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

The hawk deflated beneath them, spreading across the ground like a hunk of melting fat, and
immediately its stink grew worse. Lenora glanced at the dead boy lying between the Mages. She
wondered why Angel had brought him this far.

Lenora slid from the hawk, but had trouble finding her feet. Nobody came to help. She looked up,
hands on her knees, cringing as her legs tingled back to life, and then she realized why. None of the
Krotes were looking at her.

The Mages were kneeling side by side on the ground. Their hands were pressed to the dusty surface
before them. SтАЩHivez seemed to be chanting, though it could have been the sound of the sea breaking
against the mole. Light began to dance between their fingers. Dust rose. Stones scurried away from their
hands like startled insects.

Dozens of KrotesтАФthose with whom she had flown from DanaтАЩMan, and fought for Conbarma two
days beforeтАФgathered around, faces growing pale in the moonlight as they saw who had arrived. One or
two glanced at Lenora and then away again, back to the Mages, fascination overpowering the fear.

ItтАЩs good to be scared,Lenora thought. That was what Angel had told her. The Mages had always been
a formidable presence, but now they were so much more. There was something so dreadfully wrong
about the exiled Shantasi and his ex-lover that Lenora found it difficult to look at them. It was as though
light were repelled from their skin. She thought of the shapes she had seen in her vision: two wraiths
aboard the bone boat on a sea of Noreelan blood.

The ground started to glow beneath the MagesтАЩ hands. The last of the smaller rocks flitted away. They
stung LenoraтАЩs lower legs, but she dared not move. This was something she had to see, because she
knew now what the Mages were doing: displaying their power to the Krotes. They could have landed
and talked to the warriors, but discussion of the magic they now possessed was nothing compared to a
demonstration.

Lenora stepped back several paces. Her heart fluttered a few beats, and the many wounds on her
exposed skin tingled with something approaching excitement.This is when we see, she thought.This is
when they really show us what they can do.

The Mages began to stand, hands maintaining contact with the ground as though stuck there, then slowly
they straightened their backs, raising their arms and bringing part of the ground with them. Each hand was
lifting a column of fluid stone. The ground vibrated. Rock growled and crumbled, and strange rainbows
shimmered in the dust. Angel laughed, and SтАЩHivezтАЩs muttering became louder, the words revealing
themselves as something less complex than a spell.ItтАЩs all coming back, he said, again and again.

Lenora could feel heat from the molten rock, and she saw other Krotes stepping back as their skin
stretched and reddened. The Mages began to mold it and, between them, something took shape. Sharp
edges appeared from nowhere; curves hardened; a globe of rock rose up on thin stony stilts. Angel
laughed again, and Lenora shivered.
 The Mages backed away from each other, allowing the thing room to grow. More rock flowed from the
ground, urged on by a simple gesture from SтАЩHivez, and they molded this around the form, thickening the
trunk and lengthening the limbs. They added more, and then SтАЩHivez stepped back and lowered his
hands.

He looks tired,Lenora thought.They have their magic, but theyтАЩre not used to using it. SтАЩHivez
looked at her through the heat haze, and she saw the black pits of his eyes. He scowled. She looked