"Modesitt,.L.E.-.Spellsong.05.-.Shadow.Singer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Modesitt L E)

"The idea of greater sorcery, it feels strange," Alcaren replied.

"Best you get used to it if we are to contend with the Sea-Priests." Secca eased to the working desk, bent over, and lifted the lutar from the case beside the left end of the desk. She began to check the tuning.

"You want me to try a scrying spell now?" he asked.

"Why not? We need to check on the Sturinnese ships before we meet with the others. I'll do the first one, and then I'll write the words for the second."

"You have high visions of my ability."

Secca shook her head. "I know what you can do." She pulled on the copper-tipped leather gloves, then stepped to the conference table and looked down at the scrying glass in the middle before clearing her throat She'd already run through a series of vocalises before Alcaren had arrived, and they should have been enough for scrying spells.

Chording the lutar, she sang.

"Mirror, mirror, show me clear and as before,
any ships of Sturinn near Liedwahr's shore..."


Even after Secca had finished the spell and lowered the lutar, the mirror remained blank silver, showing only the white plaster of the ceiling.

Secca frowned, then handed the lutar to Alcaren. As he strummed it and hummed the spell-melody, Secca dipped the quill in the inkwell and then jotted down the words she held in her mind. Careful not to tilt the paper or brush the wet ink, she set the sheet on the table between Alcaren and the scrying glass.

He studied the words and ran own chords, not quite like hers, mouthing the words silently. Finally, he sang the spell in his true and. light baritone voice.

"Show me now, most clear and as must be,
ships of Sturinn near our southern sea. . ."

The glass remained blank.

Secca jotted a third spell-one asking to see Sturinnese ships in the Western Sea near Mansuur. Even after Alcaren sang it in his true baritone, the glass came up equally blank. "My singing?" he asked.

"I think not. Try this one." She slipped a fourth spell before him.

"If this doesn't work, you get to try it again," he said.

"It will work."

He raised his eyebrows for a moment, then concentrated on the spell.

"Show us clear and show us bright
ships of Sturinn that share Ostisles' light..."

The glass displayed a bird's eye view of a wide harbor filled with vessels.

Secca swallowed. Never had she seen so many ships in one place-even through a scrying glass. "You see. You can do it as well as I."

"I can do it, but not so well," he countered."

After trying to count the vessels in the glass, she lifted her eyes. "Can you do a release spell?"