"Tim Lebbon - Dusk 02 - Dawn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lebbon Tim)

тАЬI frighten you?тАЭ Angel raised an eyebrow.

Lenora averted her eyes.

тАЬThatтАЩs only right. Fear is good, Lenora. You remember the first time I touched you, casting out your
pain and driving away death on that burning ship? You were filled with fear then also, but it was fear of
the Black. I saved you from death to serve me, and youтАЩve done so ever since. But youтАЩve become
casual about your fear, as SтАЩHivez and I have become blas├й about our desires. WeтАЩve always wanted to
regain magic, but maybe pain grew to suit us better. Perhaps we became too used to life as outcasts.тАЭ
The Mage looked off past Lenora, back the way they had come. тАЬDo you think thatтАЩs true, Lenora?тАЭ

тАЬNo, Mistress. YouтАЩve always been Mages, with or without magic.тАЭ

Angel smiled, and Lenora felt a brief stab of jealousyтАФshe was aware of how she looked with her bald
head, scarred body and black teethтАФbut she cast it aside.

тАЬLenora, you need never lie to me. YouтАЩre almost one of us. You came with us out of Noreela three
hundred years ago; you think the same way about this accursed place, and you want the same thing. So
weтАЩrealmost the sameтАжexcept you donтАЩt have this.тАЭ She reached out and touched LenoraтАЩs forehead.

At first, the point of contact burned. Then the sensation changed from heat to one of intense coldтАФa
chill that would freeze air and crack rockтАФand LenoraтАЩs eyes closed to accept whatever Angel was
handing her.

There was one single image: the death of Noreela. Lenora viewed it at the speed of thought, north to
south, east to west, passing over mountains and valleys, deserts and lakes, and everywhere finding the
stain of destruction on the landscape. A city lay in ruins, buildings burned down into ruined heaps, streets
strewn with smoking corpses, waterways polluted with rotting flesh. Farms and villages were equally
devastated, their inhabitants laid out in neat lines and fixed to the land by wooden spikes. An army lay
dead on a hillside, muddied armor already rusting beneath the blood spilled from the thousands of
corpses. A great river was home to a hundred boats, all of them submerged, each of them filled to their
watery brims with naked corpses.

And all the while, Noreela itself was suffering great traumas. A mountain range swam in fire, only the
highest peaks still visible above the flames. On an endless plain the ground was cracked open, but instead
of fire and lava rising up, the landтАЩs innards rolled out across the grass, giant coils of molten earth and
stone hardening in the twilight and venting scampering things the size of the largest hawk. The air turning
to glass, the ground melting away, water bursting into flameтАжThe whole of Noreela was in chaos, and at
its center pulsed a magic grown darker than ever before.

тАЬThere, at the hub,тАЭ AngelтАЩs voice said. тАЬThatтАЩs us.тАЭ And Lenora saw. The fleeting visions slowed,
settling toward a huge wound in the land. The wound bled. In the center of this sea of blood, floating in a
boat forged from the bones of countless victims, writhed two ecstatic shadows.

The Mages, joyous with the victory of vengeance found.

Angel removed her finger from LenoraтАЩs head.

тАЬThe future?тАЭ Lenora gasped.