"Mercedes Lackey - Obsidian 02 - To Light A Candle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

through him.

His hands were burning. Holding the keystone was like clutching red-hot metal fresh from the forge,
and there was no respite, no mercy. He could smell the pork-like scent of his cooking flesh, could
feel blood running down his wrists as blisters swelled up and burst, and then, in a thunderclap of
agony, the fire was everywhere, coursing through his veins with every beat of his heart.

Kellen howled unashamedly, great wracking sobs of hopeless agony. And he held on. Perhaps it
was stubbornness, but he had always been stubborn. And he would not give the Demons this
victory.

Then came a single thought, emerging through the fire and the pain.

I'm going to die.

He realized at that moment that this was the price of the spell, the rest of the cost. It must be. A
Wildmage's life, Idalia must have known when she created the spell that the price of casting it
would be the life of the one who triggered it. His life. Kellen felt a flash of pride in his sister at
keeping the painful secret so well.

But he would have to consent. No Wildmage could give up that which belonged to another - not
without turning to the Dark.

She had known the price of the magic, but she could only have hoped he would pay it. Well, he
wasn't going to let her down. He would be everything she had hoped. And if he had been an
uncouth barbarian to the Elves of Sentarshadeen, at least he would be an uncouth barbarian
whose name would live on in their legends forever.

If that's the price, he shouted silently to the Powers, then I will pay it! I wish I didn't have to, but I
swear I pay it willingly and without reservation!

But more than ever, having surrendered his life, he yearned to keep it. To see the sun again, to feel
the gentle summer wind, to walk through the forest or drink a cup of morning tea. But all those
things had their price, and so did keeping them. And some prices were too high to pay. The price of
his life would be the destruction of all those things, soon or late. The price of keeping his life would
be victory for the Endarkened.

No. Never!

My life for the destruction of the Barrier. A fair bargain. Done. Done!

Then the pain was too great for thought.

Abruptly the obelisk began to swell, its stark lines distorting as if the malign power it contained was
backing up inside it, filling it beyond its capacity. Its swelling carried him upward; he collapsed
against its surface, clinging to the keystone, and still it swelled. Now the stone was a baneful
pus-yellow color, nearly spherical. Kellen lay upon its surface , unable to preserve the thought of
anything beyond the need to maintain the link.

The whole cairn shook like a tree in a windstorm.