"Fancher, Jane - Rings 1 - Ring Of Lightning" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fancher Jane S)

It was a route marked with dead and dying trees, the
unnatural byproduct of Khoratum's recent capping. Before
the humans, the ley had created but small disruptions to
the natural surface growth; the narrow lines of sterility
marking its underground structure had been part of the
natural scheme, rivers and streams.
But the humans capped the nodes, concentrated the en-
ergy flows, and spread the pathway, making of the natural
ley a wound, a perversion. And to that perversion, the hu-
mans added gravel and paving stone: a road for their travel-
ing convenience.
On that leyroad came a cargo hauler bound for Khora-
tum, foolish and greedy driver to be out on a leyroad on
such a day, daring the elements to interfere with his
schedule.
Like some giggling, formless gremlin, the spark infiltrated
the hauler's heater-core and brushed the tiny leythium web
contained there with an ephemeral kiss. The web shriveled;
the heater died. Deprived of buoyancy, the hauler's tower-
ing balloon wilted, throwing the cargo bed's full weight
onto woefully inadequate wagon axles. The draft horses
stopped dead in their tracks, and the lead gelding cast an
accusntory glance over his broad shoulder toward the silk-
draped, disgruntled driver.
The sparking mote, heedless now of the havoc in its
wake, scampered through the Khoramali foothills, ignoring
equally the thriving watchtowers of the current human pop-
ulace and the ruined altars of the previous inhabitants. It
bounded relentlessly toward the valley's southernmost
reach, toward another ley-rich node, another ringchamber,
another tower-dominated city.
Mount Rhomatum: eroded with timeas Mount Khora-
tum was not.
Rhomatum Node: where nine major leylines converged
to Khoratum's six.
Rhomatum City: a web of carefully plotted ringroads and
radial spokes: leyroad connections to other nodes, other
citiesof which Khoratum was youngest.
But far from least.
Rhomatum: home of Ringmaster Anheliaa dunMoren,
architect and instigator of the profane Khoratum Tower.
Gaining momentum and gleeful purpose with each pass-
ing instant, the spark traversed its barren path, a gravelled
slash between lush, cultivated fields, and streaked through
the outer-city livestock market, unnoticed by any save cat-
tle and chickens.
Almost sentient in its excitement, the lightning-born ca-
lamity reached for the City's outermost wall, the human-
made buffer against human flotsam seeking Rhomatum's
energy-rich harbor.