"Laurie Marks - Elemental Logic 03 - Water Logic" - читать интересную книгу автора (Marks Laurie)

showed them the simplicity of it. Small actions have massive results. So simple!
She painted. Her companions could not abide the smell and left her alone, which was a relief, though she
adored them. The two faces gazed out as one face, and she felt full, satisfied, fearless. She might die soon,
and the prospect filled her with gladness. Whether she lived or died, those united faces would gaze at her
always: solemn, confident, approving. You have done welt.
Senra came in, saying, "Phew! How can you bear it?"
She was making a color, a tricky business in the gloom of late winter, when even sunlight looked gray. She
did not look up from her palette. Senra, holding his nose (he was always playful, that Senra) went to the
painting. From the corner of her eye she watched as his casual glance turn to a shocked stare, a repelled
glancing away. She smiled, working carefully with her muller and the precious pigments that be had
declared must be bought, though she had expected to sacrifice everything, evenтАФespeciallyтАФthis joy. And
of course her son. But be had been wiser than sheтАФthere are no sacrifices, he had said.
Senra said, "Why does he have no eyes?"
"He does have eyes," she said.
"They are holes! Right through his head! You can see the hills behind him.'"
She continued to work the pigment into the oil, and Senra went away, shaking his head, muttering
something. He was amusing, but not very imaginative. He might die soon. Well, what of it? His death would
rescue them all! She went back to the painting and began putting flames on the forehead of her son-leader,
flames in the shape of that ancient glyph, the one that means Death-and-Life. Tonight on her own forehead
that glyph would be drawn with a fingertip in a paint made of grease and soot. But on them it burned
always, a pure flame, not golden and red like the hot fire of passion, but white and blue, burning with a
cutting, clear cold: flames of air.
She thought of the impostor, the pretender, and her hand painted with angerтАФanger pure and selfless as the
flame. In that perverse, degraded town of whores the evil of Sainna had merged with the solidity of
ShaftalтАФthat was disgusting. The bastard child had risen up out of nothing and declared herself the
G'deonтАФthat was intolerable. Oh, the painter's skin crawled with rage and horror, but her hand painted
true. She had never painted so well as she painted now, waiting in this city, where the pretender also waited
for the people who were coming from every corner of the land, coming to be infected by her foulness, and
then to carry that foulness outward to the whole. But one simple act would mend all.
It had become too dark to paint. She slid the unfinished painting into the case that made it possible for her to
transport her work with the paint still wet. She packed her pigments, her oils, her turpentine, corking the
bottles and sealing them with wax, for if she did not die tonight she would flee, bringing her paints and
painting with her.
Her companions came in, and at last it was time to draw straws.
Part One: The Region of Reconstruction
Chapter 1
By winter's end, the field of rubble had become famous. The new councilors of Shaftal had begun to arrive
in Watfield from far and near, and all came to view the remains of the destroyed wall. Seth went there as
soon as she and her Paladin companion entered the city, even before they sought a place to lay down their
heavy packs and thaw their frozen fingers.
The massive wall had surrounded Watfield Garrison. Now the stones lay in a swath through the city. Seth
squatted down, took off her gloves, and with numb fingers broke a small stone loose from its icy mortar.
She set it atop a much larger one, the surface of which had been flattened by the stone mason's chisel. The
small stone shuddered sideways off its wide base, to impinge upon another, which cracked free from the ice
that pinned it down, and rolled away. Now, that stone touched two others, which also hitched themselves
sideways. The chain reaction quickly spread, from a few stones to many, until noisy waves of movement
rippled ponderously in both directions, between the buildings, out of sight.
Seth had stood up to watch. She felt cold air on her teeth and realized she was gaping. Everyone spoke of
this wonderтАФbut she had not truly believed it.
"You'd better put your gloves back on," the Paladin said.