"Juliet E. McKenna - Einarinn 4 - The Warrior's Bond" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKenna Juliet E)

opportunity winging past.
Casuel came to stand at my shoulder, a sheaf of documents in his hand. 'It
could be from Inglis.'
The metal ring cold in my eye stopped me from shaking my head. 'I don't think
so, not coming in on that course.' I leaned forward in a futile effort to see
some identifying flag.
'What is it?' Casuel demanded.
I was hissing through my teeth as my concern for the vessel grew. 'I think
they're carrying too much sail.' The masts were trimmed with the barest reef
of white, but even that was enough to let the winds make a plaything of the
ship. I looked up from the spyglass and out at the ocean. The captain's
choices were going from bad to worse. A run for the sheltering embrace of the
massive harbour wall would mean letting the storm batter broad on the beam,
with seas heavy enough to sink the ship. Turning the prow into the weather
risked being driven clear away from the safe anchorage. Taking his chances on
the open ocean might save the ship but the captain had wind and tide against
him and the Lord of the Sea hones this ocean coast to a razor's edge with the
scour of wind and water. I could see the unforgiving reefs tearing the rolling
waves into fraying skeins of foam beyond the sea wall. 'Dastennin grant them
grace,' I murmured.
Casuel raised himself on tiptoe to look out of the window where my few fingers
of extra height saved me the effort. A spatter of rain made him duck and look
through the lower pane, brushing wavy brown hair out of his dark eyes. I wiped
drops from the end of the spyglass and took a moment to study the sky.
Slate-coloured storm clouds threw down rain
to batter the bruised seas, crushing the crests of the waves into flat smears
of spume. I savoured the sharp salt freshness carried on the wind but then I
was safe ashore.
The bowsprit dipped deep into a mountainous sea, wrenching itself free a
breath later but the whole ship seemed to shudder, embattled decks awash.
Imagination supplied the cries of the panicked passengers inside my head,
curses from hard-pressed crew, the groan of straining timber, the insidious
sound of water penetrating stressed seams. Pale canvas went soaring away from
the masts like fleeing seabirds. The captain had opted to cut loose his sails
but the ocean was fighting him on every side now, contrary wind and current
confusing rudder and keel.
'Are they going to sink?' the wizard asked in a hesitant voice.
'I don't know.' My knuckles were white on the spyglass, frustration hollow in
my gut. 'You said there'd be a mage on board. Can't you bespeak him, work with
him somehow?'
'Even assuming this is the colonists' ship, my talents are based in the
element of earth,' said Casuel with habitual pomposity. 'At this distance, my
chances of influencing the combined power of air and water that such a storm
would generate . . .' His voice tailed off with honest regret.
The storm-tossed ship slid across my field of view and I cursed as it escaped
me. Looking up, I exclaimed with inarticulate surprise. 'There's another one.'
Casuel scrubbed crossly at glass fogged by his breath. 'Where?'
'Take a line from the roof of the fish market and out past the end of the
harbour wall.' I turned my glass on the newcomer and frowned. 'They're rigged
for fair weather.'