"Mercedes Lackey - Alta" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

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First Printing, March 2004 123456789

DAW TRADEMARK REGISTERED

U.S. PAT. OFF. AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES

тАФMARCA REGISTRADA

HECHO EN U.S.A.

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

To Jemima Parry-Jones and Mozart
CHAPTER ONE
OVERHEAD, the stars that filled the night sky, the ornaments upon the
robe of the Goddess of the Night, seemed close enough to touch. The
kamiseen wind whined in the tops of the trees of the oasis beside him;
even at night, it never completely ceased. It smelled of baked stone, with a
hint of desiccated plants.

He had come to learn that the desert was not all one sort of landscape;
he had escaped over stony hills into the pure sand of the desert dune
country; now he was in yet another sort of desert, a place of marginal life.
The sand beneath Vetch was not as comfortable to sit in as one might
suppose; since this wasn't dune country, the ground was hard beneath a
surface mix of dust, sand, and pebbles. He was glad of his bedroll now
since it provided a layer of softness between himself and the ground.
Strange. When he had been Khefti-the-Fat's serf, he wouldn't have noticed
how hard it was; in so short a time he had gotten used to certain comforts.

Yes, it was the time of the kamiseen, and the ever-present wind whined
over the desert, carrying with it a film of dust and sucking away moisture.
But this was an oasis, with carefully tended date palms, and Vetch's camp
was downwind of the palm grove. The Bedu camped within the oasis,
permitting Vetch the downwind side for his own camp, so the kamiseen
would not trouble him much tonight.

Vetch's scarlet dragon Avatre slumbered at his back, her body warm
inside the pit he had dug in the sand and lined with stones heated in his
fire. Fuel was as precious out here as water, but tonight no one begrudged
the effort of collecting it for him. Firstly, this clan of Veiled Ones boasted
many camels and could afford the dried dung for the fire. And secondly,
Avatre had earned the right to her fuel and more.

She had eaten well today, taking down four of the desert gazelles. The