"Mercedes Lackey - Dragon Jousters 3 - Sanctuary" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

Lackey, Mercedes - Joust 03 - Sanctuary (v1.0) (html).html




It was the silent, blue time before dawn. The air hung cool and still above the
pale sand, not a hint, not a breath of breeze, so still one could hear the tick of
grain against grain as a thin trickle at the crest of a dune. The desert stretched out
all around Sanctuary, as if beneath the calming hand of a god. Or a goddess,
perhaps; Nofet, whom the Altans called Nefer-et, the Goddess of Night, had not
yet withdrawn the hem of her robe from the land. Re-Haket, the sun, still
lingered in the Summerland beyond the Star Bridge.

It would not be cool for much longer, nor still.

Kiron stood on the roof of one of the four buildings that surrounded a courtyard
that had been given over for use as the dragons' sand wallow and leaned on the
parapet to watch the dawn come in over the desert. Not difficult; at this point,
although there were still refugees finding their way here all the time with the
help of the Bedu (also called the Veiled Ones), there was no structure in the
entire city that was more than three buildings away from the open sand.

He was, given a choice, not usually awake at this time. But in a little while, the
dragons would, slowly, begin to rouse from their slumber, and they would be
hungry. Here in Sanctuary, unlike in Alta and Tia, there was no butchery from
which to feed them, no Temple sacrifices to provide the carcasses. If the dragons
wished to eat, they must hunt like their wild brethren. Hunts were always more
successful when the Jouster and dragon hunted as a team. So if the dragons
wished to eat, their riders must waken and go out with them.

Kiron might be the first one awake and out today, but by now, the others of his


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wing were stirring at the very least. He generally didn't beat the rest by very
much. Besides, the terrible heat of the desert at midday in the middle of the Dry
meant that their schedules were much changed from Alta. Here, they flew at
dawn and dusk, and spent the hottest part of the day well away from the burning
rays of the sun.

The sunтАФAltan Re-Haket was not the kindly Solar Disk, the bringer of life here
тАФoh, noтАФnot "beautiful with banners." He was not even the Re-Haket that the
Tians knew. Here in the desert, he wore the harsher visage of Se-ahketh, the
Tester, the Scourge of Fire, He who had no mercy, only an unwinking Eye that
tested to destruction. Even the dragons sheltered beneath a canopy from His Eye
at midday. Sometimes Kiron wonderedтАФwas this where the Magi of Alta had
gotten the idea for their unwinking Eye, their scourge of fire?