"Tanya Huff - Crystal 1 - Child of the Grove" - читать интересную книгу автора (Huff Tanya)

He looked up and saw she gazed sadly at him.
"How did you know?"
"The breezes tell me. Even in sleep I hear them; they say men gather on the
western border clutching steel in angry hands. "
Rael spread his own hands helplessly. "The King of Melac has a new and
powerful counselor and the man plays the king's weaknesses and desires like,
like a shepherd plays his pipes. He's driving the king to create an empire.
Father says they begin with us because Melac hates my father for something
that happened when they were young.
"And my son will go to see they conquer no empire. "
"I have to do what I can. " He tried to keep the anticipation out of his voice
and wasn't entirely successful. This war would be his chance to prove himself.
His skill with weapons was his father's heritage, but he moved with a strength
and grace no man born of mere mortal could match. In his mind's eye he saw
himself a hero, returning from battle not only accepted but adulated by the
people he was destined to rule. In his heart, he only hoped he would not
disgrace his training.
"And your father?"
His voice was gentle. "The king must ride at the head of his armies. "
"Yes. " War had brought the young king to her so many years before. He
had staggered, lost and wounded, into the Grove, stinking of steel and
violence, Lord Death close by his side. Against the advice of her sisters, for
the Elder Races did not involve themselves with mortals, she had saved him.
Saved him and loved him, and Rael had come of it. Full dusk was upon them now.
"I must go, Mother. "
"Yes. " War took her son from her, replaced her loving child with this stern
young man, so ready to do violence. If he survived he would be further
changed,

14 Tanya Huff
and who knew if he would return to the Grove where nothing changed at all. She
held him. Held him tightly. And then she let him go because it was all she
could do.
"Rael?"
He turned; half in, half out of the Grove.
"Tell your father, I am always here. "
"He knows, Mother. " He waited but she said nothing more. "Mother?"
She shook her head, the brilliant immortal color of her eyes dimmed by a very
mortal sorrow. She was the Eldest. She could not beg for the return of her
love.
Accustomed to thinking of the hamadryad as his mother, and mothers as always
strong, Rael had never noticed before how young Milthra looked, or how frail.
He suddenly wanted to protect her, to take her in his arms and tell her
everything would be all right, but as he watched she faded and dissolved back
into her tree. Only the breezes remained and he had never learned to hear what
they said.
Although dark had fallen over Melac, the building of the counselor's tower
continued. In the flickering light of torches, long lines of naked and
sweating men struggled with block and tackle to lift massive slabs of marble
into position. As each slab reached its zenith, a slave was removed from the