"Katherine Kurtz - Adept 02 - The Lodge of the Lynx" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kurtz Katherine)

shore of Loch Ness. Marching across the center of a night landscape, silhouetted by lightning flashes, was a
procession of four dark-robed and hooded men. The two in the middle were struggling to carry a small but
heavy chest of archaic design. The one bringing up the rear bore what appeared to be a framed picture above
his head, ducking beneath it like a shield.
The fourth man, masked across the eyes like an executioner, was brandishing a sword as he led the odd
procession. Light glinted from a heavy, silvery medallion around his throat and a ring on his right hand, but the
very light made it impossible to see the items in detail. Above and around them all, whirling like a swarm of
angry hornets, hung a hungry cloud of green-glowing spheres. The spheres in the foreground each contained
the spectral impression of a winged homunculus with gaping jaws and razor-sharp teeth.
On the back of this painting Peregrine had scribbled, The fury of the Sidhe.
"Whoever would have believed that anything so tiny could be so deadly?" the artist said, surveying his own
work with a wondering shake of his head. ' "The next one's even more fanciful, if you don't believe in
monsters."
He passed Adam a third sheet of watercolor paper. This painting, a much darker night scene, showed two
men cowering in the stern of a sleek, high-powered speedboat as it tossed about on a stormy sweep of black
water. The speedboat was overshadowed by a huge serpentine form rearing out of the waves off the starboard
bow. Reptilian eyes glittered green in a basilisk head, as the creature gathered its coils to strike and diveтАж.
Anyone else viewing the picture might have taken it for the cover illustration from some modern horror novel;
but Adam knew better. He had witnessed the event with his own eyes from the beach below Urquhart Castle,
overlooking Loch Ness - but Peregrine's painting showed far more detail than anyone could have seen from
the shore.
For Peregrine Lovat had the gift of seeing more than other people. It was part of what made him such a gifted
portrait artist - this ability to see more about his sitters than mere physical appearance - and it was what had
driven him to seek Adam's help. In learning to accept his talent for the gift it was, he was coming to
understand what Adam already knew - that the truth sometimes went beyond empirical evidence and what
would be admissible in a court of law.
Being privy to the truth could be dangerous, of course. Peregrine's last two paintings bore testimony to that
fact. The first framed the upper body of the hooded man with the sword, the blade now discernible as an
ornate Italian rapier. The detail of the sword-hand and the rapier hilt was good, the blade just striking the blow
that had left Peregrine wounded, but the red-stoned ring on the sword-hand was not clearly visible.
"Here's a better detail of the leader's ring and medallion," Peregrine said, handing Adam the last painting. "I
had to think about this for a long time, but I finally got a clear look at what was on them."
It might have been artwork submitted for a jeweller's commission, so finely was it done. The opaque red
gemstone set into the golden bezel of the ring had been skillfully cut to show the snarling mask of a big cat
with the tufted ears and side-whiskers of a lynx. The disk of the medallion, sharply delineated in shades of
black and grey, bore the same design. Adam's long mouth thinned at the sight of the device, for it stirred
memories that were far from pleasant.
"You've seen one of these before, haven't you?" Peregrine observed quietly, noting the narrowing of the other's
dark eyes.
"Aye," Adam said quietly. "As a matter of fact, the ring you've depicted was recovered at Loch Ness. McLeod
showed it to me, after we got back from having your hand sutured."
Peregrine gaped, glancing at the painting again, then returned his attention to Adam.
"What does it mean, then?"
Adam pulled a tight smile that had no mirth in it. At Loch Ness, he and McLeod had guessed the truth, but
they had kept the knowledge to themselves. However, if Peregrine was to join the Hunt, he had to know
something of what they were up against.
"You've seen the rings that Noel and I wear when we're working. Many Black Lodges do the same. This is the
Sign of the Lynx." He tapped the illustration of the Lynx ring with a well-manicured forefinger. "Let's just say
that the Lodge of the Lynx is an old enemy."
Peregrine's hazel eyes widened, but he said nothing. After a moment, Adam continued.