"Cygnet - 02 - The Cygnet And The Firebird" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKillip Patricia A)

He moved closer. The blade turned a little in her
hands as if the animal had shifted under it, and she
felt me sweat break out on her face.

"I will seal every door and window in this tower,
and turn it into a tomb for those you guard."

"It is already a tomb." Her voice shook. He
stepped so close the blade slid ghostlike into him. Her
shoulders burned at the sudden weight, but she held
the blade steady under his expressionless gaze.

"If you do not let me enter, I will kill you."

"Then," she said, as sweat and light burned into
her eyes, and the clawed, airy animal whipped be-
neath the blade like a desperate thing, "one of us will
die."

He stepped back then, as easily as if the great
sword were made of smoke. The animal turned a
smoldering eye at her and subsided into the cloth. The
blade trembled in her hands; still she did not lower
it. The mage's face changed; the expression on it star-
tled her.

"You deserve better than a doorway," he said
abruptly. "What kind of upside-down house is this
where no power but honor is pitted against the likes
of me? You can't stop me. You can barely hold that
sword. It is shaking in your hands- It is so heavy it
weighs like stone, it drags you down. It is heavier
than old age, heavier than grief. It falls like the setting
sun, slowly, slowly. Watch it fall. Watch the tiny

so

Patricia A McKillip

flame of light on its tip shift, move down the blade
toward your hands. Watch it. The light trembles
among the silver swan wings. What is your name?"

"Meguet Vervaine."

"Is it night or day?"

"I do not know."