"Scott G. Gier - Genellan 02 - In the Shadow of the Moon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gier Scott G)

answered Ki's scream with an exultant shriek of her own. The respectful
escorts remained silent and kept their distance.

Warm mists enveloped her, and Ki spread her old membranes, braking
momentum against the upwelling air. She echo-ranged. Sonic bursts from
her wingmate and from the escorts joined her own. The cliff face took
definition on her sonar mapping sensors, with the wide terrace of the
assembly portal the most prominent feature. She navigated through
whirling vapors, breaking from light-shattering prisms of mist and slowing
to a graceful, slowly-beating hover over blossom-bedecked crenellations.
She lightly touched damp stone. Notta joined her, both huntresses stowing
fur-covered membranes and smoothing their robes. Sentries landed one to
each side and waddled self-consciously ahead to take escort positions. Ki
was not nervous, for the omnipotent roar of the great river, so near at hand,
mastered all emotions.

Descending the worn, granite steps of the assembly portal, preceded by
tall apprentices bearing pennants and spirit lamps, came the procession of
eleven elders, the gray fur of their knobby heads turned uniformly to
alabaster. Guilders all, for hunters did not live long enough to join their
ranks. At their head stooped venerable Koop-the-facilitator. Jade the clarity
and color of a mountain tarn at dawn adorned the facilitator's neck, for Koop
was of the fisher guild. Elder Craat, penultimate in years, was next, an elder
of the gardener guild. His necklace was of emerald and garnet, signifying
verdure and blood. Elder Ruule followed. A stone carver, old Ruule wore a
necklace of diamond and sapphire, corundum of surpassing beauty. Elder
Muube, a steam user, walked at Ruule's side. Muube's necklace was of ruby
and white jade, symbolic of fire and steam. Other ancients of less eminence
followed sedately.

Each elder nodded with dignity. Ki held her sharp chin in the air until the
procession moved past and then assumed her honored position between
hunter escorts. Notta, faithful huntress-in-waiting, waddled behind her. A
platoon of tall guilder apprentices bearing flapping banners and flickering
spirit globes followed in their train.

The procession moved through the tunnel leading to the lift terminal,
where the elders spread into a crescent. Ki stood alongside Koop at the
crescent's focus, the position of greatest honor.

Screams reverberated from the moist granite, masking the grinding of lift
chains. Warriors, their resonant sonic pulses filling the misty air, precipitated
from the steam, membranes cupped into rigid parachutes as they descended
onto rocky promontories and escarpments across the mist-damp cliff face.

A select few landed on the margins of the lift platform. Swooping
through the roiling fog came Craag of clan Veera, leader of all hunters.
Hideously scarred and half a head taller than most warriors, Craag was a
fierce and capable battle leader. Close behind came deputies and cohorts,
most notably Bott'a of clan Botto. In Bott'a's wake came her son, occupying