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

Make them believe it, Terrel thought, remembering his own first lesson in the use of curses. That had come from a swindler on Vadanis, but he'd had reason to heed Babak's advice many times since then. Truth, Terrel knew, was rarely stronger than belief.
'You're lying,' Kohtala claimed, though some of his followers did not look so certain.
'Do you want me to show you?' Mlicki asked.
Kohtala tried to laugh this off, but he couldn't do so - and Terrel knew that half the battle was won. The raiders' doubts were growing. Algardi sensed it too, and returned to the fray.
'Leave now,' he commanded, 'and all this will be forgotten. You have no claim on us.'
Terrel held his breath, hoping, as Kohtala hesitated before replying.
'No,' he decided eventually. 'We will have our tribute. Show me this curse, if you can.' He had decided to call the bluff.
In response, Mlicki shook his head once so that the eyes and ears flew out around him in a flurry of movement, and at the same time he raised both arms. Nothing more happened, but several raiders flinched as if expecting sorcery. Mlicki grew very still, and Terrel sensed that the boy was indeed seeing beyond the winds. But that would do him little good unless he could somehow reveal what he saw to the onlookers.
'Darkness comes,' the boy intoned.
'Well, there's a revelation,' Kohtala observed sarcastically. 'The sun will set soon.'
'From below,' Mlicki went on, his voice sounding hollow and unnatural. 'The earth rises up.'
A slight breeze arose, swirling sand at the boy's feet so that it seemed to dance around him. There was some muttering at this, but Kohtala was again quick to respond.
'I've seen better mirages,' he said scornfully. 'Stop this mockery now.'
Mlicki's arms were shaking, his own determination faltering.
'This is your curse,' he whispered.
'Your words are futile,' Kohtala declared, drawing his sword. 'You have shown us nothing. Pay us what we are due, or face the consequences.'
There was a rustle of movement as weapons on both sides were removed from their scabbards. Terrel sensed Mlicki's helplessness, and wanted to do something -anything - to help him before the situation got out of control. However, just at that moment he began to experience a premonition of his own. It began as a queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach, grew quickly to the internal trembling that he remembered only too well, until he knew what was coming. Fear mingled with calculation in his mind. Surely there had to be a way he could use this? He was about to cry out aloud, when a better idea occurred to him.
Mlicki? Mlicki! Can you hear me? Terrel put all his effort, all his hopes, into the psinoma, and was rewarded by seeing his friend start violently. Tell them an earthquake is coming, he implored him. Tell them it's a punishment, that the winds are angry with them.
But. . . Mlicki's internal confusion was evident.
Trust me on this! Terrel urged. There's an earthquake coming. Quickly!
'Put your blades away!' Mlicki shouted. 'Or we all die.'
That got everyone's attention, though few seemed to be taking him seriously.
'The ground will shake,' the boy added desperately, 'to mark the truth of my words. It is the sign of the curse upon you if you break the laws!'
'The ground-' Kohtala began disdainfully, but fell silent as a low rumbling groan rose from the dunes around them.
The tremor struck. Sand shivered and slid, pebbles jumped as though they were alive, and men staggered on legs that suddenly provided no support. It lasted only a few moments, but the change in mood was emphatic. Fear and bewilderment registered on the faces of all the raiders - including that of their leader - while the Toma were caught between awe and triumph. Mlicki's legs gave way beneath him, and he sat down with a bump.
But that was not the end of the afternoon's wonders. Even though the sun still hung above the western horizon, the entire scene was plunged into a sudden gloom. At first Terrel thought it was an eclipse, but soon realized that it had been much too quick for that. Not even the Dark Moon could have brought about such a rapid change. Many of the nomads were shielding their faces, thinking that they had been enveloped by a sandstorm, but the Shiban were close to panic, many of them shouting about birds or insects, as though they felt themselves being engulfed by swarms of flying creatures. Only one thing was clear; whatever the reason, the darkness Mlicki had promised had arrived.
And then it was gone, and the orange light of the setting
sun returned to paint the desert. Algardi was the first to recover his wits.
'You have your answer,' he told Kohtala. 'Go now. And think twice before you threaten the laws - or the Toma - again.'
None of the raiders was in any mood for fighting after that and, although Kohtala tried to put a brave face on his defeat, he could not disguise his own humiliating dread. He led his men away without another word.
Chapter Four
'I'd been thinking about what you said,' Mlicki explained. 'About Vilheyuna letting me know when he wanted something from me.'
'And you thought the Shiban's coming meant you were supposed to become the Toma's shaman?' Terrel guessed.
'Winds, no!' Mlicki exclaimed. 'I just knew I had to do something. Perhaps if I could fool them, distract them for a while, it would buy us some time if nothing else. Putting the headdress on was the only way I could think of to make people take any notice of me. I didn't really know what to do after that.' He shook his head slowly, as if to clear it.
After the raiders had gone, Mlicki had lain unconscious on the ground, and no one had been able to rouse him. Some of the nomads had feared that he had fallen into a stupor like Vilheyuna, but Terrel had been able to reassure them. Mlicki, he knew, was simply exhausted by his own efforts - both mentally and physically - but he would wake up in due course.
The boy had been carried back to the shaman's tent and, although some of the elders had remained there for a while in the hope of speaking to him, it had eventually been left to Terrel to revive him. For a time he had shared the tent with three perfectly silent figures - Mlicki, Vilheyuna and Kalkara, who had slipped inside unnoticed while her brother was being tended to. Terrel had comforted the little girl, reassuring her about Mlicki's health, but she seemed quite at ease, her earlier terror apparently forgotten.
It had been late in the evening when Mlicki finally came to. By then his sister was asleep behind a screen in one corner of the tent, so the two young men talked quietly.
'Well, whatever you did, it worked,' Terrel commented.
'Better than I'd expected,' Mlicki agreed, shaking his head again, this time in disbelief.
'How did you do it? The darkness, I mean.'
'I didn't. I've no idea where it came from.'
'Are you serious?'
'Completely. I thought you did it.'
'Me?' It was Terrel's turn to be taken aback. 'No. I. . .'
'You knew the quake was coming,' Mlicki pointed out.
'Yes, but ... I don't think the two things were connected.'
'But how did you know?'
'I don't know how it happens,' Terrel admitted.
'You mean you've done it before?'
'Yes.'