"Shirley Meier & S. M. Stirling - Fifth Millenium 02 - Saber and Shadow" - читать интересную книгу автора (Meier Shirley)

running under bare poles against the tide. It was propelled by no means she
could see, though there was a beat being struck inside the hull, keeping time
for someone. Her stolen canoe blended in with hundreds of others on the city
side of the river, clustering away from the customs gates and forts, passing
the sailing ships.

The seawall was impressive, presenting a blank, white stone face to the
estuary. She assumed it would be difficult to get in without papers or
clearance of some sort, especially considering what Jaipahl had told her. Her
eyebrows furrowed in a frown. Rather frown than cry. After the storm had died,
she'd searched in the wreckage, paddling from floating bundle to floating
bundle, uselessly.

The memory of his dry old scholar's tone triggered another thought. This city
must be Illizbuah, Fehinna's capital. She couldn't imagine a city larger than
this. She floated a moment, noticing the measured patrol along the top of the
city walls. They were far between, which made sense if this was the capital
city in the heart of their home territory.

Her dugout scraped the low walkway disappearing under the rising tide. She
tilted her head back. It was a smooth wall, but the cracks were enough to give
her claws a grip. There was only a bit of shadow here, because of the angle of
the wall. She sighed. She'd have to use more power. As tired as she was, as
hungry as she was, she doubted she'd be able to hold any illusion longer than
an instant or two.

She tied the canoe to one of the poured-stone rings in the walkway and stood
up to her ankles in water. Breathing evenly, she blanked her mind, drawing on
the pool of power she saw in her head, and was startled at how thinned down it
felt. Almost startled enough to break her concentration, she steadied and
imagined herself becoming part of the wall, fading from sight as she thought
of flat, white stone and climbed. She lay on top of the wall for a long moment
panting, nauseated, a headache beginning to pound behind her eyes.

Up, get up. The patrol is coming, and I don't want anyone to see me getting
in. She tried not to shudder as she called on power a second time, to hide her
climb down.

It took her a long time to recover from that, the ache fierce enough in her
head that she didn't notice a sweeping thought arcing from the temple, seeking
through the mind-world like a swaying cobra.

Her hands shook as she walked along the docks, a fact that she hid by jamming
them in the back of her belt, swaggering as if she'd entered through the gate
and had every right to be where she was. Never look weak in a poor quarter,
and conversely, never swagger enough to draw a challenge; especially if one is
a foreigner. That had been her mother's advice, years ago.

The streets nearest the dock were dark, a poured-stone pole standing at one
corner with the lamp at the top broken, glass shards lying around the base.