"Holly Lisle - Secret Texts 3 - Courage Of Falcons" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lisle Holly)

"You're done here," Crispin said, and in a stroke almost too fast to follow, buried his knife to the hilt in Hasmal's heart.
Yanth roared, "No/" and Jaim made an inarticulate cry. From her place on the floor near the healer, Alarista awakened from her motionless sleep, keening.
Hasmal gasped. His eyes went wide, and then closed. Dughall held his breath. Hasmal's words rang in his headтАФI want more time. I
am not done here. Hasmal's message had been a code; it spoke of a plan that Crispin Sabir could not suspect, and would not believe.
"More time," Dughail whispered, praying that Hasmal would succeed. "More time."
Within an instant, a faint white light formed around Hasmal's face, so that his features seemed to be hidden by a thin fog. The expression of pain that had twisted his mouth slowly seeped away; he looked peaceful, and somehow triumphant. The faint white cloud of light grew brighter and spread down his body, setting his torso glowing first, then illuminating his arms and legs. Dughall could see the changes clearlyтАФCrispin was unmoving, staring at the body. The only sound to come from the viewing glass was the sound of his breathing, which grew harsher and faster as the light surrounding Hasmal's body grew brighter. When Hasmal's entire body was bathed in the light, the nimbus surrounding him grew brighter, then brighter yet, until it was . too brilliant to look at directly. Crispin averted his eyes, then glanced back as shadows in the room where he stood changed.
The light had lifted away from Hasmal's body. It maintained its man shape for a moment, then coalesced into a tight, brilliant ball of white fire.
"Get away from me," Crispin whispered.
The sphere of light began to float toward him, soundless, slow, inexorable.
In the viewing glass, Dughall saw one of Crispin's hands raise to form a Wolf power-hold. Light streamed from Crispin's fingertips, pouring through the radiant sphere. But the sphere was undamaged. Indeed, it grew brighter, then larger. It kept floating toward Crispin, still silent, unhurried, utterly implacable.
Crispin turned away at last and began to run.
In the next instant, the view in the glass became whitenessтАФbrilliant blinding light.
Then blackness.
In the tent in the mountains far to the south of Calimekka, wind set the flaps shuddering and snapping, and cold air blew through the
aps in the waxed cloth. Yanth and Jaim stared at each other, and then ; Alarista, who still lay unmoving, her head thrown back, her eyes pen and focused on nothing. She did not cease her keening; her thin, ail voice shredded the silence. Yanth spoke first. "What happened? What was that?" Jaim said, "Hasmal took over Crispin's bodyтАФlike the Dragons
Dughall shook his head. He said, "Hasmal's last words were uoted lines from the Secret Texts, from the Book of Agonies. The hole passage goes:
'Then, at the moment of his death, Solander spoke into the Veil. "More time," he cried. "I am not done here."
'From within and beyond the Veil the gods listened, and though his body was broken beyond saving, they had pity on Solander, and did not call his soul away from the world. Instead, in sight of Dragons and Falcons, Solander took form as a sun, as a light unto the world, rising from his shattered shell.
'And he spoke to all who watched, saying to them, "I am with you still."
'And at his words the Dragons feared, and the Falcons rejoiced. '"
Jaim said, "His body is dead, but his soul is ... that light?"
"I believe so."
"Then what will happen to him now?"
Dughall touched the darkened viewing glass. "We can only wait
Chapter 3
The carriage rattled over the cobblestone paving of Shippers Lane, in the Vagata District of CalimekkaтАФone of the few streets open to wheeled traffic during daylight hours. It made poor time; the driver jockeyed for place with wagons filled with ships' stores bound for the harbor, with donkeys, mules, and oxen pulling farm carts laden with produce just arrived from the country, with public coaches carrying merchants to and from their warehouses and private coaches bringing the rich to and from their ships.
Kait held Ry's hand; it was the first time she had been able to touch him since they came to Calimekka to infiltrate the Dragons' city. Now the two of them were alone except for Ian, and Ian kept his eyes pressed to the peephole at the rear of the carriage. Kait knew he was looking for trouble that might be coming after them, but she suspected he didn't want to have to watch her sitting so close to Ry, either. Both his desire for her and his pain in knowing she loved Ry had been clear in his eyes when he'd rescued the two of them from the cages. And every time he looked in her direction, she could see it still.
Ry leaned over and brushed the side of Kait's neck with his lips. "I love you," he whispered, too low for any but another Karnee to hear.
She squeezed his hand and murmured, "I love you, too." "I have rooms waiting for us in one of the harbor inns," Ian said. He was still on his knees on the rear bench of the carriage with his back to them, clinging to the handholds and staring out the peephole. "You'll find forged papers in the packet beside you. You're to be Parat and Parata Bosoppffer, from the village of Three Parrots Mountain, first names Rian and Kaevi. Those were as close to your actual names as I could come using backcountry names. You're minor affiliates of the Masschanka Family taking passage for Birstislavas in the New Territories, where you're to homestead. You attended the funeral of Tirkan Bosoppffer, who was buried todayтАФhis legacy to
 file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Lisle,%20Holly%20-%20Secret%20Texts%202%20-%20Courage%20Of%20Falcons.txt




"Let me use the Mirror," he offered. "Tell me what I have to do, and let me take the risks."
She took a steadying breath, then got her knees under her and
locked them. Standing under her own power again, she turned her back on the Mirror of Souls. "I can't. I know you'd do this if you could, but to use the Mirror, you have to be able to reach and channel magic." She rested a hand on his forearm and said, "Just keep me from falling over if this gets to be too much for me again."
He stared into her eyes, and took her hand in his own. "I'll do that if that's all you'll let me do," he said. "But if you find that I can do more . . . please ... let me."
She turned and looked at him. The love in his eyes was too clear and too painful. She hurt for him. She wished she could be the woman he wanted her to be. She nodded and felt a lump forming in her throat and tears beginning to burn in her eyes. Unable to find words, she gave him a quick hug, then turned to face the Mirror again.
Chapter 8
Crispin woke to blackness and ringing in his ears. For a long, painful moment he thought that he was still in the Veil, and that his memories of reprieve had been nothing but a dream. But the scent of his body was musky in his nostrils, and the sweetness of night-blooming jasmine reached him from somewhere in the distance, and from nearer he caught the stink of drying blood and piss. Then the ringing ceased, and he realized that in each of the city's hundreds of temples and parnisseries, the bellringers had been clanging out the Invocation to Paldin to mark the end of day. Twilight had come.
He sat and ran his fingers over his face. His face. He touched his hair, his neck, his chest, pressed his palms hard against each other and felt the blood pulse in his fingertips. He sucked in air until his lungs began to ache from holding so much, then let it out with a joyful whoosh.
He wiggled his feet and felt them move, stretched his arms high over his head, flexed his spine and felt the satisfying crack as joints popped all along it.
"Back," he whispered, and grinned. "Damn the Dragons to darkness, I'm back."
His eyes adjusted to the nearly lightless room, and he realized that
he was in the torture chamber in the Citadel of the Gods, the Dragons' city-within-a-city in Calimekka. A body lay on the table, still strapped down; it was from that body that the various stinks emanated.
That body. . . .
Memories deluged himтАФnot just his own memories, but those that had belonged to the corpse on the table, and those of the Dragon who had stolen his body and ridden him like a cheap nag, and those of a terrifying wizard hiding in the distant hillsтАФa wizard, he realized, who could still see everything he did and who could, without warning, invade his body and listen to his most secret thoughts.
He snarled. Because of those memories, he knew much of what the old wizard knewтАФhe saw how he could travel in trance to the place where the Falcon Dughall hid with his followers, simply by following the energy strand from the talisman that the dead man had embedded in his skin. He could watch them; perhaps he could find a way to destroy them.
But even as he entertained that pleasant thought, he knew that he didn't have the time to persecute his persecutors. They'd found out about Ulwe. And they intended to kidnap her and use her against him.