"Robert Jordan - The Wheel of Time 07 - A Crown of Swords" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jordan Robert)

A CROWN OF SWORDS Copyright ┬й 1996 by Robert Jordan

To Harriet,
who deserves the credit once again

There can be no health in us, nor any good thing grow, for the land is one with the Dragon Reborn, and he one with the
land. Soul of fire, heart of stone, in pride he conquers, forcing the proud to yield. He calls upon the mountains to kneel,
and the seas to give way, and the very skies to bow. Pray that the heart of stone remembers tears, and the soul of fire,
love. .
тАФ From a much-disputed translation of The Prophecies of the Dragon by the poet Kyera Termendal, of Shiota,
believed to have been published between FY 700 and FY 800

Prologue Lightnings

From the tall arched window, close onto eighty spans above the ground, not far below the top of the White Tower,
Elaida could see for miles beyond Tar Valon, to the rolling plains and forests that bordered the broad River Erinin,
running down from north and west before it divided around the white walls of the great island city. On the ground, long
morning shadows must have been dappling the city, but from this prominence all seemed clear and bright. Not even the
fabled "topless towers" of Cairhien had truly rivaled the White Tower. Certainly none of Tar Valon's lesser towers did,
for all that men spoke far." and wide of them and their vaulting sky-bridges.
This high, an almost constant breeze lessened the unnatural heat gripping the world. The Feast of Lights past, snow
should have covered the ground deep, yet the weather belonged in the depths of a hard summer. Another sign that the
Last Battle approached and the Dark One touched the world, if more were needed. Elaida did not let the heat touch her
even when she descended, of course. The breeze was not why she had had her quarters moved up here, despite the
inconvenience of so many stairs, to these simple rooms.
Plain russet floor tiles and white marble walls decorated by a few tapestries could not compare with the grandeur of the
Amyrlin's study and the rooms that went with it far below. She still used those rooms occasionallyтАФ they held
associations with the power of the Amyrlin Seat in some mindsтАФ but she resided here, and worked here more often
than not. For the view. Not of city or river or forests, though. Of what was beginning in the Tower grounds.
'Great diggings and foundations spread across what had been the Warders' practice yard, tall wooden cranes and stacks
of cut marble and granite. Masons and laborers swarmed over the workings like ants, and endless streams of wagons
trailed through the gates onto the Tower grounds, bringing more stone. To one side stood a wooden "working model,"
as the masons called it, big enough for men to enter crouching on their heels and see every detail, where every stone
should go. Most of the workmen could not read, after allтАФ neither words nor mason's drawn plans. The "working
model" was as large as some manor houses.
When any king or queen had a palace, why should the Amyrlin Seat be relegated to apartments little better than those
of many ordinary sisters? Her palace would match the White Tower for splendor, and have a .great spire ten spans
higher than the Tower itself. The blood had drained from the chief mason's face when he heard that. The Tower had
been Ogier-built, with assistance from sisters using the Power. One look at Elaida's face, however, set Master Ler-man
bowing and stammering that of course all would be done as she wished. As if there had been any question.
Her mouth tightened with exasperation. She had wanted Ogier masons again, but the Ogier were confining themselves
to their sledding for some reason. Her summons to the nearest, Sledding Jentoine, in the Black Hills, had been met with
refusal. Polite, yet still refusal, without explanation, even to the Amyrlin Seat. Ogier were reclusive at best. Or they
might be withdrawing from a world full of turmoil; Ogier stayed clear of human strife.
Firmly Elaida dismissed the Ogier from her mind. She prided herself on separating what could be from what could not.
Ogier were a triviality. They had no part in the world beyond the cities they had built so long ago and seldom visited
now except to make repairs.
The men below, crawling beetle-like over the building site, made her frown slightly. Construction went forward by
inches. Ogier might be out of the question, yet perhaps the One Power could be used again. Few sisters possessed real
strength in. weaving Earth, but not that much was required to reinforce stone, or bind stone to stone. Yes. In her mind,