"Gray, Julia - Guardian 03 - The Crystal Desert" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gray Julia)

'And what about his so-called visions?' a woman asked.
'Many of us have benefited from Mlicki's othersight,' Erardi countered.
'But it's not natural. We want no part of such sorcery.'
'He's been taken by the burning winds.'
'How do we know he's not the one who's taken the music away? He's-'
'Don't be absurd!' Erardi exclaimed angrily.
'Maybe his magic angered the winds,' Taybi suggested.
'Or he brought the unclean upon us, to drink the river dry.'
Mlicki listened to these ridiculous and spiteful accusations, and each one pierced his heart like a sword of fire. He knew there was no defence against such unreason, and the outcome of the debate was already a
foregone conclusion. The only person who had ever been able to explain what he did in a way that others could understand was his mother - and she was not there to defend him.
'Do you have any idea-' Erardi began, but he fell silent when Mlicki stepped forward, taking his sister's hand in his own.
'We'll go,' the boy said, his voice strong and clear.
There was a moment's silence as everyone looked at him in surprise.
'We'll go,' he repeated.
'Are you sure?' Erardi asked hesitantly. There was genuine concern on the old man's face, but Mlicki was not surprised to see a measure of relief in his eyes too.
The boy nodded, keeping his expression carefully neutral. The wind took him beyond then, and for a moment everyone vanished and he saw Bahriya as the collection of abandoned ruins it would become. Their going wouldn't save the village, but there was no point in trying to tell them so.
When he came back to his own time, Kala was looking up at him - and to his astonishment, she was smiling.
An hour later, having packed up their few belongings, Mlicki and his sister crossed the dry river bed and set out into the endless desert.
PART ONE
THE TOMA
Chapter One
'It's usually only for three days,' Mlicki said. 'We call it the bond of salt.'
'Only three days?' Terrel exclaimed.
'And that was before the troubles began,' the younger boy confirmed. 'Nowadays the laws of hospitality are being broken all the time. Not all the tribes are as honourable as the Toma, and even they have to be careful now.'
'Then why have they let us stay so much longer?' Terrel asked. He had been travelling with the nomads for close to a short month now - and there had been no indication that he had outstayed his welcome. Mlicki and his sister had been with the Toma for much longer.
Mlicki shrugged.
'Actually, it's obvious why they're letting you stay,' he said. 'Just ask the family of that baby you saved, or any of the others who aren't in pain any more. A true shaman is welcome anywhere.'
'I'm not a shaman.'
'Shaman, healer, what difference does the name make? One way or another, you help people. On the other hand, the only reason they accepted me and Kala is because Vilheyuna insisted on it. Not that having us around has done him much good.' Mlicki glanced at the figure lying on cushions in the centre of the tent. The old man's face was perfectly still, and his eyes were closed. Only the barely noticeable rise and fall of his chest showed that he was still alive.
'He must have seen something important in you,' Terrel commented.
'My talents?' Mlicki responded derisively. 'Much good they've done me.'
Terrel could sympathize with that sentiment all too easily, but he didn't say so.
'I think Vilheyuna chose wisely,' he insisted. 'Who else would have looked after him this well?'
Mlicki blinked in surprise at Terrel's words.
'I've been given some of the credit for keeping him alive all this time,' he said, 'but I haven't done anything. He's being protected by something none of us understand. I mean, he's had no food or water, and yet he hasn't wasted away. It makes no sense.'
'No, it doesn't,' Terrel agreed. 'But without you the Toma might have left him for dead. When he wakes up he'll need help coming back to the world.'
'If he wakes up.'
'He will.'
'You sound very confident for someone whose healing skills can't even begin to help him,' Mlicki commented dryly.
Terrel thought about telling the boy of all the other sleepers he'd seen - some of whom had been in a coma for more than a decade, and yet were still virtually unchanged - but decided that this was not the right time. It would be too complicated. He would have to explain his connection with Alyssa then - and he wasn't ready to do that. The very thought of her threatened to tear him apart. It had been so long . . .
'This is beyond my healing,' he admitted simply, 'but the fact that he is still alive is important. It'll make sense in the end.'
Mlicki looked doubtful.
'Maybe if I'd been with him when he collapsed, I could have . . .' His voice trailed away".
Terrel could have told him that it would have made no difference. He had been there when Ysatel fell, and he hadn't been able to help her.
'When did you say it happened?' he asked instead.
'The summer of the year before last, in the Binhemma-Ghar. If it had been anyone else they'd have left him at one of the monuments, but they weren't prepared to abandon their shaman while there was still breath left in him. As it was, it's a wonder he survived the journey back.'
Terrel knew that the Binhemma-Ghar was a desert within a desert. Its name, translated literally, meant 'go in and you won't come out'. It was apparently a forbidding place, and he was aware of the awe in which it was held by the nomads.
'But he did survive,' Terrel pointed out. 'And he'd chosen you to be his assistant, to look after him, even though you were an outsider. That should mean a lot.'
'It does,' Mlicki replied. 'But if I can't do more than make sure he isn't harmed when we move camp, or wipe the dust from his skin, then what's the point? What good am I doing?'
'You're doing all you can.' Terrel had just watched Mlicki wash Vilheyuna's face, arms and feet. The boy had been so gentle, so attentive, that it had been an oddly moving sight. Perhaps because he was an outsider, Terrel was the only person Mlicki allowed inside the tent when he tended to the shaman in this way. 'Sometimes all you can do is wait.'