"Recluce - 07 - The Chaos Balance" - читать интересную книгу автора (Modesitt L E)

аа "No ... the fireship project comes first. I will not let those thieves
from Ruzor or Lydiar or Spidlar . . ." Lephi let his words break off.
аа "The Third Company could go. You sent the first to Fyrad-"
аа "To rebuild the trading piers and the levees. I recall. With the
Second engaged here . . . Yes, send the Third." Lephi paused. "And send
one of the Mirror Legions. Whichever one Queras can spare most."
аа "Yes, Your Mightiness." Themphi bowed as if to depart.
аа "Have we heard from the northern barbarians?"
аа "About the reopening of the copper mines?"
аа "Exactly."
аа "No, Sire. The messenger could not have reached Lornth yet, even upon
the fastest of Your Mightiness's steeds."
аа Perspiration beaded on the white wizard's forehead as Lephi's eyes
narrowed.
аа "Are you suggesting, white wizard, that I am impatient?" asked the
Lord of Cyador.
аа "No, Sire. Only that Lornth is far beyond the Walls of the North."
аа "Those walls will move northward again. We will need the copper for
the fireships to come." Lephi smiled. "Inform me when we receive word
from Lornth. In the meantime, best you study the old tomes on the
diversions, Themphi. And on containing chaos within ship boilers."
аа "Yes, Mightiness." The white mage's voice was even.
а
а
V
а
NYLAN STEPPED FROM the smithy, even before Blynnal rang the chimes for
the midday meal, squinting as the snow-reflected glare cascaded around
him.
аа "Frigging bright," mumbled Huldran as she stumbled out into the light
after the smith.
аа "Sun and snow." The smith nodded and began to walk downhill. Despite
the comparative warmth and the disappearance of the snow and ice cover
from the south side of the rocky cairns and some sections' around the
canyon mouths, he hadn't seen any signs of snow lilies. Did that mean
they'd have more spring snows? Or had the guards done something in their
cultivation to kill off the lilies?
аа Nylan didn't know. There was so much that they had yet to learn about
this world. The similarities to Heaven-type worlds helped, but there were
certainly differences, like the semideciduous trees that looked H-norm,
but had green leaves that turned gray and curled up around the branchlets
that held them. Only about half the leaves fell every year.
аа And the reference to Cyador had surprised Nylan. Ryba had intimated
that the place was almost a throwback to the white demons of Rationalism,
but again, in almost two years no traders or locals had mentioned Cyador.
He'd never even heard the name before, and that kind of surprise bothered
him. Had Ryba gotten another vision? He had begun to wish long before
that her visions were not so devastatingly accurate.
аа "Did you ever hear the name Cyador?" he asked Huldran.
аа "Before the Marshal mentioned it the other day? No. Maybe the healer