"Tara K. Harper - Wolfwalker 2 - Shadow Leader" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harper Tara K)

brush that she was nearly invisible, but the silver headband,
which marked her as a healer, glinted dully in the sun. It gave -
away her position and turned Aranur's angry apprehension into
puzzled curiosity. He hardly noticed the chill where the mud
soaked his leggings. What was that fool woman doing now?
She looked frozen in place, like a statue, her hands out in front
of her as if she had been turned to stone in the middle of
clapping. Behind her, three small, neat piles of herbs testified
to the gathering she had done. He squinted, shifting silently to
a better position. But he could see no danger around herтАФand,
too, the wolf would not be lying in the brush behind Dion if she
sensed anything wrongтАФso what in the name of all nine moons
was going on?
Suddenly Dion let out a short, sharp yell and brought her
hands together with a clap that echoed across the water.
"By the godsтАФ" Aranur almost jumped into the nearest tree
as the banks of the lakeтАФon every sideтАФerupted, and thou-
sands of startlingly green lizards leapt up from where they had
lain, perfectly hidden, in the mud of the shore. They were a full
meter tall on their hind legs; they ran like half-size men toward
the water and then, to his amazement, rushed out on the surface
of the lake as if it were a mirage and solid as the banks he stood
on. Frantically they sped toward the center of the lake in a
spattering thunder, tiny wakes cutting back from their webbed
feet and chopping up the water like a thousand knives. And
then, just as suddenly as they had appeared, they sank out of
sight. And then there wasтАФnothing. Just the lake, the banks,
and the wolfwalker standing there with a foolish grin on her
face.
And she had the audacity to giggle. Aranur closed his mouth
with a snap and got to his feet, stalking down the dike. It did
not help that he slipped twice and caught himself only once. By
the time he reached Dion, who had already picked up her herbs
and motioned for the wolf to join her, he was wet, muddy,
humiliated, and coldly enraged. He wiped a last handful of
marsh mud from his scabbard and flung it on the shore.
"All right, Dion," he snapped. "What the hell was that all
about?"
The wolfwalker, her violet eyes sparkling, gestured toward
the lake. "Green tobi lizards. Did you see them take off for the
water? There must have been a thousand of them lying on the
shore."
"Dion," he said in a quietly dangerous voice, "why are you
out here alone this far from the trail?"
She looked at him then. "I was gathering herbs, Aranur. I
told my brother where I was going before I left."
He wiped another streak of mud from his scabbard. "Rhom
hardly knew you would be gone this long or this far."
She gave him an irritated look.
"Look, Dion, you weren't scouting trail, so no one knew