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

'Do you have any more useful talents you haven't told us about?' Mlicki enquired.
'Oh, lots,' Terrel replied, grinning to cover the memories that leapt into his mind.
'Well, all I can say is I like your timing.'
'We were lucky,' Terrel agreed, wondering whether the fortuitous timing really had been a coincidence, or whether some other forces were involved.
'Even so, I'm not sure we'd have stopped them fighting if it hadn't been for what happened afterwards.'
'But you didn't create the darkness?'
'No,' Mlicki confirmed.
'But you did see beyond the winds, didn't you?'
'Yes. I saw . . .' He hesitated, obviously puzzled. 'I saw something. A kind of darkness . . . But I didn't bring it here. I wouldn't even know how to try. I've never been able to show my visions to anyone else, even if I'd wanted to. Besides, it was . . . different.'
'Yet we all saw it,' Terrel said.
'I know. I saw it too, from the outside. It was separate from my othersight.'
'The curious thing is, we all seemed to see it differently.'
'What do you mean?'
'At first I thought it was an eclipse,' Terrel explained. 'But most of the nomads felt as if they were in the middle of a sandstorm. And the Shiban seemed to think they were being attacked by swarms of insects.'
Mlicki thought about this for a few moments before responding.
'Well, I've no idea what it was,' he said. 'I've never experienced anything like that before.'
They were silent for a while, each trying to put their memories in order.
'I half expected something to happen here, though,' Mlicki added eventually. 'I'd hoped it would be Vilheyuna waking up, but perhaps that's not supposed to happen yet.'
'Probably not,' Terrel agreed. 'Why here? Is there something special about this place?'
'Vilheyuna thought so. He has a theory about certain places in the desert - nodes, he calls them - where magic is strongest.'
'And this is one of them?'
Mlicki nodded.
'He'd always try to be at one of the nodes whenever there was an important ceremony to perform. But the timing was crucial too, because the magic also depended on where the moons were in the dome. He said that whether they were full or new or in between made a difference to the sources of power.'
The theory sounded familiar, and Terrel recalled the methods of the seers in his homeland and the sharaken in Macul. They too timed their various rituals by the movements of the four moons and, one way or another, the multiple lunar influences affected the lives of everyone on Nydus - from emperors and kings to the humblest peasants.
'They're not in a particularly interesting configuration at the moment though, are they?' Mlicki went on.
'Not really,' Terrel confirmed. 'The Amber was new two nights ago, but you'd think that would make it weaker rather than stronger. The other three are all waxing, but they're several days from being full. The closest is the Dark Moon - the Invisible - which will be full in two days' time, unless it's changed orbit again.'
'Do you think it could have?'
'I don't know. Two days would be a huge difference, so it probably hasn't.' Terrel felt some sort of unexplained affinity with the Dark Moon, and he was reasonably sure that he would have known if it had been full ahead of time.
'That doesn't help much then, does it?' Mlicki remarked.
'Did you feel anything when you put the headdress on?' Terrel asked.
'Nothing much. Why?'
Terrel glanced at the unmoving figure of Vilheyuna, and shrugged.
'You think his spirit might have helped me?' Mlicki wondered.
'I'm just trying to work out what happened,' Terrel replied, thinking of the other sleepers he had known -and the sometimes surprising ways they had played a part in his life.
'I think I'd have known if he was there,' Mlicki said thoughtfully.
'So we're back to the same question,' Terrel concluded. 'Vilheyuna didn't produce the darkness. Neither did you, or me, or the node. So who did?''
The night passed with no further alarms. No one really expected the Shiban to return so soon after what had happened, but equally no one liked to think about what might have happened if the raiders had come upon a camp that was unprepared, and so even more look-outs had been posted for the hours of darkness.
When Terrel finally got to sleep, after first ensuring that Mlicki was settled for the night, he dreamt - for the first time in many months - about the crystal city that rose from the waters of a moonlit ocean. He took this as a good omen, because that was where Alyssa lived in his dream-world, and it might mean that he would be able to see her soon. However, the ephemeral contact was ended prematurely by a sudden screaming that woke him with a start.
At first he thought that Mlicki was having a nightmare, but his charge was sleeping peacefully, and Terrel was already certain that the noise had not come from Kalkara or Vilheyuna, so it must have originated outside their tent. But the sound was not repeated, and there was no activity within the camp as far as Terrel could tell, so he dismissed the interruption and went back to sleep, hoping - in vain - to return to his dream.
Algardi and several of the elders came to visit Mlicki early the next morning. Like Terrel, they had many questions, and the shaman's apprentice was obliged to recount his side of the story all over again. He repeatedly denied that he was the new shaman, but in spite of this many of the Toma now regarded him with a new respect. The nomad's first reaction to the events of the previous afternoon had been one of disbelief, but they could not deny the evidence of their own senses. Nor could they set aside the fact that Mlicki's intervention had saved them from a potentially disastrous battle. Like it or not, the boy was a hero. Even when he tried to explain Terrel's role in what had happened, so that the credit could be shared more fairly, it was his own actions that still drew the most praise. 'Vilheyuna obviously knew what he was doing when
he chose you,' Algardi concluded. 'We have much to thank you for. I trust we can count on you to help us until he returns.'
Til do what I can,' Mlicki replied earnestly. 'But I won't put his headdress on again. I'm not worthy of it yet, and I may never be. I only wore it yesterday to try to help. It was all I could think of. I didn't really believe I could . . .' His voice died away.
'Our debt to you still stands,' Algardi said, then looked around at his fellow nomads and smiled. 'Unlike our debt to the Shiban.'
His companions' laughter was fuelled as much by relief as by their new-found confidence.
'Do you think they'll come back?' Mlicki asked.
'I doubt it,' the elder replied. 'Besides, we were going to move on soon anyway. We'll be beyond the boundaries of their so-called territory within a day or two. Assuming your patient is fit to travel, of course,' he added, glancing at Terrel.
'He just needs a little more rest,' the healer assured them.
'Excellent. We'll leave you in peace then.'
As the elders trooped out, Kalkara emerged silently from her sleeping place and walked over to her brother. Sitting down beside him, she slipped her arm through his and smiled contentedly.
'Were you listening to all that?' Mlicki asked, then answered his own question. 'Of course you were. Don't worry, though. Whatever happens I'll always look after you first. You know that, don't you?'