"Katherine Kurtz - Kelson 3 - The Quest for Saint Camber" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kurtz Katherine)

from his own right hand into Conall's. The cubes felt cold and sleek, the
white ones yellowed like old ivory but with little of ivory's warmth, the
black ones more a charcoal grey than true ebon or obsidian.
"Now, close your eyes and tell me the first thing you sense about them,"
Tiercel said.
"They're colder than they look," Conall ventured, cautiously closing his
hand to finger the cubes' comers and edges.
"Good. What else?"
Conall hefted the handful of cubes, considering, then opened his eyes
and shifted the four black cubes to his left hand. He stared at them a moment,
black cubes in his left hand, white in his right, then cocked his head at
Tiercel.
"There's something different besides their color."
"Yes?"
"I-don't know what it is."
"Try changing them to opposite hands and tell me how that feels."
Dutifully Conall complied; but after a few seconds of concentration, he
shook his head and switched them back.
"No, they definitely feel better this way."
"Better?"
"Well, more-balanced," Conall conceded. "Does that make any sense?"
Raising an appreciative eyebrow. Tiercel nodded. "It does, indeed. In
fact, this may be easier than I dreamed. You've detected the polarities. Put
the four white cubes on the table, forming a square, all of them touching.
Then set the four black ones at the corners."
Conall obeyed, then looked up at Tiercel with a "what-next?" expression.
"Now, lower your shields and open your mind to me, to follow what I do,"
Tiercel said. "Setting wards doesn't require a great deal of power, but well-
focused concentration is essential. That's what's hardest for children-and
it's the reason I had you practice centering all winter. Pay attention now."
Setting his right forefinger on the first white cube. Tiercel breathed
in deeply and spoke the cube's nomen: "Prime." Light flared in the cube as the
energy was set and bound, then spread to the other three as Tiercel proceeded
to name them as well:
"Seconde.
"Tierce.
"Quarte."
Conall had grasped the procedure by the second repetition and glanced
eagerly at Tiercel when the first four were complete.
"I can do that," he said confidently.
"Very well, then, you name the black ones," Tiercel said, sitting back
with fists braced on hips in good-natured challenge. "Just keep to the same
order, starting with Quinte."
"All right."
Narrowing all his concentration to the cube set diagonal to the white
Prime, Conall touched it with a tentative forefinger and spoke its name:
"Quinte."
The light that flared in the cube was an inky green-black rather than
white like the first four, but Conall hardly even blinked as he shifted his
attention to the black cube next to Seconde.