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

"Olthas Inhathos," she said. "Desert Walker. You do not remember me, but..."
And she smiled at whatever it was that the Desert Walker replied. "Even so," she said. "I am in the
badlands a day's ride south of Bison Hill with my brother Nyagchilios, the Pilgrim of the Skies, the
Icefalcon of the Talking Stars People. The hook-handed bad man Vair na-Chandros is here ... No, not
with me but camped close by, and it appears that he can make warriors out of air. It is he who sent the
army against the Keep in Renweth Vale, we think. He also-so my brother says-sent out the peddler
whose story took you to Gae, that Bektis could enter the Keep undetected to steal the child Tir."
Her smile widened with delight, and to the Icefalcon she said, "The Desert Walker learned to curse from
the Gettlesand cowboys, I think. My little brother is confused," she went on, turning back to the puddle
of ice, "and does not know what to do."
"I never said so," the Icefalcon said frostily. Sisters. "Tell him of the black tent and the things that passed
in the night."
While she did so he climbed the rocks again to watch the movements of the camp.
Under ordinary circumstances the Icefalcon would have felt no hesitation about his ability to creep into
the camp itself, even by daylight. But the magic that hung so patently about the walls of that square black
tent kept him at a distance.
Among his people there was a story about a coyote who went hunting with a saber-tooth and feasted in
the end not only on the eggs of the horrible-bird while it was busy killing the saber-tooth-who after the
fashion of such creatures didn't wait to see if there was unseen danger nearby before closing in-but on the
entrails of the larger and more hasty beast itself.
"He is troubled, your Desert Walker," Cold Death said when the Icefalcon eased himself down into the
crevice again. "He says he will make for the Keep with all speed. In the meantime he begs you, guard the
boy Tir."
"And what of the black tent?"
"He says there is a tale about an old woman who wrought warriors out of bread dough and brought them
to life with the blood from her left little finger, but he does not think this is the case. He says the Guild of
Bakers would never stand for such a thing. He says he will meditate." She handed him back the bag.
"Thank him for me," retorted the Icefalcon, exasperated, and slung the bag over his shoulder again.
"Our enemy Loses His Way abides still by Bison Hill." Cold Death stood and tossed her grass blade
aside. "He seems at peace, so I can assume that you were right, that the shaman Bektis awaits the
coming of this Vair and will do naught to the boy in the meantime. Will you return thence now, little
brother?"
"No." The Icefalcon looked around him, gauging the defensibility of the coulee. A water cut led from the
main stream to their left, and having hunted here once in the past he knew there was a sort of cave under
its bank a mile and a half upstream, hidden by chokecherry brambles.
"I have watched and seen no sign of another shaman," he said quietly. "Yet Vair himself is not mageborn,
and there is power of some kind there. Ingold and Minalde need to know of it before Vair achieves his
meeting with Bektis. Things may change after that, for better or for worse."
He unfolded his lean height-Cold Death didn't even top his shoulder-and sniffed wind and weather,
listening to the voices of the camp and the sounds made by the vultures and the kites.
"If there is some magic there that demands sacrifices of pain, I think I had best know this, too, before
they take possession of the child Tir."
Cold Death's face sobered, and she nodded.
"Can you work on me a spell of shadow-walking?"
Her mouth was still, but her dark eyes flickered to the brightening sky.
"I know. l have heard the Wise Ones of the Keep, Ilae and Ingold and Rudy, speak of such spells. They
are more difficult to perform by daylight, but daylight would render me less easy to detect, as it does
demons. I can sleep in the cave there, if you will weave the spells around me and stand guard above my
body."
Still she was silent. He saw the concern for him in her eyes.