"J. Robert King - Invasion Cycle 01 - Invasion" - читать интересную книгу автора (King Robert J)

Flight dynamos jutted from arms and legs. Black crystals
gave gauntlets the touch of death. Whole armies had been
defeated by these two men.
They were not men, not truly. One was a millennium-
old mage, with short gray hair, mutton chops, and a pair of
wide-spaced mustaches bracketing his mouth. He wielded
the power of skies and seas, of volcanoes and verdant fields.
The armor he wore was a concession to his friend. Even
without it, the mage could bring the heavens down to kiss
the dust. The other man was a near-god. His body was
nothing but a convenience of his concentration. Nothing
but will held him in one place. He stepped among and
between worlds as easily as other men stepped stone to
stone. For him, the power armor was a vanity. He could
have simply imagined the suit into being, but he loved to
build machines.
Urza Planeswalker drew a deep breath of the cool air.
Wind dragged at his long, ash-blond hair and goatee. It
snapped his cape behind him.
"Do you sense it, Barrin? Do you sense what
Weatherlight has just done?"

24
 J. Robert King

Mage Master Barrin nodded. Time had wrinkled his
flesh and clouded his eyes. Still, he seemed a young protege
to Urza. Indeed, he was. Though Barrin had lived a
millennium, Urza had lived four.
"Yes, my friend. I sense what they have doneтАФyour
savior and my daughter and their ship." The words sounded
sharper than he had intended. It mattered little. Urza was
oblivious to social slights. "They've closed two of the
portals."
"Splendid." Urza rarely smiled, but he did now.
"Gerrard at last is testing well." He glanced at his friend.
Caprice shone in the planeswalker's gemstone eyes. "You
said it was a mistake to create him. You said no man could
live up to the destiny I assigned to Gerrard."
"I said no man could endure Gerrard's destiny."
Shrugging his eyebrows, Barrin added, "We have yet to see.
I only wish my daughter had chosen another man to love.
It is dangerous business to love a savior."
"Hanna chose as her mother chose," Urza said
offhandedly.
Barrin scowled, regret boiling in his eyes. "There is still
this third portal." As if to banish memories, Barrin stared
out over the wide plain. Wild wheat filled the fields,
nodding white heads in the wind. "We should summon the
aerial contingents. At top speed, they could arrive even as