"Shirley Meier & S. M. Stirling - Fifth Millenium 01 - Shadow's Daughter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Meier Shirley)

almost like naZak.

"She's beautifully tiny, Teik. Will you come this way?"

"Thank you." They followed him down the grey and black
stone stairs. The walls were smooth, as smooth and polished as
manrauq could make it. The monk had been using his power to
smooth chisel marks in a newly carved niche in the wall, dipping
his hands into a bucket of water to cool them.

The light came in from the bluish glass in the roof, glass out
of the mountain where the metal was. Any glass now was
brought up the river, from Bjornholm or the Empire of Arko.
The sun hit the mirrors along the corridors, and where a mirror
wouldn't do the light came from kraumak, the glowing rocks as
big as Megan's fist. There were quite a few in the halls, probably
more than any naZak had ever seen. The first kraumak had been
lit five hundred years ago. The manrauq made most naZak
nervous. They call us witches, Megan thought, and burn people.
The kraumak were in places where torches had been, from the
soot marking the ceilings.

They passed rooms filled with booksтАФold books hung on pegs,
new books on shelves and scrolls. Their musty leather and paper
smell was everywhere, as if it were part of the rock. There were
maps on the walls, showing the known seas, or the lands by
country. There was a whole wall covered in feathers of different
birds and near themтАж Megan hid behind Ness as they walked
by. A stuffed Ri with black-on-black stripes. It was a horse-like
creature with a carnivore's fangs bared in a snarl, silver mane
falling down into mean, crazy green eyes. It held one leg up with
all claws extended.

A live gold squirrel chucked and flicked his tail at them then
whisked into a crack in the wall, Megan craning to see where it
went.

They passed a hall where a choir was practicing, as the
conductor tapped sharply on her music stand. "No, no. Don't
breathe after that word. I want the sound to be seamlessтАж" Her
voice echoed off red columns, carved with herons and fish.
Megan stretched back, trying to see as they passed the open
doors, but all she could see was a mass of brown habits at the
other end of the hall under one of the skylights. Mama squeezed
her hand to warn her not to drag her feet too much.

The monk stopped and bowed them into a waiting room.
"Wait here, please," he said. "I will inform the K'mizar of
Children that you are here." They sat down on the blue cushions
and Megan looked at the green tapestry of the river valley across