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

"Wilten does not care that much for me," Alcaren observed.

"We have talked about that before. He does not dislike you. He dislikes anything that is unknown or offers a risk. You are both." Secca tilted her head, thinking, realizing that, even after all the years of seeing Wilten, she would be hard-pressed to describe the overcaptain, except in a general way. He affected neither beard nor mustache, and he was neither tall nor short, neither ample nor excessively slender. His eyes seemed to take on whatever color surrounded him, and his face was not oval or square or round or thin.

"He is like too many in Encora these days, then." Alcaren snorted. "They would have someone else bear the risk, essay the song-sorcery, and then complain that the way in which their liberty was preserved was not to their liking."

"That is true in all lands, perhaps in all worlds." Secca pulled out a sheet of parchment, then shook her head and took one of the crude sheets of brown paper. "We still need to send a request to the Matriarch."

"We?"

"It takes a man and a woman to be consorted. We both should sign the, request."

Alcaren laughed. "That way, neither those in Defalk nor those in Ranuak will be pleased."

"Are they ever?' Secca raised her eyebrows.

They both laughed.

3
Wei, Nordwei

Outside the window of the study, the light from the late-winter sun reflects in all directions from the glaze ice coating the two-yard-deep snow that covers the city and the ice on both the River Nord and Vereisen Bay. Because of the glare, the dark window shutters are almost entirely closed, except for a slit where they meet.

The woman who sits at the desk of polished ebon wood, her back to the window and the thin line of bright light, has fine silver hair and dark black eyes. Once her hair was as dark as her eyes, but those eyes, set as they are in a finely wrinkled skin, still are clear and miss little.

"Leader Ashtaar, the Lady of the Shadows." The voice comes from outside the closed study door.

Before answering the announcement, Ashtaar covers her mouth with a dark green cloth, and coughs-once, twice---then sets the cloth aside.

"Enter." Her voice is firm and clear.

The woman who enters is cloaked in black, with a black hood and a gauzelike black veil.

The Council Leader of Wei nods to the polished wooden armchairs across the ebony desk from her and waits for the woman in the dark hood to seat herself. The Lady of the Shadows takes the seat farthest to Ashtaar's left, well away from the thin line of glaring light

"You wished to see me?"

"Leader Ashtaar, you know well our concerns about sorcery

As Ashtaar nods, her fingers find the polished black agate oval on the desk.

"Defalk's Sorceress Protector of the East has stretched the harmonies until all Erde vibrated, and then the illegitimate sorcerer of Ranuak used Darksong to save her from her folly."

"That is what the seers reported," Ashtaar replies mildly.

"Is that all you have to say?"

"She destroyed all the Sturinnese warships in the ocean along the south coast of Lie dwahr. That was in our interest. Do you wish me to condemn that?" asks the Council Leader.