"L. E. Modesitt - Spellsong 3 - Darksong Rising" - читать интересную книгу автора (Modesitt L E)

daughter. Then, a spell sung in Defalk and her own ill-uttered wish to be
anywhere but Ames had thrown her into the intrigues and battles of Liedwahr,
both colored by the ever-present male chauvinism, a chauvinism that so often she
seemed the only one to recognize, even after she'd survived three attempted
rapes.
Because the world of Erde was governed by the harmonies-and song magic that
worked-those snuggles she faced were more deadly than the faculty politics of
Ames. But only slightly, Anna reflected as she thought of the fate of untenured
and discarded junior faculty members at the universities where she had taught
over the years.

Th. late-summer sun had burned the back of her neck, despite her ever-present
felt hat, and the sweat that oozed from her hair added to the stinging. In her
green trousers and shirt, and floppy brown hat, she scarcely looked like a
regent. Only the gold-trimmed purple vest betrayed the slightest indication of
rank-that and her position at the head of the column that stretched a good
hundred yards behind her.

An older-looking woman with red hair liberally streaked with white rode up
alongside Himar, clearing her throat to announce herself.

Anna turned toward her chief player. "Yes, Liende?"

"Lady... the players are tired... especially young Delvor."

Anna glanced at the road ahead, rising slowly to a crest perhaps a dek away-
roughly a kilometer in earth terms-then back to Liende. "I suspect all the
armsmen are tired, too," Anna temporized, blotting the sweat from her forehead.
"Everyone can rest a little when we get to Sorprat I mean, this side of the
river. I think it should be only two or three deks from here."

"Four at the most," added Himar.
"It won't be that long," Anna promised.

"As you say, lady." The woodwind player nodded, then let her mount drop back.

The air was still, so hot that the browned gasses to the south of the road hung
limply in the heat. Road dust coated the legs of the horses, and a finer film
covered the riders' legs. Anna rubbed her nose, gently, wondering why she had
ended up breathing so much road dust. Because there wasn't any other way?

Himar eased his mount closer to Anna, his eyes on the pair of scouts nearing the
rise in the road almost a dek ahead. "I will be glad when you have completed
this task, lady," the overcaptain said in a low voice, "and you can return to
Falcor."

Anna nodded. Lord Jecks would also be glad when she returned, since the white-
haired and still-young-faced lord of Elheld had questioned the need for her
mission, even though he was the grandfather of young Jimbob, the heir to Defalk,
for whom Anna ruled as Regent. Regent for a youth not always grateful. Yet