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

aloud. But her spear circled around Bulkezu's blow, and as
she stepped aside, she caught him with the haft, a strike
behind his knee. She was neither frail nor slender; the force of
her blow dropped him to his knees, but he sat down hard,
locking the haft beneath him, and lashed out with his sword.
She leaped back, abandoning the spear. But as he rose to
pursue her, the spear moved. Like a serpent come to life, it
twined around his legs. He fell, catching himself on his hands,
but where his sword struck earth, it sank into the dirt as if
hidden claws dragged it down into the depths. No matter how
hard he scrabbled, he could not grab it.

She raised her arms again, chest naked now except for a
single strand of gold that curved along the swell of a breast.
The shaking resumed, more violent than before. The great
lintel stones rocked and teetered and began to slide. Wind
battered Zacharias to his knees. With his dagger Bulkezu
hacked at the magicked spear wound around his legs, but to
no avail. With each cut it merely grew spurs and flourishes,
and these spurs sprouted roots that embedded themselves
into the ground until its many-limbed net pinned his calves to
the dirt and twined up his arms. In frustration he threw his
dagger at her. With her arms outstretched and blood trickling
down her breasts to pool in the folds of her skirt, she merely
stared.

But the dagger slowedЧor was that a trick of the haze and the
trembling earth? As the shaking subsided, the dagger froze,
suspended in the air.

Impossible. Zacharias staggered up to his feet, leaning on the
stone for strength. What was she?

"Damn you, witch, what do you want?" cried Bulkezu, but she
did not reply; she did not appear to understand him, and
neither did she appear to care. In the seething fog beyond the
stone circle, riders still quested back and forth and around the
ring of stones for some way to get inside.

Bulkezu struggled on the ground but could not free himself
from the rootlike tangle that bound him hand and foot. His
sword had vanished into the earth. He looked furious. Brought
down by a mere woman, and one armed with the most
primitive of weapons! But Bulkezu's hatred could not be more
tangible than Zacharias' exultation.

Zacharias actually crowed, the rooster's call. He had lived to
see Bulkezu brought low.

"Sorcery is a weapon more powerful than a blade," Zacharias