"02 - In Sylvan Shadows - R A Salvatore" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cleric Quintet)

"That is Danica," Avery replied. "She is beautiful, is she not?" Indeed Danica was, with perfect, delicate features and a thick mop of strawberry blond hair dancing about her shoulders. "Do not allow that beauty to deceive you, elf prince," Avery went on proudly, as though Danica was his own child. "Danica is among the finest fighters I have ever seen. Deadly are her bare hands, and boundless is her discipline and dedication."
The sparkle in Elbereth's admiring eyes did not diminish; those shining dots of light shot out like tiny spears at Cadderly's heart.
Preparation or no preparation, Cadderly figured it was time to go and see his Danica. He crossed through the onlookers' circle and knelt before her, gently reaching out to lightly touch her long hair.
She did not stir.
"Danica," Cadderly called softly, taking her deceptively soft hand in his own.
Danica opened her eyes, those exotic brown orbs that sent shivers up Cadderly's spine every time he gazed into them. Her wide smile told Cadderly that she was not angry about the interruption.
"I feared that you would not be here," she whispered.
"A thousand ogres could not have held me from this place," he replied, "not today." Cadderly glanced back over his shoulder at the stone block. It seemed so huge and so solid, and Danica so very delicate. "Are you certain?" he asked.
"I am ready," Danica replied grimly. "Do you doubt me?"
Cadderly thought back a few weeks, to the horrible day when he had entered Danica's room and found her barely conscious on the floor, after having slammed her head repeatedly against a similar stone. Her wounds were long gone now, healed by salves and the magic of the library's mightiest clerics, but Cadderly would never forget how close Danica had come to death, nor would he forget his own terrible feelings of emptiness when he feared that he might lose her.
"I was under the curse's influence then," Danica explained, easily reading his thoughts. "The mist prevented me from attaining the proper concentration. I have studied Grandmaster Penpahg D'Ahn's scrolls . . ."
"I know," Cadderly assured her, stroking her delicate hand. "And I know you are ready. Forgive me my fears. They do not come from any doubts about you or your dedication or your wisdom." His smile was sincere, if strained. He moved near, as if to kiss her, but backed away suddenly and glanced around.
"I would not want to disturb your concentration," he stammered.
Danica knew better, knew that Cadderly had remembered the gathering about him and that his embarrassment alone had pulled him away from her. She laughed aloud, charmed as always by his innocence. "Do you not find this alluring?" she asked with mock sarcasm to comfort the nervous young man.
"Oh, yes," the young scholar answered. "I have always wanted to be in love with one who could put her head through solid stone." This time, they shared a laugh.
Then Danica noticed Elbereth and abruptly stopped laughing. The elf prince stared at her with his penetrating gaze, looked right through her, it seemed. She pulled her loose robes tighter about her, feeling naked under that stare, but she did not look away.
"That is Prince Elbereth?" she asked with what little breath she could find.
Cadderly considered her for a long moment, then turned to regard Elbereth. The gathering be damned, he thought, and he bent back in and kissed Danica hard, forcing her attention away from the elf.
This time, Danica, not Cadderly, was the flustered one, and Cadderly couldn't be certain if her embarrassment came from the kiss or from her own realization that she had been caught staring a bit too intently at the visiting elf.
"Go back to your meditation," Cadderly offered, afraid of what the growing number of distractions might do to Danica's attempt. He felt childish indeed that he had let his own emotions take precedence at such an important moment. He kissed her again, a light peck on the cheek. "I know you will succeed," he offered, and he took his leave.
Danica took several deep breaths to steady herself and cleanse her mind. She looked to the stone first, the obstacle that stood in the way of her progress as one of the leading disciples of Penpahg D'Ahn. She grew angry at that stone, putting it in the light of an enemy. Then she left it with a final mental threat, turned her attention to the wide room around her, the distractions she had to be rid of.
Danica focused on Elbereth first. She saw the elf prince, his strange eyes still staring her way, and then he was gone, a black hole where he had been standing. Avery went away next, and then those standing beside the portly headmaster. Danica's gaze shifted and locked on one of the many huge archways supporting the great hall. It, too, disappeared into the darkness.
"Phien denifi ca," Danica whispered as another group of people disappeared. "They are only images." All the room was fast replaced by blackness. Only the block remained, and Cadderly. Danica had saved Cadderly for last. He was her greatest supporter; he was as much her strength as her own inner discipline.
But then he, too, was gone.
Danica rose and slowly approached the enemy stone.
You cannot resist, her thoughts called out to the block. I am the stronger.
Her arms waved slowly before her, weaving in an intricate dance, and she continued her mental assault on the stone, treating it as some sentient thing, assuring herself that she was convincing it that it could not win. This was the technique of Penpahg D'Ahn, and Penpahg D'Ahn had broken the stone.
Danica looked beyond the block, imagined her head crashing through the stone and exiting the other side. She studied the depth of the block, then mentally reduced it to a parchment's width.
You are parchment, and I am the stronger, she mentally told the stone.
It went on for many minutes, the arm dance, Danica's feet shifting, always in perfect balance, and then she was chanting softly in a melodic and rhythmical way, seeking complete harmony of body and spirit.
It came so suddenly that the crowd barely had time to gasp. Danica fell forward into two quick steps. Every muscle in her small, finely toned frame seemed to snap forward and down, driving her forehead into the stone.
Danica heard nothing and saw nothing for a long moment. Then there was the blackness of the meditation-dispatched room, gradually fading back into images that the young monk recognized.
She looked around her, surprised to see the block lying on the floor in two nearly equal-sized pieces.
An arm was around her; she knew it was Cadderly's.
"You are now the highest-ranking disciple of Grandmaster Penpahg D'Ahn!" Cadderly whispered into her ear, and she heard him clearly, though the gathering had erupted into a wild burst of cheering.
Danica turned and hugged Cadderly close, but couldn't help looking over his shoulder to regard Elbereth. The serious elf prince was not cheering, but clapping his graceful hands and staring at Danica with clear approval in his sparkling silver eyes.

*****

Headmistress Pertelope heard the cheering from her room above the great hall and knew that Danica had successfully broken the stone. Pertelope was not surprised; she had seen the event in a dream that she knew was prophetic. She was glad of Danica's continuing success and growing power, and glad, too, that Danica would remain by Cadderly's side in the coming days.
Pertelope feared for the young scholar, for she alone among all the priests at the library understood the personal trials Cadderly would soon face.
He was of the chosen, Pertelope knew.
"Will it be enough?" the headmistress asked quietly, hugging the Tome of Universal Harmony, the most holy book of Deneir. "Will you survive, dear Cadderly, as I have survived, or will the callings of Deneir devour you and leave you an empty thing?"
Almost to mock her own claims of survival, the headmistress noticed then that her sharp-edged skin had again sliced several lines in the long sleeve of her gown.
Pertelope shook her head and hugged the book tightly to her fully covered body. The potential for insight and knowledge was virtually unlimited, but so, too, was the potential for disaster.

Three
Intrigue

The wizard Dorigen reached out tentatively for the door handle to the chambers of Aballister, her leader. Surprised by her own hesitancy to go to the man she considered her mentor and had formerly called her lover, Dorigen angrily grabbed the handle and walked in.