She was alone, as good as unarmed
with only a spear to protect her; he knew with what disrespect
the Quman treated women who were not their own kin.

"Run!" he croaked, to make her understand.

He spun, slammed up against stone, and swayed there,
stunned. The towering stone block hid him from view. He
could still flee, yet wasn't it too late once you could hear their
wings spinning and humming in the air? Like the griffins who
stalked the deep grass, the Quman warriors took their prey
with lightning swiftness and no warning but for that bodiless
humming vibrating in the air, the sound of their passage.

He had learned to mark their number by the sound: at least a
dozen, not more than twenty. Singing above the rest ran the
liquid iron thrum of true griffin wings.

He began, horribly, to weep with fear. The Quman had said,
"like a woman"; his own people would say, "like a coward and
unbeliever," one afflicted with weakness. But he was so tired,
and he was weak. If he had been strong, he would have
embraced martyrdom for the greater glory of God, but he was
too afraid. He had chosen weakness and life. That was why
They had forsaken him.

She shifted to gaze east through the portal made by standing
stones and lintel. He was so shocked by her lack of fear that
he turnedЧand saw.

They rode with their wings scattering the light behind them and
the whir of their feathers drowning even the pounding of their
horses' hooves. Their wings streamed and spun and hummed
and vibrated. Once he had thought them real wings, but he
knew better now: They were feathers attached by wire to
wooden frames riveted to the body of their armored coats.