"Eric Van Lustbader - Sunset Warrior 5 - Dragons on the Sea" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lustbader Eric van)

Dai-San to Shinsei na-ke Temple in Haneda, Ama-no-mori's capital. It was a danger closer to home, the
viper hidden in the breast of those who would have you believe they were friends. Ojime - and, indeed,
all the high ministers - would need constant surveillance.

He looked to the west, where it seemed the lavender clouds were parting and, if he squinted, he could
just make out a black speck near the horizon. The wind blew in his face and he felt the kind of electricity
in the air one experiences during a lightning storm.

'I see him,' Ojime whispered from just behind Qaylinn. 'He answered your call, after all.'

'As I knew he would,' Qaylinn said without inflection. 'He is the Dai-San.'

'Even so,' Ojime said, 'he is not going to like what you have to tell him.'
'What the snow-hare's feet have told me!'

The Rosh'hi had whirled around, his voice uncharacteristically tense. 'When I speak to the Dai-San -
when I tell him what I must - I will merely be a messenger of the kami, the spirits who reside in
Ama-no-mori and protect it from harm.'

'Let us hope the Dai-San believes that, eh?' the high minister said darkly.

The wind whipped their cloaks around them with a fiery turbulence. The speck, illumined by the setting
sun, was now an identifiable object. As he stared, Ojime's bowels threatened to turn to water, for he
found that he was facing the great triple-horned head of a Kaer'n, one of the ancient beasts all Bujun
warriors rode in the days of fire, ice and necromancy which, even for the Bujun, were becoming a thing
of legend.

Where once they had been plentiful, living in harmony with the Bujun, the huge winged Kaer'n were now
vastly reduced in number, living in a valley protected by the icy alpine regions of the northernmost of
Ama-no-mori's three islands.

What I would give to get my hands on one of those beasts, the minister thought, shifting from one foot
to the other. My power would increase tenfold if I was seen directing one of the legendary Kaer'n.
My drive to become head of the Sekkan would be assured, and I could then begin my assault on
the Kunshin himself. But, by the gods, this creature makes my knees weak!

Qaylinn's thoughts were also filled with the Kaer'n, but they were tinged with nostalgia and regret that the
Bujun had somehow lost their abilities to nurture and interact with the Kaer'n. He looked upon the beast
with awe and veneration.

The flapping of the Kaer'n's wings filled the men's ears just as it caused the curling and blowing of the
cloud formations high above. There was a certain rhythm, a kind of pulsing that seemed to invade the
entire body. It was said, though Ojime had never seen documentation, that when the Kaer'n killed, their
wings beat the air with a rhythm that slowly aligned itself with the victim's heartbeat. When synchronicity
was achieved, the victim somehow died.

Astride the beast was the last person on the planet able to control and speak to the Kaer'n - the
Dai-San, the Sunset Warrior.

Qaylinn felt a fire on his face as the Kaer'n's golden talons extruded through flesh, horned and armored to