"Robin Hobb - Liveship 2 - Mad Ship" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hobb Robin)

Wintrow, who has made a desperate bargain: he has promised to heal Kennit of a
mortal wound using arts learned in his monastic boyhood-or forfeit his life
and that of his father.
Meanwhile, in Bingtown, Althea finds her onetime sea mate Brashen still
struggling to redeem his wild past and out to prove himself a ship's master.
Though wary of each other since their brief, ill-fated flare of passion, they
now make common cause in a quest to find the Vivacia. But should they risk all
they possess to rescue a liveship who may not want to be rescued? For the
Vivacia is far from unhappy in her new life- and for Althea and Brashen, the
method of Vivacia's liberation may prove more dangerous than leaving her in
Kennit's ambitious grasp.
Mad Ship is a rich, tapestried epic of enchantment that will set your
imagination ablaze, proving that Robin Hobb is a writer not only working at
the top of her form, but constantly surpassing it.


SPRING


PROLOGUE - A Recollection of Wings

BELOW THE SERPENTS, THE BEDS OF WEEDS SWAYED GENTLY IN THE CHANGing tide. The
water was warm here, as warm as it had been in the south before they had
migrated. Despite Maulkin's declaration that they would no longer follow the
silvery provider, her tantalizing scent hung in the salt water. She was not
far away; they trailed her still, but at a distance. Shreever considered
confronting him about it, but decided against it. She eyed their leader
anxiously. The injuries Maulkin had taken in his brief battle with the white
serpent were healing slowly. The gouges disrupted the pattern of his scales.
The golden false-eyes that ran the length of his body and proclaimed him a
prophet were faded and dull.
Shreever, too, felt faded and dull.
They had come far in search of One Who Remembers. Maulkin had been so
confident at the beginning of their journey. Now he seemed as confused as she
and Sessurea were. The three of them were all that remained of the great
tangle of sea serpents who had begun the migration. The others in their tangle
had lost faith in their quest, and had fallen away from Maulkin. The last she
had seen of them, they had been following a great dark provider, feeding
mindlessly on the unresisting flesh it distributed to them. That had been many
tides ago.
"Sometimes," Maulkin confided to Shreever quietly as they rested, "I lose
my place in time. It seems to me that we have come this way before, done these
things before, perhaps even shared these words before. Sometimes I believe it
so strongly that I think that today is actually a memory or a dream. I think,
then, that perhaps we need do nothing, for whatever has happened to us will
occur again. Or has, perhaps, already occurred." His voice was without
strength or conviction.
She flanked him. They undulated gently in the current, finning no more
than they must to maintain their position. Beneath them, Sessurea shook his
mane suddenly, releasing a thin waft of toxins to alert them. "Look! Food!" he