"C. S. Friedman - Coldfire 3 - Crown of Shadows" - читать интересную книгу автора (Friedman C. S)

Where dozens of sleek piers had jutted out from the shore there were now but a handful, and a good half
of those were badly damaged. The shoreline boardwalk had lost whole sections, and with it all the
buildings that stood upon it. And the sea-that was filled with debris, enough shards of mast and bits of sail
that Damien knew more than one ship had foundered in the rising sea, along with all their passengers.
Tsunami. They were always a danger on this volatile world, and more than once Damien had been on a
ship that refused to enter port when the tide was two inches higher or lower than normal, for fear that the
dreaded flood waves would follow. But Faraday had made a

science of surviving them, and was practiced enough in that art that even the dreaded bore, a towering
wall of water whose impact flattened everything in its path, did minimal damage here.

Until now.

A soft indrawn breath behind him, almost a hiss, made him turn back slightly. It was Tarrant. He was up
early-the sun had barely set behind the towering bluffs and its light still filled the sky-but perhaps he had
heard the commotion from above and wanted to investigate. Or perhaps he had caught the scent of
death, and wondered at its source. He shaded his eyes beneath a gloved hand as he studied the
devastation surrounding them, and Damien knew without asking that the strength of the man's will was
reaching down into the sea, trying to tap into the local fae-currents for information.

"The first wave was a bore," he said at last. "Those which followed were... incidental."

"You guessing that, or you Know?"

He shook his head slowly, eyes narrowed against the light. "Water's shallow enough for Working, though
barely. I can get a somewhat hazy picture."

"Rozca says the port had defenses."

"It did," he agreed. "They didn't work."

"Can you tell why?"

The pale eyes fixed on him. The whites were reddened slightly, burned by the dying sunlight. It was
costing him a lot to be up here, Damien realized. "The question may not be why," he mused, "but rather,
who."

It took him a minute to realize what Tarrant meant. "Calesta?"

The Hunter nodded. "I would like to think that an act of nature could be just that, no more. But this does
seem a bit of a coincidence, doesn't it? Such devastation to welcome us home. Certainly our enemy
would be pleased to make such a statement."

"But he can't conjure a tsunami, can he?" When Tarrant didn't answer, he pressed, "You said that the

Iezu only had power over human sensory input. Nothing tangible."

"So I did. But never doubt the versatility of that power, Reverend Vryce. Or the danger it can pose to
those who aren't prepared for it. Iezu illusion cannot create a real wave... but it can blind the men whose
job it is to detect one, and prevent them from responding to it."