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

The toxic light flared lightning-bright.

And for Kellen, there was sudden darkness and a release from all pain.

THEN, of course, there was a return to life, and pain. And since the latter meant that he still had the
former, it was less unwelcome than it might have been. And through the pain, the faces of Vestakia
and Jermayan - so they had survived!

It had all been worth it then. Only afterward did it occur to him that the compounded trouble he
had fallen back into might make him begin to regret that return to life...

IT had taken them only a sennight to travel from Sentarshadeen - easternmost of the Nine Cities -
into the heart of the Lost Lands to face the power of Shadow Mountain.

The return trip took longer, though at least nobody was trying to kill them this time. That did not
mean, however, that the journey was less trying. If anything, it was physically harder.

To begin with, it was raining - although rain, Kellen reflected grimly, wearily, was a mild word to
apply to the water that had been falling from the sky nonstop for the last moonturn.

It was just a good thing that Elven armor didn't - couldn't - rust.

Jermayan, of course, didn't mind the rain at all. But the Elven lands had been suffering under the
effects of a deadly spell-inflicted drought for almost a year. Kellen had only spent a few days in
Sentarshadeen before heading north toward the Barrier, and even what little he'd seen of the
Elves' desperate attempts to save their city and the forest surrounding it had been enough to
daunt him. How much more terrifying must it have been for an Elven Knight, one of the land's
protectors, to watch everything he loved wither and die for sennight upon sennight, knowing there
was nothing he could do about it?

No wonder Jermayan welcomed the rain.

Vestakia didn't seem to mind the weather all that much either. But then, Vestakia had spent her
entire life living nearly alone in a little shepherd's hut in the wildest part of the Lost Lands, with
only a few goats for company. A little rain - or even a lot of rain - probably didn't bother her too
much.

But it felt increasingly like torture to Kellen. For one thing, he still wasn't all that used to
uncontrolled weather. He'd grown up in the Mage-City of Armethalieh, where everything - including
the weather - was governed by the rule of the High Mages. He'd never actually seen rain until he'd
been Banished by the High Council for his possession of the three Books of Wildmagery - and his
Banishment hadn't been that long ago. He'd never had to stand out in the rain in his life.

But now... well, there wasn't anything like a roof for leagues and leagues, probably. Even when
they stopped to rest, they never really got out of the rain. The most they could manage was to
drape some canvas over themselves, or, if they were lucky, find a half-cave, or shelter under a tree.

To add to his misery, he was still suffering from the injuries he had gotten in his battle to break the
Barrier-spell. He'd been so sure that his life would be the price of the spell that awakening