"Barbara Hambly - Darwath 5 - Icefalcons Quest" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hambly Barbara)

warriors of House Ankres filed past her, but they certainly wouldn't drive the invaders away.
The fires around the towers were losing their first force. Smoke poured white into the sapphire sky,
pierced now and again by flame, like many-colored silk thrashing in high wind. A few trees caught, as
they generally did.
"Are you having second thoughts?"
Minalde stood at her side, white-faced and drawn. She held her daughter Gisa firmly by the hand, the
dark-haired child looking about her with wonderment in her dark-blue eyes.
Gil drew in her breath, and let it out. "No," she said. "If it's a choice between in or out ..." She hooked
her hands through her sword-sash. "You're losing Wendie's help inside as it is. If something goes wrong,
I think I'll be more use inside. I don't think I'd make that much difference when the guys go over the pass
to find Tir."
Alde looked away and nodded. Gil could feel her tension at the boy's name.
"Hey," said Gil softly. "The Icefalcon will find him. He'll bring him in back." Charles Lindbergh probably
said the same thing to his wife. Of course, Charles Lindbergh didn't have the Icefalcon looking for his
vanished child, either. "How's Rudy?"
"Alive." The gesture of Alde's fingers tried to brush the topic aside, unbearable to the touch. There was
silence before she could go on. "The same, Wend says. I ... I suppose all we can do now is sit tight, as
you say."
The last stragglers passed them, panting and joking among themselves, still high with the rush of escape.
A hundred yards off the cavalry wheeled, helmet spikes flashing in the sun.
Pale spring sun, thought Gil, bright on the thick new grass of the Vale. The translucent glister of glaciers,
opal walls along the black cliffs, miles high; grizzled pines and quicksilver streams; the mirror flash of bogs
and glabrous acres of slunch. A hawk turning, infinitely tiny against the sky. Morning light.
She drained it deep, like her high school friend Sherry Reinhold going on one last binge before the diet
that always started tomorrow ... In or out. One choice, for who knew how long and under what
circumstances?
"Time to get inside, me Lady." Janus pulled off his helmet, graying rufous hair hanging in sweaty strings in
his eyes. Calculation in that pug face, and worry; the smell of his sweat and the armor's leather straps.
Once the Doors were shut-once the Alketch army was free to surround the black walls of the
Keep-everyone's options would be limited.
From the twin columns of smoke under the eastern mountain wall dark worms of men crept out.
Weapons caught soft flashes of sun, banners a faded echo of the wildflower carpet they trampled.
Scrying down the road Ilae had seen their supply lines-Prandhays Keep was far enough away, God
knew, but not nearly so far as the South.
The great Doors shut behind them, and Janus and Caldern turned the locking-rings. Hidden bolts and
bars echoed, less a sound than a deep vibration in the glowstone shadows of the gate passage: Gil put
her arm around Alde's shoulders. The two women were the last to enter the Keep.
The second set of Doors, thick metal wrought in ancient years, clanged, and all was sealed.
"All over now; nothing more to see..." The Guards sounded petty against the hugeness of the Aisle, the
loom of speculation and fear. Someone saw Minalde and set up a cheer that clattered among the high
catwalks of the upper levels, the cavernous sable walls.
After you've fought a battle in the morning thought Gil, it's difficult to just get out the laundry or do your
gardening in the afternoon.
("Everyone in the village would come into the castle during the siege," said Dr. Bannister, nervously
chewing on the fat end of his tie. )
The whole Aisle smelled of hay and the musty heaps of the tiny fodder-potatoes that for thousands of
years had been this world's only acquaintance with the spud family, until Rudy's rediscovery of genuine
potatoes-food-staple potatoes-two years ago.
With that discovery the Keep had become completely self-sufficient. People still tilled corn and wheat
outside, but that was for surplus and variety, lagniappe. With the cattle and sheep inside, they could hold